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Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said he won't support former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election due to "a matter of personal character."
Romney, 77, was among several politicians within the party to condemn Trump during his presidency and said the presumptive GOP candidate's recent meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill last week did nothing to change his perspective.
“I didn’t go there to support former President Trump. I went there to listen to what he was planning on doing if he became president,” Romney told CNN Tuesday (June 18), acknowledging that he initially planned to skip the meeting before his flight was canceled. “With President Trump, it’s a matter of personal character. I draw a line and say when someone has been actually found to have been sexually assaulting, that’s something I just won’t cross over in the person I would want to have as president of the United States.”
Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 election, referenced Trump being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation of columnist E. Jean Carroll in May 2023, which a court demanded he pay $88.3 million across two defamation verdicts, though Trump has denied the accusations and said he plans to appeal the ruling. Romney had previously written his wife, Ann, for the presidency when Trump initially ran against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and had previously stated that he has no intention to vote for the former president in the November election.