A resolution to censure was defeated by a 798-to-711 vote.
Utah Republicans loudly booed Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, at a state party convention Saturday, shortly before a failed effort to censure him for his votes to convict former president Donald Trump. A clip from the event in West Valley City, Utah, shows Romney walking up to a lectern to a raucous mix of cheers and louder boos from the nearly 2,000 delegates. “So what do you think about President Biden’s first 100 days?” Romney begins to say, as the jeers intensify. “Now you know me as a person who says what he thinks, and I don’t hide the fact that I wasn’t a fan of our last president’s character issues,” he said, prompting more boos from the crowd. He paused for a few seconds as the booing continued before asking the crowd: “Aren’t you embarrassed?” Later Saturday, a resolution to censure Romney for voting to remove Trump from office was defeated by a 798-to-711 vote, according to Utah Republican Party spokeswoman Lynda Cox. About 1,900 delegates were in attendance at the start of the state organizing convention, held at the Maverik Center, Cox said. The resolution, sponsored by Don Guymon, a party delegate from Davis County, cites Romney’s votes to remove Trump from office during both of his impeachment trials. The resolution alleges that Romney “consistently publicly criticized” Trump and that those comments “not only hurt President Trump’s re-election but hurt other Republicans on the ballot.” Romney was the lone Republican senator to break ranks in his vote to convict Trump of abuse of power in 2020; he was joined by six others who voted earlier this year to remove Trump from office for inciting an insurrection after a mob overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6. Hours before rioters descended on the Capitol, supporters of the former president heckled Romney at the Salt Lake City airport, calling him a “traitor.
