Stop saying you're 'surprised' Mitt Romney backed Trump – just look at his track record

Mitt Romney will not save you.

That's what those hoping he might help stop Donald Trump from filling the Supreme Court with conservatives found out, once again, on Tuesday.

Post-2016, Utah Senator Mitt Romney has enjoyed the position of being perceived by some liberals as a non-extremist and reasonable person. He voted to impeach President Trump, marched in one Black Lives Matter demonstration, and has since been represented as the conscience of the Republican Party.

Do not let this fool you: “Romney plays at integrity, decency, and morality — but this theoretical backbone apparently only extends so far,” Kathleen Walsh wrote for The Independent.

Romney signalled on Tuesday that he is, obviously, happy with the Senate taking up a new Supreme Court nominee during the current election year, all but ensuring a Trump justice-pick will make it through the Senate-process, despite outrage at intense Republican hypocrisy.

While progressives pinned their last hope of him, and thought Romney might take a stand, it is no shocker that he is acting this way.

Here are nine reasons why Romney’s support of the Trump administration is no revelation:

1. First of all, Romney accepted Trump’s endorsement of his campaign in 2018

In 2018, Trump tweeted, "He will make a great Senator and worthy successor to @OrrinHatch and has my full support and endorsement!" and Romney accepted.

2. He said he would have voted for Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Here’s a huge giveaway: Romney said he would have voted to confirm this judge with credible sexual assault allegations against him based of his “judicial record”.

3. Romney supports efforts to ban abortion

Romney has called Roe v Wade, the case that established a constitutional right to abortion, “one of the darkest moments in Supreme Court history.”

Romney has also said in the past that he “absolutely” would support a state constitutional amendment to define life as beginning at conception.

4. He fully opposes marriage equality

“My view on marriage has been entirely consistent over my political career,” Romney said in a 2008 speech. Which is, obviously, that he completely opposes same-gender marriage.

Romney reiterated this in an interview with the Nashua Telegraph in 2011: “I'm in favor of traditional marriage. I oppose same-sex marriage. At the same time, I don't believe in discriminating in employment or opportunity for gay individuals."

5. Romney said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act “on Day One” if he was elected president

During his 2012 election campaign against Barack Obama, the senator vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act “on Day One” of his presidency.

If the ACA were to be repealed, millions of Americans would lose their health insurance. It would have, of course, affected those without employer-based insurance who disproportionately include immigrants, people of colour and women (especially those looking for reproductive healthcare).

6. He said Democrat voters “believe they are victims”

Romney said 47 per cent of Americans who would vote for Democrats no matter what because they “believe that they are victims” who are “entitled to health are, to food, to housing, to you name it,” at a fundraiser for millionaire donors in 2012.

7. Romney embraced hard-line immigration views

In Romney's run for president, he vowed to crackdown on unauthorised immigration that would make migrants’ lives so awful that they would eventually “self-deport”.

8. He laughed about racist bitherism

This was the same campaign. After right-wingers demanded to see Obama's passport, Romney “joked” that “no one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate”.

Racism isn't funny.

9. And finally, he belongs to the Republican party!

Anyone who identifies as a Republican, especially under this administration, is unlikely to change their ways anytime soon, and it is a waste of time to hope that they will.

“The notion of Romney as some sort of closet-Democratic-sympathiser is a painful strain of wishful thinking,” Michelle Ruiz wrote in Vogue. Let’s move on from it.