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Mitt Romney says Marjorie Taylor Greene’s call for a ‘national divorce’ is ‘insanity’ and attention-seeking

The senator from Utah says he’s still undecided on whether he’ll run for another term in 2024, but he’s confident he’ll win if he does.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney speaks to media after a visit to the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023.

Utah’s Sen. Mitt Romney threw some shade at Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s call for a “national divorce” to divide up the country by Republican and Democratic states.

“I think Abraham Lincoln dealt with that kind of insanity,” Romney said as he briefly met with reporters after meeting with Utah lawmakers on Tuesday. “We’re not going to divide the country. It’s united we stand and divided we fall.”

Greene on Monday called for the United States to “separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.”

Romney scoffed, suggesting Greene was not serious and only seeking attention.

“There are some people in my party and the other party that say things to try and get a headline and get people to send them money. And that happens to be in today’s ‘loony left,’ or I should say ‘loony right,’” Romney said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called Greene’s desire to break up the United States “evil.”

Romney weighed in on several other topics on Tuesday. He was noncommittal about whether to run for a second term in Washington in 2024.

“The question for me is, what can I get done? I have a list of things I’m working on. I’ll make that assessment over the coming months, and sometime in the spring or summer, I’ll make that decision. I’m confident that I would win if I decide to run. I’ll have the resources, and I believe the people of Utah would be with me,” Romney said.

The former Republican presidential nominee also praised President Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine on Monday to show support for that country against the Russian invasion.

“Now and then, he (Biden) does something I agree with and I consider laudatory. His trip to Kyiv to be with President (Volodymyr) Zelensky and to stand firm for the principle of liberty is something which I salute,” Romney said. “It was courageous and the right thing to do, and I appreciate him doing that and recognizing that the people of the United States of America stand on the side of liberty.”

Romney acknowledged that Republicans in Congress are divided on future financial and military support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

“I think a lot of people don’t recognize that we agreed to defend Ukraine when Ukraine agreed to give up their nuclear weapons some years ago. We signed an agreement that we would help support Ukraine and defend its sovereignty. That’s important to remember,” Romney said.

“But number two, we’ve learned that bad actors, if not checked, continue to do bad things. And ultimately, that involves us. And if we want to have a prosperous America at peace, we need to stop people that are aggressively invading their neighbors and terrorizing the world,” Romney added.