Senator Mitt Romney, the anti-Trump Republican from Utah, told a group of GOP donors on Monday night that American democracy is fragile and that defending it is an “extraordinary challenge,” according to CBS News.
The 2012 GOP presidential nominee made his remarks at a fundraiser for Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who has been censured by her political party for her vociferous criticism of former President Donald Trump and the January 6th Capitol riot. The fundraiser netted $526,000 for Cheney’s re-election campaign against Harriet Hageman, a former advisor turned MAGA-diehard.
CBS News reports:
…Romney framed the survival of American democracy as a battle on two fronts, with the possibility of significant erosion unless leaders are vigilant.
Abroad, he said, it faces threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is following an authoritarian playbook “rehearsed time and time again, over the many thousands of years of world history.”
At home, Romney said, “what has kept us from falling in with the same kind of authoritarian leader as Vladimir Putin are the strengths of our institutions, the rule of law, our courts, Congress, and so forth.”
“People of character and courage,” Romney said, “have stood up for right at times when others want to look away. Such a person is Liz Cheney.”
Romney, according to CBS News, told the attendees that he keeps a “chart in his Senate office tracing the history of civilizations over the past 4,000 years. He said it is a reminder of how they can rise and collapse, and of how unusual American democracy is in global history.”
He explained that the chart is filled with authoritarian leaders, an indication of how rare it is to maintain a functioning government run by the people.
CNN reports that the fundraiser drew so much interest, that it had to moved from a donor’s home to a hotel.
“I think people are really hungry for a sensible, rational alternative in our political dialogue,” the fundraiser’s organizer, Bill Kilberg, told CBS News. “They’re not happy with the direction of the Republican Party and they’re not particularly happy with the direction of the Democratic Party.”