Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) was loudly booed and heckled by delegates during a speech at the Utah Republican Convention held in West Valley City. The chairman of the Utah GOP, Derek Brown, intervened to try to calm the crowd. They kept on heckling.+
.@SenatorRomney is getting boo’d loudly at the @UtahGOP convention. @fox13 #utpol #utgop pic.twitter.com/4vMwVnh6YI
— Ben Winslow (@BenWinslow) May 1, 2021
The Salt Lake Tribune reported on the heckling of Romney and his reaction (excerpt):
Sen. Mitt Romney was lustily booed by the more than 1,900 Republican delegates who packed into the Maverik Center on Saturday for the party’s state convention.
“Aren’t you embarrassed?” said Romney trying to deflect the chorus of catcalls that greeted him as he took the stage.
“I’m a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last president’s character issues,” said Romney as delegates attempted to shout him down. Accusations that Romney was a “traitor” or “communist” flew from the crowd like so many poison darts.
The cacophony of disapproval only ended after outgoing party chair Derek Brown scolded delegates to “show respect” for Romney.
“You can boo all you like,” said Romney. “I’ve been a Republican all of my life. My dad was the governor of Michigan and I was the Republican nominee for president in 2012.”
The Stanford Examiner reported Romney may face a censure vote at the convention (excerpt):
U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney is again facing censure from his fellow Republicans stemming from his votes to impeach President Donald Trump.
State delegates to the Utah Republican Party are to consider a resolution at the party convention on Saturday to censure Romney and praise the rest of Utah’s federal delegation in connection with the Trump impeachment process. It’s one of a handful of measures party leaders are to consider, aside from voting for new party leadership.
“We’ll debate it. We’ll let Republicans decide if Mitt Romney should be held accountable,” said Don Guymon, sponsor of the resolution and a Republican delegate to the convention from Davis County.
Ben Winslow reported Romney bolted from the convention right after his speech.