US President Donald Trump has condemned Republican Senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the sole Republican to vote to convict Trump in his Senate impeachment trial.
The Republican president tweeted his displeasure with Romney on Thursday, while mocking him for losing in the 2012 US presidential election against former President Barack Obama.
"Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!", Trump wrote.
During a speech at the White House earlier on Thursday, Trump described Romney as a “failed presidential candidate.”
On Wednesday, the Senate acquitted Trump on impeachment charges stemming from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice president seeking the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the upcoming US presidential election.
Romney issued a scathing criticism of Trump as he broke with his party and voted to convict the US president for abuse of power in his impeachment trial.
Romney made history by becoming the first senator to vote to remove a sitting president of his own party.
"Corrupting an election to keep one's self in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine," Romney said in an emotional speech on the Senate floor.
Romney was previously the governor of Massachusetts and the Republican presidential nominee in 2012. He was elected to represent the state of Utah in the Senate in 2018.
This was not the first time Romney and Trump have clashed.
Romney criticized Trump as a "fraud" during the 2016 presidential campaign, but met with Trump after his victory as he was looking to fill top administration jobs. Trump ended up not hiring Romney for any position.