‘Morons’: Romney, Cheney, Kinzinger condemn fellow Republicans for speaking at white nationalist event

Three veteran Republican lawmakers have called out far-right Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar for speaking at a weekend event organized by a white nationalist.

In a tweet Saturday, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, blasted their speaking appearance: “As Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling. All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now.”

Greene and Gosar spoke at the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., an alternative event to the concurrent Conservative Political Action Conference. The event was put on by Nick Fuentes, a far-right, white nationalist leader who has been banned from most social-media platforms for his inflammatory rhetoric

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who, like Cheney has been censured by the GOP for opposing Trump, tweeted at Greene on Saturday: “If this was not bizarro world, you would be the one censured and excommunicated from the GOP.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, joined the criticism Sunday during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Liz Cheney was right with that statement and has been right for a long time,” Romney told CNN’s Dana Bash. “There’s no place in either political party for this white nationalism or racism. It’s simply wrong.”

“Anybody that would sit down with white nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points,” Romney said.

“I’m reminded of the old line from the ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ movie, where one character says, ‘Morons, I have morons on my team.'”

— Sen. Mitt Romney

Romney added that support from those in his party for Russian President Vladimir Putin is “almost treasonous.”

“Standing up for freedom is the right thing to do in America. Anything less than that, in my opinion, is unworthy of American support,” he told CNN.

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Updated to Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s home state.