Mitt Romney was faced with many of the same lines he dealt with throughout his 2012 presidential campaign, including on guns and immigration, while taking part in Tuesday night’s GOP primary debate for the open Senate seat in Utah.
Mike Kennedy, Romney’s Republican primary opponent, echoed attacks made by the 2012 Republican nominee’s opponents, including former President Barack Obama. In particular, Kennedy highlighted that Romney is a flip-flopper who has held many different positions dating back to his time as governor of Massachusetts.
Just over 10 minutes into the debate, Kennedy hit the former governor’s record on the Second Amendment, including his signing of an assault weapons ban in 2004.
“On this issue, as with others, the main thing that’s consistent about your record on this is it’s inconsistent,” Kennedy said. “It’s just hard for me to know as our U.S. Senator what you’ll do regarding this and other issues, and that’s fine. We are all able to change our minds. However, I would like — if I were the people of Utah — somebody consistent on these issues.”
Romney defended the legislation, saying that it was an example of bipartisanship at the state level.
Later, when a Brigham Young University student asked about immigration, Romney called the situation in the U.S. a “mess” and said he is in favor of fixing the legal immigration system. Kennedy rebutted with a blast from the past: Romney’s 2012 remark in support of “self-deportation.”
“I thought I remembered in a presidential campaign something about self-deportation,” Kennedy said. “But that’s fine. I guess that opinion has changed as well.”
Romney defended his remark, which he initially made during a 2012 GOP primary debate in defense of the E-Verify system.
“I think people ought to be able to …. leave with their feet when employers are no longer able to hire them,” Romney said Tuesday, adding that he supports President Trump’s call for a wall along the U.S./Mexico border.
“There are a lot of people who come here illegally and stay. If they can get jobs here, they don’t go away. But if you have an E-Verify system that keeps people from getting jobs illegally, that will allow people to go home on their own — if you will, self-deciders.”
Kennedy also dinged Romney’s gubernatorial implementation of Massachusetts’ universal healthcare system, which Romney again defended when given the chance.
Still, Romney managed to land a few punches of his own. After Kennedy hit him for his broadsides against the president throughout the 2016 campaign, the former GOP nominee reminded him that Trump endorsed him in the primary.
He also leveled his harshest attack against Kennedy over his support of Robert Jeffress, the Dallas-based evangelical pastor who Romney recently called a “bigot,” after he was picked to give the prayer to open the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. After Romney’s initial condemnation, Kennedy called Jeffress and apologized to him on behalf of Utahns.
“This is a guy who said that Mormanism is a cult, that it’s a heresy from the pit of hell. That Joseph Smith is a servant of Satan. That person is allowed to say that under the First Amendment anywhere they want and they have the right to do that,” Romney said, adding that the State Department should not have picked him to give the prayer. “For Rep. Kennedy to call him and apologize to him is absolutely inexplicable. Jeffress should be apologizing to Rep. Kennedy and the people of Utah of my faith and other faiths.”
“When people express bigotries, they should be called out for it,” Romney said.
Romney lost to Kennedy at Utah’s GOP convention in April and will face off against him in the state’s primary contest on June 26.
