Sen. Mitt Romney: Harris showed she’s ‘an intelligent, capable person’ at debate performance

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, offered reporters his analysis of Tuesday’s presidential debate as he walked through the halls of Congress Wednesday.
The debate marked the first meeting of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump before Election Day in November.
Romney, who has been on the presidential debate stage before, when he went up against former President Barack Obama in 2012, said he witnessed “a classic Trump performance,” according to a clip obtained by MSNBC News.
In the case of Vice President Kamala Harris, Romney said, “Most people didn’t know her terribly well, other than a few clips that were not flattering that you might see on the internet.”
“People saw, ‘Oh, actually, she’s an intelligent, capable person who has a point of view on issues,’ and she demonstrated that time and again,” he added. As The Hill noted, Romney wasn’t the only one to give Harris a positive review. New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said, “Oh, Kamala definitely won the debate.”
Romney noted he believes debates, such as the one on Tuesday night, don’t “typically move the needle on a permanent basis very much for one candidate or another.”
He didn’t take offense to Trump’s comments about Haitian immigrants.
“I’m allergic to cats, so this is not a big issue for me. If it turns out to be true, I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep,” he said, as CNN’s Manu Raju reported. But Romney displayed concern over Trump refusing to say whether he wants Ukraine to defeat Russia.
Earlier in May, the senator, who is not seeking reelection this year, said Trump won’t get his vote but declined to say who will.
“I’m not announcing that here and now,” Romney said. “I’m not going to be voting for President Trump. I’ve made that clear. I know for some people, character is not the No. 1 issue. It is for me. When someone has been, well, determined by a jury to have committed sexual assault, that’s not someone who I want my kids and grandkids to see as president of the United States.”
More recently, around 200 former staffers for former President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney endorsed Harris.
“We have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable,” the staffers wrote in a letter, first reported by USA Today.
When Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the 2024 race and endorse Harris, Romney issued a statement, offering the president praise.
“I’m a classic Republican and he’s a classic Democrat; obviously, President Biden and I usually didn’t see eye-to-eye. I opposed many of his initiatives,” the Utah senator said. “But we did find common ground on infrastructure, Ukraine, the Electoral Count Act, adding religious liberty protections to the marriage bill, gun safety measures, and chip manufacturing.”
Romney said that after working with the president in the past few years, he respects Biden, adding, “His decision to withdraw from the race was right and is in the best interest of the country.”