Republicans scramble with excuses for why they lost Romney to pro-witnesses vote

Republicans are scrambling after former national security adviser John Bolton's book provided evidence supporting the impeachment and removal of President Donald Trump. Not only has Bolton made clear that President Donald Trump was caught trying to bribe Ukraine, but he has also turned Republicans toward wanting witnesses.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), in particular, has drawn the ire of his own party for revealing more Republican senators now want to hear from Bolton under oath.

Appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) tweeted that Romney isn't serious about calling Bolton, he is merely trying to appeal to liberals.

"After 2 weeks, it’s clear that Democrats have no case for impeachment," she tweeted. "Sadly, my colleague @SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame. The circus is over. It’s time to move on! #gapol"

Romney isn't up for reelection until 2024, and his conservative state voted to support him by 62.6 percent, surpassing Trump's mere 45.5 percent.

Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde similarly tried to say that Romney would lose his safe seat.

Fox News host and Trump ally Mark Levin tried the excuse that Romney has wanted witnesses all along, ignoring Romney's vote against witnesses last week.

Republicans also complained that nothing Democrats presented was "new," after voting multiple times to block new information from being admitted.

“We’ve just come out listening to, what, six hours of testimony, and I didn’t hear anything new,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “It still seems to me that this was an effort by the Democrats, in a very partisan way, to bring a case against President Trump because they didn’t like the outcome of the 2016 election.”

Once Bolton's information became known, Barrasso changed his story, Politico reported.

“I think there’s going to be something new coming out every day,” Barrasso told reporters Monday. “New information, old information told in a different way, to inflame emotions and influence the outcome.”

It was just a few hours later that Barrasso decided nothing was new.

“To me, the facts of the case remain the same. There is nothing new here to what the House managers have been saying," he said in the GOP press conference.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have similarly come to understand there is more that needs to be heard. Republicans are not attacking them on Twitter, however.