Romney’s ‘pathetically weasel-worded’ defense of his vow to vote for Trump's SCOTUS pick mocked and destroyed
Former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney pauses during remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 15, 2013. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

U.S. Senator Mitt Romney is being highly criticized Tuesday, after he announced he will vote to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, even before the candidate has been named.

CNN's take is that Senator Romney's "backing of Supreme Court vote paves way for election-year confirmation."

Romney said he would vote for any nominee who is qualified, although he struggled to define what the term meant to him.

Many are attacking the Utah Republican Senator for green lighting Trump's unnamed SCOTUS nominee despite voting to impeach the president.

Former Dept. of Defense communications official:

Sen. Romney also made several remarks, both to reporters (video below) and in a statement, that are provably false.

"The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party's nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own," Romney said in a statement.

Journalist Joan McCarter points out that's false.

Civil rights attorney Sasha Samberg-Champion blasts Romney for cloaking a purely political decision in the rule of law.

Historian Kevin Kruse:

Reporter and analyst for Inside Elections, Jacob Rubashkin, notes just how false Romney's claim is that America is a "center-right" nation – and embarrasses him in the process:

As does journalist Jay Willis:

Romney's false claims that the Supreme Court has been liberal for years is also easily debunked as "utter nonsense" – by Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at a conservative think tank:

And by this HuffPost journalist:

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