Analysis
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Trump begged Hatch to run. He retired anyway and cleared a path for Romney.
Trump begged Orrin Hatch to run again. The senator retired anyway.
Washington (CNN)President
Donald Trump made one thing very clear over the last few months: He
badly wanted Utah Republican Orrin Hatch to run for another Senate term.
At an event in Utah in December, Trump said this of Hatch:
"You
are a true fighter, Orrin. And I have to say, I've gotten to know him
very well. I've gotten to know a lot of people very well. You meet
fighters and you meet people that you thought were fighters but they're
not so good at fighting. He's a fighter. We hope you will continue to
serve your state and your country in the Senate for a very long time to
come."
Hatch traveled to and from that Utah event with Trump on Air Force One.
At the bill signing event on Trump's tax cut legislation just days before Christmas, Trump called the Utah Republican "the great Chairman Orrin Hatch," adding: "Great job, Orrin. Wow. Orrin is a special person."
As far back as March 2017, Trump was actively lobbying Hatch to stay. "His pitch is he needs me," Hatch told CNN's Manu Raju of Trump. "Things are going to be just fine."
That
long and aggressive full court press from the President of the United
States makes Hatch's decision, announced Tuesday afternoon, that he wouldn't run for an eighth term all the more intriguing.
In
the immediate aftermath of the news of Hatch's retirement, White House
press secretary Sarah Sanders allowed that Trump was "very sad to see
Senator Hatch leave," adding: "The President has the greatest and
deepest amount of respect for Senator Hatch."
It's
certainly too much to lay Hatch's retirement at the feet of Trump.
Hatch, had he run for an eighth term, would have been 89 at the end of
that term. He had made very clear -- even before Trump was elected
President -- that he was unsure about whether he would run again in
2018.
But it is still worth noting
that the Republican President of the United States spent much of the
last year urging a prominent Republican senator to run for re-election
-- and it didn't work.
That's
especially important because it's long been suspected -- and reporting
bears this out -- that one of the reasons Trump was so gung-ho for Hatch
to run again was that he did not want an open seat situation where
two-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney could run.
Romney,
who has been one of the most consistent and high-profile critics of
Trump as a candidate and as president, has been doing the sorts of things back in Utah that someone who wants back into public life would do. Romney has also lived primarily in Utah since losing his second presidential bid in 2012.
He won 73% of the vote in Utah in that race. Romney is popular in the
state for salvaging the Winter Olympics held in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
Should he run -- and most Utah
insiders expect him to -- Romney would start the race as the
front-runner. While that doesn't mean he is a lock for the Senate --
Utah's Republican nominating process could open the door to a challenge
from Romney's ideological right -- it does suggest that the odds favor
Romney at the moment.
Here's a very simple way to understand the difference for Trump between Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Mitt Romney.
"This President hasn't even been in office even a year, and look at all the things that he's been able to get done," Hatch said of Trump in late December. "By sheer will in many ways."
"Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud," Romney said of Trump in March 2016.
"His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's
playing members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride
to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat."
Big. Difference.
There
was a time when Romeny and Trump appeared to have mended fences. Trump
very publicly considered Romney to be his secretary of state. The two
had dinner, which resulted in this very awkward photo:
President-elect Donald Trump and Mitt Romney dine at Jean Georges restaurant, November 29, 2016 in New York City.
But
in hindsight that feels like an alpha dog move by Trump. There was no
offer extended to Romney and he has not shied away from criticizing
Trump since then. That same day Trump was publicly calling on Hatch to
run for re-election, Romney was subtweeting Trump, arguing that Trump's
preferred candidate in Alabama's special US Senate election, accused
child molester Roy Moore, would stain the party.
"No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity," Romney tweeted.
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