As GOP faces impeachment dilemma, Romney is a lonely voice of concern

Mr. Romney’s public statements reflect what many in his party believe privately but are almost uniformly unwilling to say: that they are faced with damning revelations about the president that are difficult to explain away, and are unsure of whether there is more damaging material to come. What’s more, they are contending with a leader whose appetite for political payback for real or imagined slights is insatiable, and who is responding to the crisis with angry new threats and accusations that will only increase the pressure on them to choose a side…

But by reproaching Mr. Trump, he offers Democrats the ability to counter claims that the inquiry is a wholly partisan and politically fueled witch hunt, as the president has repeatedly called it. And Mr. Romney both provides cover for and exerts pressure on his fellow Republicans, who are anxiously calibrating what to say about a scandal that only deepened on Thursday when audio emerged of Mr. Trump privately suggesting that government officials who expressed concerns about his dealings with Ukraine deserve to be punished severely.

The president’s leading advisers recognize the threat posed by as high-profile a figure as Mr. Romney, perhaps the second most well-known elected Republican in Washington, and are trying to isolate him. After his critical remarks about the Ukraine affair, Mr. Trump hit back at the senator by posting a video on Twitter showing a glum Mr. Romney at the moment on election night in 2012 that he learned he had lost the presidential race.