Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is the leader of his party in the U.S. Senate, noted a stunning text message on Jan. 2, 2021 warning him of both the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and threats against his own home via Media Ite.
The remarkable and prescient text message, which McConnell left unanswered, was revealed on Wednesday in an excerpt from McKay Coppins’s upcoming biography of Romney.
In the excerpt from “Romney: A Reckoning,” Coppins writes about what “drove” Romney to retire from the Senate, which he announced Wednesday ahead of the excerpt being published.
Coppins details that Romney’s text message to McConnell began with Sen.Angus King (I-ME) texting Romney, “Could you give me a call when you get a chance? Important.”
Romney then calls King who “informs him of a conversation he’s just had with a high-ranking Pentagon official.” Coppins adds:
“Law enforcement has been tracking online chatter among right-wing extremists who appear to be planning something bad on the day of Donald Trump’s upcoming rally in Washington, D.C. The president has been telling them the election was stolen; now they’re coming to steal it back. There’s talk of gun smuggling, of bombs and arson, of targeting the traitors in Congress who are responsible for this travesty. Romney’s name has been popping up in some frightening corners of the internet, which is why King needed to talk to him. He isn’t sure Romney will be safe.”
Romney then quickly turns around and sends McConnell this text:
“In case you have not heard this, I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”
Coppins concludes his retelling of the shocking moment in American political history with three words: “McConnell never responds.”
