Mitt Romney tears into Trump in a scathing new statement — says the Mueller report makes him 'sickened'

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney has been relatively timid about standing up to President Donald Trump since taking office, compared to his aggressive stance against the GOP nominee during the 2016 campaign.

But on Friday, the Utah lawmaker shared a scathing new statement about the Mueller report.

He begins by noting that he is pleased that Trump wasn't determined to have conspired with a foreign power during the election or to have obstructed justice, saying that "The business of government can move on." (The claim about obstruction of justice, however, is false. Mueller does not say there's not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice; in fact, he lays out a compelling case for such a charge, but the report argues that it would be inappropriate for a prosecutor to make such a conclusion about a sitting president.)

Romney continued:

Even so, I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President. I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia—including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement; and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine.

He concluded: "Reading the report is a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders."