Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his vote to convict Donald Trump during the first impeachment trial last February, NBC reports.
Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump and became the first Senator in US history to vote to convict a president from his own party in an impeachment trial. Trump was impeached for various charges related to abuse of office for leveraging US aid to Ukraine to gain political assistance from Ukraine to help his reelection campaign.
“He was willing to risk his career and his popularity within his own party to do what’s right for our country and to follow his conscience and Constitution and his impeachment votes,” former Ambassador Caroline Kennedy said. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation gives the award in memory of her father, President John F. Kennedy, who wrote a book called Profiles in Courage.
“I sleep well because I know that I did what my conscience told me was the right thing to do,” Romney said. “We swore a different oath when the impeachment trial began. We swore, under God, that we would apply impartial justice. I took that very, very seriously. I listened to the various testimonies that were provided, I looked into it with some depth … and I felt that that was a severe enough violation of his oath of office to require a guilty verdict.”