House impeachment managers on Wednesday opened former US President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial with never-before-seen footage of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman leading Romney to safety as rioters were storming the Capitol building on January 6.
“Officer Goodman passes Sen. Mitt Romney and directs him to turn around in order to get to safety,” narrated impeach manager Stacey Plaskett, the 5th delegate to the US House of Representatives from the US Virgin Islands' at-large congressional district.
“On the first floor, just beneath them, the mob had already started to search for the Senate chamber. Officer Goodman made his way down to the first floor where he encountered the same insurrectionists we just saw breach the Capitol," she added.
Goodman, who has been recommended to receive the Congressional Gold Medal for his efforts, was lauded for what many describe as his acts of "heroism" in confronting the pro-Trump mob.
"It tears your, your heart and brings tears to your eyes, that was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional," the Utah senator said in response to seeing the video, as reported by NBC's Jullie Tsirkin.
Romney, a critic of Trump, increasingly faced backlash after he broke ranks as the sole GOP senator to vote to convict Trump of abuse of power in the former US president's first impeachment trial in 2020. Trump, who was also impeached on a charge of obstruction of Congress, was on 8 January impeached in the House for a second time, for "incitement of insurrection".
A day before the 6 January Capitol Hill attacks, Romney was confronted by an unnamed individual who openly questioned why the Utah senator is not supporting Trump, who switched to being a Republican several years ago after decades as a Democrat.
“We have a Constitution, the constitutional process is clear,” Romney asserted, speaking of the Electoral College vote certification process. “I’ll follow the Constitution, and I’ll explain all that when we meet in Congress this week.” “Well, you haven’t supported him, and you didn’t even support him in the election,” the individual was overheard saying in a since-deleted video. "You were voted in as a conservative to represent the conservative constituents. Period."