Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, plans to deliver a sharp broadside against Donald Trump on Thursday, slamming the GOP’s leading candidate as pandemonium sweeps the Republican Party.
In a forceful, top-to-bottom indictment of Trump, Romney will call on fellow Republicans to reject the billionaire businessman’s candidacy in an election “that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and more importantly, for the country.”
“Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Romney said, in a speech prepared for delivery Thursday at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, briefly considered running again before announcing last January that he would take a pass. His speech in Utah, where he has a home, comes at a critical juncture for the Republican Party, with Trump’s march to the nomination setting off alarm among GOP leaders who fear that he would lose the general election and tarnish the party’s brand for a generation.
“In 1964, days before the presidential election, Ronald Reagan went on national television and challenged America that it was a ‘Time for Choosing,'” Romney said in his prepared remarks. “He saw two paths for America, one that embraced conservative principles dedicated to lifting people out of poverty and helping create opportunity for all, and the other, an oppressive government that would lead America down a darker, less free path.
“I’m no Ronald Reagan and this is a different moment but I believe with my heart and soul that we face another time for choosing, one that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and more importantly, for the country.”
Romney has not yet endorsed a candidate in the 2016 race, and his associates said Wednesday that he was unlikely to do so in the immediate future. He has kept in touch with two remaining candidates, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
“Of the remaining candidates,” Romney said in his speech, “the only serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront have come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich.”
The former presidential candidate has emerged in recent days as an aggressive critic of Trump, using Twitter to call on the billionaire to release his tax returns and to denounce his refusal to disavow the endorsement of his campaign by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Trump, in turn, has taken to attacking Romney on Twitter, tweeting “I am the only one who can beat Hillary Clinton. I am not a Mitt Romney, who doesn’t know how to win. Hillary wants no part of ‘Trump'” and “Why did Mitt Romney BEG me for my endorsement four years ago?”
Several Romney friends, allies and former donors are involved in efforts to stop Trump both by launching and funding super PACs now airing ads against the businessman in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere.
Speaking to students last month at Babson College in Massachusetts, Romney said he shared the feeling of many Americans that Washington has failed them and urged national leaders to tackle big problems such as climate change, poverty, education and income inequality.
“We’re just mad as hell and won’t take it anymore,” Romney said of the national electorate. He harshly criticized “the failure of current political leaders to actually tackle major challenges, or to try at least, or to go out with proposals.”
In his Thursday remarks, Romney said Trump’s “domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgement to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.”
Trump, Romney said, “relishes any poll that reflects what he thinks of himself. But polls are also saying that he will lose to Hillary Clinton.”
He added: “A person so untrustworthy and dishonest as Hillary Clinton must not become president. But a Trump nomination enables her victory.”
(c) 2016, The Washington Post · Ed O’Keefe, Sarah Larimer
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17 Responses
I wish I can post this video I just got on WhatsApp ( literally while reading this article) how MIT Romney is praising Trump how he understands our problems. Yep when we say establishment politics that’s what we mean.
I’m afraid I agree with Mitt Romney. I’m resigned to probably voting for Trump if he gets the nomination, but that leaves me only slightly less scared than giving the presidency to Hillary. Sean Hannity commented the day after Barrack Obama beat Romney in 2012 that the American people, having made such a choice, would get the government they deserve. If Trump wins the Republican nomination (and the presidency?) the same will hold true this year.
The headline “A Phony, A Fraud’ Who Is ‘Playing The American Public For Suckers’ could equally apply to Obama, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton. They are all huge liars.
All politicans are phonies, frauds and play the public for suckers. That’s part of the definition of “politician”. If one doesn’t want a politician as president there are very few alternatives (e.g. warlords tend to be quite sincere but you really don’t want one ruling over you). Dr. Carson ran as a non-politician, but it didn’t catch on.
#1,3 and 4, but Trump is also dangerous!
Today Trump calls Romney a loser but he didn’t back then cuz he never supports a loser!
This guy is a bigger בעל גאוה than Obama! Still better than Clinton, though.
Americans wake up .. Does anyone still believe all those promises made by presidential runners can you name one president that kept his promises? We are only left to seek the backgrounds of these runners . Like llObama comes from a low disrespectful family never raised with meaningful manners and prove it how he brought Americans to a very low level like gay marriages and so fought. Yes Trump has a big mouth proves himself with no manners I would be scared to vote for him as I could see Americans become as wild as he is .. And then again Clinton always changing her mind typical woman’s syndrome who could trust her especially when we need to deal with wars bombs and drones she would be frightened and hide under her husbands bed.. So now we face is the real question whom are we left with???
People should be there at his speech with big signs:
“The ‘establishment’ are the phony and frauds!”
Who are we left with? HKB”H, of course!
Yaapchik [6],
I prefer an honest and open “Baal Gaava”, who’s obviously flexible and accomplished, than all those crooks.
Remember, they’re not running to be ראשי ישיבה. They’re running to be president of a fat Goyishe country.
Aharon Tuvia [2], – Listen to Hannity now. He’s not scared as you are at all.
Folks, this election campaign is looking more and more like one long Megillas Eicha. Don’t let it get you down. Everything will be all right. The one who SHOULD be president, WILL be president.
the different between trump and obama is that trump dont worry about what to do and say but obama yes so obama wasnt so danger even that he also wants to give back jerusalm
Hannity and Limbaugh are part of the problem. They oversimplify every issue and pander to the base fears of the uneducated. They are ruining this country by labeling every person who is willing to work together with those from the other party as a phony, a fraud, and “establishment”. Trump is the logical outcome of people being indoctrinated with their nonsensical diatribes.
Funny how so many of the posters here embrace a maniac who couldn’t being himself to speak out against David Duke and the KKK and says that he will remain neutral on Israel and the Palestinians.
MD Shweks – Trump contradicts himself and his views all the time. Sounds like a form of lying to me.
The day before San Bernardino if any of the coworkers of the terrorist would be asked, who is this man? they would have praised him as a loyal and hardworking staff member, an asset to the company. And the next day? A murderous terrorist. So I don’t blame romney for saying what has been exposed about trumpet changes his opinion and especially in light of his trying to be a leader of our country. romney has said if he knew then what he knows now he would not have accepted the endorsement.