Romney on Trump’s 2024 bid: ‘Absolutely not’
Talking at a Washington Submit discussion board on local weather change and the prospects for bipartisan cooperation that was broadcast on C-SPAN2, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was requested by the Submit’s Leigh Ann Caldwell if he would assist former President Donald Trump within the 2024 presidential election.
“Completely not,” Romney mentioned, triggering a smattering of applause from the reside viewers in Washington, D.C.
“Look, I voted to take away him from workplace twice,” Romney mentioned, to laughter, in reference to his votes to question and convict the previous president.
“And it’s not simply because he loses,” Romney mentioned of the midterm election defeats for a lot of high-profile candidates Trump endorsed. “That’s my cause that I provide to different people who find themselves massive followers of his. Nevertheless it’s additionally [that] he’s merely not an individual who ought to have the reins of the federal government of america.”
Romney added that Robert Gates, who served as secretary of protection and secretary of state, with appointments below each Republican and Democratic administrations, has mentioned that Trump lacks a key attribute that each president wants: the humility to take recommendation.
In January 2020, Romney was the one Republican senator to hitch Democrats in voting to convict Trump for abuse of energy, the primary article in his first impeachment trial, after Trump withheld congressionally permitted support to Ukraine. Trump was attempting to strain Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into opening an investigation into Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, whose presidential marketing campaign Trump hoped to undermine. In January 2021, throughout Trump’s second impeachment trial, Romney was one among seven Republican senators who voted to convict the outgoing president for “incitement of riot” for his actions main as much as the riot on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of that 12 months.
Given these votes, and his lengthy historical past of talking out towards Trump, Romney’s newest feedback should not stunning. The Utah senator, nonetheless, can also be the GOP’s former 2012 presidential nominee, and he comes from a distinguished Republican household. His father, George Romney, was the governor of Michigan and a Cupboard secretary below President Richard Nixon. His niece, Ronna McDaniel, is the Trump-aligned chair of the Republican Nationwide Committee. Different pillars of the GOP institution, former President George W. Bush, for instance, have declined to endorse Trump, however have additionally shied away from explicitly criticizing him in public.
Trump and Romney traded blows in the course of the 2016 presidential marketing campaign, however after Trump gained, Romney congratulated him on his victory and paid him a go to, and Trump reportedly thought of appointing him secretary of state. In 2018, Trump endorsed Romney’s candidacy for Senate — an endorsement Romney welcomed.
Earlier than being requested concerning the 2024 marketing campaign, Romney was requested whether or not the Republican Celebration “has misplaced its manner.”
“Have some folks misplaced their manner? Sure. Are others full of a imaginative and prescient for the longer term? Completely,” Romney replied. Not like some Trump critics, he was additionally frank concerning the maintain Trump has on the get together and the slim odds of beating him within the major.
“I believe we’ve obtained, I don’t know, 12 folks or extra that wish to be president, which might be pondering of working in 2024,” Romney continued. “If President Trump continues in his marketing campaign, I’m unsure any one among them could make it by way of and beat him. He’s obtained such a robust base of, I don’t know, 30 or 40% of the Republican voters, or possibly extra, it’s going to be onerous to knock him off as our nominee. If he turns into our nominee, I believe he loses once more.”
Romney mentioned that Trump’s persistent declare, towards all proof, that the 2020 election was stolen from him is unappealing to swing voters. On Wednesday, he mentioned that the defeat of the Trump-backed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker within the state’s runoff election Tuesday has proved to be solely the most recent in a string of defeats for the get together for which Trump is accountable.
“Should you get endorsed by him within the major, you’re prone to win,” Romney informed reporters within the Capitol. “Should you get endorsed by him within the basic, you’re prone to lose. So for somebody who really desires to win an election, getting endorsed by him is the kiss of demise.”
