OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is pushing the GOP to get past Donald Trump, but he thinks the former president will ultimately secure the party’s candidacy.
“I hope the jury of the American people reaches the same conclusion about Donald Trump. He just is not suited to be president of the United States and to be the person who we hold up to our children and the world as the leader of the free world,” Romney said.
“At some point when the people who work with you, your cabinet secretaries, and juries conclude that you’ve done something severely wrong, it’s time for us to recognize that the great majority of those who’ve worked with him is right and he’s wrong,” he added.
A new report in the Washington Post also details Romney’s feud with Trump going into 2024.
“Republicans might regain some ground with young Mormons when former president Donald Trump departs the political stage. Trump turned off many LDS voters with his uncouth personal style, constant feuds with Mormon Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, and attempts to restrict Muslim immigration. (Mormons faced religious discrimination throughout U.S. history and tend to react negatively to attacks on any single religious group.)” the outlet reported.
“But Trump’s exit — whether that comes in 2024, 2028 or later — might not heal all wounds. Burge calculated that Mormons younger than 40 were more likely to favor abortion “for any reason” than their older peers. I found similar patterns on other foundational political questions, such as whether White Americans have advantages due to their skin color,” the outlet added.
Romney has made it clear he’s not done attacking Trump, which he made clear recently when he recently said that he believes that Trump will once again become the party’s nominee in 2024.
In a back-and-forth with a few reporters at the U.S. Capitol, Romney said: “I think President Trump is by far the most likely to become our nominee. If there’s an alternative to that, it would be only realistic if it narrows down to a two-person race at some point.”
“There’s always a personal interest on the part of the campaign — particularly the campaign staff, and consultants, as well as the candidate — to stay in. And to say, ‘Hey, look, I came in second. So I’m the person that really ought to get the nomination four years from now,’” Romney noted further. “And so it is up to the donors and other influential people that know the candidate, his family or her family, to say, ‘Hey, time to move on.’”
Romney, who voted twice to impeach Trump, added he would work against the former president during the nomination process: “I won’t be supporting President Trump.”
Romney has become known in most GOP political circles for things that are not flattering to him: He’s anti-Donald Trump, and he couldn’t pull off becoming president himself, losing twice in 2008 and 2012.
Now he may be in a fight to salvage what is left of his political career.
Romney will face a GOP primary challenger as he seeks re-election next year in Riverton, Utah, Mayor Trent Staggs, who announced he was running for Romney’s seat.
“Right now, Washington is broken,” Staggs said in a video announcing his candidacy. “And every time we compromise, it costs us trillions”
He added: “We have more IRS agents than border agents. And while we’re paying $4 a gallon for gas, they’re sending our money unchecked to Ukraine. Now, we’re almost $32 trillion in debt. Enough is enough.”
Staggs went on to remind viewers that years ago, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, “moved to Utah and told us what he’d fight for.” He played a video clip of Romney pledging to end illegal immigration, putting America “on a path to a balanced budget” and to “push back against federal overreach and to confirm judges who follow the Constitution.”
