PARK CITY, Utah — Mitt Romney laid into the large and rambunctious group of 2016 Republican candidates here on Saturday, arguing that they deserved a share of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump.

During a question-and-answer session with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer before about 250 Republican donors gathered for the Romney-hosted Experts and Enthusiasts summit, the former Massachusetts governor said this year’s group of primary candidates misplayed their hands. By spending months attacking each other and ignoring Trump, he argued, they made a severe tactical error that allowed Trump — who Romney has criticized as a “con man” and a “fraud” — to escape unharmed.


“Their biggest failure was attacking each other and not the front-runner,” Romney said. “Just politically, I thought that move was not right for them.”

Romney reserved particular scorn for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who Romney endorsed late in the primary process. The Texas senator, he pointed out, spent extensive time during the campaign praising Trump. He also said Ohio Gov. John Kasich had divided the anti-Trump vote by remaining in the race long after it had become clear he didn’t have a realistic pathway to the nomination — a message he said he had relayed personally to the Ohio governor. And Romney chided Right to Rise, the $100 million-plus Jeb Bush super PAC that spent heavily to tear down Bush rivals other than Trump.

“I thought it was an extremely large mistake on their part,” he said of the super PAC.

Romney, though, credited Trump with waging a politically savvy primary campaign. “He played it extremely well,” he said, noting that the New York businessman had tapped into a deep vein of voter frustration. “It was a very effective strategy.”

As he has on previous occasions, Romney warned that a Trump presidency could have disastrous repercussions for the country. But on Saturday, the former governor showed emotion. In explaining why he’d decided to come out so forcefully against the party’s presumptive nominee — and at a time when many GOP leaders are urging unity — Romney appeared to tear up.

Many of the things Trump says, such as his criticism of a federal judge because of his Mexican heritage, just couldn’t go unanswered, Romney said. “Seeing this just breaks your heart.”

Going forward, Romney said he doesn’t intend to regularly insert himself into the campaign. But he said he will speak out if Trump says something he disagrees with.

When Blitzer pressed Romney on his plans, he revealed that he once thought that, had a candidate such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or Bush won the White House, he could have held an administration role. With Trump and Hillary Clinton as the nominees, he joked that a Cabinet post was now unlikely.

But he hinted that there’s a role he’s anxious to embrace: that of a former GOP leader who will help to rebuild his party following a historically divisive election.

“I do believe, after November, I’m going to be involved in articulating what the Republican Party stands for.”

Trump blasted Romney at a rally in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, firing back at comments Romney made on Friday.

“Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickledown racism and trickledown bigotry and trickledown misogyny — all of these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America,” Romney said. “I think his comments time and again appeal to the racist tendency that exists in some people, and I think that’s dangerous.”

“I’m not sure [Romney] knows what a misogynist is,” Trump responded. “I am the least racist person that you have ever seen.”

That followed a Saturday morning tweetstorm in which Trump asked how he could be a racist while having the support of “so many” African-Americans.

“Mitt Romney had his chance to beat a failed president but he choked like a dog,” Trump tweeted. “Now he calls me racist-but I am least racist person there is.”

African-Americans like boxing promoter Don King, Trump continued, would not have endorsed him “if they thought I was a racist!”

On Friday, the New York Daily News asked King on the sidelines of Muhammad Ali's funeral whether he had in fact endorsed his longtime friend.

“No,” King said. “I’m endorsing the people."

But, he added, “I like Mr. Trump. He’s an idol of America.”

Kristen East contributed to this report.