Utah GOP Senate candidate Mitt Romney doesn't think his 18 grandchildren should be looking to President Trump to be a role model, though he admitted he thought his policies had exceeded his expectations.

"I don't think that I would point to the president as a role model for my grandkids on the basis of his personal style," Romney told NBC News in an interview on Monday, the eve of a Utah Senate primary debate. "He has departed in some cases from the truth, and has attacked in a way that I think is not entirely appropriate. I think that his policies have been by and large a good deal better than I might have expected. But some of the things he has said are not ones that I would aspire for my grandkids to adopt."

But Romney praised the president's actions on tax policy, regulatory and public land policy and said he'd "be with him" on policies he agrees with, but "if the president were to say something that I consider highly divisive or racist or misogynistic, I'll call him out on it because I think its important for people to know exactly where one stands."

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On Tuesday, Romney debates his Republican opponent in the Utah Senate race, Michael Kennedy, who is a doctor and state legislator, considered to be an underdog in the race for the open seat left by Sen. Orrin Hatch's impending retirement.