Romney aides blast 'hypocrites' who asked for cabinet jobs just before election and are now trashing him

Presidential candidate has come under fire from Republicans after loss

But aides say figures like Bobby Jindal and Newt Gingrich were desperate for positions in his cabinet if he had won



Former senior aides to Mitt Romney have hit back at the 'craven hypocrites' in the Republican party who just days before the election were clamouring for jobs in a Romney administration and are now belittling him.

'I'm sure Governor Romney is finding out now who his real friends are,' a former adviser told MailOnline.

'There were one or two well-known figures who were late committing to support him, were the most eager to curry favour when it looked like we would win and are now out there trashing the governor.

'In politics, when you win you are a genius and when you lose everyone calls you an idiot. But to see the way certain craven hypocrites are acting right now really sticks in the craw.'

A happy Thanksgiving: But since his defeat in the presidential election, Mitt Romney has been under constant attack from other Republicans

Speaking on MSNBC, Dan Senor, a former top foreign policy adviser to Romney, accused some of the former Massachusetts supporters of being fair weather friends.

At a big event in Ohio just days before the election, he said, there were leading figures cozying up to Romney and trying to land cabinet positions.

'Tens of thousands of people, you could feel the energy, a hundred top-tier Romney surrogates were at the event,' he remembered. 'I’m backstage with some of them - I won’t mention their names - but they’re talking about Romney like he’s Reagan.

'"His debate performances were the best performances of any Republican nominee in presidential history. He’s iconic." They were talking about him because they believed he was going to win in four or five days. And in fact, some of them were already talking to our transition to position themselves for a Romney cabinet.'

Fight: Romney took on Barack Obama in a bitter battle for the White House waged over several months

Defeat: The Romneys after the candidate conceded defeat to Obama on November 6

Within days, however, there was a 'stunning' turnaround as the same people turned on Romney with a vengeance.

'They were on television, it was unbelievable, it was five, six days later, absolutely eviscerating him,' Senor said.

But the other senior adviser, who declined to be named when criticising senior Republicans, singled out Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Newt Gingrich as among those who had been quickest to lambast Romney.

After Romney told donors on a post-election conference call that many voted had plumped for President Barack Obama because he had offered them 'gifts', Jindal said Romney's comments were 'absolutely wrong'.

He said: 'We have got to stop dividing American voters. We need to go after 100 per cent of the votes, not 53 per cent - we need to go after every single vote.'

Allies: Romney spent time on the campaign trail with Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal

Betrayal? Jindal and Newt Gingrich have both criticised Romney in the wake of his landslide defeat



That was a reference to Romney's notorious '47 per cent' comments in which he said that proportion of voters was dependent on government and would inevitably back a Democrat.

Gingrich called the 'gifts' comments 'nuts' and 'insulting' to voters.

The anonymous adviser said: 'Bobby Jindal wanted very, very much to be Vice President. He appeared publicly with Governor Romney after the 47 per cent comments, which the governor himself said were totally wrong.

'Newt Gingrich made it clear to us he wanted to be part of a Romney administration.