Trump responds to Romney’s withering takedown by saying ‘he failed horribly’ and making lewd insinuation about his 2012 endorsement of GOP nominee

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Mitt Romney, the Republican party’s presidential nominee in 2012, returned to the national stage on Thursday with a blistering indictment of Donald Trump, dubbing the frontrunner “a phony” and “a fraud”.

Addressing a Republican National Committee meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, Romney opened his speech by drawing on Ronald Reagan’s framing of the 1964 election as “a time for choosing”. The 2016 election, he argued, posed a similar crossroads for the American people.

“I’m no Ronald Reagan, and this is a different moment in time, but I believe with all my heart and soul that we face another time of choosing – one that will have profound consequences for the Republican party and, more importantly, for our country,” Romney said.

Trump responded to Romney during a rally in Portland, Maine, in which he referred to the former nominee as “a failed candidate”.

“He failed horribly,” Trump said. “He let us down. He should have won.”

The brash billionaire then used colorful language to describe how badly Romney had sought his backing in 2012.

“He was begging me. I could have said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ And he would have dropped to his knees,” Trump said.

Romney’s speech marked an unprecedented moment in American politics, with a growing number of prominent Republicans now openly, and frantically, seeking to stop in his tracks a candidate who increasingly resembles the presumptive nominee. Romney laid out a case that was in equal parts scathing and urgent, while stating that “the prospects for a safe and a prosperous future are greatly diminished” if Republicans were to nominate Trump.

Although Romney did not offer an endorsement, he praised candidates Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Ted Cruz and essentially suggested voters should support each of the three and pave the way for a brokered convention.

“One of these men should be our nominee,” he said.

Trump, Romney contended, would instead precipitate another economic recession and weaken America’s standing overseas.

“His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power,” he said.

Romney has escalated his criticism of Trump in recent weeks, tweeting suggestions that the real estate mogul was hiding something in his tax returns, while also condemning Trump’s initial refusal to disavow the Ku Klux Klan. But Thursday’s speech was the first time Romney has delivered such comprehensive remarks on the state of the 2016 race.

From Trump’s debunked claim that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the September 11 terrorist attacks to his mocking of Senator John McCain for being captured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, there were few controversial Trump moments Romney did not refer to.

“Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities, the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics,” Romney said.

“He creates scapegoats of Muslims and Mexican immigrants, he calls for the use of torture and for killing the innocent children and family members of terrorists. He cheers assaults on protesters. He applauds the prospect of twisting the constitution to limit first amendment freedom of the press. This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.”

This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss Mitt Romney

Romney’s appeal to reject Trump arrived less than 48 hours after the reality TV star marched ahead with overwhelming victories on Super Tuesday, as Republicans in 11 states went to the polls. With the probability of a Trump nomination on the rise, the GOP establishment is desperately in search of an alternative but left without a clear consensus candidate.

Rubio, the Florida senator and favored choice of party elites, has struggled to gain traction, with just one primary state victory thus far. Kasich, the Ohio governor, is viewed as lacking a realistic shot at the nomination. And Cruz, the Texas senator, is deeply loathed by his Republican colleagues and seen by many to be just as unpalatable as Trump.

In a nod to the impact of the still-fractured field, Romney said he was confident the party could find a nominee who could go on to win the general election “if the other candidates can find some common ground”.

The party’s focus should be on defeating Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Romney told the crowd of roughly 500 people – “but a Trump nomination enables her victory”.

“Will he talk about our policy differences or will he attack me with every imaginable low-road insult?” Romney said, anticipating the notoriously sensitive Trump’s reaction. “This may tell you what you need to know about his temperament, his stability, and his suitability to be president.”

The aggressive takedown from the former Massachusetts governor posed a sharp reversal from February 2012, when he courted Trump’s endorsement and stood awkwardly alongside the business magnate at his Las Vegas casino to accept his support. At the time, Romney extolled Trump as “a delight” who had enjoyed tremendous success in the private sector.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump endorses Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president as Romney and his wife Ann look on, in February 2012. Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters

What ensued thereafter nonetheless devolved quickly into a headache for the Romney campaign, as Trump used the political platform to repeatedly fuel conspiracies that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump looked to undercut Romney’s speech by noting the former candidate had “begged” for his endorsement.

“He ran one of the worst campaigns, as you know, in presidential history,” Trump said in an interview with MSNBC. “That was an election that should have been won by the Republicans.”

Romney did not address the endorsement in his remarks, but later tweeted: “If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement.”



The extent of Romney’s contempt for Trump was on full display on Thursday – and is likely to be echoed by other Republicans of stature in the coming days and weeks.

Former senator Rick Santorum told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), that conservatives in the US are “scared”. “They’re scared about what’s going on right now. They’re nervous about what’s happening in this presidential race. They’re seeing the conservative movement and the Republican party getting torn up. They’re nervous as all heck.”

John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, also issued a statement on Thursday laying out his concerns about a Trump nomination.

“I share the concerns about Donald Trump that my friend and former Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, described in his speech today,” the Arizona senator said. “I want Republican voters to pay close attention to what our party’s most respected and knowledgeable leaders and national security experts are saying about Mr Trump, and to think long and hard about who they want to be our next commander-in-chief and leader of the free world.”

