Republican Senate candidate and former presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Thursday defended the media "as essential to our Republic," breaking with President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE, who has called the press "the enemy of the people."

"I cannot conceive of thinking or saying that the media or any responsible news organization is an enemy. The media is essential to our Republic, to our freedom, to the cause of freedom abroad, and to our national security. It is very much our friend," Romney wrote in a blog post on his campaign website.

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Romney in the blog post directly addressed Trump's attacks on the media, noting Trump's tweet earlier this week that blamed the media for "great anger in our Country" and called the press "the true Enemy of the People."

"Surely every president has endured stories that he knew were inaccurate and has chaffed at one or more news publications. ... But no American president has ever before vilified the American press or one of its professional outlets as an 'Enemy of the People,'" Romney wrote.

Trump has frequently derided the media during his presidency, dismissing news reports that are critical of him as "fake news" and characterizing the press as an enemy.

Romney, who will likely be elected as the next senator from Utah, also wrote that he was asked at a recent campaign event if he would take action to shut down news organizations such as CNN and The New York Times.

The person who asked the question claimed that those news organizations "purvey fake news," Romney wrote.

"I found this deeply disturbing. How different from when I was growing up; no one then would seriously consider stifling the free press for publishing the news and opinion as they saw fit," Romney added.