Mitt Romney met with Jeb Bush shortly after he announced in December 2014 he would actively explore running for president. | AP Romney: Bush-Clinton matchup 'would be too easy for the Democrats'

Mitt Romney once told Jeb Bush that the former Florida governor couldn’t beat Hillary Clinton in a general election.

Romney, the Republican nominee who challenged President Barack Obama during his 2012 reelection campaign and who last year weighed mounting another bid, expressed that notion in a private meeting with Bush in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah, last January, according to Romney's comments to The Washington Post.


“Jeb, to be very honest, I think it’s very hard for you to post up against Hillary Clinton and to separate yourself from the difficulty of the W. years and compare them with the Clinton years,” Romney recalled telling Bush, referring to former President George W. Bush’s administration.

A Clinton-Bush election “would be too easy for the Democrats,” Romney told the Post.

“I like Jeb a lot,” Romney continued. “I think he’d be a great president but felt he was unfairly but severely burdened by the W. years — and when I say the W. years, it’s not only what happened to the economy, but the tragedy in Iraq.”

During their Jan. 22, 2015, encounter, Romney said, Bush responded that he was going to run a campaign about the future, not the past.

“I didn’t say anything at that point,” Romney remembered. “But as he left, I said to myself, ‘Gosh, in my opinion, it’s not going to be as easy to make that separation as I think he gives the impression it will be.’ One of the few things I predicted that turned out to be true.”

Bush has tried to distinguish himself from his brother and father, two former presidents, unveiling a “Jeb!” logo for his 2016 campaign that excludes his famous surname. But other candidates have invoked George W. Bush’s presidency and the Iraq war throughout the campaign in attacks on Jeb Bush, and the former Florida governor has leaned heavily on his family’s network to bolster his slowing fundraising.