Mitt Romney is escalating his criticism of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
The Republican nominee from four years ago is taking the extraordinary step of chiding the clear front-runner for the 2016 nomination, and delivering a speech specifically for that purpose. Romney was to speak Thursday from the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. He was not expected to endorse any of Trump’s opponents nor do something as fantastical as launch a late entry into the race.
“He will chastise Trump and try to remind voters of the seriousness of this race,” a source with Romney ties told the Washington Examiner.
“This is not an endorsement or announcement of candidacy,” a Romney aide added an email exchange. Romney, this aide said, will comment “on the state of the 2016 presidential race and the choices facing the Republican Party and the country.”
Trump has come under fire this week from establishment Republicans and conservative activists for an interview he gave to CNN in which he declined multiple times to disavow the support of white supremacist David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan, a racist terrorist organization. Trump later disavowed both. Curiously, he had denounced Duke previously but refused to do so in the CNN interview. Both wings of the GOP oppose Trump for several reasons.
Romney, 68, is the former governor of Massachusetts and, with former President George W. Bush choosing to stay in the background, is essentially the Republican Party’s lone, public elder statesman. Romney was not the most beloved Republican to ever win his party’s nomination, and some on the right still blame him for blowing a winnable race against President Obama. But he’s enjoyed more support as a post-nominee.
Republicans believe that much of what he discussed in the 2012 campaign, such as Russia being a major adversary of the U.S., turned out to be true. Romney was among the most sought after surrogates on the campaign trail in the 2014 midterms. Still, even Republicans who oppose Trump and cling to hope that the New York celebrity businessman can be defeated, worry that Romney’s assistance might be counterproductive and has arrived too late.
“Where were Romney and the other establishment guys when Trump was taking off months ago?” said one GOP operative in Washington, who like most, requested anonymity in order to speak candidly. “I get that no one took him seriously at first, but they certainly had plenty of lead time to confront this menace.”
“Everyone he can convince is already convinced. No speech he can give will add anyone to the cause,” said another Republican insider. “His time would best be used on a conference call drumming up money to show the world what a fraudster Trump is instead if giving a speech.”
Trump scored commanding victories in the Super Tuesday primaries and leads the Republican field in nominating delegates, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. The real estate mogul is positioned to win the nomination, although the outcome of the contest remains uncertain. It’s at this late hour in the race that the anti-Trump forces have finally marshaled resources and begun an aggressive push to derail him.
Driving this effort have been Rubio and Cruz, who have stepped up their attacks on the reality television star’s problematic business dealings and personal character, and third party groups like Our Principles PAC. This super PAC, led by Romney 2012 campaign advisor Katie Packer and formed to oppose Trump, is advertising with hard-hitting spots in key March primary states. Romney also has been speaking out against Trump, both on television and on Twitter.
In the 1980 campaign, former President Gerald Ford threatened to join the race against then-former California Gov. Ronald Reagan. But other than that instance, veteran Republican operative Charlie Black, an adviser to previous GOP presidential candidates, said he couldn’t recall a primary campaign in which the party’s most recent nominee publically called out the front-runner positioned to be its next nominee.
There is a hunger among those on the right aligned against Trump, including so-called establishment Republicans and conservative insurgents, for as many prominent voices to join the fight. On Twitter, they use the hashtag #NeverTrump. Their problems with the billionaire run the gamut, from an at-times rude tone, willingness to traffic in conspiracy theories and an agenda they deem as not just insufficiently conservative, but quasi-progressive.
But Trump has been racking up wins. His supporters are disgusted with Washington and frustrated about the direction of the country, and they see an outsider who will shake things up and solve problems. Hogan Gidley, who advised former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee during his 2016 presidential campaign, said voters are responding to Trump’s populist message (which, in some ways, is similar to Huckabee’s) and he warned that Romney’s speech could backfire.
“The establishment is making a heavy-handed play to stop Donald Trump, and the establishment is the problem,” Gidley said.
