Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has criticized Donald Trump’s brash behavior, denounced his controversial policies and even suggested the billionaire won’t be the GOP nominee. Still, the former Massachusetts governor appears to share the same frustration that has driven so many voters right into the palm of Trump.
“We’re just mad as hell and won’t take it anymore,” Romney reportedly said during a recent appearance at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.
According to the Washington Post, the former GOP nominee was particularly critical of “the failure of current political leaders to actually tackle major challenges, or to try at least, or to go out with proposals.”
“Think for a moment about the major challenges you believe this country faces and tick them off in your mind and ask, ‘Are we making any real progress on any of them?'” he said.
The former governor, who failed to defeat President Obama in 2012 but remains a revered figure in Republican politics, didn’t hold back in admitting that Americans’ frustration with the political elite is the reason Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for president, have risen to such popularity.
“Certainly part of what is behind the energy and the passion for Donald Trump on the Republican side and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side is the frustration and anger people feel in this country,” he said, adding that the both candidates have convinced “the American public that they’re a least going to do something. They’re going to make something happen.”
Romney has not yet endorsed a GOP hopeful and said during his appearance at Babson that he would “want to see [a candidate’s] past taxes” before he chooses to back them.
“I’m involved now behind the scenes with a number of people who are running for president. And I did not anticipate endorsing but I probably will at some point,” he said, adding, “One thing I’ll mention is that before I would endorse somebody, I’d want to see their past taxes.”
“We’ve got Cruz, Rubio and Trump – haven’t released their tax returns. And I’d like to know, you know, have they paid taxes? How much money they made. So we haven’t seen that yet. I’d like to see that,” he said. “But as we go along here, as the field narrows, I may endorse but that’s not anything immediate.”
Romney’s stipulation comes as a bit of a surprise given his own reluctance, as the GOP nominee in 2012, to release two decades of detailed tax returns, or reveal his annual income prior to 2011. At the time, his refusal fueled speculation among Democrats, including President Obama, that perhaps he had exploited certain loopholes to avoid paying income taxes.
