NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity signaled Thursday that 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was out of line in his attack against Donald Trump.
At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, Hannity said that Romney’s speech, which took place earlier in the day, was harsher on Trump than Romney ever was against President Obama during the last election.
“I am worried about what I heard from somebody that I liked a lot,” Hannity said at the conference, the largest annual gathering of conservatives. “I did not like what I heard.”
Hannity appealed for conservatives and Republican voters to unite behind whoever the party’s nominee is because “any one of them are better than [presumptive Democratic nominee] Hillary Clinton.”
“I wish he would have been as strong against Barack Hussein Obama as he was today [against Trump],” Hannity said.
During his speech in Utah, Romney railed against Trump, who is this year’s front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination despite intense opposition from longtime Republican officials and much of the news media.
Romney said that picking Trump as the nominee would doom Republicans and reduce the U.S. prosperity in the future.
“Let me put in very plainly,” Romney said at the University of Utah. “If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished.”
Trump responded after Romney’s speech by questioning why the former GOP presidential nominee “begged” for his endorsement in 2012.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the conference on Saturday.
