[caption id=”attachment_117512″ align=”aligncenter” width=”821″] AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File
[/caption]
Mitt Romney is worried about the potential for infighting in the already-crowded field of Republican presidential candidates.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee sounded the alarm on the “harmful” attacks that can occur within a political party throughout primary season.
Romney was particularly responding to host Chuck Todd’s inquiry about a story in Politico last week claiming that Romney has teamed up with billionaire Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to make sure that a “mainstream conservative” emerges from the 2016 GOP primary without all the chaos that plagued Romney in 2012.
Their way of doing so will be to convince wealthy donors to work together, according to the report.
“What was the chaos of 2012 that you don’t want to see repeated for the Republican field in 2016?” the NBC News anchor wondered.
“That’s a comment I’ll make very broadly, which is I think it’s harmful in a process if you have Republicans attacking Republicans,” Romney responded. “And so I think it’s very effective if instead we can talk about the differences between our views to help people in the middle class and help the poor versus the views in our opposition, as opposed to going after one another.”
“And I’m not saying I was perfect in that regard either,” he added. “But going back to Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment, that kinda makes a lot of sense for our party.”
To avoid such chaos, Romney may even go so far as endorsing a candidate, telling reporters Friday at the E2 Summit, “There’s the possibility that there might be someone who emerges strong who I agree with on a whole host of issues, and then someone else comes along who I find not as attractive from a policy standpoint or another standpoint. And at that stage I might jump in and go to work to help the one who’s more in tune with the things I believe.”
With a wealth of candidates from across the political spectrum, the GOP presidential primary could certainly raise the specter of infighting. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul are already at each others’ throats on foreign policy, and Jeb Bush has endured multiple blows from various possible and confirmed contenders.
