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Donald Trump continues to stand by controversial comments he made about Mexican immigrants as his standings in Republican primary polls improve despite increasing criticism. The presidential hopeful placed ahead of perceived front-runner Jeb Bush in a new aggregated 'poll of polls' with 13.6 per cent support compared to the former Florida governor's 13.3. The rise comes as public figures and businesses continue to admonish Trump because of the comments saying that those crossing the border from Mexico illegally were 'rapists'. Former Republican candidate Mitt Romney told CNN Saturday that the businessman 'made a severe error in saying what he did...

WOLFEBORO, New Hampshire (CNN) —Mitt Romney said Saturday that Donald Trump's comments on Mexico and undocumented immigrants have hurt the Republican Party, making the 2012 presidential nominee the latest Republican to slam the billionaire over his controversial remarks.

Mitt Romney, you're an honorable and accomplished man. You would have been a good president and infinitely better than Obama as a steward of the economy and national security. But, Mitt, we need to talk. You don't get it. You don't really get the basic proposition that freedom works better than government by experts. Sure you believe the concept generally, but there are all those details and exceptions. You hired Jonathan Gruber to guide your health plan. You believe global schemes to reduce carbon will help the climate rather than enrich and empower global elites. You endorsed raising the minimum...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wants failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney to get off the stage as Romney, the career candidate, seriously considers a third run White House run.

SAN DIEGO — Mitt Romney's unexpected step into the 2016 presidential contest is drawing enthusiasm from the GOP's most passionate conservatives. But not because they want him to win. For the first time in recent memory, prominent conservatives see a Republican presidential field that could have as much competition among the party's establishment-minded prospects — like Romney — as its fiery conservatives....

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took a swipe at Mitt Romney on Monday, saying that Republicans’ path to the presidency doesn’t cut through “the mushy middle.”

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, said Sunday that there are "more productive ways" to fight President Obama's immigration executive actions than shutting down the government. Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Romney was asked about the possibility of shutting down the government to fight the actions. "Well, I think there's got to be more productive ways for us to be able to impress on the president the need to work for a permanent solution, as opposed to a temporary stop-gap solution," Romney replied. Obama should allow Congress a chance to pass legislation on immigration, Romney said. "Let those...

-SNIP- Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee and now the tacit head of the Republican Party, visited Iowa as part of a feverish nationwide tour designed to help the GOP take control of the Senate. -SNIP- Romney is grappling with this question: If drafted, would he answer the party’s call? -SNIP- Former aides and senior Republicans say Romney appreciates the GOP masses crowing that he was right about issues such as Russia and health care. But what really intrigues him, they said, are the vulnerabilities among top-tier candidates in the Republican field. If Romney moves toward a race, it would...

<p>Mitt Romney has a reputation for being somewhat robotic, but in his recent appearances on the campaign trail he seems to have added humor to his arsenal. According to a National Journal report, Romney launched a zinger at President Barack Obama while campaigning for GOP Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst on Sunday.</p>

Mitt Romney is a great person and a decent politician, but he also embodies the deepest problems in the Republican Party. He shouldn't run for president. Republicans, if they want to control Congress or win the White House, need to become a Party of the People. Romney may be the worst possible man to take the GOP in that direction. Romney’s most telling moment in 2012 was when he told a crowd of rich donors that the 47 percent of the country that “pay no income tax” are unwinnable for Republicans, because they “are dependent upon government,” and “I'll never...

Scout’s honor: Not until today, having read the words of the man himself, have I sincerely believed he might run again. The RomneyWatch™ posts are fun to write but not because Mitt 2016 was a real thing — I thought. They were fun because it wasn’t a real thing. It was a way to collectively pretend-scare ourselves, like playing with a ouija board. Now, suddenly, I look down and the planchette is moving by itself. And it spells M-I-T-T. A recent column by the conservative pundit Byron York noted that Romney had kept in close contact with many of his...

In recent days and weeks there has been renewed speculation that Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president will again be a candidate in 2016. There has been some talk about this for months, but it has grown louder in recent days. Yesterday, The Washington Post described Mr. Romney’s evolving potential candidacy as “The road from ‘I’m not doing it again’ to ‘Circumstances can change’ is paved with favorable polls, 2012 predictions that came true and public statements from supporters.” Last week in an article titled “Romney 2016 is Real,” The Washington Examiner wrote “Romney is talking with advisers,...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may take another run at the White House, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer said. "I have a source that told me that if Jeb Bush decides not to run, that Mitt Romney may actually try it again," Schieffer said during a panel discussion on the CBS Sunday morning news show.

Republican establishment strategist Mike Murphy, who is close to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Mitt Romney and favors candidates like them, slammed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), saying he would be a disaster in a general election like George McGovern was for Democrats in 1972. Murphy told National Review that though Cruz may win the nomination if he chooses to run because he appeals so strongly to conservatives, but he would not win a general election. In Murphy's eyes, conservatives that support Cruz are not "regular Republicans" like McCain and Romney, both of whom lost general elections. [Snip] During the 2012...

Mitt Romney on Tuesday warned congressional Republicans against shutting down the government in an attempt to defund ObamaCare. “I badly want ObamaCare to go away, and stripping it of funds has appeal,” Romney said at a fundraiser in New Hampshire for the state’s Republican Party, according to prepared remarks. “But we need to exercise great care about any talk of shutting down government. What would come next when soldiers aren't paid, when seniors fear for their Medicare and Social Security, and when the FBI is off duty?” Speaking at the event in Wolfeboro, just miles from his summer vacation home,...

Had someone like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush entered the 2012 Republican primary, Mitt Romney says he might not have entered the presidential race. In an interview with Dan Balz for the Washington Post reporter’s soon-to-be released “Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America,” Romney said that he would have seriously considered staying out of the presidential race if someone of Bush’s caliber declared his candidacy. “I knew how grueling the process was, and I felt that there may be others who could be more effective in actually winning and then getting America on course,”...

Mitt Romney officially announced his candidacy for president in June 2011. But during the spring of that year, Romney considered scrapping his campaign altogether, as detailed in a soon-to-be-released book about the 2012 presidential campaign by The Washington Post’s Dan Balz. -SNIP- Romney confirmed after the election that he called his son one morning to tell him he thought he wasn’t going to run. “I recognized that by virtue of the realities of my circumstances, there were some drawbacks to my candidacy for a lot of Republican voters,” he told Balz in January. “One, because I had a health...

Romney said his Bay State health reforms weren’t necessarily suited to other states. Few listened. By Avik Roy During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney maintained that the health-reform law he signed in Massachusetts was not the same as Obamacare. “Our plan was a state solution to a state problem,” Governor Romney insisted. He was trying to fix Massachusetts’ uniquely broken insurance market, he said; Obamacare, by contrast, was a “a power grab . . . a one-size-fits-all plan.” Nobody took him seriously — not conservatives, and not liberals. But today, as the nation braces for health insurance “rate shock,”...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would have won the presidency if the white and black turnout rates had stayed at their 2004 levels, according to a new analysis of 2012 election. “The battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and Colorado would have tipped in favor of Romney, handing him the presidency if the outcome of other states remained the same,” according to The Associated Press’s summary of research by William Frey, an expert at the Brookings Institution. Overall turnout declined from 62 percent in 2008 to 58 percent in 2012, Frey reported. The drop-off reduced the overall turnout by...

Liberals don't want to jinx it. It terrifies the right. And the press would prefer a nail-biter. But the fact is that finding Romney's path to victory is getting harder every day. There's a secret lurking behind everything you're reading about the upcoming election, a secret that all political insiders know—or should—but few are talking about, most likely because it takes the drama out of the whole business. The secret is the electoral college, and the fact is that the more you look at it, the more you come to conclude that Mitt Romney has to draw an inside straight...