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Last year, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was serious about making one last bid for the White House. Only after realizing that Jeb Bush had already secured pledges from most of the top Republican donors did he decide to sit out the 2016 election. Of course, as it turned out, Bush – even with a reported $100 million war chest – could barely make a blip on the electoral radar. In the year of Donald Trump, the former Florida governor was just another victim. Since then, Romney has become one of Trump’s biggest and most outspoken detractors. When the primary...

Mitt Romney blasted the Republican Party on Saturday for not doing more to stop presumptive nominee Donald Trump, saying that the prospects for the party are bleak. During a discussion in Park City, Utah, where Romney is hosting his annual conservative summit, the 2012 presidential nominee singled out Trump’s former rivals Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), the last two candidates to drop out of the race against Trump. "Ted Cruz was basically praising Donald Trump through the whole process," Romney told discussion host and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. And Kasich “was in well after the time...

Park City, Utah (CNN) — Mitt Romney suggested Friday that Donald Trump's election could legitimize racism and misogyny, ushering in a change in the moral fabric of American society. The 2012 Republican nominee, who has openly opposed Trump's candidacy, went further than he has before in outlining to CNN's Wolf Blitzer how the country's character would suffer in a Trump White House. Trump's rhetoric has caused even some other Republicans to label him a racist, and Romney said he would not be able to paper over his incendiary remarks. "I don't want to see trickle-down racism" Romney said in an...

(CNN)One year ago the question hovering over Park City, Utah, was which presidential candidate could capture the hearts of Mitt Romney's friends. Less than a week later, Donald Trump said he was running for president and made them his enemy. And he beat them. Now, with Trump as the GOP nominee, those same Republican fundraisers, business titans and longtime friends of Romney are back to huddle far from Trump Tower. Attendees caution that Romney's annual summit -- The Experts and Enthusiasts, or E2, retreat -- is not an exclusive conclave for the #NeverTrump movement. Yet it is the closest thing...

The Weekly Standard published “An Open Letter to Mitt Romney” on Tuesday night, begging the former Republican presidential nominee to launch a third-party bid. “[T]hese are extraordinary times, and your nation still has need of your service. I respectfully implore you to run for president as an independent candidate in 2016,” Jay Cost wrote. Cost slams presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s “Nixonian paranoia” of “enemies” and calls her Republican counterpart, Donald Trump, “a sympathizer with the nativist ‘alt-right.’ ” “They do not see Americans as Americans,” the letter continues. “They see each of us as potential allies or foes,...

Mitt Romney ends recruiting efforts for an independent candidate By Eric Bradner and Jim Acosta, CNN Updated 3:01 PM ET, Wed May 18, 2016 Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney won't launch a third-party presidential campaign of his own and has stopped trying to recruit somebody else to do it. The 2012 Republican nominee had attempted to recruit a challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But prospects like Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said no, and Romney is now dropping his efforts, a source familiar with Romney's thinking told CNN. The news was first reported by Yahoo News.

This is the craziest presidential election I’ve ever seen. Voters on both sides of the aisle are rebelling against their party establishment. Donald Trump who has never before run for office is the presumptive GOP nominee. And Bernie Sanders, a 74-year old Socialist, continues to give Hillary a run for her money, generating 100% of the enthusiasm on the Democrat side. There’s something else brand new about this election – the role of last election’s loser. I thought the role of a Presidential election loser that doesn’t hold any other elective office is to slither away into hiding somewhere and...

Mitt Romney made an unsuccessful effort to recruit Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse as a third-party presidential candidate to challenge Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a source with knowledge of the efforts confirmed to CNN Sunday. Sasse, the freshman Republican, has emerged as one of Trump's foremost critics from the right. Romney and Sasse have talked, the source said, and Romney encouraged Sasse to seriously consider a run... But Sasse is refusing to enter the race... At the Nebraska GOP convention, Sasse was rebuked through a resolution that was overwhelmingly approved by Republicans there who argued that his position would only...

Trucated title. Full title: Mitt Romney met privately with William Kristol, who is leading the effort to draft an independent candidate In spite of his insistence that he will not run, Mitt Romney is being courted this week by a leading conservative commentator to reconsider and jump into the volatile 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate. William Kristol, the longtime editor of the Weekly Standard magazine and a leading voice on the right, met privately with the 2012 nominee on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of launching an independent bid, potentially with Romney as its standard-bearer. “He came...

Don't expect to see Mitt Romney at the Republican Party's national convention this summer. An aide to the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee confirms that Romney isn't planning to attend the convention where Donald Trump is expected to become the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nominee. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney will vote for Texas Senator Ted Cruz, saying he is "repulsed" by Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Mr Romney said in a Facebook post that the only way to nominate a Republican is to have an open convention, in which party officials choose the nominee. He campaigned with Governor John Kasich in Ohio but said voting for Mr Cruz is the only way to stop "Trumpism". -snip- "Mitt Romney is a mixed up man who doesn't have a clue. No wonder he lost!" Mr Trump said on Twitter. -snip- "Today, there is a contest between Trumpism...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) isn't backing off the tough rhetoric he's used to describe the Iran nuclear deal, despite criticism leveled by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Thursday. -snip- Cruz, 2016 presidential candidate, fired back at Romney in a Thursday radio interview with KFYO's Chad Hasty. "So Mitt Romney's tweet today said, 'Gosh, this rhetoric is not helpful,'" Cruz said. "John Adams famously said, 'Facts are stubborn things.' Describing the actual facts is not using rhetoric; it is called speaking the truth." The senator recalled what he described as a critical moment during the 2012 presidential race: A...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Thursday that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's rhetoric on Iran "hurts the cause." "I am opposed to the Iran deal, but @SenTedCruz is way over the line on the Obama terrorism charge. Hurts the cause," Romney, acting in his emerging role as party elder, tweeted Thursday. -snip- Cruz fired back at Romney on Thursday afternoon during an interview on the Chad Hasty radio show, in a clip flagged by Democratic rapid response group American Bridge 21st century. "When you send billions of dollars to Jihadists trying to kill Americans, you bear responsibility for the...

residential candidate and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) hasn't abandoned his take-no-prisoners approach to politics after all. Cruz — who called former presidential candidate Mitt Romney "honorable" and "experienced" in his New York Times-best selling book — privately described Romney as the worst possible candidate during an event earlier this year, according to the National Journal on Friday. While giving a speech in May for the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of top conservative donors and activists, Cruz said Romney was the worst candidate the GOP could have nominated in 2012 because of his record on healthcare reform. -snip-...

Sen.-elect Ted Cruz believes Mitt Romney got a little too close to Barack Obama in the third presidential debate. “I’m pretty certain Mitt Romney actually French-kissed Barack Obama,” Cruz said in a speech at the Federalist Society’s annual conference Friday.

Donald Trump has launched a late TV ad blitz in Utah that targets Ted Cruz just days before state Republicans caucus Tuesday. The commercial recycles a now familiar Trump attack against the Texas senator, dubbing him "Lying Ted Cruz." The spot casts Cruz as inconsistent on immigration, an issue that both Trump and the senator have made central to their campaigns. It spotlights an interview Cruz gave on Fox News in December, when he was shown past statements in which he appeared to back a pathway to citizenship for those living in the United States illegally. In the interview, Cruz...

Ted Cruz, the high-octane conservative U.S. senator from Texas, made the case Friday night in Phoenix that he provides the only viable alternative to GOP front-runner Donald Trump. -snip- "There's no good reason (for Kasich to stay in the race)," Cruz said during a question-and-answer session with conservative TV and radio commentator Sean Hannity that was carried live on the Fox News Channel. "He is essentially the spoiler. A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump." Cruz's dig at Kasich, made just a few days before Tuesday's winner-take-all Arizona presidential preference election, prompted a Twitter response from...

Ted Cruz openly welcomed the backing of Mitt Romney on Friday afternoon, telling reporters at a press conference on the Arizona-Mexico border that Romney's decision is "pretty darn good." "Listen, in my book, when someone says I'm voting for you and I encourage everyone else to vote for you, that's pretty darn good," Cruz said, also responding to the absence of an official endorsement by the GOP's 2012 nominee. "And I'll take that - and take that happily."

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is reminding voters that before Mitt Romney was voting for Ted Cruz, he was campaigning for Kasich. Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, announced Friday that he will be voting for Cruz in Utah’s caucuses this week. But a new ad by Kasich shows Romney supporting the Ohio governor at campaign events last week. “Unlike the other people running, he has a real track record. If you want to see that balanced budget, if you want to get rid of ObamaCare, we’ve got to turn out and make sure we send a signal loud and...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney campaigned with Ohio Gov. John Kasich at two stops in the Buckeye State. “This is the guy that Ohio needs to vote for. America is counting on you,” Romney said at a town-hall forum in North Canton. Romney did not officially endorse Kasich, but it is the first time he campaigned for a candidate during the GOP primary. The former Massachusetts governor also recorded robocalls for Kasich, something Florida Sen. Marco Rubio received as well.