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West Valley, Utah (CNN)Mitt Romney said Saturday that he could not yet commit to supporting Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, making it clear that he intends to stake his claim as an independent voice for Utah. "I will make that decision down the road," Romney, who is running for US Senate, said in an interview with CNN as he waited for his turn to speak at the Utah GOP convention where he was vying for his party's nomination. "As a person of political experience, if I endorse someone, I'll want to know what's in it for Utah and what help...

Utah Senate hopeful Mitt Romney was narrowly defeated at Saturday’s state GOP convention and will be forced into a June primary, a setback in his political comeback bid.

Mitt Romney did not win the Utah Republican Party's nomination on Saturday, meaning he must compete in a June primary election as he seeks to replace retiring US Sen. Orrin Hatch. After a wild and raucous day of voting at the Utah GOP convention, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential nominee was unable to win the 60% that he needed to head to the November ballot unopposed. When none of the 12 candidates were able to cross that threshold, the party continued with successive rounds of caucus voting until one candidate reached 40%. On the second round of...

The United States government is preparing to charge SAC Capital, the multi-billion dollar hedge fund operated by the reclusive Wall Street trading legend Steven A. Cohen, with criminal charges, according to multiple reports. Manhattan-based federal prosecutors, working in conjunction with the FBI, are poised to move against the massive hedge fund as early as this week. On Wall Street, this type of criminal charge amounts to a death sentence, because few major clients would be willing to invest money with a firm under federal indictment. It’s possible that lawyers for Cohen, a secretive 57-year-old billionaire with lavish tastes in art...

Utah Senate hopeful Mitt Romney (R) said Thursday that he is setting his sights on the future, rather than looking back at his past criticism of President Trump. Speaking at a question-and-answer session in Sandy, Utah, on Thursday night, Romney said he was planning to "look forward" on his relationship with Trump, noting that the president has shifted on certain issues. "I look forward. I'm not going to look backward," Romney said, when asked by an audience member if he would criticize Trump in his Senate campaign like he did in a 2016 speech, according to the Deseret News.

Alex Castellanos, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney's campaign strategist, told ABC’s “This Week” it’s hard to believe that “Robert Mueller is not going to dig up something in Trump’s complicated financial history......”......a switch in Republicans’ fortune in Congress after November’s mid-term elections could bring dire consequences for the Trump presidency. “It’s hard to believe then that when Republicans lose the House in 2018, maybe by 40 or 50 seats, that the House is not going to impeach him,” Castellanos said. “And that a Senate that’s scared to death, but still be in Republican hands, is not going to take a...

Full Title: Right-Wing Pundit Ann Coulter: Trump Is A “Shallow, Lazy Ignoramus” — And Worse Yet, A Bust On Immigration Conservative pundit Ann Coulter provoked her customary amount of protest by appearing at a talk at Columbia University last night, though her message was a 180-degree shift from the one in her book In Trump We Trust. President Donald Trump’s performance thus far “kind of breaks my heart,” Coulter said. “He’s not giving us what he promised at every single campaign stop.” She added, “I knew he was a shallow, lazy ignoramus, and I didn’t care. … What I’m disappointed...

At a Q&A session Monday night, Senate candidate Mitt Romney defended his conservatism saying he's tougher on some issues — like immigration — than the president, reports the Utah Daily Herald: "I’m a deficit hawk. That makes me more conservative than a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. I’m also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president. My view was these DACA kids shouldn’t all be allowed to stay in the country legally." — Mitt Romney Background: Romney was pointing directly to President Trump's proposed plan that would have created a path to citizenship for...

Toys "R" Us is going out of business in the U.S. The iconic chain announced early Thursday that it's seeking bankruptcy court approval to start closing its 735 U.S. stores and liquidating their inventory. Some 33,000 employees will lose their jobs as a result. Toys "R" Us Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dave Brandon said in a statement, "I am very disappointed with the result, but we no longer have the financial support to continue the Company's U.S. operations."

President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign hired controversial research group Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a new book claims -- raising questions about Democrats’ possible long-standing ties to the group. Fusion GPS is the opposition research firm behind the “Trump dossier,” which contained what former FBI Director James Comey described as "salacious" and "unverified" allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump. The dossier cited Russian sources who said Russia had information that compromised Trump. The firm was retained by Marc Elias, an attorney representing both the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It...

A new book claims former President Barack Obama hired Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Romney Obama used law firm Perkins Coie to hide payment to Fusion GPS The Clinton campaign would later do the same thing to investigate Trump The Barack Obama presidential campaign hired Fusion GPS in 2012 to dig up dirt on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to a book released on Tuesday. The Obama campaign hid its payments to Fusion GPS through its law firm, Perkins Coie. The arrangement is similar to the one that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee used to...

ALT LAKE CITY — A new rule could kick out Mitt Romney and other candidates from their Utah Republican Party memberships. The Utah Republican Party is trying to decide who can be part of the organization. Under a new bylaw passed Saturday, Feb. 24, any Republican candidate who accepts signatures while on route to the primary election, will lose their party membership. Utahpolicy.com reports the central committee backed the change, while party chairman Rob Anderson opposed. The committee adopted one set of rules for the 1st and 2nd U.S House districts and a separate set of rules for the 3rd...

Starting in late 2017, Boeing executives discussed plans to conceal employee bonuses or cancel them altogether in order to keep President Trump from getting credit, following the passage of the Republican tax-reform bill. On a series of conference calls led by Boeing’s Senior Vice President of Communications Phil Musser, Musser proposed and lobbied for canceling bonuses out of fear that the company may contribute to President Trump’s rising approval rating. Before Musser worked as a high level Boeing’s communications staffer in Washington, his employment history included public and media relations work for Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential Campaign and The Freedom...

SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney became the instant front-runner when he announced his U.S. Senate campaign last week, as a new poll shows him with a commanding lead four days into the race. A Utahpolicy.com poll released Tuesday shows 60 percent of Utahns would vote for the former Massachusetts governor among declared and possible candidates for the office. Only Democratic Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson polled in double digits, with a meager 14 percent. Libertarian Craig Bowden and Rep. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, who has not entered the race, fared the best among the rest at 3 percent and...

"Well you know when I came back from Vietnam I just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get...." Governor George Romney-"Lou Gordon Show"-September 1967 "@Mitt Romney has announced he is running for Senate from the wonderful state of Utah. He will make a great successor and worthy successor to @Orrin Hatch and has my full support and endorsement" President Donald J. Trump endorsement of Mitt Romney on Twitter-2/19/2018 ".....There may want to be a lot of people out there that want, want to drink the Trump Kool Aid and to be honest with you I want to drink it,...

Mitt’s back. The former governor of Massachusetts and occasional native son of Michigan has a new persona: Mr. Utah. He’s going to bring Utah conservatism to the whole Republican party and to the country at large. Wholesome, efficient, industrious, faithful. “Utah has a lot to teach the politicians in Washington,” he says in announcing his Senate campaign. Maybe.

@MittRomney has announced he is running for the Senate from the wonderful State of Utah. He will make a great Senator and worthy successor to @OrrinHatch, and has my full support and endorsement! 9:21 PM - 19 Feb 2018

WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell said in an interview on Friday afternoon that President Trump should rally behind the Senate candidacy of Mitt Romney despite his blistering criticism in 2016, arguing that Mr. Romney’s potent bid was an illustration of the Republican Party’s improving fortunes entering a challenging midterm campaign. “I can’t imagine that he’s not,” Mr. McConnell said when asked whether Mr. Trump was comfortable with Mr. Romney, who on Friday made official his long-expected candidacy for a Senate seat from Utah. “We don’t want to lose the seat, and this looks like a pretty formidable candidate.” Mr. McConnell,...

Mitt Romney, after announcing his Republican bid for Senate in Utah, called for “action” following the Florida high school shooting that left 17 dead. Romney called the shooting “senseless, debased evil.” “I think we can’t just sit and wait and hope for things to get better,” the former GOP presidential candidate said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. “It is wrong and unacceptable for children in our schools to fear for their lives.”

In more ways than one, followers of traditional Republican orthodoxy are facing an emotional inflection point this week. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), at home battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, will not attend this weekend’s Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of foreign policy leaders from NATO nations that has become a central clearinghouse for global security matters and a celebration of Western values and democratic institutions. McCain, an avatar of all of the above, has been a regular attendee for decades. Last year, less than a month after President Trump took office, he stole the show with a...