“I seem to remember a lot of people were involved with that.”
How many candidates or people who suggested they might become candidates dared to touch it?
Look who you had running at the time. An entirely liberal field of candidates each playing a role to Get Mitt to the throne.
The GOP edict was that it was off limits and they complied and enforced the ban trashing anyone daring speak the words.
Trump, in a fit of self promoting glory, rose up, deligitimized the issue further with his theatrics, wasting years of work by serious people and crawled back to silence when the preplanned fake BC was issued.