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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...

Mitt Romney will launch his Utah Senate campaign Thursday morning with a low key announcement on social media, and will make his first public appearance a day later near Salt Lake City with a keynote address to a gathering of grassroots Republicans.

The Senate Republican leadership would like to make Mitt Romney the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) if elected to the Senate, according to Republican donor sources. The Atlantic reported last Friday that according to a Republican donor with direct knowledge of the discussions, the Senate Republican leadership expressed interest in making Romney the next leader of the NRSC. Romney would replace current chair Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO). The NRSC chairman plays an influential role in fundraising and recruiting future Senate Republican candidates.

One Republican consultant connected to the White House told Business Insider he thinks Romney's move after being elected is pretty clear: succeed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as the GOP leader after 2020. "If anything, it's Romney setting himself up to replace Mitch McConnell," the consultant said. Romney would enter the body with much more clout than his Republican colleagues, including Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota, both possible contenders for the leadership position. And, he added, McConnell, who has the lowest approval rating in the Senate, may decide not to put himself through what...

As Mitt Romney considers whether to run for an open US Senate seat in Utah, the person who can most influence him is encouraging him to get into the race: his wife, Ann. Ann Romney — a confidante for nearly all of Romney’s adult life and frequent catalyst for his political ambitions — is fully supporting a campaign for Senate, another strong indicator he will run, according to four people close to the Romneys. Her own battle with multiple sclerosis is not a major factor, with all signs indicating that her health remains strong, the people said.

Well, 2018 brought us some Senate news for the upcoming midterm elections. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) decided to not run for an eighth term in the Senate. The road is clear for Mitt Romney who is a heavy favorite to replace Hatch. Also, how will the Trump White House feel about a vocal Never Trump politician catching a second wind in public life? Yet, for now, it’s what if Romney runs, he hasn’t made it official yet. If he does, he’s pretty much guaranteed to win the election. As we all speculate, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign staff sort of blew...

With Sen. John McCain in the twilight of his career, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee sees a coming void in the Trump era. As he's expressed his desire to join the U.S. Senate, Mitt Romney has privately revealed that a driving purpose of his service would be to emulate a former rival and fellow foiled Republican presidential nominee: Sen. John McCain. "There's got to be somebody who can stand up to the president," Romney told members of the Utah congressional delegation in recent weeks, according to a person with knowledge of his comments. "Who's going to stand up to Trump?"

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"Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. Leigh Corfman and other victims are courageous heroes. No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity," Romney tweeted Monday in reference to the women who have come forward accusing Moore of sexual assault and harassment....."

He’s not saying Moore should go “if” the sexual assault allegations are true. He’s telling him to get out now. Mitt Romney called on Roy Moore to step aside from the Alabama Senate race Friday, becoming one of the only Republican politicians to say, unequivocally, that Moore should go in light of accusations that he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. (TWEET-AT-LINK) On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that four women said Moore pursued them when he was in his 30s and they were between the ages of 14 and 18. The most serious case involves Leigh Corfman, who was 14...

Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to run for Senate in 2018 if Sen. Orrin Hatch decides to retire. Sources close to Romney say the two-time presidential candidate will jump into the 2018 Utah Senate scrum if Hatch opts not to. So far, Hatch has not made up his mind as to whether he'll run for an eighth term in 2018. He has previously said he was planning on running as long as his and his wife's health holds up. Dave Hansen, a longtime political advisor to Hatch, told UtahPolicy.com last month that he didn't...

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, has excoriated President Trump for his equivocating response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and urged him to apologize or risk subjecting the country to “an unraveling of our national fabric.”

"Taking A Mitt" Romney wrote:Having created a natl inflection point of consequence, POTUS must apologize & repudiate the racists. Full statement: 6:12 AM - 18 Aug 2017https://www.facebook.com/mittromney/posts/10154652303536121

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has asked President Trump to apologize for his handling of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA last weekend. JUST IN: Mitt Romney says President Trump should apologize for his statements on Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/sRVuDfJwuP — NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 18, 2017 Other top Republicans share Romney's sentiments. House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted his disappointment in Trump's "moral ambiguity," while Sens. Marco Rubio (FL) and Tim Scott (SC) said condemning the real culprits should have been a no brainer.

Washington • Just days after launching a new political action committee, former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden will join Republican officials and donors at a weekend retreat hosted by former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield confirmed Biden's attendance Monday ahead of the three-day conference, which starts Thursday. "Biden is attending because he believes in bipartisanship and the importance of keeping good lines of communication open across the aisle," she said.

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney revealed Friday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged him to think about being President Trump's secretary of State. Romney, who is also the former governor of Massachusetts, made the comments at his annual political summit in Park City, Utah. While he was a vocal Trump critic during the presidential campaign, Romney was under consideration to be Trump’s secretary of State before Trump picked Rex Tillerson, who was then serving as CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp. Romney said he would have been willing to serve as the country’s top diplomat if Trump offered...

Former Governor Romney was one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics during the election. He assisted his opponents and was essentially working to get Hillary Clinton elected. Donald Trump met with Mitt Romney in New Jersey last week. Sources said he was interviewing for the Secretary of State position with the Trump administration. Trump supporters HATE the idea. Now this… Transition Team sources told Ed Henry from FOX News that Mitt Romney is preparing a public apology. Mitt Romney is reportedly very interested in the Secretary of State job.

The Wall Street Journal recently posted that Mitt Romney is emerging as the leading candidate to be Secretary of State in the Trump administration. Obviously we all know Romney is the poster child for GOPe, and that for whatever reason he threw his debates against Obama in 2012. Personally, I would like to see him lead a task force to eliminate vast numbers of Federal regulations, but it is not up to me. In this thread I am concerned with Foreign Policy and nothing else. Where can we expect Romney to differ from what we expect from President Trump on...

Say what you will about Donny Deutsch, but the man-about-Manhattan and the Hamptons moves in the Trump social circle and is well-connected there. So attention must be paid to Deutsch’s declaration on today’s With All Due Respect. Asked by Mark Halperin whether the talk about Romney being considered for Secretary of State is “real, whether Romney might end up with the job,” Deutsch responded: “somebody very, very, very high up in the inner [Trump] circle yesterday told me it was very, very real,” and that this person was “very excited about it.” View the video here.

Several of the Republican Party’s most generous donors called on the Republican National Committee on Thursday to disavow Donald J. Trump, saying that allegations by multiple women that Mr. Trump had groped or made inappropriate sexual advances toward them threatened to inflict lasting damage on the party’s image. To an elite group of Republican contributors who have donated millions of dollars to the party’s candidates and committees in recent years, the cascade of revelations related to Mr. Trump’s sexual conduct is grounds for the committee to cut ties with the party’s beleaguered standard-bearer, finally and fully. “At some point, you...