Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) tore into former President Donald Trump, calling him an ineffective policy leader who accomplished very little for the Republican Party, during a press conference explaining his decision to retire without seeking a second term.
Romney, one of Trump's most outspoken Republican critics in the Senate and the only Republican senator to vote to convict the former president in both impeachment trials, announced that decision earlier today.
"Young people are not warming to the MAGA message," said Romney. "And I think that is true whether Donald Trump is there, there will be someone who follows in his footsteps and gives the same populist pattern. I don't think it will be successful long-term because I think young people are paying far more attention and are not going to be sucked into the populist notions, and so I think our party goes back to, if you will, the wise wing of the Republican Party as time goes on."
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"Do you think your party — Trump is leading — dominating in the polls right now," one reporter asked him. "Probably going to be your nominee. You're the outliner of the party. There is no signs that you're saying that the party will shift."
"I'm not talking about in the next two years," said Romney. "I'm talking over the next decade or so. I just — I mean, populism doesn't work. I quote that H.L. Mencken line, which is, 'To every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, clear, and wrong.' And unfortunately that is what we're hearing."
"And again, on the Trump wing of the party, I haven't heard policy other than saying, we're going to build a wall," Romney continued. "And by the way, he was president for four years and he built 50 miles. What did he get done? The tax change? That was Paul Ryan ... and he had a health care plan. Remember that? That was going — everybody was going to have low-cost health insurance. Never proposed, never saw. He was in four years. So it's not a policy-centric approach, and if you don't have policy to match your rhetoric, ultimately it's not going to be successful."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Mitt Romney slams Trump's policy record in retirement speechwww.youtube.com
