Mitt Romney Unloads on Prominent Republicans, Calls ‘Frightening’ Ted Cruz ‘A Demagogue’
AP Photo/The Idaho Statesman, Kyle Green, KTVB 7
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) took many of his fellow Republicans to task when speaking to his biographer McKay Coppins during some 45 interviews conducted over two years.
Some of Romney’s unfiltered, unvarnished thoughts were published in mid-September in an exclusive excerpt from the book in The Atlantic. That excerpt included Romney tearing into Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), stating “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more.”
He also went after former Vice President Mike Pence.
“No one had been more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly, than Mike Pence,” Romney was quoted as saying.
On Thursday, Politico’s Playbook printed some more gems from the Utah senator and former GOP nominee for president.
Coppins recorded what Politico called “Romneyisms” and published them in an “exclusive preview.”
“There’s just no warmth at all,” Romney is quoted saying about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). Playbook added:
On DeSantis posing for selfies with Iowa voters: “He looks like he’s got a toothache.” More: “He’s much smarter than Trump … You might point out, “Mitt, DeSantis is real smart — do you want an authoritarian who’s smart or one who’s not smart?” … I realize there’s a peril to having someone who’s smart and pulling in a direction that’s dangerous.”
Romney also went off on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, calling him, “A smug know-it-all, smarmy, and too pleased with himself.”
He referred to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as “Frightening,” “scary,” and “a demagogue.”
Playbook also quotes Romney calling former Arkansas governor on presidential candidate Mike Huckabee a “huckster,” a “caricature of a for-profit preacher. He blasted former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal as a “twit” and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) as “Sanctimonious, severe and strange.”
“Republicans must realize that we have to have someone who can complete a sentence,” Romney said of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who he also ran against for president.
And finally, Romney slammed former Ohio Gov. John Kasich over his “Lack of thoughtfulness, lack of attentiveness, ego. No wonder he and Chris [Christie] spark.”
Romney over the summer urged the Republican Party not to make the same mistakes that Kasich, Cruz, and Christie made during the 2016 GOP primary and instead to rally around one alternative to Donald Trump who can then win enough votes to stop him from becoming the nominee in 2024.
