WASHINGTON – A day after unleashing a brutal assau📖lt on Donald Trump’s character and fitness for offiꦡce, Mitt Romney denied he wants to become the GOP presidential nominee instead.
“I’m not running for president and I won’t run for president,”
“The people who can save this party are Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or John Kasich,” Romney said, listing Trump’s three remaining rivals.
Romney readily conceded that he’s out to prevent Trump from winning a majority of delegates in the primaries, so that Republicans can replace him as their nominee at their convention in July.
“Ther𒆙e’s no question I’m going ꧒to do everything within the normal political bounds to make sure that we don’t nominate Donald Trump,” Romney said, calling Trump “terribly unfit for office.”
Romney gave his interview the day after Trump belittled Romney’s attempted takedown of the front-runner.
Trump said Thursday Romney was “begging” for his endorsement in 2012, when he was thᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ꧅ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe GOP nominee but lost to President Obama.
Asked whether he begged, Romney reജsponded, “I was welcoming his endorsement, I was happy to have it.”
Shown footage of himself praising Trump in 2012, Romney said, “There are a lot of folks who endorsed me that I would not want to see as president.”
He defended🔯 his decision to speak out so late in the process — after Trump has rolled through early states and has a chance to lock up the nomination on March 15 with wins in Florida and Ohio.
“Youꦛ get to the point where your grandkids are going to say to you, ‘Papa, what did you do to stop Donald Trump?’ And I had to finally get out and speak,” he ꧂said.
He s﷽aid he woul♛d likely endorse after the March 15 primaries.
“I’m going to be supporting that person and doing everything I can to make sure they become the nominee of the party,” he said.
Trump, meanwhile, opened up another searing♛ attack on Rubio at a rally in Michigan. “You know that in Florida, they hate little Marco Rubio so much because of the fact that he never votes, he never shows up to vote,” Trump said to cheers.