Retiring Sen. Mitt Romney is eviscerating Democrats for hemorrhaging its working-class base and faulted staunch progressives and “woke scolds” for the exodus.
The outgoing Utah senator credited President-elect Donald Trump for remaking the GOP into the celebration of the working class and predicted that each events are heading for a recalibration of their insurance policies.
“Democrats pushed them out,” Romney, 77, informed CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“The Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren faction of the Democratic Party, with some of this defund the police … and biological males in women’s sports — these things had a lot of people in the working class just flee the Democrat Party.”
Final month, Trump, 78, grew to become the primary Republican to win the favored vote for the presidency in 20 years. The president-elect additionally notched essentially the most sturdy assist from minority voters of a Republican in a long time.
Many within the celebration’s progressive wing have faulted the Dems for shifting extra to the middle within the 2024 cycle and for not nominating populist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the usual bearer in 2016.
“One of the challenges in my party is that our policies do not necessarily line up with the interests of our voters. And so there’ll be some reorientation,” Romney stated of the GOP.
“The Democrat Party’s the one in trouble. I mean, I don’t know how they recover,” he went on. “They’ve lost their base — union guys and gals have left … the Democratic Party is seen not as rich people but as college professors and woke scolds.”
Vice President Kamala Harris had seemingly deserted lots of her lefty positions from the 2020 cycle akin to banning fracking, decriminalizing unlawful border crossings and Medicare for All.
She additionally labored to courtroom Republican voters by spotlighting assist from celebration turncoats like former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Finally, Trump swept all seven battleground states.
“The Democrats have badly misread the direction of the country and the attitude of the country,” he stated. “And President Trump took advantage of that, as well he should.”
Regardless of being a vocal critic of Trump, Romney acknowledged that “MAGA is the Republican Party” and predicted that Vice President-elect JD Vance is more than likely to win the GOP’s presidential nod in 2028.
The Beehive State senator shouldn’t be divulging whom he voted for in 2024, however he shunned making an endorsement within the 2024 cycle, hoping that staying out of it may protect a few of his sway on the celebration going ahead.
Again in 2016, Romney had written in his spouse, Ann, for president.
The previous 2012 GOP presidential nominee additionally prompt that Trump has a mandate heading into his subsequent administration.
“He won overwhelmingly. He said what he was going to do, and that’s what he’s doing,” Romney stated. “People are saying, oh, I don’t like this appointment or this policy that he’s talking about but those are the things he said he was going to do when he ran.”
Nonetheless, Romney admitted that Trump had tapped “an unusual collection of individuals” which might be actually “not the people I would have chosen.”
Anchor Jake Tapper introduced up how Trump has prompt members of the since-defunct Home Choose Jan. 6 Committee ought to go to jail in an interview that aired final week and has beforehand used language about focusing on different political rivals.
However regardless of their stark variations, Romney stated he’s not too anxious about Trump going after him.
“No, actually, I have been pretty clean throughout my life. I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations,” Romney replied when requested if he was frightened of being focused. “I don’t know how much, by the way, of what the president says is hyperbole.”
I feel President Trump is more likely to try to concentrate on the long run.”
Romney additionally mirrored on his legacy and predicted that regardless of Trump’s election victory, historical past may not decide him properly for his machinations main as much as the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
“I’m not sure history is written by winners in this case. Politics is written by — by winners. But the history books are typically written by scholars of one kind or another,” he stated. “I think attacking the Capitol … will be seen as being an abuse and a felony and being wrong.”
Romney introduced his retirement final 12 months however pressured that he’s “not retiring from the fight.” He will probably be succeeded within the higher chamber by Sen.-elect John Curtis (R-Utah).
“I don’t think history will remember Mitt Romney,” the outgoing senator mirrored on his legacy. “I want my family to remember me as someone who stood up for the things I believed, was not embarrassed by my fundamental beliefs, who loved the country, and did what I believed was right.”
