Mitt Romney slams Trump's continued efforts to dispute the presidential election results as 'sad' and 'embarrassing'
- Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump's continued efforts to deny and challenge his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
- Romney said Trump could have been heralding the success of the coronavirus vaccine distribution across the country, but has instead chosen to focus on overturning the election.
- "It's really sad and in a lot of respects embarrassing," he said. "He's leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their heads, wondering what in the world has gotten into this man."
Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump's continued efforts to deny and challenge his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, calling the actions "sad."
On CNN's "State of the Union," the Utah Republican and 2012 GOP presidential nominee responded to host Jake Tapper mentioning a report in The New York Times where Trump in a meeting last week entertained an idea from former national security advisor Michael Flynn to declare martial law over the election results.
"Well, it's not going to happen," Romney said. "That's going nowhere. I understand the president is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people."
Romney emphasized that the Trump administration could have been heralding the success of the coronavirus vaccine distribution across the country, but has instead chosen to focus on overturning the election.
"It's really sad and in a lot of respects embarrassing," he added. "He's leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their heads, wondering what in the world has gotten into this man."
Romney, a generally reliable vote for conservative priorities but with an independent streak, said Trump's imprint on the GOP will not fade once the president leaves office. However, he wants to see the party go back to its original principles.
"The party has taken a different course than the one I knew when I was a younger person," Romney said. "The party I knew was very concerned about Russia and [Vladimir] Putin and Kim Jong Un and North Korea. We were a party concerned about balancing the budget. We believed in trade with other nations. We were happy to play a leadership role on the world stage. We believed character was essential. We've strayed from that and I don't see us returning to that for a long time."
He added: "I think, ultimately, the Republican Party will return to the roots that have been formed over - well, the century. We'll get back at some point and, hopefully, people will recognize we need to take a different course than the one we are on right now."