Romney: I Won't Run for Prez Unless Godzilla Intervenes

But he describes Trump as a 'failure of character'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 23, 2023 7:50 PM CDT
Romney: I Won't Run for Prez Unless Godzilla Intervenes
Sen. Mitt Romney departs a classified briefing for senators on Israel and Gaza at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.   (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Sen. Mitt Romney is no fan of former President Trump but he doesn't plan on challenging the GOP frontrunner for the presidential nomination, except under what would be truly unprecedented circumstances. "Perhaps if Godzilla comes in and removes all the other candidates and so forth," the 76-year-old joked in a CBS News interview that aired Sunday. "But other than Godzilla stepping in, no, I'm not running for president. Not giving it any thought." Romney, the GOP's 2012 nominee, announced last month that he wouldn't seek re-election to the Senate, saying it was "time for a new generation of leaders."

Romney described Trump as a "failure of character, which is changing, I think in many respects, the psyche of our nation and the heart of our nation." He told Norah O'Donnell that he feels he no longer has a home in the Republican Party. "I come from a tradition of, you know, Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush and John McCain. Those are the people that have shaped our party: anti-Putin, anti-Russia, anti-authoritarians, anti-Kim Jong Un," he said.

"Character counts, that the character of our leaders makes a difference and it shapes the character of our country. That's the party I've come from. And I don't recognize that in the great majority of our party today," said Romney. A new Romney biography will be released Tuesday. McKay Coppins' Romney: A Reckoning claims that Oprah Winfrey called Romney to suggest a joint White House bid in 2020, though a Winfrey spokesperson says that's not the real story. (More Mitt Romney stories.)

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