Mitt Romney Gives Republicans Urgent 2024 Warning About Trump After Verdict

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) urged his party to move on from Donald Trump hours after a civil jury found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

I hope the jury of the American people reach the same conclusion about Donald Trump, Romney told CNN. He just is not suited to be president of the United States and to be the person who we hold up to our children and the world as the leader of the free world.

At some point when the people who work with you, your cabinet secretaries, and juries conclude that youve done something severely wrong, its time for us to recognize that the great majority of those whove worked with him are right and hes wrong, he added.

Mitt Romney on Donald Trump:

\"He just is not suited to be president of the United States.\" pic.twitter.com/47itHxZxF1

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Mitt Romney on Donald Trump:

"He just is not suited to be president of the United States." pic.twitter.com/47itHxZxF1
Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) May 10, 2023

Trump is currently the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president in next years election.

Not all of Romneys Republican colleagues share his view, with multiple GOP lawmakers defending Trump even after the jury ruled in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll, who said Trump raped her in a department store in the 1990s.

The jury found him liable not for rape, but sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million in total damages.

In 2016, Romney delivered a speech warning the party to turn away from Trump, whom he called a phony and a fraud. Hes playing the American public for suckers, he said.

When Trump won, Romney infamously had dinner with him , reportedly in hopes of securing the coveted secretary of state gig. He did not get it, but eventually won election in Utah for the Senate, where he has consistently criticized Trump.

Trump has also attacked Romney. In 2016, he slammed him as one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics.

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Romney warned in 2021 that Trump would likely be the Republican nominee should he run again but said he wouldnt be voting for the former president.

I would not be voting for President Trump again. I havent voted for him in the past, Romney said at the time. I would probably be getting behind somebody who I thought more represented the tiny wing of the Republican Party that I represent.