‘I don’t know how they’ll recover’

Retired Senator Mitt Romney Is dismissing the Democrats for harming his working class base and blaming radical progressives and “scolding” them for the exodus.

Credited to the outgoing Utah senator newly elected president donald trump to transform the GOP into the party of the working class and predicted that both parties would be moving toward reevaluating their policies.

“The Democrats took him out,” Romney, 77, said. CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.,

“The Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren faction of the Democratic Party, some of them defunding the police… and putting biological males in women’s sports – these are the things that caused a lot of working class people to flee the Democrat Party.”

Last month, 78-year-old Trump became the first Republican win the popular vote To the presidency in two decades. The president-elect also received the strongest support from minority voters for a Republican in decades.

Many in the progressive wing of the party have faulted Dems for shifting more to the center in the 2024 cycle and for not nominating populist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as the standard bearer in 2016.

“One of the challenges in my party is that our policies are not necessarily in line with the interests of our voters. And so there will be some reorientation,” Romney said of the GOP.

“The Democrat Party is in trouble. I mean, I don’t know how they heal,” he added. “They’ve lost their base – the union guys and girls are gone … The Democratic Party is seen not as rich people but as college professors and woke people.”

Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have abandoned many of her leftist positions from the 2020 cycle, such as banning fracking, illegal border crossings and gutting Medicare for All.

He also worked to woo Republican voters by highlighting the support of party turncoats such as former Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo). At the end, Trump wins all seven battleground states,

“Democrats have badly misjudged the direction of the country and the attitude of the country,” he said, “and President Trump took advantage of that, and he should.”

Despite being a vocal critic of Trump, Romney acknowledged that “MAGA is the Republican Party” and predicted that Vice President-elect J.D. Vance would be the most likely to win the GOP presidential nod in 2028.

The Beehive State senator isn’t saying who he voted for in 2024, but he avoided endorsing the 2024 cycle. hopefully it will last Due to this, he may retain some influence on the party in future.

In 2016, Romney chose his wife Ann for president.

The former 2012 GOP presidential nominee also suggested that Trump has a mandate for his next administration.

“He won overwhelmingly. He said what he was going to do and what he’s doing,” Romney said. “People are saying, oh, I don’t like this appointment or this policy he’s talking about, but these are the same things he said he was going to do when he ran.”

Still, Romney acknowledged that Trump had tapped “an unusual group of individuals” who were certainly “not the people I would have chosen.”

Anchor Jake Tapper described how Trump, in an interview broadcast last week that has been closed since Jan. 6, suggested jailing members of the House Select Committee and has previously used similar language about targeting other political rivals. .

But despite their deep differences, Romney said he’s not too worried about Trump going after him.

“No, actually, I’ve been very clean my whole life. When asked if he was worried about being targeted, Romney replied, “I’m not particularly concerned about a criminal investigation.” “Well, I don’t know what the president is saying is an exaggeration. “

I think President Trump will try to focus on the future.

Romney also reflected on his legacy and predicted that despite Trump’s election victory, history may not judge him well for his conspiracies for the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

“I am not sure that history in this case is written by the winners. Politics is written by the winners. But history books are generally written by scholars of one kind or the other,” he said. “I think attacking the Capitol… would be seen as a misdemeanor and a felony and wrong.”

romney announced his retirement last year but insisted he was “not retiring from fighting.” He will be replaced in the upper chamber by Senator-elect John Curtis (R-Utah).

Reflecting on his legacy, the outgoing senator said, “I don’t think history will remember Mitt Romney.” “I want my family to remember me as someone who stood up for the things I believed in, who wasn’t ashamed of my core beliefs, who loved the country and who did what I believed was right.” Apparently, that’s what he did.”