Romney on relationship with Trump: 'I’ve seen eye to eye with the President'


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SALT LAKE CITY — A day after receiving an endorsement from President Donald Trump, Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney said he has seen “eye to eye” with the president on most issues, sidestepping noted squabbles in the past between the two.

Trump tweeted Monday night that he believes Romney, who formally announced his candidacy for Senate last week, would “make a great Senator and worthy successor to Orrin Hatch.” Romney responded by tweeting his appreciation for the endorsement, then added he hopes he can receive the endorsement from Utah’s residents in the future.

It came as a staunch difference from statements Romney made while Trump was running for the Republican nomination in 2016, in which he called Trump “a phony, a fraud” during a strong speech. Romney also tweeted that day he would not have accepted Trump’s endorsement while he ran for president in 2012 had he known of the various things Trump said on the 2016 campaign trail.

Trump responded by referring to Romney as a "choke artist" and a "loser" who pleaded for Trump's endorsement in the 2012 presidential race. He even questioned whether Romney was really a Mormon.

After the election, Trump considered Romney for a position on his cabinet, but Romney was not selected.

Mitt Romney meeting with Donald Trump in 2016. (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP Photo, File)
Mitt Romney meeting with Donald Trump in 2016. (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP Photo, File)

In an appearance on KSL Newsradio’s “Doug Wright Show,” Romney did not mention the endorsement, but said he has agreed with what Trump has done so far in his presidency and if, in office, he had issues with the president or any of his potential colleagues, he would speak up about it.

“Most of the time, in this last year, I’ve seen eye to eye with the President or at least on the same page, in regards to taxes, regulations and so forth,” Romney said. “But if there’s a circumstance where something is said either through the White House or in Congress that I disagree (with), that I think sets the wrong tone or wrong culture for this country, I’ll speak out, as I have in the past.”

Romney pointed out he is not running for president; rather, for one of 100 senators, and said he believed his previous experiences would make him a qualified junior senator if elected.

“To be effective in that kind of group, you need to reach across the aisle,” Romney said. “You need to find people on the other side of the aisle that have some principles that may be similar to one’s own and find a way to move together with them to fashion legislation that will help the American people.”

That includes working within the Republican Party, which currently controls the majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, he added.

On gun issues

In the wake of last week’s mass shooting at a school in Florida that left 17 dead and more than a dozen others injured, Romney said Tuesday he believes states should take control of any possible gun measures because of the federal government’s slow pace regarding legislation.

“I happen to believe that action happens a lot faster and a lot more effectively at the state level, by in large, than at the federal level,” he said.

When asked about an ABC News-Washington Post poll released Tuesday which reported 77 percent of people said they believe more effective mental health screening/treatment and 58 percent said stricter gun control laws could have helped prevent the attack, Romney said the federal structure isn’t designed for speed.

“States are able to respond to their people and make change,” Romney said. “I think we should see state legislatures here in Utah and across the country look at the widest array of options, adopt those that they think might be most effective — that might include protection measures at schools, police patrols at schools, access challenges that are put in place at schools. It could even relate to denying gun purchases to people with mental illness or young people.

“My view is what works in New York City is not going to necessarily work in Cedar City,” he added.

While he anticipates it to be a slower process, he added the federal government could still pass legislation on more thorough background checks.

Romney’s tipping point

Romney said he had no intention to run for Senate until receiving a memo from Sen. Orrin Hatch’s camp about why he should run. That meeting happened months after Romney said Hatch had asked for his support in a re-election bid.

“I had no thoughts about this. I thought he was going to run again ... I happened to see him in Washington a few months later and he said, ‘Look, why don’t you run?'” Romney recalled of the encounter. “I was a bit floored. He gave me a three-page memo that he or his staff put together about why I should consider it.”

After he and his wife, Ann, pondered about it, he made his decision to run.

“Frankly, with all the turbulence in the world and the reality, in my opinion, by the virtue of the experiences I’ve had and the relationships I have in Washington, I think I can do more for Utah than if I were to just sit on the sidelines,” he said. “I think I can do more than the average junior senator coming in.”

He said Utah’s ability to focus on lower taxes, smaller government, less regulation and balancing budgets is a template the nation should look into.

Future Olympics

As the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics wraps up in the next few days, Romney, who helped run the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, said he believed the games would one day return to Utah.

An Olympic exploratory committee pushed forward a bid for the 2030 Olympic Games earlier in the month, making it the first U.S. city to submit a bid for the games.

“You know that they’ll come back to Salt Lake again because the games were too fantastic here not to have them come back,” Romney said. “With the venues built, with the community so fully behind the Olympic movement, this is the right place for the games. It’s just a matter of when.”

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Carter Williams is an award-winning reporter who covers general news, outdoors, history and sports for KSL.com.

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