Mitt Romney plans to criticize Hillary Clinton’s performance as secretary of state during a paid speech at Mississippi State University on Wednesday evening.
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cluelessly pressed a reset button for Russia, which smiled and then invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation,” Romney is expected to say, according to excerpts provided to The Daily Caller by an aide. “The Middle East and much of North Africa is in chaos. China grows more assertive and builds a navy that will be larger than ours in five years. We shrink our nuclear capabilities as Russia upgrades theirs.”
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who says he is mulling another run for the White House, also plans to knock Clinton on economic issues. “How can Secretary Clinton provide opportunity for all if she doesn’t know where jobs come from in the first place?” he is expected to say.
The former Massachusetts governor will also discuss poverty, an issue his aides say he would stress in another campaign.
“We need to lift people out of poverty,” Romney will say. “Almost every week during my campaign, I met folks who had fallen into poverty as result of an unfortunate event, like losing a job. These folks were almost uniformly optimistic about finding their way back into the middle class.”
“But I also met folks who had been in poverty from generation to generation,” Romney will say. “These we have to help escape the tragedy and the trap of chronic generational poverty. For fifty years and with trillions of dollars, Washington has fought the war on poverty with failed liberal policies. They haven’t made any headway whatsoever. It’s finally time to apply conservative policies that improve America’s education system, promote family formation and create good-paying jobs.”
Romney is being paid $50,000 to deliver the speech, but says he is giving most of that to charity.