Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to deliver a speech Thursday attacking Trump for “playing the American public for suckers.”
The speech is scheduled for 11:30 ET at the University of Utah. Politico obtained excerpts of the speech, where Romney borrowing a phrase from Ronald Reagan’s famous 1964 speech saying that the current election is a “time for choosing.”
“I’m no Ronald Reagan, and this is a different moment, but I believe with my heart and soul that we face another time for choosing, one that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and more importantly, for the country,” Romney is scheduled to say.
The former Republican nominee explicitly lets it be known that he does not think that Trump is the right candidate for the GOP to nominate. “Of the remaining candidates, the only serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront have come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich.”
While he attacks Trump for policy saying that the New York real estate developer will lead us into “recession,” Romney also hits Trump’s personal character. “He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.”
“Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” he continues. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
Romney believes that a Trump nomination “enables” a Hillary Clinton victory and Trump has already responded preemptively to the comments, tweeting out Thursday morning, “I am the only one who can beat Hillary Clinton. I am not a Mitt Romney, who doesn’t know how to win. Hillary wants no part of Trump.”