Former GOP nominee Mitt Romney slammed Donald Trump Friday saying that he would not vote for him and blasting him for his “trickle-down racism.”
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Romney said that while he feels the voters have spoken when it comes to choosing Trump, he will not vote for him or Clinton.
“I, myself, will not be voting for either one of them,” he said. “I can’t bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton. I don’t think the policies she promotes are right for the country, and Mr. Trump I think is too great a departure from the values of our country for me to sign up as a voter for him either, so I’ll be writing in someone else’s name, probably another republican.”
Romney said he couldn’t bring himself for racist or a xenophobe, specifically citing Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel. He said that there is nothing Trump could say to change his mind as he’s already demonstrated who he is in Romney’s eyes.
“I don’t want to see trickle-down racism,” he said. “I don’t want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism and bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America, so I’m not looking for Mr. Trump to change a policy that more aligns with my own.”
While Romney has been publicly critical of Trump, he neglected to place blame on his former running mate, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, for supporting him.
“I wish everybody in the Republican Party had rejected Mr. Trump and chosen someone else,” Romney said. “But my choice is different than that of the other people, and I’m certainly not going to argue with them about their choice.”
As many have done in the past few months, Blitzer asked Romney about the possibility of running as a third party candidate. Romney, as he has done, has denied that he would run, citing the will of the people and the desire for a new candidate. But, he was willing to discuss how he thinks Trump and himself would have behaved going head to head in the primary.
“Had I been in the race, I can assure you I would have taken him on,” he said.”I’m sure he believes he would have been successful pushing me aside just like he did others in part because I would have been seen as an establishment Republican.”
Watch the clip below:
