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    Trump ‘very likely’ to be Republican nominee if he wants it, Romney says

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    Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said in an interview Wednesday that former President Donald Trump is “very likely” to be the presidential candidate for the Republican Party if he desires. 

    The senator’s assessment comes days after Ohio senatorial candidate JD Vance – a former critic of Trump – won the Republican primary with the former president’s endorsement.

    “I don’t delude myself into thinking I have a big swath of the Republican Party,” Romney told Politico.

    FILE – Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, arrives to watch a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy live-streamed into the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    Romney has been openly critical of other Republicans’ rhetoric in political campaigns and on the floor.

    TRUMP, AT CPAC, ONCE AGAIN TEASES 2024 RUN; CRUZ TELLS FOX NEWS ‘TRUMP DESERVES TO DECIDE FIRST’

    He added, “It’s hard to imagine anything that would derail his support. So if he wants to become the nominee in ‘24, I think he’s very likely to achieve that.”

    FILE – Senate candidate JD Vance, left, greets former President Donald Trump at a rally at the Delaware County Fairground, April 23, 2022, in Delaware, Ohio, to endorse Republican candidates ahead of the Ohio primary on May 3. (AP Photo/Joe Maiorana, File)

    Vance’s win is seen as a victory for the former president, as Trump’s position as the Republican Party’s most popular and influential politician was on the line even though the former president wasn’t on the ballot.

    The Ohio Republican started off on a rocky trajectory, struggling to build solid base in the early months of his campaign. In the weeks after Trump’s endorsement, Vance shot to first.

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    Minutes after Vance’s victory was projected, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich told Fox News that “JD Vance put in tremendous work and has immense political talent—which put him in the position to earn the support of President Trump.

    Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Wednesday, July 7, 2021.  (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

    “It was the endorsement of President Donald J. Trump that took a candidate who many insiders said was in 4th and at single digits in the polls, and in only two weeks, propelled him into a commanding first-place finish.,” Budowich said.

    Trump easily won the 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Trump, who’s repeatedly flirted with making another presidential run in 2024 to try and return to the White House, captured 59% of ballots cast in the anonymous online straw poll, according to results announced by CPAC earlier this year.

    Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this report.

    MSNBC’s Joy Reid praises Mitt Romney: At least he has a soul and won’t degrade himself

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    MSNBC’s Joy Reid offered a rare compliment for a Republican on Thursday.

    Speaking with the Lincoln Project’s Stuart Stevens, Reid lashed out against newer Republican candidates such as Herschel Walker or Madison Cawthorn. She then brought up Sen. Mitt Romney as a contrast claiming that he “sticks out” for still having a soul.

    MSNBC, ABC, CBS, DEMOCRATS REPEATEDLY FEARMONGER, CLAIM GOP WILL BE THE ‘DEATH OF DEMOCRACY’ 

    FILE – Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, arrives to watch a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy live-streamed into the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    “Yeah, I mean, Mitt Romney sticks out so much in the party now. Yes, he did the 47% thing which was bad and tacky and helped him lose the election. But at least you can tell that he still has a soul. His father’s spirit is still in him somewhere. He still has certain things he just won’t do. He won’t degrade himself to a certain point,” Reid said. on her show “ReidOut.” 

    Reid criticized Mitt Romney throughout the 2012 presidential election calling him extreme and that he radicalized the election. She also criticized his response to Hurricane Sandy during the election.

    Reid commented “anything he [Romney] does looks almost by nature too political. And he can’t actually do anything. He can’t do anything certainly for Chris Christie. Going around with Mitt Romney and his Secret Service detail through the affected areas of New Jersey would actually cause more problems and wouldn’t help at all.”

    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) walks through the Senate Subway on his way to a security briefing for senators on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 30, 2022. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

    TIM SCOTT IN MEDIA CROSSHAIRS AGAIN AFTER NOT SUPPORTING KETANJI BROWN JACKSON 

    Reid’s change of tone regarding Romney comes after the Senate vote to confirm President Biden’s Supreme Court justice pick Ketanji Brown Jackson. Romney was one of three Republican senators who broke party lines to vote to confirm Jackson. 

    In this image from video from Senate Television, the Senate votes at the U.S. Capitol on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become a Supreme Court justice Thursday, April 7, 2022 in Washington. (Senate Television via AP)

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    Pedro Gonzalez warns GOP voters: Mitt Romney, Spencer Cox will ‘stab you in the back’

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    GOP voters should be wary of Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Chronicles Magazine associate editor Pedro Gonzalez said Wednesday, telling Tucker Carlson that Romney and others will “stab you in the back” and betray their constituency to appease the “woke” establishment.

    BUCK SEXTON BLASTS ROMNEY, MURKOWSKI FOR ‘STABBING THEIR OWN SIDE’

    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) walks through the Senate Subway on his way to a security briefing for senators on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 30, 2022. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

    “[Republicans] don’t do anything unless you basically push them in that direction, unless you hold their feet to the fire,” Gonzalez said. “It really can’t be stressed enough that Republicans are not your friends. At critical moments, at pivotal junctures, they will stab you in the back, like Spencer Cox tried to do.”

    Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021.  (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) ( (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File))

    Gonzalez referred to Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, who has repeatedly supported socially liberal proposals despite presiding over one of the most conservative populations in the country. Cox and Romney have both come under fire for abandoning their GOP base, with Romney confirming this week that he will stray from the caucus to vote in favor of confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

    LEVIN SLAMS REPUBLICANS WHO WILL VOTE TO CONFIRM KETANJI BROWN JACKSON

    “These people are siding with those who would prey upon our children, whether it comes down to critical race theory, or their sexualization and ultimately, this grassroots battle for our kids is a war for the future,” he told Carlson.

    Gonzalez said that when leaders like Cox and Romney, “get their way, families lose.”

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    “Thankfully, Utah seems like one of these rare examples where there is a large, growing contingency of Republican lawmakers who are at least proceeding from the understanding that I need to do what my constituents want me to do in order for me to fulfill my role in office, [but] not a lot of Republicans are getting that message.”

    Newt Gingrich explains why Democrats won’t move to the center before midterm elections

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    Contemporary liberalism is akin to a “secular religion,” that the left sees as “divinely inspired by their on brains,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News Monday.

    On “The Ingraham Angle,” host Laura Ingraham noted Democrats don’t seem likely to tack to the center ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

    “If you regard what we’re seeing as basically a secular religion, they don’t have any room to negotiate. They can’t,” Gingrich said.

    Newt Gingrich (Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP)

    “What they’re doing they think of as sort of divinely inspired by their own brains. They can’t back off. Theodore White warned about this back in 1972, when he said that the liberal ideology had become a liberal theology – that’s 1972. It’s all gotten worse.”

    WILMINGTON COMPUTER-SHOP OWNER SPEAKS OUT ON HUNTER BIDEN CASE

    Harris-Biden-Pelosi (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty)

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    Gingrich further pointed to a recent poll from the Democracy Institute showing that more respondents think Joe Biden leaving office would be better for America’s future than Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin being unseated.

    “I would think if you were a Democrat, that number would be very, very sobering. But it doesn’t seem to have any effect now,” Gingrich said.

    Senate reaches $10B COVID agreement, less than what Biden admin wanted

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    Senate lawmakers have reached $10 billion package for COVID-19 relief measures, but the agreement was far short of the more than $22 billion that the Biden administration was pushing. 

    The slimmed-down compromise drops all funding to help nations abroad — especially poorer ones — combat the pandemic. 

    FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) walks through the Senate Subway on his way to a security briefing for senators on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 30, 2022. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

    Senate Majority Leader and chief Democratic bargainer Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the pact would provide “the tools we need” to help the U.S. recover from the economic blows COVID-19 has inflicted for the past two years, but noted that the $10 billion “is well short of what is needed to keep us safe” over time. 

    Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the lead GOP bargainer, said the $10 billion funding was crucial for addressing “urgent COVID needs” and “will not cost the American people a single additional dollar.” 

    STATE OFFICIAL SUING OVER RESCISSION OF TITLE 42 BORDER POLICY SAYS BIDEN IS HELPING CARTELS

    The measure is fully paid for by pulling back unspent funds from previous pandemic relief bills that have been enacted, bargainers have said.

    According to Romney’s fact sheet, those savings include more than $2 billion from a fund protecting aviation manufacturing jobs; nearly $2 billion from money for helping entertainment venues shuttered by the pandemic; another $1.9 billion from a program that helps states extend credit to small businesses; and $1.6 billion from agriculture assistance programs.

    A sign advising visitors to don face coverings stands outside the main entrance to UCHealth University of Colorado hospital Friday, April 1, 2022, in Aurora, Colo.  (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

    Romney said he was open to discussing more funding for the U.S. global vaccination program in the weeks ahead. 

    At least half the compromise would have to be used to research and produce therapeutics to treat the disease, according to fact sheets from Schumer and Romney.

    VACCINATED PATIENTS WITH BLOOD CANCERS ARE AT HIGHER RISK OF BREAKTHROUGH COVID THAN OTHER CANCERS, STUDY SAYS

    The money would also be used to buy vaccines and tests. At least $750 million would be used to research new COVID-19 variants and to expand vaccine production, the descriptions said.

    FILE – Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, arrives to watch a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy live-streamed into the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    Leaders of both parties were negotiating for a $15 billion version of the bill last month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., abandoned that plan after Democratic lawmakers rejected proposed cuts in state pandemic aid to help pay for the package.

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    The agreement will need to attract at least 10 GOP votes to move through the 50-50 Senate. Those votes are expected to be there. Lawmakers hope to get the bill cleared this week before leaving for a two-week spring recess. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

    Romney on Trump impeachment: ‘If we’re going to have unity,’ there must be ‘accountability’

    Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, expressed support for the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, telling “Fox News Sunday” that a trial is needed to achieve “truth and justice.”

    Romney, who voted to convict Trump at his first impeachment, cited Trump’s effort to convince Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election result, as well as his call for a march on the U.S. Capitol at a Jan.  6 rally immediately preceding the violent riot.

    TRUMP IMPEACHMENT TRIAL DELAYED UNTIL WEEK OF FEB. 8, SCHUMER SAYS

    “Well, we’re certainly going to have a trial. I wish that weren’t necessary, but the president’s conduct with regards to the call to Secretary of State Raffensperger in Georgia as well as the incitation towards the insurrection that led to the attack on the Capitol call for a trial,” Romney said.

    “And, you know, if we’re going to have unity in our country, I think it’s important to recognize the need for accountability, for truth and justice.”

    Romney said the House’s article of impeachment “suggests impeachable conduct,” but he acknowledged that he and his fellow senators have yet to hear arguments from the two sides. He said he will “do my best as a Senate juror to apply justice as well as I can understand it.”

    The Republican went on to slam Trump, not just for his words and actions in the months following the election, but for what he said leading up to it, going as far back as to his first impeachment.

    TRUMP IMPEACHMENT MANAGER SWALWELL ON TRIAL: ‘IF THE SENATE ALLOWS WITNESSES, WE WILL BE READY WITH WITNESSES’

    “I think it’s pretty clear that over the last year or so there has been an effort to corrupt the election in the United States,” Romney said. “It was not by President Biden, it was by President Trump. … That corruption we saw with regards to the conduct in Ukraine, as well as the call to Secretary of State Raffensperger, as well as the incitation to insurrection. This is obviously very serious and an attack on the very foundation of our democracy and is something which has to be considered and resolved.”

    Looking forward, Romney acknowledged that Trump will continue to have an influence on the Republican Party, but he pointed to new voices that he believes could determine the direction the party goes in. He specifically mentioned Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, and Sens. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,

    Romney was critical of Biden as well. While the new president has called for unity, Romney said some of his executive actions during the first days of the administration have been divisive.

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    “I think there are some actions the president is taking that are going to lead to some anger and division,” Romney said. “I think, for instance, saying we’re not going to allow further leases on government land for oil and gas, that obviously very badly hurt our rural communities. Stopping the Keystone Pipeline, that puts a lot of people out of work. Those people are going to be understandably angry.”

    Romney said Biden should be careful “to not do things that incite a great deal of unnecessary anger.”

    Romney: Trump continuing to dispute election results is ‘really sad’ and ’embarrassing’

    Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called President Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election “really sad” and “embarrassing” on Sunday.

    “I understand the president is casting about, trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people,” Romney told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing because the president could, right now, be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine.”

    TRUMP, TARGETING MCCONNELL AND TOP REPUBLICANS, URGES THEM TO ‘GET TOUGHER’ IN ELECTION FIGHT

    “He could be going out championing this extraordinary success, and instead he’s leaving Washington with conspiracy theories and things so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head wondering what in the world has gotten into this man? I think that’s unfortunate because he has more accomplishments than this last chapter suggests he is going to be known for,” Romney continued.

    The president has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden and continues to claim without evidence that there was massive voter fraud in many of the key battleground states where Biden beat Trump, giving the former vice president a large 306-232 Electoral College victory over the GOP incumbent. Biden also beat the president by more than 7 million votes in the national popular count.

    However, Romney said he would not leave the Republican Party, as Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., recently announced he would.

    ROMNEY SLAMS WHITE HOUSE’S ‘INEXCUSABLE SILENCE’ ON RUSSIAN CYBERATTACKS

    “The party has taken a different course than, obviously, the one that I knew as a younger person,” Romney said. “We were happy to play a leadership role on the world stage because we felt it made us safer and more prosperous, and we believed character was essential in the leaders we chose. We strayed from that. I don’t see us returning to that for a long time.”

    “I represent a very small slice of the Republican Party today,” he added. “I think I’m more effective in the Republican Party, continuing to battle for the things I believe in, and, I think, ultimately the Republican Party will return to the roots that have been formed over the century. So we will get back at some point, and hopefully people will recognize we need to take a different course than the one we are on right now.”

    Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, asks a question to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on the State Department’s 2021 budget on Capitol Hill Thursday, July 30, 2020, in Washington. (Greg Nash/Pool via AP)

    Trump called Romney a “RINO” in November after the senator called Trump’s efforts to reverse Biden’s victory in this month’s election an “undemocratic action.” 

    Trump called in for a radio interview on 77 WABC on Sunday morning, continuing to claim that this was “the most corrupt election this country has ever had by far.”

    “We’ve already found the answers. Now we have to get some support from some politicians,” Trump said.  “Other than that we have it made. I think we’ve come a long way in a very short time.”

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    Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

    Romney keeping quiet on SCOTUS vacancy as confirmation fight looms

    An aide for Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told Fox News on Monday that he’ll likely wait until the Republican Senate caucus convenes before he shares his position on the Supreme Court vacancy left open last week following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

    The Utah Republican is one of the few moderate senators yet to make their position known on a potential hearing for a Trump nominee. Romney has had a publically contentious relationship with President Trump on various issues both before and after the commander in chief’s election victory in 2016.

    Romney’s staff said the caucus lunch is set for Tuesday afternoon and that he will not be making any official statement until it has ended.

    Ginsburg passed away Friday at the age of 87 from complications stemming from her ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer.

    Democrats have lambasted the GOP in recent days over the memory of Senate Republicans – led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. – refusing in 2016 to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

    McConnell said at the time that the American public should have a say in the process with their vote for president, but has since defended his decision to move forward with Trump’s nominee, saying the situation is different because the same party currently controls the presidency and the Senate – which was not the case in 2016.

    SCHUMER AND AOC CALL ON VOTERS TO PRESSURE GOP SENATORS INTO DELAYING TRUMP’S SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

    Other Republican lawmakers who are on the fence – or who have spoken out against nominating a justice before Election Day – include Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

    Gardner, who is up for reelection in November, said on Saturday that the nation needed time to mourn and “reflect” on Ginsburg’s death before the “politics begin.”

    Collins has come out against the Senate taking up any nominee until voters have had their say at the ballot box.

    She later reiterated her position on Saturday, saying Republicans should wait until a winner prevails in the upcoming presidential contest before Congress can move forward.

    Murkowski came out on Sunday and doubled down on the same position.

    “I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia,” she said.

    Murkowski added: “We are now even closer to the 2020 election – less than two months out – and I believe the same standard must apply.”

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    On the flip side, Trump’s 2020 campaign said Sunday that the White House will be moving quickly to nominate a woman, with federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett – a former law professor – considered to be the front-runner.

    “Voters elected Donald J. Trump president in 2016 and gave Republicans an expanded majority in 2018, so the people already have spoken,” communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement.

    Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report 

    Romney tweets home haircut pic, quips ‘better salon than Pelosi’s’

    Sen. Mitt Romney mocked Nancy Pelosi after tweeting a picture of his wife giving him a haircut at home, saying it was a “better salon” than the one the House speaker visited in defying local coronavirus guidelines.

    “Getting cleaned up for resumption of the Senate,” Romney, R-Utah, tweeted Monday. “Better salon than Pelosi’s!”

    Romney tweeted a photo of himself getting his hair cut from his wife Ann Romney, outside his home.

    EXCLUSIVE: PELOSI USED SHUTTERED SAN FRANCISCO HAIR SALON FOR A BLOW-OUT, OWNER CALLS IT ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’

    Romney’s tweet comes after Pelosi, D-Calif., made headlines after visiting a San Francisco hair salon for a wash and blowout, despite local ordinances keeping salons closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    In security footage obtained exclusively by Fox News, and timestamped Monday, Aug. 31, at 3:08 p.m. Pacific Time, the California powerhouse is seen walking through ESalonSF in San Francisco with wet hair, and without a mask over her mouth or nose.

    The stylist doing her hair can be seen following her wearing a black face mask.

    Salons in San Francisco had been closed since March and were only notified they could reopen on Sept. 1 for outdoor hairstyling services only.

    Pelosi dug in over the controversy and claimed that she was “set up” at the hair salon, which she said she had been to “over the years many times.”

    TRUMP SUGGESTS HAIR SALON OWNER SHOULD BE ‘RUNNING’ THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AFTER PELOSI CONTROVERSY

    “I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I have been to many times,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday. “When they said they could accommodate people one at a time, and we can set up that time, I trusted that.”

    “The salon owes me an apology for setting me up,” she added.

    Pelosi, on Wednesday, downplayed the fact that she didn’t wear a mask in the salon.

    “I just had my hair washed. I don’t wear my mask when I’m washing my hair,” she said. “Do you wear one when you wash your hair?”

    Mitt Romney out of self-quarantine following coronavirus scare

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    Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is out of self-quarantine and has been reunited with his family after being in isolation following a lunch with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

    Romney last month tested negative for the virus but said he would remain absent from the Senate out of an abundance of caution.

    “Thankfully, I tested negative for COVID-19,” Romney tweeted in March. “Nevertheless, guidance from my physician, consistent with CDC guidelines, requires me to remain in quarantine as the test does not rule out the onset of symptoms during the 14-day period.”

    Once Romney learned Paul tested positive, he ordered a charter flight back to Utah for a two-week quarantine. Fellow Utah Sen. Mike Lee hitched a ride on the plane because both had been in close contact with Paul, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

    CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN

    Romney said he’s been wearing a tracksuit, working out on a stationary bike and conducting business via the phone.

    Senate Republicans have been down five members as they negotiate a massive stimulus package to aid workers and businesses devastated by the nationwide shutdown of the economy to stop the spread of the virus.

    In addition to Paul, Romney and Lee, Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Rick Scott of Florida have been in quarantine unrelated to contact with Paul. Paul is the only known senator to have tested positive for the virus.

    CLICK FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

    Romney’s self-quarantine and negative test drew taunts from President Trump, who holds a grudge against him for being the only Republican to vote in favor of one article of impeachment leveled against Trump earlier this year.

    “This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak. He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!” Trump tweeted when Romney announced he tested negative for the virus.

    A “RINO,” as Trump called Romney, stands for “Republican In Name Only.”

    Fox News Marisa Schultz and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.