Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, recently admitted Donald Trump could win the 2016 election, after aggressively opposing the billionaire during the GOP primaries.
“To be honest, it’s very possible in my view that Trump wins,” Romney stated during a recent “Radio Free GOP” interview, reported by BuzzFeed. He added:
I wouldn’t think it’d be by a landslide, but I think he could win. I think he could lose, I think he could lose by a landslide. But, I don’t know which it’s going to be, and a lot of that depends on what happens to Hillary Clinton. Is there a meltdown moment, or some implosion of some kind?
Romney refuses to support Trump or Hillary Clinton, but applauds Trump for connecting with voters.
“You have to give Donald Trump credit, he was able to bring a rhetoric and a style that he had perfected over his career to the political sphere and connect with people and become the nominee,” Romney added. “Despite the fact that I and a lot of other people thought he would not be an ideal nominee, he is. At this stage, it’s rougher going, but I can’t predict what’s gonna happen.”
Despite not backing Trump, Romney did take a dig at Clinton’s lack of authenticity.
“You can’t forget that Hillary Clinton is a player as well, and she’s an awful candidate. People don’t trust her, they don’t like [her.] … [In] my view she comes across as not being at all authentic. I don’t understand why it is she can’t be what I had expected her to be, which is Angela Merkel or Kathleen Sebelius,” Romney stated about Trump’s competitor, the former secretary of state.
“There are serious women leaders who don’t go into an audience and put their arms up in the air and make a big guffaw kind of smile. It’s almost like she’s acting like she’s Bill Clinton and she’s not Bill Clinton. Nonetheless, it doesn’t come across well,” he added, taking a jab at Clinton.