Mitt Romney: I Was Never The Leader Of ‘Never Trump’

Former presidential candidate and longtime critic of Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, may be changing his tune ahead of winning Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch’s soon-to-be-vacated U.S. Senate seat.

In an interview Saturday, Romney denied leading the so-called “Never Trump” movement, and admitted, instead, that Trump wasn’t his “first choice,” and that disagreement between the two is largely based on differences in policy.

WATCH:

When asked about his stance on President Trump, Mitt Romney denies that he led the Never Trump movement. Seen here at a gaggle after a rally for #AZSen candidate @MarthaMcSally pic.twitter.com/cFDJC1RmQ8

— Meghan Keneally (@mkeneally) October 12, 2018

Romney isn’t technically wrong, in the sense that the “Never Trump” movement — to the extent that it was a movement — doesn’t have a clear leader, and while Romney was an outspoken and unabashed critic of the now-president, he never made an official declaration of third party status (instead, Romney reportedly wrote in his wife, Ann, for president in 2016).

But it’s no secret that Romney actively opposed Trump’s nomination. He’s well on record as one of Trump’s most vocal critics, and accused the president of being everything from a “lying bully” to a “phony” and a “fraud.”

Now that Romney is likely to be working with Trump, replacing Orrin Hatch in the Senate, he seems to have softened markedly in his impression of the president — something Trump’s Republican critics probably won’t be happy about. When Romney declared his intent to run for Senate, he was seen as, potentially, a moderating force on Trump and a Republican voice in opposition to the president’s agenda from within Congress.

Perhaps in the wake of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, Romney, like many, has just changed his mind.