Former Donald Trump Campaign Manager Calls Mitt Romney Appointment A Betrayal
There are a number of popular names that President-elect Donald Trump is considering for his cabinet. Names like former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly, former CIA Director David Petraeus, and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker are all rumored for the position of Secretary of State. However, one name has former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway shaken up.
In a televised interview with NBC News, Conway spoke out about Trump possibly considering Mitt Romney for the position. Yahoo News reported that Conway said she is not campaigning against anyone, but she is concerned at the idea that President-elect Trump is even considering his former rival.
“People feel betrayed to think Gov. Romney, who went out of his way to question the character and the intellect and the integrity of Donald Trump, now our President-elect, would be given the most significant Cabinet post of all.”
"I'm not campaigning against anyone, I'm just a concerned citizen," Kellyanne Conway says before railing against Mitt Romney on TV pic.twitter.com/cufbE63mjx
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) November 27, 2016
Mitt Romney ran for President in 2012, losing to President Barack Obama in the election. While there were many Republican candidates lining up for the election this year, Romney was not one of them. However, Politico reported that Romney came out and said he was not going to support Donald Trump in the election early on.
Mitt Romney used words like “demagoguery and populism” when describing both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and said that he didn’t vote for either candidate. Romney did say that he supported Paul Ryan early in the election.
Mitt Romney pointed out at the time that Paul Ryan had so many people working together. He said that he would completely support Paul Ryan but he also wanted Ryan to remain Speaker of the House.
It is the outspoken lack of support by Mitt Romney for the Donald Trump campaign that Conway says bothers many of Trump’s loyal supporters. She said that people supported Trump and now he might be considering rewarding one of his most outspoken rivals with one of the most important positions in Washington, D.C.
“I’m hearing from people who say, ‘Hey, my parents died penniless, but I gave $216 to Donald Trump’s campaign and I would feel betrayed’… There was the Never Trump movement, and then there was Mitt Romney.”
Yahoo News previously reported that Mitt Romney had made some huge claims about Donald Trump at a political rally in Salt Lake City in March of this year. In that rally, Mitt called Trump a “con man,” a “phony” and a “fraud” and said that any promises that Trump makes “are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.”
With comments like that, it makes sense that someone like Kellyanne Conway would not trust Mitt Romney. When Trump was running for President, he received a lot of support from people who wanted an outsider to take control of the nation and Conway said grassroots supporters would feel putting Mitt Romney in this position of power is a betrayal to their support.
Conway said that she has spoken to President-elect Trump about this personally. She said that she has mentioned the feeling of betrayal that his supporters would feel at a Mitt Romney nomination. However, Conway taking her views to the public on national television is a surprising move.
“I’m not campaigning against anyone. I’m just a concerned citizen. I’m not trying to make the news. I’m trying to reflect the news here. And I am just astonished at the breathtaking volume and intensity of blowback that I see just as one person close to the president-elect.”
So far, President-elect Donald Trump has named Sen. Jeff Sessions for the position of attorney general and has reached out to South Carolina governor to be the new U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The biggest choice he has to make now is the secretary of state and one wonders if the public outcry by Kellyanne Conway will sway Trump away from Mitt Romney.
[Featured Image by Carolyn Kaster/AP Images]
