Romney Delivers Speech Decrying Trump's Lead In Republican Primary 

Romney Warns That Prospects For A Safe Future Would Be “Greatly Diminished” By A Trump Nomination. On March 3, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney delivered a speech in which he “branded Trump as 'a phony, a fraud'” and warned that Trump's “imagination must not be married to real power” by Republican voters, according to The Associated Press:

Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Thursday that the prospects for a safe future are “greatly diminished” if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee for president.

Speaking at the University of Utah, Romney warned a packed auditorium that any of the other GOP candidates would be a better alternative to the billionaire businessman.

“The only serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront today, come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich,” Romney said of Trump's GOP rivals. “One of these men should be our nominee.”

Romney is charging into the increasingly divisive White House race with a verbal lashing of Donald Trump and a plea for fellow Republicans to shun the front-runner for the good of country and party.

“His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader. His imagination must not be married to real power,” Romney said.

Romney branded Trump as “a phony, a fraud” whose “promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University” in his speech. [The Associated Press, 3/3/16]

Right-Wing Media Blast Romney's Speech Against Trump

Fox's Andrea Tantaros On Romney's Speech: “Take It And Shove It.” On the March 3 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered, co-host Andrea Tantaros blasted Romney's anti-Trump speech, calling him a liberal and saying he “has no business lecturing voters on electability and conservatism”:

ANDREA TANTAROS: Mitt Romney is a liberal. He used to be pro-choice. Jonathan Gruber, the man that called everybody stupid, wrote Romneycare and Obamacare. That was Mitt Romney's top aide. I don't know if he was at the speech today; I didn't see him in the audience. Also, he lectured Donald Trump on foreign policy? Mitt Romney did not want to go after Osama bin Laden and said that we should attack Pakistan, or ask Pakistan for permission before we attack. I mean, Harris, I could go on and on and on. Mitt Romney has no business lecturing voters on electability or conservatism and I feel that voters right now look at him and tell his brand of conservatism to take it and shove it. [Fox News, Outnumbered, 3/3/16]

Laura Ingraham: Romney And Establishment Republicans “Are Now Projecting Their Guilt and Blame” For Their Failures On Trump. During the March 3 edition of Courtside Entertainment Group's The Laura Ingraham Show, host Laura Ingraham said the Romney speech was a “glaring example of self-projection” by “establishment” Republicans who “destroyed much of what we love about America, and put us in this debt, and got us in these wars, and messed up our trade policies, and couldn't stand up to President Obama,” adding, “But somehow this is all [Trump's] fault?”:

LAURA INGRAHAM: I think Mitt Romney just wanted to hear some applause. Don't you think? He's at this point where he just wanted to hear people applaud for him. So you're always going to get applauded when you're attacking conservatives, or you're going after the tea party, or you're going after populists, or you're going after people who have a more nationalistic view of things. You're always going to get applauded when you're attacking people who actually want to enforce immigration laws. And that feels good to people who need that type of affirmation. I think you could call the Romney speech today one of the most glaring examples of self-projection -- it's like a psychological projection -- that I've ever seen. Because the people who lost this country, who couldn't beat Obama, and were part of the party establishment that destroyed much of what we love about America, and put us in this debt, and got us in these wars, and messed up our trade policy, and couldn't stand up to President Obama. Those people are now projecting their guilt and blame on Trump?

Trump wasn't around when all this stuff happened. Trump wasn't a politician when they left the borders wide open. He wasn't a politician when, remember, that Clintons decided that WTO was going to be great and George W. Bush decided it was going to be fine for China to become a member of it. Donald Trump wasn't someone who said, “Ooh, NAFTA, great.” Donald Trump wasn't one of these guys who thought it was good to spend more money that we didn't have. But somehow this is all his fault? Because the people are rising up and saying no more, we're not doing this anymore. It's his fault? [Courtside Entertainment Group, The Laura Ingraham Show, 3/3/16]

Rush Limbaugh: Romney's Speech Will Be Heard As, “Why Are You Trying To Destroy Your Own Base?” On the March 3 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show, host Rush Limbaugh blasted Romney and “establishment” Republicans for treating Trump supporters like “a child that has gone astray and that a lecture will straighten them out”:

RUSH LIMBAUGH: It appears to me that the establishment in Washington, both parties, still believes that whatever is happening out here that is causing people to support Donald Trump in large numbers is something temporary. That it is a fever. That it is a tantrum. That it is a child that has gone astray and that a lecture will straighten them out. That a talking to will show them the error of their ways. And that's not what this is, as I divulged in great deal yesterday and on many days and weeks prior. This is not temporary, it's not a phase, and it is not a tantrum. Now, Mitt Romney had some substantive things to say about Trump that, as I say, if you just look at it within the bubble of his comments might make some sense, but it's nothing nobody else has been saying about Trump in this entire campaign.

[...]

The way this is gonna be heard -- these guys, I don't know if they're ever going to understand this, these establishments guys -- the way this is going to be heard is, why are you trying to destroy your own base, over and over again? Why are you rejecting the majority of people in your own party and their expressed desires and wishes? Why are you continually ignoring and trying to thwart the will of your voters? [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 3/3/16]

Breitbart.com: “GOP Establishment Chooses Mount Romney As A Hill To Die On.” On March 3, Bretibart.com wrote that Romney's speech against Trump was “symptomatic of the GOP establishment's death” and that now the “establishment will lift up their eyes unto the hills of Salt Lake City from whence cometh their help”: 

Perhaps nothing is more symptomatic of the GOP establishment's death drive than their continued embrace of the presidential aspirations of a man who shrank the party in 2012.

But then, these are the same Republican elites who are determined to grant amnesty to 40 million future Democrats. So, obviously party expansion and broad national victories are not their priorities. How else do you explain their bizarre desire to board the S.S. Mittanic one more time?

A full recounting of the unmitigated disaster that was the Romney campaign is beyond the scope of this op-ed. But let's cut to the chase. Mitt Romney lost because he was unpalatable to working class Americans.

[...]

The commentariat is frantically hash-tagging #NeverTrump! Can you blame them? They built an industry predicated on their status as the self-appointed gatekeepers of authentic conservative thought. A populist paradigm shift upends their carefully crafted business model.

So, now the establishment will lift up their eyes unto the hills of Salt Lake City from whence cometh their help. And it looks as if Mount Romney is the hill they've chosen to die on. [Breitbart.com, 3/3/16]

Fox Host Jeanine Pirro: “Shame On Stiff Vengeful Loser Romney.”

Shame on stiff vengeful loser Romney - establishment puppet trying to destroy winner @realDonaldTrump only he can beat Hillary.

-- Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) March 3, 2016

Breitbart's John Nolte: “Taking Advice On How To Win From Mitt Romney Is Like Taking Ocean Voyage Lessons From The Titanic Captain.” 

Taking advice on how to win from Mitt Romney is like taking ocean voyage lessons from the Titanic captain.

-- John Nolte (@NolteNC) March 3, 2016

Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro: Romney's “Milquetoast Politics Will Do Nothing To Harm Trump.” 

Romney's brand of milquetoast politics will do nothing to harm Trump. Nothing.

-- Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 3, 2016