I recently wrote about how Mitt Romney, my former governor, has been my biggest disappointment in Congress. I had faith that he was more conservative than he was able to govern as governor of Massachusetts, but upon becoming a senator from Utah, he became a moderate liberal with a lifetime conservative score of 47% from Heritage Action and a ridiculous 25% in the current session.
For that reason, he won’t be missed.
But hey, when the man is right, we should acknowledge it. In a revealing interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, Romney made striking comments about the state of the Republican Party, its future, and the political shifts of recent years.
“Do you think that there’s still — you think there’s going to be a post-Trump Republican Party, or is MAGA now the Republican Party?” Tapper asked.
Romney, who has often been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, left no doubt about where the GOP currently stands.
“Oh, MAGA is the Republican Party, and Donald Trump is the Republican Party today,” he said bluntly.
Romney even went so far as to predict the movement’s influence extending into the future. “If you were to ask me who the nominee will be in 2028, I think it’ll be J.D. Vance, all right? He’s smart, well-spoken, part of the MAGA movement.”
This prediction came with some irony, given Romney’s past criticisms of Vance. Tapper pressed him on this, pointing out that Romney had said earlier this year that he could not have “less respect for somebody” than Vance. Romney was quick to sidestep the question. “Long ago,” he replied. “I’m not going to rehash history. And we’ve worked together in the Senate since then.”
Romney went on to credit Donald Trump with reshaping the Republican Party and expanding its voter base. “The Republican Party has become the party of the working-class, middle-class voter. And you’ve got to give Donald Trump credit for having done that, taken that away from the Democrats.”
To me, this is significant, because I was active in the Massachusetts Republican Party when Romney tried (unsuccessfully) to build up the state party.
Romney even spoke some truths about the Democrats and their embrace of far-left policies, which has alienated many traditional voters. He cited issues like “defund the police” and the push for biological males to compete in women’s sports. “Democrats pushed them out, all right? The Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren faction of the Democrat Party, with some of this, you know, defund the police and transgenders in — or, excuse me — biological males in women’s sports, these things had a lot of people in the middle class just flee the Democratic Party. They’re now Republicans.”
As for the Democrats, Romney painted a bleak picture of their future. “The Democrat Party is the one in trouble,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know how they recover. And, you know, I’m not going to tell them what to do, because I wouldn’t begin to have the capacity to do so. But they’ve lost their base.”
Related: WATCH: Jill Biden Got Humiliated by a Bunch of Kids, And It Was Awesome
“I mean, union guys and gals have left the Democratic Party and are voting Republican,” he continued. “And the Democratic Party is seen not as rich people, but as college professors and woke scolds. And that’s not an attractive feature.”
Mitt Romney: “The Democrat Party is the one in trouble. I mean, I don’t know how they recover … They’ve lost their base.” pic.twitter.com/9TQz99dXPh
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 15, 2024
Romney can be right sometimes, but I’m still glad he’s going.
