WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 7, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is now the strongest remaining candidate for President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state, according to CBS News.
The president-elect discussed Romney’s prospects in an interview Wednesday with NBC’s “Today” show.
“I’ve spoken to him a lot. We’ve come a long way together,” Trump said. “We had some tremendous difficulty together and now I think we’ve come a long way. But the answer is yes, he does.”
The choice is likely to be announced next week, and possibly later.
Gen. David Petraeus (ret) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also still remain on the shortlist.
Mitt Romney last met with Trump to discuss the appointment Nov. 29.
The potential appointment of Romney, who has been one of Trump’s strongest critics, has been publicly criticized by several people in Trump’s inner circle.
Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to the Trump transition team, caused controversy late last month when she publicly spoke out against choosing Romney.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, first met with Trump about the post Nov. 19 at the president-elect’s New Jersey country club.
Romney, who has a home in Holladay and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been one of Trump’s harshest critics, slamming him as a “con man,” a “phony” and “a fraud” in an eviscerating speech last March before Trump clinched the Republican nomination.
Trump, who endorsed Romney in 2012, repeatedly slammed the former GOP standard bearer during his bid for the Republican nomination, describing him as a failure.
In June, at a private summit in Park City, an at times emotional Romney lashed out at the slate of 2016 Republican presidential candidates for failing to stop Trump, saying what had become of the GOP was “breaking my heart.”
CNN and Politico reported Romney appeared to tear up during the closed-door gathering when making the comment at the summit he hosted for many of his top supporters and donors from the 2012 campaign.
“I’m all for party unity, but I’m not sure we have to pay for that with the secretary of state position,” Conway said. “It’s just breathtaking in scope and intensity the type of messages I’ve received from all over the country … the number of people who feel betrayed to think that Gov. Romney would get the most prominent Cabinet post after he went so far out of his way to hurt Donald Trump.”
