RAND PAUL SLAMS “BIG GOVERNMENT” ROMNEY, DEFENDS TRUMP IN BLISTERING TWEET
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took to Twitter to defend President
Trump and his America First agenda after Sen.-elect Mitt Romney (R-Utah)
penned a scathing op-ed attacking Trump’s character.
“Like
other Big Government Republicans who never liked Reagan, Mitt Romney
wants to signal how virtuous he is in comparison to the President,” Paul
tweeted Wednesday. “Well, I’m most concerned and pleased with the
actual conservative reform agenda @realDonaldTrump has achieved.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/05/when-did-republicans-become-obsessed-with-reagan.html …
Romney had written an op-ed in the Washington Post attacking Trump’s
handling of the presidency, saying it made a “deep descent in December.”
“The appointment of senior persons of lesser experience, the
abandonment of allies who fight beside us, and the president’s
thoughtless claim that America has long been a ‘sucker’ in world affairs
all defined his presidency down,” he wrote Tuesday.
The former Massachusetts governor then went on to defend the
largely globalist and establishment officials Trump had appointed, and
lamented his refusal to stop “name-calling.”
“It is well known that Donald Trump was not my choice for the
Republican presidential nomination. After he became the nominee, I hoped
his campaign would refrain from resentment and name-calling. It did
not. When he won the election, I hoped he would rise to the occasion.
His early appointments of Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley,
Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were encouraging. But, on
balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions
this last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the
mantle of the office.”
“With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential
leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this
province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring,” he
added.
Trump shot back at Romney Wednesday, saying he should consider
being a “team player,” instead of going down the same road as
anti-Trumper and outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
“Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is
he a Flake? I hope not. Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border
Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big,
and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player
& WIN!”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
Senator-elect Mitt Romney (R-Utah) doesn’t like President Trump.
And he said so in a self-righteous piece in the Washington Post
that purported to explain, as the headline put it, that Trump’s
“character falls short” of what a president needs to “shape the nation.”
Romney’s piece doesn’t offer too many specifics about Trump’s wrongdoing. Presumably, we’re all supposed to know.
The people for whom Romney wrote the piece — the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Washington Post, the Council on Foreign Relations, the NeverTrump neocons — know without being told.
On the subject of President Donald J. Trump, Romney and the NeverTrump establishment herd nod in bovine agreement.
He’s a bad man. Or as Romney put it, “divisive, racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest [and] destructive.”
And Romney’s going to fight him.
Two-time Loser Has Advice
Romney, who lost
the White House to Barack Hussein Obama in 2012 by a crushing 126 votes
in the Electoral College, now proposes to instruct Trump, who beat Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College 304 to 227, in the finer points of running the country.
The two-time presidential failure
opined that the “Trump presidency made a deep descent in December” for a
number of reasons. Two key Trump officials, Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, quit. Trump
appointed “senior persons of lesser experience,” while the United States
suffered “the abandonment of allies who fight beside us.” And the
president unbosomed the “thoughtless claim that America has long been a
‘sucker’ in world affairs.”
How these allies had “abandoned” us Romney didn’t explain, so again,
we’re just supposed to know. At any rate, all these things “defined his
presidency down.”
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who carpetbagged to Utah
after Obama beat him like a rented mule, allowed that Trump had
appointed some fine Americans to serve in key positions, although Trump
did not “refrain from resentment and name-calling” during his campaign.
Romney even admitted that “not that all of the president’s policies have been misguided.”
Trump “was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global
competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on
China’s unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to
appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans
have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part
of a presidency.”
But that’s not enough, because “a presidency shapes the public
character of the nation,” and “a president should unite us and inspire
us to follow ‘our better angels.’”
Trump, of course, doesn’t do that.
Wrote the multimillionaire who traveled about the country until he found just the right state to win another election:
essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national
discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been
blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American
spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential
leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this
province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.
“The world,” Romney wrote, “is also watching.”
The rest of Romney’s carefully written but weakly argued attack on
Trump ends with a not-so-subtle accusation that Trump is a racist
because of his strong stand on the border.
That virtue signal was Romney’s message — I’m on your side — to the NeverTrump establishment:
in or out of my party: I will support policies that I believe are in
the best interest of the country and my state, and oppose those that are
not. I do not intend to comment on every tweet or fault. But I will
speak out against significant statements or actions that are divisive,
racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, dishonest or destructive to democratic
institutions.
Trump Responds
Unshaken, The Donald answered with a short Twitter blast:
“Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast!” the winner of the 2016
election tweeted at the loser in 2012. “Question will be, is he a Flake?
I hope not. Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so
many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He
should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!”
Message for Trump: Romney is a team player — for the other (globalist) team.