Sen.-elect Mitt Romney, Utah Republican, declined to endorse President Trump for re-election in 2020 during an interview Wednesday on CNN.
In an interview with Jake Tapper, Mr. Romney said he hadn’t decided whom he would support in 2020.
“It’s too early to make that decision and I want to see what the alternatives are,” Mr. Romney said a day after contributing an op-ed to the Washington Post blisteringly critical of the president.
However, Mr. Romney, who twice ran for and once won the Republican presidential nomination, said that alternative would not be him.
“No,” he told Mr. Tapper. “You may have heard I ran before. I’ve had that experience,” going on to acknowledge that he had lost to President Barack Obama — one of the sticks with which Mr. Trump often uses to beat him about.
Mr. Romney also said that, despite his willingness to criticize Mr. Trump, he would not do anything to cut him off at the knees or engage in symbolic rebukes.
“I will support those positions I agree with, I will vote against those things I disagree with,” he said, closely paraphrasing a line in his Post op-ed.
“You don’t cut off your nose to spite your face,” he said in response to Mr. Tapper’s citing, among other things, dissident GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona voting against all judicial picks over the Robert Mueller probe.
“You don’t do things that are symbolic or punitive. You don’t poke people in the eye just to make a point,” he said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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