Mitt Romney’s 2016 warning about Trump has aged extremely well

Last year in Utah, Mitt Romney tried to warn America against electing a man like Donald Trump for president. Now, video of his speech at the Hinckley Institute on March 3, 2016, is circulating again, most likely due to its prescient nature. “There’s plenty of evidence that Mr. Trump is a conman, a fake,” Romney said. Months later, Romney’s warning would go unheeded by the vast majority of his fellow Republicans.

“I’m far from the first to conclude that Donald Trump lacks the temperament to be president,” Romney said during his speech. “After all, this is an individual who mocked a disabled reporter, who attributed a reporter’s questions to her menstrual cycle, who mocked a brilliant rival who happened to be a woman due to her appearance, who bragged about his marital affairs, and who laces his public speeches with vulgarity.”

“Donald Trump says he admires Vladimir Putin; at the same time he called George W. Bush a liar. That is a twisted example of evil trumping good.”

Pointing out that lying is Trump’s “hallmark,” Romney rattled off examples of false claims made by the then-presidential candidate, where he said that he was against the Iraq war but in reality had actually said he was for it, or the time he claimed that he saw “thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11.”

“Wrong,” Romney said. “He saw no such thing. He imagined it. … His imagination must not be married to real power.”

Romney went on to say that the U.S. presidency is supposed to be a guiding light for the “billions of people around the world.”

“Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities: the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics…”

Watch:

You can watch the entire speech here.

[H/T Brian Klass] Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.