Retiring Sen. Mitt Romney is eviscerating Democrats for hemorrhaging its working-class base and faulted staunch progressives and “woke scolds” for the exodus.
The outgoing Utah senator credited President-elect Donald Trump for remaking the GOP into the party of the working class and predicted that both parties are heading for a recalibration of their policies.
“Democrats pushed them out,” Romney, 77, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“The Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren faction of the Democratic Party, with some of this defund the police … and biological males in women’s sports — these things had a lot of people in the working class just flee the Democrat Party.”
Last month, Trump, 78, became the first Republican to win the popular vote for the presidency in two decades. The president-elect also notched the most robust support from minority voters of a Republican in decades.
Many in the party’s progressive wing have faulted the Dems for shifting more to the center in the 2024 cycle and for not nominating populist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the standard bearer in 2016.
“One of the challenges in my party is that our policies do not necessarily line up with the interests of our voters. And so there’ll be some reorientation,” Romney said of the GOP.
“The Democrat Party’s the one in trouble. I mean, I don’t know how they recover,” he went on. “They’ve lost their base — union guys and gals have left … the Democratic Party is seen not as rich people but as college professors and woke scolds.”
Vice President Kamala Harris had seemingly abandoned many of her lefty positions from the 2020 cycle such as banning fracking, decriminalizing illegal border crossings and Medicare for All.
She also worked to court Republican voters by spotlighting support from party turncoats like former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Ultimately, Trump swept all seven battleground states.
“The Democrats have badly misread the direction of the country and the attitude of the country,” he said. “And President Trump took advantage of that, as well he should.”
Despite being a vocal critic of Trump, Romney acknowledged that “MAGA is the Republican Party” and predicted that Vice President-elect JD Vance is most likely to win the GOP’s presidential nod in 2028.
The Beehive State senator is not divulging whom he voted for in 2024, but he refrained from making an endorsement in the 2024 cycle, hoping that staying out of it could preserve some of his sway on the party going forward.
Back in 2016, Romney had written in his wife, Ann, for president.
The former 2012 GOP presidential nominee also suggested that Trump has a mandate heading into his next administration.
“He won overwhelmingly. He said what he was going to do, and that’s what he’s doing,” Romney said. “People are saying, oh, I don’t like this appointment or this policy that he’s talking about but those are the things he said he was going to do when he ran.”
Still, Romney admitted that Trump had tapped “an unusual collection of individuals” that are certainly “not the people I would have chosen.”
Anchor Jake Tapper brought up how Trump has suggested members of the since-defunct House Select Jan. 6 Committee should go to jail in an interview that aired last week and has previously used language about targeting other political rivals.
But despite their stark differences, Romney said he is not too worried about Trump going after him.
“No, actually, I have been pretty clean throughout my life. I’m not particularly worried about criminal investigations,” Romney replied when asked if he was fearful of being targeted. “I don’t know how much, by the way, of what the president says is hyperbole.”
I think President Trump is likely to try and focus on the future.”
Romney also reflected on his legacy and predicted that despite Trump’s election victory, history might not judge him well for his machinations leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
“I’m not sure history is written by winners in this case. Politics is written by — by winners. But the history books are typically written by scholars of one kind or another,” he said. “I think attacking the Capitol … will be seen as being an abuse and a felony and being wrong.”
Romney announced his retirement last year but stressed that he is “not retiring from the fight.” He will be succeeded in the upper chamber by Sen.-elect John Curtis (R-Utah).
“I don’t think history will remember Mitt Romney,” the outgoing senator reflected on his legacy. “I want my family to remember me as someone who stood up for the things I believed, was not embarrassed by my fundamental beliefs, who loved the country, and did what I believed was right.”
