{"id":13275,"date":"2016-03-04T09:03:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T17:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/romney-mccain-trump-a-danger-for-americas-future\/"},"modified":"2016-03-04T09:03:30","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T17:03:30","slug":"romney-mccain-trump-a-danger-for-americas-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/romney-mccain-trump-a-danger-for-americas-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Romney, McCain: Trump a danger for America’s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014<\/strong> In an extraordinary display of Republican chaos, the party\u2019s most recent presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and John McCain, took on current front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him unfit for office and a danger for the nation and the GOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader,\u201d Romney declared. He called Trump \u201ca phony\u201d who is \u201cplaying the American public for suckers,\u201d a man whose \u201cimagination must not be married to real power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, Trump lashed back, calling Romney \u201ca choke artist\u201d who lost to Barack Obama four years ago only because he was such a poor candidate.<\/p>\n

In the most notable attacks on Trump as party leaders try to stop his run to the GOP nomination, Romney and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the party\u2019s vice presidential nominee in 2012, urged voters in the strongest terms to shun the former reality television star for the good of country and party.<\/p>\n

The GOP\u2019s 2008 nominee, Arizona Sen. McCain, joined in, raising \u201cmany concerns about Mr. Trump\u2019s uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues that have been raised by 65 Republican defense and foreign policy leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romney embraced what might seem a long-shot approach to deny Trump the delegates necessary to secure the nomination. He did not call on Republicans to unify behind a single alternative candidate but outlined a plan to divide the electorate and force a contested national convention in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the current delegate selection process, this means that I would vote for Marco Rubio in Florida, for John Kasich in Ohio and for Ted Cruz or whichever one of the other two contenders has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump in a given state,\u201d Romney said.<\/p>\n

As he spoke in Utah, Ryan said on Capitol Hill that \u201cconservatism is being disfigured\u201d by some of Trump\u2019s ideas and statements.<\/p>\n

Underlying the remarkable criticism was a bleak reality for panicking Republican officials: Beyond harsh words, there is little they see they can do to stop Trump\u2019s march toward the Republican presidential nomination. Party leaders are poring over complicated delegate math, outlining their own hazy scenarios for a contested national convention and even flirting with the idea of a third-party effort.<\/p>\n

Trump responded to Romney\u2019s speech at a campaign stop in Portland, Maine, saying the former Massachusetts governor \u201cchickened out\u201d when contemplation another presidential run this year when he understood he\u2019d be going up against the billionaire businessman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have what it takes to be president,\u201d Trump said, adding, \u201cI made so much more money than Mitt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romney\u2019s views are irrelevant, he said. \u201cLook, Mitt is a failed candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth came as the Republican candidates prepared for their first post-Super Tuesday debate, scheduled for Thursday night in Detroit.<\/p>\n

The pre-debate clash took place four years after Romney and Trump stood side by side in Las Vegas, with Trump saying it was a \u201creal honor and privilege\u201d to endorse Romney\u2019s White House bid. Romney at the time praised Trump\u2019s ability to \u201cunderstand how our economy works and to create jobs for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Trump said Romney \u201cwas begging me\u201d for an endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have said, \u2018Mitt, drop to your knees.\u2019 He would have dropped to his knees,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, in Utah, Romney assailed Trump\u2019s temperament, his business acumen and his ability to keep America safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished,\u201d he said, warning that the kind of anger Trump has displayed has led other countries \u201cinto the abyss.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his Capitol Hill press conference, Ryan dismissed comments Trump made earlier in the week that if the Wisconsin Republican didn\u2019t get along with him, Ryan would \u201cpay a big price.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just laughed out loud,\u201d Ryan told reporters. \u201cSometimes, reality is stranger than fiction around here these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters have not so far responded to warning such as those of the Republican leaders on Thursday.<\/p>\n

He padded his delegate lead with victories in seven Super Tuesday contests, with Cruz claiming three states and Florida Sen. Rubio picking up his first victory of the 2016 race.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump is not yet on track to claim the nomination before the party\u2019s national gathering in July, according to an Associated Press delegate count. He has won 46 percent of the delegates awarded so far, and he would have to increase that to 51 percent in the remaining primaries.<\/p>\n

March 15 could be last opportunity to stop Trump through the normal path of winning states and collecting delegates. A win for Rubio in his home state of Florida would raise questions about Trump\u2019s strength, as could a win for Kasich, Ohio\u2019s governor, on his home turf.<\/p>\n

Kasich took aim at Trump on Thursday as well, saying for the first time that he needs to be stopped.<\/p>\n

The GOP mayhem contrasts sharply with a clearer picture on the Democratic side, where Hillary Clinton is drawing broad support from voters and her party\u2019s leaders. Rival Sen. Bernie Sanders has vowed to keep up his fight, though his path to the nomination has become exceedingly narrow.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press has asked Republican governors and senators if they would support Trump if he becomes the party\u2019s nominee. Of the 59 respondents, slightly fewer than half could not commit to backing him in November.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Peoples reported from Detroit. Associated Press writers Kathleen Ronayne in Detroit, David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Julie Pace, Kathleen Hennessey, Andrew Taylor, Julie Bykowicz, Stephen Ohlemacher, Alan Fram, and Donna Cassata contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 In an extraordinary display of Republican chaos, the party\u2019s most recent presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and John McCain, took on current front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him unfit for office and a danger for the nation and the GOP. \u201cHis is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader,\u201d Romney […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":13276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13275"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}