Mitt Romney to Trash Talk Donald Trump

[Content Note: Bigotry.]

It was announced yesterday afternoon that two-time presidential loser Mitt Romney will appear today at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to give a speech at 11:15am ET "on the state of the 2016 race."

Ever since, parts of the transcript have been "leaking" to the press, to let everyone know that the real purpose of his speech is to attack Donald Trump as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad candidate.

Here are the excerpts that have been made available to the press:

In 1964, days before the presidential election, Ronald Reagan went on national television and challenged America that it was a "Time for Choosing." He saw two paths for America, one that embraced conservative principles dedicated to lifting people out of poverty and helping create opportunity for all, and the other, an oppressive government that would lead America down a darker, less free path. I'm no Ronald Reagan and this is a different moment but I believe with my heart and soul that we face another time for choosing, one that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and more importantly, for the country...

At home, poverty persists and wages are stagnant. The horrific massacres of Paris and San Bernardino, the aggressions of Putin, the growing assertiveness of China and the nuclear tests of North Korea confirm that we live in troubled and dangerous times...

But if we make the right choices, America's future will be even better than our past and better than our present...

Of the remaining candidates, the only serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront have come from Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich...

Donald Trump says he admires Vladimir Putin, while has called George W Bush a liar. That is a twisted example of evil trumping good...

The president of the United States has long been the leader of the free world. The president and yes the nominees of the country's great parties help define America to billions of people. All of them bear the responsibility of being an example for our children and grandchildren...

Trump relishes any poll that reflects what he thinks of himself. But polls are also saying that he will lose to Hillary Clinton...

On Hillary Clinton's watch at the State Department, America's interests were diminished in every corner of the world. She compromised our national secrets, dissembled to the families of the slain, and jettisoned her most profound beliefs to gain presidential power...

A person so untrustworthy and dishonest as Hillary Clinton must not become president. But a Trump nomination enables her victory...

I understand the anger Americans feel today. In the past, our presidents have channeled that anger, and forged it into resolve, into endurance and high purpose and into the will to defeat the enemies of freedom. Our anger was transformed into energy directed for good...

Here's what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat...

His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill...

A few thoughts:

1. When you're sending out a dude who thinks people aren't entitled to food as the standard-bearer of your party's moral compass, you have derailed.

2. Again, this charade is ostensibly the result of Republican Party elites who want to stop Donald Trump. But could anything more effectively solidify his support among right-leaning voters than a representative of the party establishment attacking him very publicly?

3. Surely the GOP knows, unless they have some backroom deal with Trump and this whole thing really is a fucking farce, that this could push Trump into a third-party run. Which would make a Clinton or Sanders victory even more likely. So what's the real strategy here?

4. To cite Trump's policies as dangerous garbage, but then suggest that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich offer "serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront" is laughable. Utterly absurd. Aside from Trump's "build the biggest wall" proposal, the other candidates for the most part share the same policy positions as Trump, and, in some cases (Rubio on abortion; all of their positions on totally defunding Planned Parenthood; all of their positions on repealing the provision that insurance must cover preexisting conditions) are even more extreme than Trump.

5. I agree wholeheartedly that Trump "has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president." But on what planet do Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich have the temperament and judgment to be president? This entire Republican primary has been a colossal shitshow. None of the people running should be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office. Ever.

Good grief.