The Utah senator Mitt Romney declined to rule out voting for Joe Biden next year and said he has not offered an endorsement in the Republican race because his backing would probably be a “kiss of death”.
“If I endorsed them, it would be the kiss of death – I’m not going to do that,” Romney said during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
The Republican joked that he should maybe endorse the candidate he likes the least, and he made it clear that he would not be supporting Donald Trump.
Romney added that he thought former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley – rising in the polls but still significantly trailing Trump – is “the only one that has a shot at becoming the nominee” other than the former president.
He also said the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who has aggressively taken on Trump during the campaign, had been “terrific”. That compliment is likely to intrigue many because Romney once called Christie “another bridge-and-tunnel loudmouth”, according to a biography released this year.
Romney announced earlier this year he would not run for re-election in the Senate. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee has not shied away from criticizing Trump and twice voted to impeach him during the former president’s lone term.
Trump has viciously attacked Romney in response.
While Romney on Sunday said he would not rule out voting for Biden in 2024, he said there were other Democrats who would be a better nominee than the incumbent president. He said the candidate he would most like to support is the West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin.
Manchin is leaving the Senate and has toyed with a bid for the presidency. But Romney said he did not think Manchin would run in the end.
“I wish he’d be the Democratic nominee,” Romney said.
“I’m not going to describe who I’ll rule out other than President Trump,” he added. “By the way, in my view, bad policy we can overcome – as a country, we have in the past. Bad character is something which is very difficult to overcome.”
A recent Wall Street Journal poll found Trump was leading Biden by four points – 47% to 43%.
Trump faces 91 criminal charges for 2020 election subversion, illegal retention of government secrets and hush-money payments to an adult film actor. He has also contended with assorted civil litigation.
Meanwhile, the indictment of Biden’s son, Hunter, in California on nine criminal tax charges places obstacles in the president’s re-election efforts.
