Mitt Romney's Thursday morning Donald Trump takedown was highly anticipated, but for all the wrong reasons. For one, Donald Trump has been having a field day taking shots at Romney in the lead-up to the speech, pointing out (rightly) that the onetime Republican presidential nominee had sought Trump's endorsement years ago. "Failed candidate Mitt Romney, who ran one of the worst races in presidential history, is working with the establishment to bury a big 'R' win!" Trump gleefully scolded on Twitter.
And then there was the speech itself. A preview of Romney's speech was released ahead of time, prompting Gawker to beg, "Mitt! Please don't deliver this terrible speech!" Romney's "fighting words" were "phony" and "fraud" and "very, very not smart" — a cringe-worthy defense against super-bully Trump:
Mitt Romney is not going to win an insult contest against Donald Trump. He is definitely not going to win an insult contest against Donald Trump in which he has already handed Trump an advance list of his planned insults. [Gawker]
On top of all of that, Romney's speech was mysteriously tone-deaf, completely refusing to acknowledge the more inconvenient hypocrisies of his about-face on Trump. Here are some of the most glaring moments, below. Jeva Lange
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