hatch to seek an eighth term and block romney, who spoke out against electing alabama u.s. senate nominee roy moore. i remember him when he tweeted that thing about roy moore and he was so fervent, shannon, this was a bad choice. one of the few republicans who jumped back in with roy moore, who continued to stick his neck out against roy moore. nothing about mitt romney endured him to the president or steve bannon. two men who clearly do not like each other. sometimes there s perception in washington that behind closed doors everybody kind of gets along and they re all at the bar after a heated debate on the floor. from every indication i get from the trump camp they really, really dislike mitt romney. i m not plugged in with the romney camp. based on everything he says, that seems to be clear as well. two men who generally do dislike
longest standing senator in history. so an 8th term would have been too far. and we would have seen a fierce primary challenge for hatch. so he had a great accomplishment for last year with tax reform, that was something that he wanted to stay in the senate to do, and he decided it was time. i want to continue our conversation but just a quick reminder we are monitoring the white house press briefing scheduled to start any minute. scheduled to start at 2:30 if i have to cut you off, that is why. that new leadership, mitt romney his name has been floated out there for a possibility to run for the senate seat. this was before we knew for sure whether or not orrin hatch was going to retire. you just spoke with the romney camp. what are they saying? well, we ve been talking to romney advisers over the last couple of weeks and months and
hostile to the idea. that s why romney remains in contention. that being said because of the bickering because of the anti-romney and anti-giuliani factions, that tends to lead the principal to pacify both groups and that s why i think you see trump bringing in people like bob corker and retired general to look for a way out of this. we have seen previous presidents doing that. i think that s an idea that came out of the trump and not the romney camp. he is the author of a book called no apologies. does this give pause about the fact that he will be subject. he will be subject to public second-guessing. romney has been through the ringer. he got criticized for the the entire kitchen sink was thrown
trump does not like to lose, as evidenced by that last tweet there. betty? all right, a lot of people will be read into all of this, and thank you for that. more on transition plans now, and let s bring in our former diplomacy national press secretary for mitt romney in 2012. what was the reaction from the romney camp when the invite came from the trump side? i think we were all surprised. romney did reach out to trump after he won to congratulate him, and my understand something the trump team followed up on that call with a request for a meeting. don t know what is going to come or what will be said, but it s encouraging for trump to reach out and speak to other people and not just his advisers and so
i was just talking to somebody. this is from somebody from romney s world. they believe this is a courtesy more than anything else. it did not come from the romney camp. this is considered more of a gesture than anything else. we ll have to find out how serious the trump s team is with this. but, having the two men and potentially having a picture of them together is going to do a lot to mend the wounds of the republican party, much of the same way of having a picture of donald trump as sitting next to president obama in the oval office was a way to try to mend wounds with the country and move forward and give the support that the president elect trump is going to need to be successful because ultimately if he s successful, americans are successful, that s what you are getting from a lot of folks who are trying to put aside of their differences to have patriotism