.@GovMikeHuckabee: Choosing Mitt Romney as Secretary of State would be a big insult to all those who voted for Trump pic.twitter.com/hizFmHCEvJ
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) November 23, 2016
Mike Huckabee, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, on Wednesday warned Trump against picking Mitt Romney to be his secretary of State, saying it would be an insult to his voters.
{mosads}Trump is reportedly leaning toward Romney even though the two fought bitterly during Trump’s presidential campaign, with Romney at one point calling Trump a “phony,” a “fraud” and a “con man.”
“He attacked [Trump] on a personal level about his character, his integrity, his honor,” Huckabee said on “Fox & Friends.”
“When you do that, there’s only one way that Mitt Romney can be considered for a post like that, and that is if he goes to a mic in a very public place and repudiates everything he said in that famous Salt Lake City speech and everything he said after that — Donald Trump wasn’t fit, that he lacked character. I mean, on and on.”
Huckabee was referring to a speech Romney gave in Utah in March in which he strongly denounced the candidacy of Trump, warning that the prospects for a “safe and prosperous future” would greatly diminish under his leadership.
“When you go after the person that is the nominee of your party, who has been duly nominated by the voters, and then you’re savaging the voters, you’re not just savaging Donald Trump,” Huckabee said.
“It would be a real insult to all those Donald Trump voters who worked really hard.”
Trump also frequently hit Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, on the campaign trail for “choking” in his bid to unseat President Obama and at one point asked during a rally in Utah, “Are you sure he’s a Mormon?”
Top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has said that the two should have no problem working together, however.
“I think what happens with consensus builders and good negotiators and successful businessmen who, you know, have to take the accounts of many different people, rivals, allies, is that they find a way to work together if it’s appropriate,” she said.
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential run early in 2016.
In 2008, Huckabee and Romney fought bitterly in the GOP presidential primary before both eventually fell to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).