By Ben Kamisar - 06-15-15 09:11 AM EDT
Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney cast Hillary Clinton as disingenuous and questioned whether her populist pitch is hypocritical during a Monday interview on MSNBC.
When asked to grade her performance during her first major campaign speech on Saturday, Romney coined a new phrase to pan her as insincere.
“When you see her on stage or when she comes into a room full of people, she’s smiling with her mouth but her eyes are saying, ‘Where’s my latte?’ ” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“It just doesn’t suggest that she believes in everything that she’s saying.”
As Clinton has embraced the progressive and populist wing of the Democratic Party, railing against CEO pay and calling for banking and campaign finance reform, Romney warned that Clinton’s own personal wealth undercuts those campaign planks and that “making populism a centerpiece of her campaign makes her particularly vulnerable.”
“Hillary Clinton is somebody who talks about how much money some people are making and how much less other people are making, but look at how much money she’s been making,” he said.
“How can she get out there and sell a populist message when she makes in one hour a multiple of what the average American will make in a year?”
Democrats attacked Romney during the 2012 campaign for his immense wealth, framing him as out of touch because of it. Now on the outside, he said he’s not too sympathetic to the fact that Clinton now has to face those criticisms.
“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, which is, I got beaten up on that sort of stuff, and I think Hillary Clinton has to expect the same treatment.”
Romney praised a number of likely or declared GOP candidates: former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.), who is expected to announce his campaign Monday, Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.); Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.); Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.) and Gov. John Kasich (Ohio).
And while some Republicans, including MSNBC host and former Rep. Joe Scarborough (Fla.), have called on him to make a late entry, Romney wouldn’t budge.
“Sorry about that, Joe. I’m counting on you getting in the race,” Romney told Scarborough.
“I think that’s a better shot.”
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