Mitt Romney calls Trump a ‘gargoyle’ after dinner with Ye, Nick Fuentes
Nov 29, 2022, 12:37 PM | Updated: 1:42 pm
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C. The committee will hear testimony about the federal response to COVID-19 and new, emerging variants. (Photo by Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)
(Photo by Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney called former President Donald Trump a “gargoyle” hanging over the Republican party after his dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
On Monday, NBC News reported that multiple GOP senators criticized Trump for his dinner with the two due to their ties to antisemitism.
“There is no bottom to the degree to which he’s willing to degrade himself, and the country for that matter. Having dinner with those people was disgusting,” Romney said, according to NBC News, noting he “voted to remove [Trump] from office twice” and saying “anybody else” would be a better party leader.
“I don’t think he should be president of the United States. I don’t think he should be the nominee of our party in 2024,” he continued. “And I certainly don’t want him hanging over our party like a gargoyle… It’s a character issue.”
Romney on Trump: “I voted to remove him from office twice… I don't think he should be president of the United states. I don't think he should be the nominee of our party in 2024. And I certainly don't want him hanging over our party like a gargoyle.”
“It’s a character issue.”
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 28, 2022
Other GOP Senators like Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also criticized Trump, saying he shouldn’t have met with the two.
“And here’s another thought: If a guy’s name is Yeh, or Ye, you probably shouldn’t be with them,” Graham said, according to NBC News.
Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, said that Trump “demonstrated profoundly poor judgment” and called on him to apologize.
“President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an antisemite and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table. And I think he should apologize for it and he should denounce those individuals and their hateful rhetoric without qualification,” Pence said Monday in an appearance on NewsNation.
“I don’t believe Donald Trump is an antisemite. I don’t believe he is a racist or a bigot. I would not have been his vice president if he was,” Pence added. “People often forget that the president’s daughter converted to Judaism, his son-in-law is a devout Jew, his grandchildren are Jewish.”
Former VP Mike Pence says Donald Trump should apologize for dining with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist, but said he doesn’t believe the former president is antisemitic. Watch the full interview on NewsNation tonight at 7p/6C. Find us on TV: https://t.co/TkQWhMl5oB pic.twitter.com/KEFBO8qa0j
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) November 28, 2022
A week after Trump announced his reelection campaign, Ye tweeted that he and Fuentes met with Trump for a Thanksgiving dinner at Mar-a-Lago, a resort owned by the former president.
In the now-deleted tweet, Ye claimed that Fuentes “is actually a loyalist” to Trump and that Trump “is really impressed with Fuentes.”
Sources told CNN that Trump was engaged with Fuentes and found him “very interesting,” particularly Fuentes’ abilities to rattle off statistics and data, and his familiarity with Trump world.
However, the dinner turned sour after Ye asked the former president to be his running mate in the 2024 election, with Ye implying that Trump called his ex-wife Kim Kardashian several slurs.
According to CNN, Trump later posted about the dinner on Truth Social, stating: “This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”
Trump repeated that he “didn’t know” Fuentes and offered West business and political advice.
“I told him he should definitely not run for President, ‘any voters you may have should vote for TRUMP,'” the former president wrote on Truth Social. “Anyway, we got along great, he expressed no antisemitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.'”
