Articles

Former Romney adviser blasts top surrogates for now 'eviscerating' Romney

Category: National Published on Wednesday, 21 November 2012 12:28 Written by Courier Newsroom

by Ashley Killough

(CNN) — A former senior adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign skewered some of the GOP nominee's surrogates Wednesday, saying it was "stunning" how they preened for administration positions when they thought Romney would win but then turned on the candidate as soon as he lost the election.

DAN SENOR

Dan Senor recalled an anecdote at the large rally held in Ohio the Friday before Election Day earlier this month. He said some of the event's major headliners were praising the candidate backstage and had begun engaging Romney's transition team.

"I won't mention their names, but they're talking about Romney like he's Reagan. You know, 'The debate performances were the best debate performances of any Republican nominee in presidential history. This guy—he's iconic.' They were talking about him because they believed he was going to win in four or five days," Senor said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"In fact, some of them were already talking to our transition to position themselves for a Romney cabinet," he added.

Still not naming names, Senor said the tone dramatically changed in the days following Romney's loss, as many top GOP leaders conducted post-mortem analysis of the campaign.

"I won't say who they are. They know who they are. They were on television. I mean, it was unbelievable. It was five, six days later, (they were) absolutely eviscerating him," he said.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been perhaps the highest-profile surrogate to lambast Romney since Election Day. The Republican governor sharply took issue with Romney's post-election comments in a phone call with donors, in which he said Obama won the election by offering policy "gifts" to constituencies in his base, such as Hispanics, young people and African Americans.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham also railed against Romney for the comments.