Mitt Romney is looking straight past his potential GOP rivals and sharpening his attacks against Hillary Clinton.
The 2012 GOP presidential nominee will argue in a speech Wednesday night that the former secretary of state was “clueless” on relations with Russia and would prove inept on economic policy if elected president.
“How can Secretary Clinton provide opportunity for all if she doesn’t know where jobs come from in the first place?” Romney will say, according to excerpts from his prepared remarks.
He speaks at Mississippi State University in Starkville, where, according to a Romney aide, he’s set to expand on his reasons for a potential presidency as well as address what he considers some of the mistakes and failures of the past few years.
While the speaking appearance was announced back in December — weeks before he told donors he was seriously considering a third run at the White House — political observers are closely monitoring his every statement as he makes his decision.
He’ll hit on familiar refrains that he frequently delivers to college students about challenges facing the country, and he’ll weave in swipes against Clinton, who’s widely considered the Democratic frontrunner if she runs for president.
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cluelessly pressed a reset button for Russia, which smiled and then invaded Ukraine, a sovereign nation,” Romney’s expected to say, arguing that Clinton helped contribute to Obama’s “timid” approach to foreign policy.
Those attacks build on comments his team made earlier Wednesday. As Romney heads to the nation’s poorest state, his political team is fighting back against perceptions that his wealth could be a political liability if he runs for president again, arguing that Clinton is no model for modest living, either.
“It’s going to be hard for Hillary Clinton to make Mitt Romney’s wealth a fruitful line of attack, with her multi-million dollar mansions in Georgetown and Chappaqua and her jet-setting lifestyle of the rich and famous,” a Romney aide said Wednesday.
That comment was also included in a new report by the Boston Globe details how Romney purchased or built two new homes after the 2012 Republican presidential nominee’s election loss. The former private equity CEO, whose wealth became an overriding theme for Democratic attacks, has a total of four homes: a mansion in La Jolla, California; a ski chalet in Park City, Utah; a large home in Salt Lake City; and a house on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
The home in La Jolla, complete with a car elevator, has been undergoing renovations to make it bigger since 2012, and according the Globe, is now being shown to potential buys by a broker.
Correct the Record, the pro-Clinton communications and research PAC, pushed back against Romney’s response Wednesday.
“While Mitt Romney tries in vain to reinvent himself as a friend to those who are struggling, Hillary Clinton is continuing her life-long work to lift up the middle class and level the playing field for all Americans,” said Adrienne Elrod, communications director for the group, said in an email to CNN.
If he runs again, he’s likely to make anti-poverty policy a key part of his message, the former Massachusetts governor suggested in remarks to the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in San Diego.
Wednesday night he’ll hit on those points again, noting people he met in his last campaign who were stuck in poverty “from generation to generation.”
“These we have to help escape the tragedy and the trap of chronic generational poverty. For 50 years and with trillions of dollars, Washington has fought the war on poverty with failed liberal policies,” he’ll say. “It’s finally time to apply conservative policies that improve America’s education system, promote family formation and create good-paying jobs.”
Romney was constantly playing defense against multi-million dollar Democratic campaigns that pilloried his corporate background and painted him as out of touch. He also sought to overcome a string of gaffes?i.e. “I like being able to fire people” and “I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners”?that Democrats quickly used as fuel for their fire against the then-GOP nominee.
A spokesman for Clinton did not immediately return a request for comment.
The former secretary of state, widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner if she runs for president, has fought her own battle against accusations of being out of touch, in part because of her six-figure speaking fees and because of comments she made last summer in which she argued that her family was “dead broke” after leaving the White House.
Romney’s $50,000 honorarium (minus travel costs) is being donated to Charity Vision, a restorative eyesight organization based in Provo, Utah.
