Mitt Romney will speak Thursday on “the state of the 2016 presidential race,” he said in a press release.
The 2012 Republican nominee will speak at 11:30 a.m. ET on Thursday at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum, the same day that the remaining GOP presidential candidates are schedule to debate in Detroit.
Romney’s remarks come at a time of deep soul-searching for the Republican establishment as they consider ways to take on front-runner Donald Trump, who dominated yesterday’s Super Tuesday contests.
In Washington, Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch told CNN, “If the convention is locked up, there’s a possibility” Romney would run for president.
Romney has been especially vocal in criticizing Trump in recent days, raising the possibility that the billionaire’s tax returns could contain a “bombshell” and slamming him for not disavowing white supremacists in an interview Sunday with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Trump later said he’d had a faulty earpiece, and noted he’d condemned former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke — who Tapper had asked about — both before and after that interview.
Still, Romney hit him on Twitter the following day, saying: “A disqualifying & disgusting response by @realDonaldTrump to the KKK. His coddling of repugnant bigotry is not in the character of America.”
New York Rep. Peter King told CNN he wasn’t aware of any “inside information” related to what Romney will say at Thursday’s speech but did express concern over Trump’s momentum in the presidential race.
“His whole campaign is all based around Donald Trump and his personality,” King, who has endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said, adding that he plans to be at the Republican convention this summer.
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