Molly Ball: Mitt Romney Has Become ‘Elder Statesmen’ of the GOP

BALL: "You know, it’s very interesting to look at sort of the long arc of Mitt Romney since 2012, becoming a sort of elder statesman of the party. And I think a lot of us expected him to kind of disappear after he lost that election, go back to his private life, where he certainly is very comfortable and could — and it seemed like he didn’t really like the spotlight as a candidate. And yet, he campaigned so aggressively for candidates, earned himself so much goodwill in 2014, in the midterms. Since then, he’s really been a leader for the party in sort of saying the things that sort of the establishment Republicans believe and that candidates appear afraid to say. He was the first one to come out strongly against the Confederate flag. And it was after that that a lot of candidates felt emboldened to say me, too. And I think we’re seeing that with Trump, too. He came out and said no, we don’t like this, this is wrong. And then a lot of the candidates followed him. So on the one hand, it’s an indictment of some of sort of the other candidates and not really showing leadership on some of these issues, these very toxic issues, for the party. But on the other hand, I think it’s very interesting and surprising that Romney has become such an elder statesman."