What people are saying about Donald Trump, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party: Other views

Wendy R. Sherman, USA TODAY: “I was privileged to be a U.S. diplomat in two administrations, traveling the world to protect and advance our interests. The moral authority of America, the beacon on the hill that President Ronald Reagan spoke of, was an essential part of that interest. … Today, we are leaderless and voiceless from the White House, at home and abroad, even as the voices of our citizens in the street, here and abroad, are loud and strong. … Voices from the pope to the prime minister of Canada challenged President Donald Trump and questioned whether the United States still possessed any moral authority.”

James S. Robbins, USA TODAY: “In the past week, the anti-Trump narratives have come thick and fast. When protesters occupied Lafayette Square, the president was said to be hunkered down in a bunker, and a doctored picture of a darkened White House was widely circulated that later proved to be a stock photo from the Obama era. Commentators were more agitated with Trump standing in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a Bible than they were when supposedly peaceful protesters set fire to it the night before. … What works most in Trump’s favor is the hyperbole of his critics. If Trump denounces far-left militant antifa as terrorists, some rush to defend them. If Trump praises law enforcement, progressives rush to defund them. … Given the dismal track record of the president’s critics, there should be an editorial moratorium on ‘Trump is finished’ pieces until after his reelection. Then they can run with that narrative until it finally comes true in 2025.”

OUR VIEW: Defund the GOP, and join Romney to save it

Benjamin E. Park, The Washington Post: “Mitt Romney joined more than 1,000 other protesters who marched to the White House. … The Republican senator from Utah was continuing a family tradition of strongly supporting civil rights, even when it was politically disadvantageous. Romney’s father, George, then the governor of Michigan, marched in support of racial equality in 1963. He was in the early stages of planning his own presidential run, and his actions stood in stark contrast to a Republican Party that was increasingly reaching out to white Southerners on issues of race. Later, President Richard Nixon even fired George Romney as secretary of Housing and Urban Development because of his zeal for enforcing open housing laws. While Mitt Romney proudly tweeted a photo of his father’s march in advance of his own and there are parallels between the two men, there is a major difference: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which they were both prominent and committed members, has changed its position on racial equality dramatically in the intervening five decades. George Romney not only went against his political party but (also) his church, while Mitt Romney did not.”

Jonah Goldberg, Tribune Content Agency: “You remember 2012, right? That was the year of the last presidential election before Trump’s victory. And the way liberals attacked Romney’s presidential campaign on opinion pages of newspapers, news broadcasts and in the media echo chamber of blue check-mark Twitter has a lot to do with how the next election went — and how this one will go. Their treatment of Romney was an inflection point for many on the right. … The lesson many on the right took from all the Romney attacks was that a candidate can’t win by being decent. ‘At least he fights’ became a kind of unofficial mantra of the Trump brigades. … Now it is the right that attacks Romney’s character while the left has a strange new respect for it, not because his character has changed, but because it hasn’t.”

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