Mitt Romney sat down and gave up secrets in a rare tell all that is a look into the current mind of an old school GOP adherent. (Politico)

McKay Coppins sat across from Mitt Romney in the senator’s Capitol Hill office looking for a higher level of alarm.

It was the night of Dec. 14, 2021, a little less than a year after the insurrection and not quite a year before the next set of midterms, and Coppins wanted to know if Romney was seeing the same warning signs that he was — a slew of Republicans on ballots across the country who had supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Romney, in Coppins’ recollection, seemed to downplay the threat.

“I’m sure there are some people who might succumb to corruption,” Romney said, “but the great majority of states and elected officials and even legislators are not going to do so.”

“Well,” Coppins said, invoking the Trump-incited riots, “after January 6, you told me you were very concerned about the fragility of democracy. Are you still concerned about it?”

Romney acknowledged he was — because of Trump, because of Trump’s “Big Lie” — “but I don’t know how widespread that is,” he said. “I’m not at the point of moral panic,” he added. “I do think that people fundamentally don’t want to be dishonest and acknowledge to themselves that they’re a dishonest person, that they’ve lied, and that they’ve thwarted democracy.” By MICHAEL KRUSE, ‘Politico’

Mitt Romney was the GOP presidential nominee for President and many thought he had a chance to win, but that was 11 years ago. 11 years and a million political realities ago. Today he would not have a shot at the nomination and can realistically be called an outsider in a remarkable remake of an American political party. He blames Donald Trump for essentially stealing the GOP out from under him and turning it against those of his ilk. Sen. Romney will retire a man without a party that he calls home.