During Wednesday’s edition of The Five, co-host Greg Gutfeld delivered a monologue addressing freshman Utah Senator Mitt Romney’s Washington Post op-ed offering scathing criticism of President Trump’s character; while offering tepid praise of some of his accomplishments. Gutfeld also referenced the media’s complete 180 on their treatment of Romney, comparing their adoring praise of him now to their coverage of him back in 2012 when was at the top of the Republican ticket in the Presidential Election.
Romney first emerged as a critic of President Trump in March 2016, after President Trump had won three of the four early state primary contests and a majority of the contests on Super Tuesday. Trump considered Romney for Secretary of State, and then endorsed Romney to replace Utah’s retiring Republican Senator Orrin Hatch. After winning the election by a landslide, it looks like Romney has once again decided to take the gloves off.
Gutfeld claimed “Mitt’s still mad about Trump and The Washington Post and CNN will let him cry on their shoulder...it’s tempting for Mitt. It feels good to get hugs from a media that once branded you a sexist bully who hurts dogs and kept women in binders; a press that joined Obama’s dry laugh when Mitt said ‘just maybe, Russia is a problem.’”
Gutfeld continued: “but this attention is just strange new respect that’s gone by tomorrow. The media may pretend to like you because you hate Trump, but they’re just using you. Don’t forget the media was brutal to Mitt too; as they are to anyone right of Castro.”
Looking back at 2012, NBC’s David Gregory asked Florida Senator Marco Rubio if Romney’s “binders full of women” comment proved that he was “out of touch” with women. Newsweek ran a cover story in July 2012 labeling Romney as a “candidate with a serious wimp problem.” For more examples of how Romney’s new best friends in the media mercilessly trashed him as he sought to unseat the anointed one, former President Barack Obama, check out this excerpt from the book Collusion.
Like many conservatives, Gutfeld argued the media would have been ruthlessly rough on any other Republican President: “Jeb would be called a warmongerer and Rubio a misogynist.” After joking that “to the press, the only acceptable Republican is an ex-Republican,” accompanied by a picture of MSNBC Host and former Florida Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough, Gutfeld concluded: “So Mitt, that warm glow you feel from the left isn’t true love, it’s a bug zapper. They’ll pull you in as long as you diss Trump but only until it’s time for them to fry your ass.”
It remains to be seen how long the media’s sudden infatuation with Mitt Romney will last. It will probably come to an end if/when Romney begins voting in support of the President on Republican policy priorities, as he suggests he will in the Post.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of The Five is below.
The Five
01/02/19
05:00 PM
GREG GUTFELD: Well, that didn’t last long. On January 1, Mitt Romney, a man so stiff you could iron his shirt on him, bashed the President in The Washington Post. Remember that? You know the drill. Trump’s rude. He lacks character and so on. It could have been written on January 1, 2018 or 2017 or, hell, 1517. If the definition of insanity is complaining about something that will never change, Mitt has finally made it to the looney bin and he was helped by a media acting like the blast from the past who indulges unhappy exes. See, Mitt is still mad about Trump. AndThe Washington Post and CNN will let him cry on their shoulder as long as it’s done in public and that he pays for the dry cleaning.
It’s tempting for Mitt. It feels good to get hugs from a media that once branded you a sexist bully who hurts dogs and kept women in binders; a press that joined Obama’s dry laugh when Mitt said just maybe Russia is a problem. But this attention is just strange new respect that’s gone by tomorrow. The media may pretend to like you because you hate Trump but they are just using you. Don’t forget, the media was brutal to Mitt too; as they are to anyone right of Castro. And if Trump hadn’t won, had it been Rubio or Bush, you think they would’ve been spared? Jeb would be called a warmonger and Rubio a misogynist. To the press, the only acceptable Republican is an ex-Republican. His name is Joe Scarborough. And nobody cares. So Mitt, that warm glow you feel from the left isn’t true love. It’s a bug zapper. They’ll pull you in as long as you diss Trump but only until it’s time for them to fry your ass.
