RUBIO DROPS OUT AFTER LOSING FLORIDA JUST AS I PREDICTED (GOOD-BYE DREAM TEAM)

RUBIO DROPS OUT AFTER LOSING FLORIDA JUST AS I PREDICTED:

ROMNEY'S PLAN TO STOP TRUMP HAS BACKFIRED.
GOOD-BYE DREAM TEAM.

Sources: LA Times, PBS, Youtube

***** Rubio drops out as Trump wins Florida, North Carolina and Illinois primaries

Donald Trump romped to a landslide victory Tuesday in Florida, dealing a devastating blow to home-state Sen. Marco Rubio, who abruptly quit the race and removed one more obstacle to the businessman’s march toward the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump also won the Illinois and North Carolina primaries, networks projected, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich prevailed in his home-state, fueling the hopes of those seeking to stop Trump and throw the race open at a contested convention this summer.

In a concession speech delivered less than half an hour after the Florida polls closed, Rubio congratulated Trump, wagging a finger and shushing members of the audience who booed his kind words.

But then he devoted the bulk of his remarks to warn against the anger and frustration that has fueled Trump’s political rise.

“The politics of resentment against other people will not just leave us a fractured party,” Rubio said, as disconsolate family members stood by onstage in Miami. “They’re going to leave us a fractured nation.”

The son of Cuban immigrants and, at age 44 the youngest candidate in the field, Rubio was seen as one of the GOP’s rising stars, with a capacity to broaden the party’s support among millennial voters and the fast-growing Latino community.

But he failed to win more than a handful of contests and was never seriously competitive in his home state. Trump took all 99 delegates in Florida’s winner take-all-primary, padding his already substantial lead.

Voters in five states went to the polls Tuesday, with balloting brisk in Florida and Ohio as well as Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina,, a reflection of the excitement and passions stirred by Trump — for and against — that have animated Republicans across the country.

More than 350 delegates were at stake, or about a third the number needed to clinch the GOP nomination ahead of the party’s national convention this summer in Cleveland. The cache made it the second-biggest day of balloting on the 2016 primary calendar.

Before the first polls even closed, Trump notched a victory with a landslide in the Northern Mariana Islands. He won all nine delegates from the U.S. territory.

But as important as the delegate count was, the day’s significance turned more on the fates of Rubio and Kasich. Both were facing win-or-get-out contests in their home states, the first of this primary season to award delegates on a winner-take-all basis. Trump picked up 99 delegates in Florida, and Kasich won 66 in Ohio, the first state he has won.

If Trump had managed to carry both, he could have been unstoppable.

The real estate magnate and reality TV star started the day with 460 delegates, nearly 100 more than Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and more than twice as many as Rubio and Kasich combined.

In Berea, a suburb of Cleveland, Kasich told cheering supporters that he would “not take the low road to the highest office in the land.” He also conceded he faces an uphill struggle.

“This is all I got,” Kasich said, tugging on the lapels of his jacket.

The balloting followed one of the oddest, most contentious weeks in a campaign that has been filled with strange and surreal moments.

The precipitating event was a racially charged near-riot at a Trump rally Friday night in Chicago, which was canceled out of security concerns.

Trump’s opponents quickly seized on the moment and the violent imagery that played around the world to once more challenge his temperament and fitness to be president. They accused him of fomenting the unrest through belligerent remarks that seemed to egg his audiences into physically confronting dissenters.

Kasich and Rubio both suggested they were having second thoughts about their promise to back Trump should he be the GOP nominee. Cruz, while criticizing Trump, would not go that far.

Trump denied any responsibility, blaming the violence on what he called professional agitators linked to Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. He said the protesters provoked his supporters and were stifling their rights to free speech and assembly. “I don't condone violence,” Trump said repeatedly, though he sympathized with backers who chose to “be effective” with protesters in the audience. (Previously he used more pugilistic language.)

Trump said he might even pay the legal fees for a supporter who sucker-punched a demonstrator at a North Carolina rally, another moment caught on camera and widely broadcast.

For weeks, increasingly desperate Republican opponents have mounted an effort to stop Trump, to little seeming effect. More than $10 million in negative ads blazed across the Florida airwaves in just the last week alone, attacking Trump for his ethics, the failings of his business empire and his all-over-the-map political ideology.

Those meant nothing to Mark Owens, who stepped into the Miami Beach sunshine Tuesday and lit a cigar after casting a ballot for the political neophyte.

“I just think he's better prepared to help America economically,” said Owens, who owns several companies. Echoing the candidate, he suggested Trump would be a better “deal-maker” than previous presidents, whether it comes to trade or foreign relations.

“We've trusted politicians for 200 years to run our country,” Owens said. “It's time to give someone else a shot.”

With polls suggesting Florida was firmly in Trump’s grasp, much of the campaign focus turned to Ohio, a perennial fall battleground that was positioned to play a key role in the Republican nominating contest as well.

Trump laid on extra events, including an election-eve rally outside Youngstown in place of a planned Florida appearance, and turned his attention to attacking Kasich after long ignoring the Ohio governor.

He assailed him for his support as a congressman for the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact with Canada and Mexico that, Trump said, devastated the state’s economy. He also laid on personal insults in a bid to snatch a victory in Kasich’s home state and clear the governor from the race.

Kasich, whose strategy centered on staying above the salvos flying between other candidates, accused Trump of creating a “toxic” political atmosphere and, wrapping himself in the establishment mantle, spent Monday stumping alongside Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee.

He also campaigned extensively around the Chicago area in a play for support in Illinois, a state with a tradition of supporting more moderate Republicans.

Giving up on every other contest, Rubio camped out in his home state, conducting what amounted to a Florida-wide apology tour. He repeatedly expressed his regrets for stooping to Trump’s level with jokes about his hair, his artificial tan and, winkingly, the size of his penis.

Rubio insisted that whatever happened Tuesday his campaign would press on, but it would have been difficult to continue having lost Florida, another important swing state in the fall.

While others focused on Ohio and Florida, Cruz carved his own path, campaigning throughout Missouri, Illinois and North Carolina.

Before Tuesday, he had won the most states after Trump and trailed him by 90 delegates. His uncompromisingly conservative ideology and go-it-alone stance in Washington have been a large part of his attraction to Republican voters but antagonized many party leaders who believe those qualities limit his appeal in a general election.

At one point, as part of a divide-to-conquer strategy, Rubio suggested his Ohio supporters back Kasich in hopes of beating Trump there and slowing his momentum.

But Kasich disavowed the tactic, and Cruz said it was an example of the insider self-dealing he was campaigning against.

“No, we’re not engaged in this delegate-denial strategy that came out of the Washington establishment because they have dreams of a brokered convention, dropping their favorite Washington candidate in to win,” Cruz said on NBC. “That would be a disaster. The people would revolt.”

TRUMP GRABS FLORIDA BECAUSE RUBIO HAS FALLEN AND CAN'T SEEM TO GET UP

TRUMP GRABS FLORIDA BECAUSE RUBIO HAS FALLEN AND CAN'T SEEM TO GET UP:

HAVE ROMNEY & OTHER GOP ESTABLISHMENT LEADERS RUINED RUBIO'S POLITICAL FUTURE?

Sources: Washington Post, Youtube

After listening to GOP establishment leaders and strategists who advised him to pummel 2016 presidential Frontrunner DONALD TRUMP with silly insults, it now appears as if Trump's challenger U.S. Senator MARCO RUBIO has taken a nosedive.

Rubio's plan to destroy Trump with insults has backfired terribly and made him appear like a desperate career politician willing to do anything to win.

It's no doubt Rubio is finished on the 2016 presidential campaign trail but what about his future political endeavors?

Many people predict that Rubio won't even be able to carry his home state during the Florida Primary on March 15.

So is Rubio finished and destined to return to the private sector?

Stay tuned.

**** Inside Rubio’s collapse: A fateful decision that helped unravel his campaign

Marco Rubio had suffered three electoral thumpings in a row when the senator from Florida and his image-makers abruptly shifted strategy. The aspirational candidate, whose presidential campaign was built on a promise of generational change and Republican unity, would morph overnight into Donald Trump’s chief assailant.

Rubio launched what he and his team felt was an imperative assault on the front-runner at the Houston debate on Feb. 25.

The next morning at a Dallas rally, he mocked Trump mercilessly. Rubio whipped out his iPhone and, with boyish glee, read aloud the billionaire mogul’s misspelled tweets. He made fun of Trump’s makeup and “sweat mustache,” and suggested the mogul had wet his pants.

For the next three days, Rubio’s crude schoolyard taunts continued: over Trump’s made-in-China suits, his “horrible spray tan” and his small hands — a quip that, as Trump would later explain on the debate stage in Detroit, implied something else was small, too.

Rubio's benefactors were aghast to see their candidate practicing Trump’s gutter politics. “Everyone went, ‘What?. . . Why are you going down to that level?’ ” recalled one fundraiser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “You might as well support Trump.”

Looking back, Rubio’s supporters see these fateful days as central to his unraveling.

A strategy designed to get under Trump’s skin and force him on the defensive instead backfired on Rubio, diminishing the 44-year-old senator who had spent years trying to demonstrate presidential gravitas. At rally after rally, Rubio was unintentionally personifying the caricature that Trump was perpetually drawing of him: “Little Marco.”

The results were not pretty. Rubio lost 18 of the next 20 contests, with his only wins in Minnesota’s caucuses and Puerto Rico’s primary. The ultimate humiliation came on Tuesday, when Rubio performed so poorly in four states — he got just 5 percent in Mississippi — that he was shut out from gaining any delegates.

A reflective Rubio expressed regret Wednesday over his name-calling of Trump, saying at an MSNBC town hall that the insults had upset his children.

“In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day it’s not something I’m entirely proud of,” Rubio said. “My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t.”

A cloud of fatalism

Rubio vowed to soldier on into next Tuesday’s must-win Florida primary. “I will campaign as long and as hard as it takes,” the senator, joined by wife, Jeanette, said at a Wednesday evening rally in Hialeah, a heavily Cuban American city outside of his Miami home town.

But a cloud of fatalism now hovers over his campaign. Aides on Wednesday tried to beat back rumors he would quit the race — perhaps before Thursday’s CNN debate in Miami. Donors exchanged grim messages about Rubio’s fate in Florida, where his campaign, short on cash, is running no advertisements. New polls showed him trailing Trump here badly.

Supporters in the small and subdued Hialeah crowd all but conceded defeat. “I’ve been around for a long time,” said Sal Pittelli, 70. “And you can smell the flop sweat.”

Meanwhile, rival Ted Cruz of Texas, campaigning in Miami, needled Rubio by arguing that his was the only “credible path” to deny Trump the nomination.

It's certainly a possibility that he could lose on Tuesday, and perhaps by double digits,” said John McKager “Mac” Stipano­vich, a Tallahassee lobbyist and Rubio supporter. “He’s sworn to win, which might take some divine intervention, but that’s what he’s said, and he’s trying to persuade the people who love him and follow him that that’s the case.”

There was evidence of some Rubio enthusiasm in South Florida. Blue “Florida Is Marco Rubio Country” signs adorn many lawns and busy intersections, and the campaign has secured valuable airtime on Radio Mambi, an AM station that is popular among the region’s Cuban Americans. Rubio aides host 15-minute segments each morning.

Adam Hasner, Rubio’s Florida campaign co-chairman, dismissed the suggestion that Rubio might drop out before the primary. He noted that Rubio plans to attend a series of Florida fundraisers on Friday and would campaign hard across the state.

“He has demonstrated that he has a message that resonates and he’s the right messenger,” Hasner said. “He’s come so far in six years, to leave it a couple of yards from the goal line and taking a knee on third down? It’s just not who Marco Rubio is.”

Rubio’s major donors are descending on Miami for a finance retreat. They will be joined for lunch Thursdayby New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, an endorser, and by Rubio at breakfast Friday.

Rubio’s backers on Capitol Hill tried to show a united front of optimism amid the negative chatter.

“I hope Marco wins. I know he’s working really hard. I’m with him on this,” said Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). But she declined to address next steps if Rubio does not win Florida. “We’re positive,” she said. “I think he’s the guy, going to keep supporting him. We’ll find out next week.”

Other Rubio associates were downright despondent. They were reticent to speak openly because they did not want to damage their friend’s prospects, but one confessed privately, “I don’t see how this campaign continues.”

Miami locals who know Rubio and his family and have supported his campaigns over the years said they blame Rubio’s advisers for improperly managing what seemed to them only a few weeks ago like a sure thing.

“Up until he started talking about how Trump has a small penis, it was brilliant,” said the same friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “Focusing on the size of his hands or the color of his skin — that was stupid.”

‘Pretty much finished’

There are a multitude of reasons to account for Rubio’s collapse: He is a career politician in a season when GOP primary voters crave outsiders; he was the subject of tens of millions of dollars in negative advertising from former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s super PAC; he could not raise enough money to keep up his own ad blitz; his ground game was weak; and his Senate work seeking comprehensive immigration reform constituted apostasy to many conservatives.

Yet another reason is that Rubio has no natural base. In the sprawling field, he was never the most experienced establishment-friendly candidate (that was Bush), nor the most conservative ideological warrior (Cruz), nor the rebellious outsider (Trump).

“Beyond the appeal of his personal story, I’m not sure Marco ever grew a constituency that would carry him to the finish line,” said Stipanovich, who initially supported Bush.

Interviews with more than a dozen Rubio advisers, fundraisers and other supporters suggest that perhaps the key inflection point came in that late-February change of strategy on Trump, when Rubio sacrificed the uplifting message that had won over late-deciding voters in Iowa and South Carolina for an all-out brawl.

was when private pollsters tracking the race began to see Rubio’s favorability rating and his standing in the horse race stall out and soon erode.

Consider Kansas, where one private poll showed Cruz, Rubio and Trump in a virtual tie a week before the caucuses there. Rubio lunged for the win: He trumpeted the endorsements of Gov. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts, as well as the revered former Senate leader Robert J. Dole, and campaigned hard there for a full day. But in last Saturday’s voting, Rubio ended up a distant third with 16.7 percent; Cruz won with nearly half of the vote.

Rubio found himself locked in a downward spiral. He kept arguing on the stump that he was the most electable candidate and could unite all factions of the Republican Party. Yet electable candidates are expected to win — and Rubio was mostly losing.

“Those exchanges with Mr. Trump were damaging,” Al Cardenas, a conservative activist who is a Bush friend and a former Rubio employer, wrote in an email. “Perhaps not as damaging as the dismal results in Kansas, Maine and Louisiana. If you finish under 20 percent in the South, Midwest and Northeast, this far out in the campaign, you are pretty much finished.”

‘It was a conscious decision’

Rubio’s pivot to Trump was by all accounts deliberate and carefully planned. With the exception of his debate meltdown in New Hampshire — when he was mocked for robotically repeating talking points — Rubio had a strong early February, slowly gaining momentum, money and high-wattage endorsements. Once Trump beat him and Cruz in South Carolina and Nevada, however, Rubio’s supporters agitated for him to take a more aggressive stance or risk letting Trump run away with the nomination.

Randy Kendrick, an influential conservative donor, said she and her husband, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, encouraged Rubio to go on the offensive, “defining Trump.”

“Stand up for what we believe in,” she said. “If we lose, okay. But he will be able to say, ‘We did the right thing.’ ”

As the Houston debate approached, the senior leadership of Rubio’s campaign decided to go after Trump. They fed the candidate a mountain of opposition research about Trump’s business dealings and past liberal positions. Senior adviser Todd Harris, who runs Rubio’s debate preparation sessions, helped him develop specific lines of attack that would serve Trump some of his own medicine.

“Rubio felt he needed to point out some of Trump’s massive inconsistencies — and to try to do it with a little bit of humor,” said one Republican with knowledge of the preparations, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “It was a conscious decision.”

In the post-debate spin room, Rubio’s team boasted that their candidate had finally found Trump’s Kryptonite.

“Donald Trump has always been effective at picking up someone’s perceived weakness, and really exploiting it,” campaign manager Terry Sullivan told reporters. “Well, guess what? Marco has Donald’s number. And it’s that this is a joke.”

Harris told reporters that Rubio had proved he could “mix it up” by mocking Trump. “Was it a substantive argument? No,” he admitted. “But as we’ve seen from most of, if not all of, the media coverage over the past eight months, trying to wage a battle of substance against Trump is a pretty futile effort.”

At that point, Harris described the petty attacks as a tactic, not a new strategy. “We’re not going to go chase all of these little temporary narratives, temporary media trends, and whatever seems to be trending on Twitter,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of Marco’s stump speech is positive, and that’s not going to change.”

Not 12 hours later, Rubio’s stump speech had changed — dramatically. At a rally in downtown Dallas, Rubio spent close to eight minutes taking potshots at Trump, even as his audience’s titters turned to nervous unease.

“First [Trump] had this little makeup thing applying, like, makeup around his mustache because he had one of those sweat mustaches,” Rubio said. “Then, then he asked for a full-length mirror. . . . He wanted a full-length mirror, maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet — I don’t know.”

The speech was carried live on cable news. Donors swamped Rubio and his advisers with messages urging him to abandon the insult-fest. Eventually, after he lost 10 of 11 states on Super Tuesday, Rubio dropped the line of attack.

In the days that followed, Rubio insisted his swipes at Trump did not define his candidacy. Trump is a bully, he said, and bullies must be stood up to. Then at Wednesday’s MSNBC town hall, Rubio not only voiced regret, but also blamed the insult-spewing front-runner for setting a juvenile tone for the entire race.

“I don’t want to be that,” Rubio said. “If that’s what it takes to become president of the United States, then I don’t want to be president.”

RUBIO DROPPING OUT OF THE 2016 RACE? POLITICAL RUMORS

RUBIO DROPPING OUT OF THE 2016 RACE? POLITICAL RUMORS

THE INEVITABLE QUESTION IS WHEN WILL RUBIO CONCEDE?

Sources: Courier-Journal, The Federalist, Alex Jones, NY Mag, Youtube

The web is afloat with political rumors that U.S. Senator & 2016 GOP Presidential candidate MARCO RUBIO is considering dropping out of the race.

This news comes on the heels of a crushing defeat after Super Tuesday which seven more states and more delegates.

Even with GOP Establishment donors pouring Millions into Rubio's campaign, he has still only netted ONE state - Minnesota.

Could it be that nice-guy Rubio's decision to go postal on Trump has backfired, literally pushing him out the race versus being considered as a VP running mate?

Rubio will still appear at Thursday's debate in DETROIT, however it's no longer a question of if Rubio is conceding, instead it's a question of when?

Stay Tuned.

**** Marco Rubio Cancels Two Rallies In a Row: Is He About To DROP OUT?

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has abruptly cancelled rallies scheduled in Kentucky and Louisiana fueling speculation that he may be bowing out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

Rubio fared poorly in the Super Tuesday state races, only pulling out a victory in Minnesota. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who fared better, has been calling on Rubio to drop out so there is a single candidate who can compete against Donald Trump, who so far has seemed unstoppable.

The Courier-Journal in Kentucky reported about Rubio’s cancellation of the Friday rally in Lexington.

Tyler Glick, a spokesman for Anne Northrup, Rubio’s campaign chairwoman in Kentucky, said the campaign hasn’t provided any more information about the cancellation.

been scheduled to hold a 10:15 a.m. rally at the Lexington Center on Friday, one day before the Kentucky Republican presidential caucus in which more than 40 delegates are up for grabs.

Quietly last night Rubio also cancelled a rally in Boca Raton, WBRZ is reporting.

Individuals who signed up for tickets to see Rubio received an email Wednesday that the event was canceled.

“In order to use Marco’s time as efficiently as possible before Saturday’s contests, Marco will not be making a stop in Louisiana Friday night,” the email read.

Cancelling one rally isn’t anything to write home about, but cancelling two back-to-back rallies is fueling speculation that Rubio may be willing to bow out of the race.

A scheduled rally Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, is still scheduled with Republican New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.

Both the Rubio and the Cruz camp have been desperately trying to convince the other side to drop out to challenge Trump. So far, nobody has blinked.

TRUMP WANTS TO MAKE DETROIT GREAT AGAIN......ROMNEY'S DISRESPECT

TRUMP WANTS TO MAKE DETROIT GREAT AGAIN......ROMNEY'S DISRESPECT

REMAINING GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FACE-OFF IN DETROIT.

Sources:  Fox News, ABC News, YouTube

It's Thursday, March 3rd and tonight in the historic city of DETROIT, 4 remaining GOP presidential candidates (Trump, Rubio, Cruz & Kasich) will face-off at the Fox Theatre.

This debate is sponsored by Fox News.

Super Tuesday winner and 2016 GOP Presidential Frontrunner Donald Trump is now being targeted by 2012 GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Romney a Respected member of the GOP Establishment and a Michigan native, is demonstrating a great deal of Disrespect towards Trump by hurling insults.

Romney has even called Trump a "Fraud" among other very derogatory, negative demagogue.

Could it be that perhaps Romney is JEALOUS of Trump's glory and favorability with 2016 voters?

Regardless of Romney's JEALOUSY, 

does it make sense to help sabotage your own party's success which appears to be within close reach?

When will Romney and other GOP Establishment leaders line up behind Trump as the Koch Brothers have recently done, to help the Republican regain control of the White House?

Tune in tonight to the Detroit GOP debate at 9:00pm ET.

**** Trump answers Romney: 'Mitt is a choke artist'

Donald Trump answered Mitt Romney’s public indictment Thursday of his front-running Republican bid by skewering the 2012 GOP presidential nominee as a “failed candidate” who “let us down” with his loss to President Obama. 

“Mitt is a choke artist,” Trump told supporters at a pre-debate rally in Portland, Maine.

Trump went on to call Romney disloyal, claiming he begged Trump for his endorsement the last time around.

“You can see how loyal he is. … I could have said Mitt, drop to your knees, he would have dropped to his knees,” Trump said.

He spoke after Romney delivered a scathing speech at the University of Utah about the prospect of a Trump presidency, in what amounted to perhaps the most full-throated effort yet by a member of the so-called Republican establishment to thwart Trump’s march to the nomination.

The party’s 2012 presidential nominee issued a stark warning that Trump’s policies would lead to recession and “make America and the world less safe” -- and said the “only serious policy proposals” are coming from the other Republican candidates on the field.

“I understand the anger Americans feel today,” Romney said, but added: “Here's what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing ... the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”

Romney also claimed Trump, if nominated, would enable Hillary Clinton to be elected president.

The speech comes ahead of the Fox News Republican primary debate Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET in Detroit, the candidates' first showdown since Super Tuesday.

Trump swiftly responded to the ex-GOP nominee, taking to Twitter to claim he’s the “only one who can beat Hillary Clinton” and recalling Romney’s record in the presidential elections so far.

Later at his rally in Maine, despite claiming he wouldn’t spend much time responding to Romney’s “irrelevant” remarks, Trump delivered a point-by-point rebuttal to many of Romney’s charges.

To Romney’s criticism of his business record, Trump said, “I made so much more money than Mitt,” and pointed to his successful ventures across New York City. 

He also said Romney begged him for his endorsement in 2012 – but Romney later tweeted that if Trump had said the things he’s saying today, he would not have accepted that endorsement.

The address earlier Thursday amounted to an astonishing full-court press by Romney to stop Trump from winning the party’s nomination. Until now, Romney has mostly criticized Trump via Twitter and media interviews, but this is his most robust effort yet to rally the party and primary voters against the GOP front-runner.

Romney cast his alarm-bell warnings Thursday in dire terms, suggesting nothing less than the character of the nation is at stake, and saying Trump’s “brand of anger” has led “other nations into the abyss.” He said Trump “lacks the temperament to be president,” rebuking him for “bullying” and “greed” and “misogyny.” He borrowed a phrase from Marco Rubio, calling Trump a “con man” to boot. 

On the sidelines, the party’s 2008 nominee also seemed to join with Romney in expressing concerns.

“I share the concerns about Donald Trump that my friend and former Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, described in his speech today,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement, urging voters to “think long and hard about who they want to be our next Commander-in-Chief and leader of the free world.”

2016 candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich also gave Romney a Twitter thumbs-up, tweeting “well said” after the speech.

Romney has not yet endorsed a candidate in the race, or moved any closer publicly to reconsidering a run himself. Romney weighed another White House run at the beginning of 2015 before deciding against the move, reportedly after being out-raised by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- who has since suspended his campaign.