Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday over whether his "legitimizing" of Donald Trump in 2012 had elevated the status of the billionaire candidate to front-runner in 2016.
Although Romney blasted Trump last week as a "fraud," Wallace pointed out that the former nominee "had a very different view of him four years ago when he endorsed you."
"Sixty-one million people voted for me," Romney replied. "I don't think all 61 million ought to be president of the United States."
Wallace pressed: "But you were talking at the time about his extraordinary ability to create jobs, his understanding of the economy. It's not like -- Donald Trump -- everything you believe he did wrong has happened in the last four years."
"A lot of those business failures you talk about happened before 2012," the Fox News host continued. "Before 2012, he was making the birther argument that President Obama needed to show his birth certificate because he wasn't born in the United States. I guess part of the question is, by legitimizing him back then, were you part of the reason he is where he is now?"
