Mitt Romney is taking on President Barack Obama in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.
The former Massachusetts governor and failed Republican presidential candidate skewered the commander in chief’s efforts to battle the terrorist group known as ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for Friday’s massacre that killed more than 120 people and injured at least 350.
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“After Paris, it’s clear: Doing the minimum won’t make us safe. It’s time the president stopped hedging and took meaningful steps to defend us and our allies,” Romney wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post on Sunday. He later added, “The president must stop trying to placate his political base by saying what he won’t do and tell Americans what he will do.”
Romney’s criticism — and clear effort to be thrust once again into the national spotlight — comes as reports have surfaced that GOP establishment leaders are urging the ex-governor to reconsider his decision to stay out of the 2016 race, especially as political outsiders Donald Trump and Ben Carson find themselves at the top of the polls. Romney insisted earlier this year that he’s not interested in making another bid.
Like other Republican presidential candidates, Romney took issue with the administration’s refusal to describe America’s battle against terrorism as a war against “radical Islamists.”
He also said the west must “stop the insanity” of welcoming refugees from the Middle East “without knowing who exactly they are” — another issue that Republican candidates have pounced on. And finally, Romney said the White House must be willing to “devote whatever resources are required to win,” even if it means sending boots on the ground.
Obama promised on Sunday at the G-20 summit in Turkey to redouble efforts to go after ISIS. Ben Rhodes, a top White House adviser said on Sunday that despite the attacks, the Obama administration will still accept 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States.
