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Trump adviser says Romney pick for Secretary of State would be a ‘betrayal’

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Stephen Moore, a senior economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, publicly criticized the prospect of Mitt Romney being Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of state in a radio interview this week.

Moore, who previously served as chief economist for the conservative Heritage Foundation, is the most recent Trump ally to come out against Romney as secretary of state. Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also said a Romney pick would feel like a betrayal to Trump voters, as has former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Moore made his statement in a radio interview Wednesday with Chicago’s Morning Answer.

“This makes me so angry,” he said, when host Amy Jacobson asked if he could give insight into whether Romney could be Trump’s choice for secretary of state.

“If Mitt Romney is nominated for secretary of state, I feel this will be a betrayal of those who worked for Donald Trump, like myself, for the last 4 or 5 months; worked our butts off to get him elected, and then to put in as secretary of state, a man who did everything he possibly could to derail your nomination and your road to the White House. I mean, Mitt Romney did everything he could—” at which point Jacobson interrupted to reprimand Moore by pointing out that Trump himself appears to have gotten over Romney opposition to Trump during the election.

Jacobson, and her co-host Dan Proft, both told Moore that he and Conway were campaigning against Romney publicly, at which point his phone connection immediately ended, leading the hosts to joke that Moore hung up to avoid answering the allegation.