Top Trump Adviser Calls Mitt Romney a ‘Coward’ for Not Entering GOP Primary

"Well if he feels that way he should have run. He was a coward," Manafort said.

ByABC News
June 12, 2016, 10:56 AM

— -- Donald Trump’s top adviser Paul Manafort said Sunday that former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is a “coward” for not throwing his hat into this year’s GOP primary race.

"He's now attacking this past weekend all the other Republicans who ran for president as well saying they should have done a better job,” Manafort, Trump’s campaign chair and chief strategist, said on ABC's "This Week." Well, if he feels that way he should have run. He was a coward.”

Speaking to a crowd at his annual summit in Utah yesterday, Romney appeared emotional when he explained why he could not back Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

"I love what this country is built upon and its values, and seeing this is breaking my heart, for the party that means so much," Romney said.

High profile GOP donor Meg Whitman also hinted Friday at Romney's closed-door summit that she would likely be supporting Hillary Clinton in November.

But neither Whitman nor Romney worry Manafort. "They're just sore losers,” he said. “You know Romney wanted to run, chose not to.”

"Romney is not one to criticize and Donald Trump, who has tapped in to an angst in America, has got a campaign strategy and is running a campaign that's focusing on people," Manafort said.