Updated

Juan Williams, Fox News contributor and columnist with The Hill, said Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney took the hint some donors in his party were sending when he announced he would not run for the nation’s highest office in 2016.

“If there’s an early primary among Republicans going on right now with your donor class, there was a clear message from the editorial pages as well as from the hedge funds,” Williams said. “Mitt, your time has passed.”

Williams said a potential Romney campaign faced internal problems as well.

“It was a big loss for Romney to see that his key operative in Iowa went to work for Jeb Bush,” he said.

Moreover, Williams cited issues Romney may have faced in appealing to members of his party.

“Iowa and the whole evangelical wing of the party was going to be a difficult marriage for Romney anyway,” Williams added.