Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Sunday ripped into President Obama for his handling of the Islamic State militant group and other foreign policy decisions, accusing the president several times of being “out of touch.”
Romney, who lost to Obama in the 2012 presidential election, eschewed several opportunities during a “Fox News Sunday” interview to revisit his assertions during the campaign that Russia was the United States’ biggest geopolitical threat, in light of Moscow’s recent foray into Ukraine.
Romney said he’s instead focused on U.S. foreign policy today, including what to do about the rise of Islamic State militants.
“I think the president is really out of touch with reality,” Romney said. “He’s so out of touch with reality that he hasn’t taken the necessary steps. … He’s too busy on the golf course. I don’t know if you can see the reality from the fairway, but he doesn’t see reality."
Romney said Obama has known for at least a year about the Islamic State threat, yet has taken no action and has not developed a strategy to deal with the militants.
“The president has a very different foreign policy than what the United States has had over the past 60 years,” Romney said. “It’s based on common humanity, and humanity is not common. … Bad people do bad things.”
Romney said recent polls show it is clear to the American people that Obama has not been engaged.
He also criticized the administration for failing to clearly explain the facts that led to the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attacks on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed.
“This goes on and on,” Romney said. “This lands at the feet of Hillary Clinton."
Clinton was secretary of State at the time of the attacks and would be the clear Democratic front-runner should she decide to make a 2016 White House bid.
Romney also reiterated he has no plans to run again for president, saying his time has come and gone.
"I'm not running and not planning on running," he said.
Romney said there is no question in his mind that he would have been more effective in the White House than Obama, but he didn't want to dwell on the past.
Romney admitted he had made mistakes in his campaign -- and that the Obama campaign did a good job on picking up on them.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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