Mitt Romney is being courted to reconsider a White House bid, and reportedly met privately with William Kristol,
who's leading a push for an independent candidate in the divisive race.
In a phone interview with
the Washington Post, Kristol said Romney "came pretty close to being elected president, so I thought he may consider doing it, especially since he has been very forthright in explaining why Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton should not be president of the United States."
But if the 2012 GOP presidential nominee remains on the sidelines, Kristol says he hopes Romney will backwhoever might take on the independent run.
"Obviously, if there were to be an independent candidacy, Romney’s support would be very important," Kristol tells the Post. "I wanted to get his wisdom on whether it was more or less doable than I thought."
"It was not like, 'You should do it.' I wouldn’t presume he’d do it. But I’m hoping that he begins to think about it a little more. His name is one of the names that is part of the discussion."
The private meeting was held at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Washington, just blocks from the White House. The meeting was requested by Kristol, an unnamed source close to Romney tells the Post.
On Thursday,
Romney declared he wouldn't vote for the presumptive GOP nominee, or attend the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland.