Add social conservative leader Tony Perkins among Mitt Romney's detractors.
Perkins, the president of the pro-life and pro-marriage Family Research Council based in Washington, wrote in a blog post Monday on the FRC site Trump needs a change agent who confronts issues of religious freedom and radical Islam, and focuses less on "pushing sexual orientation and gender identity" as his secretary of state.
The news was first reported by Politico.
"While I like Mitt Romney and supported him after he became the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, there is nothing to suggest he will be a change agent at State," Perkins wrote. "In fact, Gov. Romney is the one candidate most likely to be the carrier of the Republican establishment into the State Department, which would set up an ongoing conflict between the stated foreign policy goals of President-elect Trump and the actual agency that is tasked with pursuing his goals and objectives."
Romney, who criticized Trump during the presidential campaign, is set to meet Tuesday with Trump for a second time regarding the Cabinet position. That he is in the running has irked several Trump loyalists, including Trump's top aide Kellyanne Conway, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
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