Republican Romney calls Trump 'a fraud,' creates pathway to contested convention

Former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacked 2016 Republican front-runner Donald Trump as "a fraud" on March 3 and urged primary voters to keep the outspoken New York billionaire from getting the nomination, paving the way for possible horse trading at a party convention in July. 

In an unusually harsh speech, party elder Romney warned that former reality TV star Trump would likely lose to possible Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election if he becomes the Republican nominee. 

Trump's rise has split the Republican Party between mainstream figures like Romney, and Trump supporters who complain the party does not reflect their concerns about illegal immigration, the slow economic recovery and what they see as America's diminishing role in the world. 

That split widened when Romney, the party nominee in 2012, urged Republican primary voters to vote tactically in different states to back Trump's opponents and block his path to the nomination. 

"Here's what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud," said Romney, 68, who did not endorse any candidate. 

"I would vote for Marco Rubio in Florida, for John Kasich in Ohio, and for Ted Cruz or whichever one of the other two contenders has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump in a given state," he said. Rubio is a U.S. senator from Florida and Kasich is the Ohio governor. 

Meanwhile, Trump came under withering attack from rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz at a debate on March 3 as the party's establishment sought to unite behind a last-ditch anti-Trump effort. 

The Fox News Channel debate became a mud-throwing fracas from the outset with tensions mounting over the New York billionaire's ascendancy and his drive to be the presumptive nominee...