--- title: Romney: How Republicans Will Take Back the White House description: Romney criticized Clinton's response to Bergdahl's release and expressed confidence that a Republican will take back the White House in 2016 canonical: https://time.com/2878803/romney-how-republicans-will-take-back-the-white-house/ author: Diane Tsai article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-15T19:37:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:25:33.768Z article:section: Politics og:title: Romney: How Republicans Will Take Back the White House og:description: Romney criticized Clinton's response to Bergdahl's release and expressed confidence that a Republican will take back the White House in 2016 og:url: https://time.com/2878803/romney-how-republicans-will-take-back-the-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56e54bd3a4f24bd2/69868e11e8524bda2c602bc3/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses supporters at an election night rally in Boston, Nov. 7, 2012. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Romney: How Republicans Will Take Back the White House twitter:description: Romney criticized Clinton's response to Bergdahl's release and expressed confidence that a Republican will take back the White House in 2016 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56e54bd3a4f24bd2/69868e11e8524bda2c602bc3/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Romney: How Republicans Will Take Back the White House  by [Diane Tsai](https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Jun 15, 2014 7:37 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses supporters at an election night rally in Boston, Nov. 7, 2012. Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses supporters at an election night rally in Boston, Nov. 7, 2012.Stephan Savoia—AP  by [Diane Tsai](https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Jun 15, 2014 7:37 PM UTC After hosting a [high-profile summit](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/06/13/republican-leaders-jet-off-to-rockies-for-romneys-summit/) over the weekend that included many Republican presidential hopefuls, Mitt Romney appeared on NBC’s [_Meet the Press_](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-transcript-june-15-2014-n131601) on Sunday to discuss politics within the G.O.P. and the 2016 election. When asked by host David Gregory what he would do if he were a presidential candidate running against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Romney pointed to Clinton’s past political record as her weakness. “I think you have to consider what’s happened around the world during the years that she was secretary of State,” Romney said. “And you have to say it’s been a monumental bust.” Romney also referred to Clinton’s comments regarding the exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, in which she said the released Taliban leaders [did not pose a threat](http://freebeacon.com/national-security/hillary-clinton-taliban-five-not-a-threat-to-u-s/) to the U.S. “And she came back with a clueless answer,” Romney said. “She was clueless.” According to Romney, those points will be “the foundation of how a Republican candidate is able to take back the White House.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2878803/romney-how-republicans-will-take-back-the-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2878803/romney-how-republicans-will-take-back-the-white-house/"},"headline":"Romney: How Republicans Will Take Back the White House","datePublished":"2014-06-15T19:37:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:25:33.768Z","description":"Romney criticized Clinton's response to Bergdahl's release and expressed confidence that a Republican will take back the White House in 2016","url":"https://time.com/2878803/romney-how-republicans-will-take-back-the-white-house/","keywords":["2016 presidential election","Hillary Clinton","politics","NBC","2016","mitt romney","Republican","Bowe Bergdahl","summit","candidate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56e54bd3a4f24bd2/69868e11e8524bda2c602bc3/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Diane Tsai","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt56e54bd3a4f24bd2/69868e11e8524bda2c602bc3/mitt-romney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. 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