Romney will consider voting Libertarian, praises VP candidate

by Jesse Byrnes - 06/10/16 7:05 PM ET

Mitt Romney says he's not ruling out supporting Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson https://t.co/IhUqGGoW37 https://t.co/DAVJqj7zCb

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) June 10, 2016

Mitt Romney said Friday he wouldn’t rule out supporting the Libertarian White House ticket after pledging to not vote for either the Democratic or Republican presumptive nominees.

“I’m going to look at what he has to say,” Romney said of Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson during an interview in Park City, Utah, on CNN’s “Situation Room.”

{mosads}”That’s something that I’ll evaluate over the coming weeks and months,” Romney said of voting for Johnson. “I’m not ruling that out.”

Romney acknowledged it would be “very hard” to support a candidate that is in favor of liberal social policies such as legalizing recreational marijuana, but said he’d “look carefully” at the Libertarian ticket.

Romney said Johnson’s running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, “is someone who I respect enormously.”

Weld was governor a decade before Romney served at the helm in Massachusetts.

“He was a fine governor, a fine friend, a supporter of mine both in 2008 and 2012,” Romney said. “If Bill Weld were at the top of the ticket it would be very easy for me to vote for Bill Weld for president.”

Romney has for months said he won’t vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. He told CNN he hasn’t budged.

“Both of them have enormous drawbacks, I’m not going to choose which one is worse,” Romney said.

He reiterated in the interview that he won’t personally seek an independent White House campaign and also doesn’t think launching a third-party bid generally is possible at such a late point.

Tags 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Gary Johnson Hillary Clinton