Mitt Romney likens Trump's false claim that he won in 2020 to the 'delusion that leads people to feed money into slot machines'

© Provided by Business Insider Former President Donald Trump, left, and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. From left, Seth Herald/Getty Images and Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

• Sen. Mitt Romney called Donald Trump's false election claims "a classic example of denial."
• He likened it to the "delusion that leads people to feed money into slot machines."
• Romney said leadership is the cure for "wishful thinking," but he's not looking to Trump or giving Biden high marks.

Sen. Mitt Romney says a "classic example of denial" comes from former President Donald Trump's false claims that he won the 2020 election, defeating President Joe Biden in a landslide victory.

"Perhaps this is a branch of the same delusion that leads people to feed money into slot machines: Because I really want to win, I believe that I will win," Romney, a  former GOP presidential nominee who represents Utah in the Senate, wrote in a July 4 essay in The Atlantic.

The essay takes aim at "wishful thinking" across the political spectrum and the nation's "blithe dismissal of potentially cataclysmic threats."

Video: Biden urges unity in speech; Sen. Romney says U.S. is a country in denial (MSNBC)

Biden urges unity in speech; Sen. Romney says U.S. is a country in denial

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"More and more, we are a nation in denial," he wrote. "I have witnessed time and again—in myself and in others—a powerful impulse to believe what we hope to be the case."

He cited other examples of denial: drought as part of a reversible cycle, the debt taking care of itself with economic growth and the January 6 insurrection being a "false-flag operation."

"When entire countries fail to confront serious challenges, it doesn't end well," he warned. "During the past half century, we Americans have lived in a very forgiving time, and seeing the world through rose-colored glasses had limited consequences."

Romney, who voted twice to convict Trump in his impeachment trials, said leadership is the cure for "wishful thinking." But he's not looking to Trump or giving Biden high marks.

"President Joe Biden is a genuinely good man, but he has yet been unable to break through our national malady of denial, deceit, and distrust," he wrote. "A return of Donald Trump would feed the sickness, probably rendering it incurable."

Read the full essay on The Atlantic.