Barney Frank Bashes Bernie Sanders, Calls Mitt Romney a ‘Pretend Governor’

The former Massachusetts congressman did not hold back in a recent interview.

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 27JAN10 - Barney Frank, Congressman from Massachusetts (Democrat), 4th District; Chairman, Financial Services Committee, USA captured during the session 'The Next Global Crisis' of the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2010 at the Congress Centre. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Michael Wuertenberg

Barney Frank Photo by Michael Wuertenberg / World Economic Forum / swiss-image.ch

Barney Frank got feisty during a recent interview with Slate, firing shots at everyone from Bernie Sanders to Mitt Romney.

The former Democratic congressman did not hold back, and called Romney out for being a “pretend governor” who had “no real interest in the state” during his tenure in office.

Frank also bashed the former Republican presidential nominee for not supporting same-sex marriage. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage while Romney was serving his first and only term as governor.

“He tried to choke off same-sex marriage, so I was pretty much on the other side of him,” Frank said. “He just didn’t want to have anything to do with anybody in the congressional delegation.”

The retired congressman did give Romney some slight praise for waking up to the “disaster that [Donald] Trump is for the Republican Party,” although he believes it may be “too little too late.”

Frank stated that he wasn’t surprised by the overwhelming support that Trump received from voters in Massachusetts.

“The Massachusetts Republican Party has moved to the right along with the rest of the Republican Party,” Frank said. “The Republican side in Massachusetts is a lot less different from the rest of the country than it used to be.”

As for Sanders, Frank was pretty harsh on the Democratic presidential hopeful, saying the Vermont senator hasn’t done much during his nearly three decades in Congress.

“Bernie Sanders has been in Congress for 25 years with little to show for it in terms of his accomplishments and that’s because of the role he stakes out,” he said.

Frank called Sanders a “McCarthyite” for trying to draw a connection between Wall Street and his rival Hillary Clinton.

“I mean, yes, McCarthyite in the sense that it’s guilt by association. He complains about what she did with regards to all this money stuff,” Frank said. “What Sanders basically says is, ‘They’re trying to bribe you.’ Well, what do they get for money? He shows nothing.”