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ByStevePeoplesand Brady Mccombs The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY In an ex- traordinary display of Re- publican chaos, the party's most recent presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and John McCain, took on current front-runner Don- ald Trump on Thursday, calling him unfit for office and a danger for the nation and the GOP. "His is not the tempera- ment of a stable, thought- ful leader," Romney de- clared. He called Trump "a phony" who is "playing the American public for suck- ers," a man whose "imagi- nation must not be married to real power." Hours later, Trump lashed back, calling Rom- ney "a choke artist" who lost to Barack Obama four years ago only because he was such a poor candidate. In the most notable at- tacks on Trump as party leaders try to stop his run to the GOP nomination, Romney and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the party's vice presidential nominee in 2012, urged voters in the strongest terms to shun the former reality television star for the good of country and party. The GOP's 2008 nomi- nee, Arizona Sen. McCain, joined in, raising "many concerns about Mr. Trump's uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues that have been raised by 65 Re- publican defense and for- eign policy leaders." Romney embraced what might seem a long-shot ap- proach to deny Trump the delegates necessary to se- cure the nomination. He did not call on Republicans to unify behind a single alter- nativecandidatebutoutlined a plan to divide the elector- ate and force a contested na- tional convention in July. "Given the current dele- gate selection process, this means that 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 beat- ing Mr. Trump in a given state," Romney said. As he spoke in Utah, Ryan said on Capitol Hill that "conservatism is being dis- figured" by some of Trump's ideas and statements. Underlying the remark- able criticism was a bleak reality for panicking Repub- lican officials: Beyond harsh words, there is little they see they can do to stop Trump's march toward the Republi- canpresidentialnomination. Partyleadersareporingover complicated delegate math, outliningtheirownhazysce- narios for a contested na- tional convention and even flirting with the idea of a third-party effort. Trump responded to Romney's speech at a cam- paign stop in Portland, Maine, saying the former Massachusetts governor "chickened out" when con- templation another presi- dential run this year when he understood he'd be go- ing up against the billion- aire businessman. "He doesn't have what it takes to be president," Trump said, adding, "I made so much more money than Mitt." The back-and-forth came as the Republican candi- dates prepared for their first post-Super Tuesday de- bate, scheduled for Thurs- day night in Detroit. The clash took place four years after Romney and Trump stood side by side in Las Vegas, with Trump saying it was a "real honor and privilege" to endorse Romney's White House bid. Romney at the time praised Trump's ability to "under- stand how our economy works and to create jobs for the American people." On Thursday, Trump said Romney "was begging me" for an endorsement. "I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees.' He would have dropped to his knees," Trump said. Earlier, in Utah, Rom- ney assailed Trump's tem- perament, his business acu- men and his ability to keep America safe. "IfweRepublicanschoose Donald Trump as our nom- inee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished," he said, warning that the kind of anger Trump has dis- played has led other coun- tries "into the abyss." Voters have not so far re- sponded to warning such as those of the Republican leaders on Thursday. He padded his delegate lead with victories in seven Super Tuesday contests, with Cruz claiming three states and Florida Sen. Ru- bio picking up his first vic- tory of the 2016 race. Still, Trump is not yet on track to claim the nomina- tion before the party's na- tional gathering in July, ac- cording to an Associated Press delegate count. He has won 46 percent of the delegates awarded so far, and he would have to in- crease that to 51 percent in the remaining primaries. PRESIDENTIAL RACE Romney, McCain: Trump a danger for America's future GREGORYBULL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Mitt Romney charged into the increasingly divisive 2016 GOP White House sweepstakes Thursday with a harsh takedown of front-runner Donald Trump. By Eric Tucker The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Jus- tice Department will have to decide whether Hillary Clinton or any of her sub- ordinates could face legal consequences for her use of a private email server, a decision whose timing is fraught with serious politi- cal repercussions. Even though Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said there is no "artifi- cial deadline" for conclud- ing the investigation, the Obama administration is in the unenviable position of conducting an election- year probe that, no mat- ter the outcome or reassur- ances to the contrary, will result in grievances about its impact on the presiden- tial election. One year ago, The Associ- ated Press reported its dis- covery of Clinton's private email server, which she ran in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York, to use exclusively for her work-related emails while she was secretary of state. Clinton has emerged from the Super Tuesday primaries earlier this week as the presumptive Demo- cratic nominee for the pres- idency. Republican candidate Donald Trump has indi- cated he plans to target Clinton over the email in- vestigations. Trump said Thursday he looked for- ward to running against Clinton, "assuming she's allowed to run, assuming she's not arrested for the email situation." He added, "Let's assume the Demo- crats will protect her." The FBI for months has investigated whether sensi- tive information that flowed through Clinton's email server was mishandled. The State Department has acknowledged that some emails included classified information, including at the top-secret level, though Clinton has said she never sent or received anything that was marked classified at the time. The inspectors general at the State De- partment and the U.S. in- telligence community are separately investigating whether rules or laws were broken. "It will always be either too soon or too late," said Stephen Vladeck, an Amer- ican University law profes- sor and national security expert who has followed the case. "The best the Jus- tice Department can do is try to accept that there will be political noise no matter what, and try to figure out what makes the most sense from their institutional per- spective." "Any political appointee is going to be sensitive to the electoral calendar," he added. "The fine line is be- tween being sensitive and being beholden to it." Lynch told the AP last month that the investiga- tion involves career law- yers from the Justice De- partment and is being done independently and with- out regard for politics. She told Fox News this week that there was no "artifi- cial deadline" for complet- ing the investigation. FBI Director James Comey declined to dis- cuss the case with Con- gress during an appear- ance on Capitol Hill this week, saying only that he was very close person- ally to the matter "to en- sure that we have the re- sources we need, including people and technology, and that it's done the way the FBI tries to do it all of its work: independently, com- petently and promptly." The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Justice Department has granted immunity to the staffer who set up the server, Bryan Pagliano, so that he would be will- ing to speak with inves- tigators. A person famil- iar with the matter, who spoke on condition of an- onymity in order to dis- cuss an ongoing investiga- tion, confirmed to the AP that Pagliano had been of- fered immunity "some time ago." Pagliano had previ- ously asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to re- fuse to answer questions from lawmakers investi- gating the server setup. OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE Clinton private email investigation fraught with political consequences BestofTehamaCounty 2016 Winners Saturday, March 26, 2016 Willbeannouncedinaspecialsectionon www.redbluffdailynenews.com Digital Edition will stay online through March, 2017 FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B