Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney asserted in a recent interview that President Barack Obama was like the Roman emperor, Nero, who was "fiddling" while Rome burned.

"It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done," Romney told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "The president is the leader of the nation. The president brings people together, does the deals, does the trades, knocks the heads together. The president leads, and I don't see that kind of leadership happening. He's campaigning."

The former Republican presidential nominee faulted Obama for "blaming the Republicans" because they had refused to the avert automatic spending cut in the so-called "sequester."

"That causes the Republicans to retrench and to put up a wall and to fight back," he insisted. "It's a very natural human emotion... I have to tell you, the hardest thing about losing is watching this critical moment, this golden moment just slip away."

Romney added that the White House may have opposed a Republican plan to give Obama more flexibility in how the $85 billion in spending cuts are implemented because "there may be more interest in showing pain in saying, 'See what the other guys did?'"

"Look, this is the country," Romney opined. "This is America we're talking about at a critical time and, you know, Nero is fiddling."