Romney was joined by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark, for a conversation at the University of Denver’s School of International Studies. The event was hosted by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, a non-profit founded by Rasmussen to advance democracies and free markets.

“I am so honored to be on stage with what I would say is a true profile in courage,” Rasmussen said of Romney during his opening remarks, prompting a standing ovation from the crowd of about 300 people in a packed university auditorium.

“There are a couple of times I have said things or taken positions that were more expedient than they were based upon conviction. I remember those things precisely and I regret them enormously,” Romney said. “And I said, ‘I’m not doing that again.’ I’ve reached a point in my life where I look back and I say of all the things I’ve done in my life, I think those couple of things really stand out and they really bother me. Years, decades later, and I’m not going to do that anymore.”