Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh criticized GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump for his remarks about fellow candidate Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, saying the attacks raised “red flags” and that Trump’s attack on Cruz are “no different than what the Democrat Party would say” on Monday.
Rush said, after playing a clip of Trump calling Cruz a “maniac” in the Senate, “even people who are not particularly aligned with Cruz on the right have gotta be curious about this because this is no different than what the media would say about Ted Cruz. This is no different than what the Democrat Party would say. I mean, this is what the Republican establishment would say, for crying out loud.”
He continued, “He’s essentially put on his John McCain hat here, saying, ‘I’m Donald McCain, and I’m the guy that can cross the aisle and work with the other side. Ted Cruz can’t.’ I was kind of surprised by that.” He also stated, “for somebody running for the Republican nomination, who has set himself up as anti-establishment, to join the establishment in that kind of criticism of Cruz, I don’t get it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Rush also said, “I don’t know what kind of damage if any this gonna do to Trump because, frankly, folks, if you look at Trump’s support base, the majority of it is not conservative. In fact, if you look at the Trump support base. And I’ve maintained this for I don’t know how long. It seems that the — if you look at the demographic makeup of Trump’s support, it’s exactly what the Republican Party claims they want. There’s a lot of independents in there, there are a lot of different ethnic groups in there, but it’s it is not majority conservative or Republican base. There’s a sizable number of them in there.” And “Trump’s not trying to portray himself as a conservative, either. … so, it’s not a violation of that. But he’s clearly making himself out to be anti-establishment, and yet he joins them here. And then he dumped on Cruz for being opposed to ethanol? In other words, we as Republicans must support government subsidies to corn farmers in Iowa if we’re to have any chance of winning Iowa? We’ve gotta stand for subsidies? And that, again, is not a conservative position. To go after Cruz on that basis, is again the way the Democrats and the media would go after him.”
He further addressed Trump’s criticism of Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, saying that Trump mischaracterized “arguments that had been submitted to the court that he was engaging in oral argument over” as “Scalia’s statements.”
Rush concluded, “But these are two things that, if you’re [a] conservative voter [in the] Republican primary, these two things have gotta raise some red flags for you people, I would think.”
Later on, Rush argued, “for any of you who are holding out hope that Trump is a genuine conservative, [a] genuine conservative, even in the Republican field would not go after Cruz this way.”
He also stated that that Trump may have been responding to reports that Cruz had questioned his judgement, but Trump’s criticisms were “disappointing” and “unfortunate” nonetheless.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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