Wednesday on his radio show, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh reacted to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s decision to not participate in Thursday’s GOP presidential debate to be hosted by the Fox News Channel.
Limbaugh was skeptical of the claim Trump was skipping the debate out of fear of moderator Megyn Kelly and instead was avoiding a situation that could “make him look bad.”
“If I heard it once last night, I’ve heard it a thousand times since, that Trump is afraid of Megyn Kelly or afraid of Fox News,” Limbaugh said. “That is not what this is. There isn’t any fear. What is there is here — in my opinion — is a desire to control this and a purposeful decision to not put himself in a circumstance where other people want to make him look bad.”
“In his mind, that’s a dumb thing to do,” he continued. “You don’t put yourself in a circumstance where a whole bunch of other people are gonna be able to make you look bad while you’re there. If they do it when you’re not around, that’s another thing, you can counter-program it, you can do whatever, but you don’t have to put yourself in a circumstance where you have to personally deal with it as a sign of disrespect or somebody else trying to notch their belt. It really isn’t any more complicated than that.”
Limbaugh also dismissed the notion that Trump’s decision was of disrespect for Iowans and pointed to Trump’s numerous appearances in Iowa and in the media as evidence.
“He’s not avoiding the people of Iowa,” Limbaugh added. “He’s all over Iowa. The guy does more TV and radio than any other candidate out there. So I don’t think there’s fear, and I don’t think it’s disrespect for the people of Iowa. This is what it looks like when some guy stands up to the rules and the game and says, ‘Screw yours; I’m looking out for me first. That’s all this is. And you can say whatever you want, but I am not dumb. I’m not gonna give you the gun and the bullet and stand still. You want to hit me, come get me, but I’m not gonna put myself in your line of fire.’ That’s what he’s doing, if you ask me.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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