Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh inched away from GOP front-runner Donald Trump Monday, suggesting on his radio program that the casino tycoon’s recent criticism of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, raises red flags.
“You cannot legitimately and honestly criticize Cruz’s competence, his intelligence, his abilities. He’s as bright and competent and capable and smart as anybody, and they all know it,” the host said Monday, “A genuine conservative, even in the Republican field, would not go after Cruz this way. So that just raised a red flag for me, made me somewhat curious.”
Limbaugh’s comments came as part of a broader discussion regarding Cruz’s sudden rise in the polls, especially in Iowa where the Texas senator holds a 10 point lead over Trump, according to a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll released Saturday.
In response to Cruz’s recent success, Trump lashed out Sunday by publicly questioning the senator’s ability to run in 2016 as a qualified GOP presidential candidate.
“I don’t think [Cruz] has the right temperament. I don’t think he’s got the right judgment. You look at the way he’s dealt with the Senate where he goes in there like a … you know, frankly, like a little bit of a maniac,” the real estate mogul said Sunday in a Fox News interview. “You’re never going to get things done that way. You can’t walk into the Senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people. He’ll never get anything done, and that’s the problem with Ted.”
Cruz, who has avoided saying anything critical about Trump, laughed off the criticism.
For Limbaugh, however, Trump’s remarks are problematic.
“Whoa. Wait just a second here. Doesn’t that kind of describe the way Trump has been dealing with people he disagrees with? I mean, he’s been calling them stupid, he’s been calling them incompetent, he’s been saying you can’t get anything done with these people,” Limbaugh said Monday.
“But for the people in the Trump support base who are conservatives, and who may not even have any affinity for Cruz … The conservative base of the Republican Party likes a lot of different people,” he added.
Along with political commentator Ann Coulter, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, radio hosts Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham, Limbaugh has been one of Trump’s most vocal and persistent supporters in right-leaning media.
But the host hinted that Trump sounded an awful lot this weekend like members of the so-called GOP “establishment.”
“Even people who are not particularly aligned with Cruz on the right have got to be curious about this because this is no different than what the media would say about Ted Cruz,” he said. “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. I mean, this is akin to saying, ‘I’m the guy who can cross the aisle and work with the other side.’ That hasn’t been the way Trump has come off up ’til now. He’s not positioned that way.”
Limbaugh then explained that Trump is merely adopting a tried and true strategy for smearing Cruz.
“This is obviously the Trump campaign deciding to use the most common criticism against Cruz because they see that Cruz has negatives,” he said, suggesting that the real estate mogul is making a play for the “establishment’s” support. “They see that Cruz is not liked by the Republican establishment, and so they’re just piggybacking on that, I think, as a way for Trump to maybe score some points with the Republican establishment.”
Trump has “decided to go after Cruz here in the way the establishment Republicans go after Cruz, in the way the media goes after Cruz, in the way the Democrats go after Cruz,” he said. “He’s essentially put on his John McCain hat here and is 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.'”
He added that he doesn’t think the criticism will hurt Trump with his conservative supporters, because most of Trump’s base isn’t conservative. Limbaugh also made sure to note towards the end of his program Monday that he hasn’t turned on Trump; he’s just asking questions.
