{"id":4444,"date":"2016-01-18T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-06-13T10:58:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T14:58:44","slug":"trump_is_making_a_strategic_mistake_in_the_way_he_s_going_after_cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/01\/18\/trump_is_making_a_strategic_mistake_in_the_way_he_s_going_after_cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Is Making a Strategic Mistake in the Way He\u2019s Going After Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: I want to paraphrase an e-mail that I received. It\u2019s like a number of e-mails that I have received. As I said, I\u2019m paraphrasing it because it represents quite a few people who are e-mailing. They\u2019re confused and they don\u2019t know what to do. These are Republicans, slash, conservative primary voters. And they are — well, they\u2019re confused. “Mr. Limbaugh, I have no idea anymore where I belong in the Republican Party. I don\u2019t know what the Republican Party stands for, and I don\u2019t know if conservatism has a home in it any longer or not. My problem is compounded by the fact that I do not like either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. And yet it looks like I\u2019ve got no choice but than to support one of them.”<\/p>\n

I might tell you people something here, and we\u2019re gonna sort all through this today. Just sit back and relax and be patient. We\u2019re gonna sort all of this out today. We\u2019re gonna get started on it, or try, anyway. But a sort of a shock-surprise poll comes out of South Carolina, and admittedly, it\u2019s an outlier, obscure poll that\u2019s from the Augusta Chronicle. It\u2019s the local newspaper. And the shocker in the poll is that Jeb has pulled ahead of Marco Rubio in South Carolina.<\/p>\n


\nThe numbers are Trump 32, Cruz 18, Rubio 11. Wait. Jeb is at 13. So it actually goes Trump 32, Cruz 18, Jeb 13, Rubio 11, Carson\u2019s at nine, and everybody else is at four, three, or two. Now, in this same poll back on December 20th, Trump was at 38, so he\u2019s down six in this poll. Cruz was at 23. He\u2019s down five since December 20th. Rubio was at 12, statistically even, lost a point. Jeb was at 7% back in December. Now he\u2019s at 13, nearly doubled his support. Again, this is the Augusta Chronicle.<\/a><\/p>\n

The point I\u2019m making here is the establishment is gonna glom onto this. This is like life support. This is like they\u2019re very, very badly injured in an accident, and they\u2019ve been brought to the ER in the ambulance, and all is thought that the patient pretty much is in a hopeless situation, and all of a sudden they detect a pulse that\u2019s getting stronger, and they immediately go into action to try to improve the survivability of the person they thought had pretty much cashed it in. Now, what\u2019s fascinating here, it\u2019s really been interesting to watch and read about the Republican establishment and the Drive-By Media, because if I didn\u2019t know any better, I would be confused.<\/p>\n

Members of the establishment — and I mean elected Republicans and the Republican leadership and the so-called Republican media, the RNC, people inside the Beltway, have savaged me for not single-handedly taking out Donald Trump. Would you agree with that assessment, Mr. Snerdley? I have been savaged profoundly by these people, either by virtue of the written word or in various tweets or maybe even comments on cable news shows. That I am faux conservative, that I\u2019m not real, that I\u2019m letting my audience down because Trump\u2019s never been a conservative, and Limbaugh knew it and wouldn\u2019t take him out.<\/p>\n

And then over the weekend I read that that very same establishment has decided to throw in with Trump, because they so despise Cruz. So here I have been in recent months savaged and criticized. And, by the way, you don\u2019t see me crying about it. (interruption) No, no, no, I\u2019m not saying that anybody else is. I\u2019m just saying it\u2019s the game, if you will, it\u2019s the league everybody plays in here.<\/p>\n


\nIt\u2019s like Trump and his criticism of Cruz. This has got so many conservatives just bent out of whack, they can\u2019t see straight. because there\u2019s always been this assumption that Cruz and Trump were a couple. They were a united pair. They both had a common opponent, and that was the Republican establishment. And that arrangement, such as it was perceived to exist, was fine and dandy with Trump so long as he was in first place. Then we saw the poll numbers switch, and Cruz jumped out to a lead in Iowa. And, you know, bye-bye bromance or couple or whatever it is. Trump sets his sights on whoever he wants to tear down, and that in this case is Cruz.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll tell you, folks, let me dispel something else, too. I don\u2019t know what the perception is. I have spoken to Donald Trump one time in this entire campaign, and it was way back when the McCain thing happened, shortly after I guess he made his announcement, and he made the comments about John McCain, said, “I prefer generals that don\u2019t get captured. I don\u2019t have a lot of respect for McCain.” I talked to Trump then. He called here. And I have not talked to him since.<\/p>\n

Now, I have trouble talking to people on the phone. I had a conversation (I mentioned this last week) with a ranking member of the Republican establishment. They know I can\u2019t hear, and they call anyway. I heard half of what he said. I got tired of saying, “Wait, would you say that again?” It\u2019s just a very, very difficult thing for me to do, to have a substantive conversation. I have to spend so much time concentrating on what I\u2019m trying to comprehend, especially if it\u2019s a cell call, that I miss half of it and have to go back through it.<\/p>\n

It limits my ability to be an open and free participant in here, because so much of my energy is focused on just trying to understand what the hell I\u2019m being told, but it doesn\u2019t matter. Even though they know I can\u2019t hear they call and go through what they\u2019re thinking and planning and so forth and want me to know. Which I appreciate. Don\u2019t misunderstand. By the way, speaking of that little offshoot, remind me of this. Wi-Fi calling may be the saving grace of me being able to use the phone again, that and FaceTime audio. I\u2019ll explain that later.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I have not spoken to Trump. I don\u2019t call him to give him advice; he doesn\u2019t call here asking for it. I don\u2019t know who else, if anybody else, he calls. But I don\u2019t think he\u2019s taking advice from anybody. Maybe from his inner circle and so forth. But when it comes to this Cruz business… Look, he\u2019s doing two things that are not unique. A, he\u2019s going after Cruz\u2019s likability. Well, folks, you don\u2019t need me to tell you that this is an often-heard criticism of Cruz from all over the place, long before Trump even started criticizing Cruz.<\/p>\n

I mean, I go out and I tell people I like Cruz and I get, “Man, I don\u2019t know. He just seems like not a real guy. He seems like the televangelist stealing all the money.” I hear it all. It\u2019s not unique that Trump would go after Cruz on the fact that he\u2019s a nasty guy. I don\u2019t even think Trump means it. I think it\u2019s… This is politics, and Cruz is ready for this and is prepared for it — and, in fact, is dealing with it masterfully. Trump knows — and I\u2019m giving him the benefit of the doubt here, but I know he\u2019s a smart guy.<\/p>\n

He knows that this business of Cruz running around and using the phrase “New York values” was not an insult to anybody about 9\/11. Trump knows it. It just provided him an opportunity to shore up his credentials with people in New York. It provided him an opportunity to go after his primary, number one opponent. But guess what? Cruz has flipped that and turned that around masterfully, and it has resulted in the unearthing of a Donald Trump appearance on Meet the Press with Tim Russert way back in which Trump admits to all of his liberalism in the past.<\/p>\n

So I sit back and I watch all of this play out. We\u2019re watching a couple of really qualified professionals in the communications game go at it. And, as is in the past, I do not even consider inserting myself in the middle of it, other than to tell you things I\u2019m telling you here on the air. And I will tell you, like I\u2019ve said before, that I think Trump is making a strategic error in the way he criticizes Cruz. But, folks, it\u2019s unrealistic to expect that they\u2019re not gonna go after each other. They\u2019re number one and two. Iowa and New Hampshire are at stake.<\/p>\n

This is politics.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one winner. The two of them can\u2019t win this together in some sort of a bromance and come out as a united couple after either one of these primaries or after the whole process. It\u2019s not how it works. They\u2019re both gonna try to take each other out and they\u2019re both gonna have their own strategies for doing so. Now, Trump I think is… You know, Trump knows his coalition. He knows who his base is. His base is made of many people, more than just conservatives. However, there are a boatload of conservatives in Trump\u2019s…<\/p>\n

I\u2019m gonna say “audience,” here, but I mean his support base, the people who intend to vote for him. There\u2019s a lot of conservatives, disaffected and angry with the Republican Party. And there are a lot of conservatives that support Trump who don\u2019t like Ted Cruz. I can\u2019t explain it, but I hear it all over the place. I hear all kinds of love, respect, and admiration for Cruz. And I hear people at the same time who don\u2019t like him for whatever reason they conjure up. I remember when Scott Walker was the front-runner. People down here, my neighbors and friends, said, “I don\u2019t like Scott Walker. He doesn\u2019t have a prayer.”<\/p>\n

“Why?”<\/p>\n

“His eyes are too close together.”<\/p>\n

I said, “What?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, his eyes are too close together. He looks shifty. Just so trustworthy. I don\u2019t know.”<\/p>\n

This bunch were supporting Kasich. Who can explain any of this? I certainly am… Well, there\u2019s nobody better than me to explain it. But justify it? That\u2019s… I think Trump going after Cruz is quite normal; it\u2019s understandable. But I think he\u2019s making a tactical error the way he\u2019s doing it. Whatever you want to say, Cruz is not a “nasty” guy. When you get into criticism, it better be believable. But Trump is looking at Cruz, and I\u2019m sure is hearing about the negatives that Cruz has, and I\u2019m not gonna sit here and pretend to you that they don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n


\nHeck, folks, even in my own circle of friends there are people that don\u2019t like Cruz or Bush or Rubio. It runs the gamut. And it all perplexes me. I told you about the dinner party I had at my house where the guests hated Sarah Palin. I walked out of my own dinner party when I started hearing why and so forth. I did. I had to go to a golf tournament, so I just left six hours early. I did. I left there, went out the front door, and got in the car (it was already packed), hit the airport, and, bam!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m out of there. Kathryn\u2019s left there thinking, “Oh, my God. What just happened?” Poor Kathryn. Well, she was a champ. She hung in there, and she saved the night. There were kids at the table, but I started yelling and screaming. I was confronted with so much of what I thought was stupidity. These guys are basically saying, “The media\u2019s destroyed Palin. It\u2019s stupid to try to prop her up and save her! We\u2019re never gonna win if the media doesn\u2019t like our candidate.”<\/p>\n

I say, “Really, you guys? It\u2019s that easy? You gonna let the media choose our candidate?”<\/p>\n

“The media\u2019s destroyed her, Rush. It\u2019s just that simple. There nothing we can do.”<\/p>\n

I said, “Well, I can\u2019t handle this.” This is not… These guys are not fighters, battlers, or what have you. Plus they\u2019ve got this belief media doesn\u2019t like our candidate, we don\u2019t have a prayer. So I was out of there. I think Trump is free to criticize Cruz all he wants as far as I\u2019m concerned, but going after him as a “nasty” guy and on this birther business, he\u2019s gotta worry that it\u2019s gonna create more negatives within his own support base rather than turn people off to Cruz. And he\u2019s gotta consider the opportunity that it\u2019s providing Cruz in responding.<\/p>\n

Like Cruz has come up now twice with… He\u2019s doubling down. He\u2019s taking Trump\u2019s lesson on this whole insulting New Yorkers thing. Trump has made it possible for Cruz to double down on his apology. He\u2019s apologized twice now. He\u2019s apologizing to the people in New York for the people that are leading them. “I feel bad for you. I\u2019m sorry as hell that you have a governor as bad as Cuomo, and I\u2019m sorry as heck you have a mayor as bad as de Blasio, and I apologize. I wish there was something I could do about it, but you voted for \u2019em, not me.”<\/p>\n

So Trump has given Cruz the opportunity to make his point over and over again and to show that he\u2019s not cowering in fear in the corner and running away from it. And in the midst of all this, Cruz, in responding to this, is not even mentioning Trump\u2019s name, which is… That\u2019s lesson number one. You don\u2019t mention the opponent. It\u2019s like they don\u2019t even exist. You just go about your business. Cruz is doing all of that. Trump is not number one in Iowa. Well, in some polls he is. But Cruz has been in the lead there for a while.<\/p>\n

I just think it\u2019s like I\u2019ve always said when he first went after Cruz using liberal criticism. I mentioned it here. I did not call him, haven\u2019t talked to him, don\u2019t get calls from him. I don\u2019t… I\u2019m not an advisor to anybody. I just tell you. You people in this audience, you are my focus every day. I do this program for you. The show is the thing, and the audience is why there is a show. And so my focus here is being honest with you about what I think, not carrying somebody else\u2019s water — or in some cases, even, a movement\u2019s water. At some point, it\u2019s up to them.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Trump was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He had an appearance over the weekend, and he got booed. It\u2019s the first time the Drive-Bys can remember Trump getting booed, and the boos got louder and louder and louder as Trump became in more and more critical of Cruz. It did not deter Trump. He started chiding the audience. “Well, hey,” and then he said whatever he said. “Hey, the guy\u2019s going out and getting loans, and not telling you about it. Say whatever you want to say. The guy may be prime minister of Canada, but he\u2019s not legally….”<\/p>\n


\nHe just didn\u2019t drop the riff. He kept going. The boos got louder and louder. However, when it was over he got a standing O. Both things happened. The boo birds cannot walk out. Here\u2019s NBC\u2019s report<\/a>. “Among conservatives, Donald Trump can typically do no wrong — until he attacks Ted Cruz.” That is wrong. The Drive-By Media is assuming — and they don\u2019t have to. You can find this out. The research is in, to the extent that it exists. Donald Trump has lots of conservatives who do not like him. I hear from them all the time.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of conservatives who prefer Rubio or who prefer Ted Cruz — some people, Chris Christie. But there are a lot of conservatives (you\u2019ve heard them call here) that do not like Trump because they don\u2019t think he is one. There are a lot of conservatives who think that he\u2019s a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing, that he\u2019s a traditional, lifetime New Yorker — and that means something. There are all kinds of conservatives with suspicions of Donald Trump. Yet NBC, “Among conservatives, Donald Trump can typically do no wrong…”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s wrong right out the gate. Now, there are some conservatives in the crowd in Myrtle Beach; there are conservatives in Trump\u2019s coalition, of course. And they are conservatives and supporting Trump for specific reasons. Among them, Trump is fighting back against what they perceive to be a common enemy, and that\u2019s Washington, the establishment, the people who are working and looking out for themselves and not the rest of the country. But Trump\u2019s coalition is 20% Democrat, maybe more.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of Hispanics. There are a lot of African-Americans. There are a lot of women. People who are traditionally not thought of in the Republican coalition. So Trump\u2019s cross-section of people is pretty diverse, but it\u2019s not uniformly conservative. So when you say NBC reporting on Trump being booed, they think it\u2019s big news inside conservatism, but it\u2019s not. To those of us who are conservative and know the movement and know people in it, we\u2019ve long been aware that there are conservatives that do not like Trump and some stridently do not like Trump.<\/p>\n


\nThen NBC says, “On Saturday, Trump drew boos from a grassroots conservative crowd during remarks at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention for his attack on Cruz\u2019s previously undisclosed loans. ‘You give a campaign contribution to Ted Cruz, you get whatever the hell you want,\u2019 he said, before boos erupted from the crowd. Trump went on as the boos grew louder…” Trump tried to shout out and shout down the booers, the boo birds. He got louder and louder and became defiant.<\/p>\n

He said, “Say whatever you want; it\u2019s okay. He didn\u2019t report his bank loans. He\u2019s got bank loans from Goldman Sachs, he\u2019s got bank loans from Citibank, folks, and then he acts like Robin Hood?” So everybody\u2019s wondering, “Is Trump hurting himself here or not? Is this bad?” I mean, Trump\u2019s… The Drive-Bys, and a lot of people other people, too. Okay, so Trump\u2019s perceived audience is conservative. Now he\u2019s going after one of the most popular conservatives in the race. People start booing. Oh, it\u2019s just…<\/p>\n

Folks, it could be exactly as I forewarned. People understand in a primary — and particularly conservatives who are very much attuned to the way things happen. They full well understand these guys are going after each other. Carly Fiorina, too. Everybody\u2019s gonna go after each other. It\u2019s a primary. It\u2019s the way Trump is doing it that is unsettling and unnerving to people. Whether or not it\u2019s going to manifest in Trump losing support or energetic support of some conservatives, only time will tell.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t seem that Trump is concerned about that, \u2019cause he\u2019s ratcheting it up. Now, Cruz is a “nasty” guy. “Believe me, he is a nasty guy. He\u2019s a mean guy, and everybody knows it. Look around. Everybody that\u2019s met Ted Cruz hates the guy. Mitch McConnell hates the guy, Harry Reid hates the guy. They all hate the guy. Everybody says he\u2019s a nasty guy, a nasty guy.” It\u2019s nothing that hasn\u2019t been said by others, but because these two have been considered to be unified, the top two in the race, both with a common enemy, there was all this time an expression of mutual respect.<\/p>\n

They criticized everybody but each other. But then that all changed when Cruz takes the lead in Iowa, and Trump doesn\u2019t want to lose Iowa. And this is the way Trump goes after everybody. It shouldn\u2019t be a surprise here. You can say all day long you think it\u2019s a mistake, and I do. I\u2019m not criticizing Cruz. I mean, these are things that have to happen. Whenever a Republican or conservative attacks a fellow Republican or conservative using the same language or the same approach that Democrats and liberals would, that\u2019s a huge red flag.<\/p>\n

Always has been.<\/p>\n

And whether or not it\u2019s gonna hurt Trump, it isn\u2019t going to help. Or, wait. Could it? Could it, actually? You might have to consider something that\u2019s unthinkable. Do not discount it. I mean, do not discount the possibility that all that you\u2019ve heard about how unliked Cruz is… I mean, it is real. It is baffles me. I have to say, it baffles me. I\u2019ve met Cruz a couple, three times. The criticism I hear most often about Cruz is that he doesn\u2019t seem natural, seems like he\u2019s just constantly… What\u2019s the word? Earnest all the time.<\/p>\n


\nHe just never seems relaxed, doesn\u2019t seem casual, ever. And it unnerves people. I think what that is is Cruz is just so smart, and he knows exactly who he is and what he thinks and is proud of it. And he knows the kind of attacks that conservatives get and have always received. And he knows that moderating his behavior to please contradicts does not mollify contradicts. You can\u2019t change who unresponsive and the way you act and have people who criticize you all of a sudden like you, particularly if they\u2019re liberals or Democrats or members of the Republican establishment.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s just decided he\u2019s gonna be who he is. I just think it unnerves people, like it unnerves people whenever you encounter somebody that\u2019s so damn sure of themselves. “That\u2019s just not possible. Nobody could be that certain of everything.” It\u2019s not natural people, it\u2019s not natural to be that sure of yourself, not natural think you\u2019ve got all the answers. And they end up getting offended or feeling some other insecurity or what have you.<\/p>\n

But smart people have the tendency sometimes to come off as calculating, and certainly not casual or relaxed. And it has… It just unnerves some people, and it makes them go from feeling unnerved and bothered to maybe, “I don\u2019t like it. I just don\u2019t like it.” So it\u2019s like, as I said earlier, the “nasty” guy that Trump is saying. I don\u2019t think — and I\u2019m wild guessing here. I don\u2019t think he really believes that. I don\u2019t think he thinks Cruz is a nasty guy. It\u2019s just the way Trump campaigns.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the way Trump deals. I mean, look at what he did to the guy that runs Macy\u2019s. It\u2019s entirely in character and it isn\u2019t personal. I mean, Trump was at Liberty University today. Liberty University, Jerry Falwell\u2019s university, and Trump did something I\u2019ve not heard him do before. He praised Christianity. He said Christianity\u2019s under attack and we\u2019ve gotta band together, we gotta come together. This country\u2019s Christian, he says, I\u2019m proud of my Christianity, I\u2019m proud of being Christian, I\u2019m Presbyterian, I\u2019m Protestant, but I\u2019m proud of it. But we\u2019re all Christians, 75, 80% of the people of this country are Christians, we\u2019ve gotta band together. And that was it, there was applause and so forth.<\/p>\n


\nThen later he started talking about the Bible. He said (imitating Trump), “The Bible\u2019s okay, yeah, look, let\u2019s be honest, the Bible nails it, right, but the second biggest book is The Art of the Deal.” So he acknowledges that the Bible is number one but that the real book to talk about is The Art of the Deal, his book.<\/p>\n

Now, I watched the faces of the people on the other side of the glass. They all started laughing. Everybody just started laughing. Nobody got mad at it. I mean, a lot of people, “He just slammed the Bible. You don\u2019t say the Bible nails it. You don\u2019t say the Bible kills it. You don\u2019t say the Bible,” whatever the actual term he used. “He didn\u2019t show respect to the Bible, to compare his book to the Bible?” That\u2019s not the reaction, because they know. It\u2019s all part of the connection I keep trying to tell people about that Trump has with his supporters or with the people interested in him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I want to paraphrase an e-mail that I received. It\u2019s like a number of e-mails that I have received. As I said, I\u2019m paraphrasing it because it represents quite a few people who are e-mailing. They\u2019re confused and they don\u2019t know what to do. These are Republicans, slash, conservative primary voters. And they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Is Making a Strategic Mistake in the Way He's Going After Cruz - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/01\/18\/trump_is_making_a_strategic_mistake_in_the_way_he_s_going_after_cruz\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Trump Is Making a Strategic Mistake in the Way He's Going After Cruz - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: I want to paraphrase an e-mail that I received. It\u2019s like a number of e-mails that I have received. As I said, I\u2019m paraphrasing it because it represents quite a few people who are e-mailing. They\u2019re confused and they don\u2019t know what to do. These are Republicans, slash, conservative primary voters. 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