Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh criticized Donald Trump’s recent attack on Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] as “no different” than what the Republican establishment or the media would say in attacking the Texas Republican.
On his Monday show, Limbaugh suggested that Trump went after Cruz in order to “score some points with the Republican establishment.” (RELATED: Limbaugh: Ted Cruz Is ‘Inarguably Thoroughbred Conservative’ [VIDEO])
Trump told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” that Cruz does not have the “right temperament” to be president. “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 said. “He’ll never get anything done.”
Limbaugh reacted, “Doesn’t that kind of describe the way Trump has been dealing with people he disagrees with?”
“I mean, even calling them stupid? He’s been calling them incompetent. He’s been saying you can’t get anything done with these people.”
“But even [Trump supporters] who are not particularly aligned with Cruz 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 what the Republican establishment would say, for crying out loud.”
“I mean, this is akin to saying I’m a guy who can cross the aisle and work with the other side. That hasn’t been the way Trump has come off up till now,” Limbaugh insisted. “He come across as somebody who is going to beat everybody in negotiations. He’s gonna beat them down. He’s gonna tell them how it’s gonna be. … This is obviously the Trump campaign deciding to use the most common criticism against Cruz because they see that Cruz has negatives, they see that Cruz is not liked by the Republican establishment. And so they are just piggybacking on that, I think, as a way for Trump to maybe score some points with the Republican establishment.”
Limbaugh explained that Trump needs the Republican establishment’s respect. Trump “So he 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,” Limbaugh ranted. “He’s essentially put on his John McCain hat here. Say, ‘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. I don’t know what kind of damage if any this is going to do to Trump,” Limbaugh suggested but,
“This is almost a rote criticism of Cruz. This is almost if you have to go to a playbook or a manual, ‘OK, time to criticize Ted Cruz. What do we say, what do we say?’ ‘Well the manual says go after him for not being able to work together in the Senate and so forth and so on.'”
“So I’m not sure Mr. Trump even knows who Cruz really is in this regard,” Limbaugh concluded. Trump is “running for the Republican nomination … set himself up as anti-establishment, [but] to join the establishment in that kind of criticism of Cruz, I don’t get it.”