![Limbaugh: If Establishment Denies Trump Or Cruz The Nomination, Jeb Will Be The Nominee [AUDIO].mp3](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2015-12-16T191908Z_1_LYNXMPEBBF1EK_RTROPTP_4_USA-ELECTION-e1450296274681.jpg "Limbaugh: If Establishment Denies Trump Or Cruz The Nomination, Jeb Will Be The Nominee [AUDIO].mp3")
Rush Limbaugh says that if the Republican establishment succeeds in stopping Donald Trump or Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] from clinching the nomination, “I’m here to tell you in Jeb Bush is going to be the nominee.”
“It’s abundantly clear that the Republican establishment, all these reports we had prior to today about him being in panic have not even gotten close to reality,” Limbaugh argued Tuesday on “The Rush Limbaugh Show.”
“The panic is real today,” Limbaugh argued. The establishment figures “are acting as though their own very future is at stake today and they have decided that the future of the Republican Party as you know it and love it hangs on what happens at Ohio.”
“Meaning John Kasich take in their view had better win this thing. Now keep in mind, Kasich doesn’t have a prayer becoming the nominee. He doesn’t have a prayer. If John Kasich thinks he’s going to become the nominee in a contested convention he’s got another thing coming. If it gets to that point, can I tell you who I think they’re going to make president or make the nominee” (WATCH: Kasich Has Been More Focused On Golf, His Campaign Than What Trump Is Saying)
“If all this happens as they want it to, remember now we’ve got a guy on a Republican Committee, the convention committee rules committee writing today in The Daily Caller that first ballot delegates are not bound to vote for the candidate that won their state primaries. Everybody’s thinking that that’s the rule. And on the first ballot, that’s why primaries matter, that’s why this number 1237 delegates matters. Whoever gets there is automatically the nominee. This guy rights a piece, saying ‘No, no, no, no, no, that’s not the case. Delegates can vote [for] whoever they want on any ballot.'” (RELATED: RNC Rules Comm. Member: Every Delegate At GOP Convention Not Bound On First Ballot)
Limbaugh noted that in 1976, the Republican establishment denied Ronald Reagan. “So I’m just telling you, if they succeed in this, if they succeed in denying Trump or Cruz 1237 delegates by the end of the primary process I’m here to tell you in Jeb Bush is going to be the nominee. That’s what they’re going to do, that’s what I’ve always wanted and Jeb himself said to back on December 14th of 2014 when this whole process started Jeb said that his strategy was to lose the primaries and win the nomination.”
“And it may yet happen,” Limbaugh suggested. “If not Jeb, they’ll go Romney. But if Kasich thinks it’s going to be him, and I don’t doubt that he does, that’s why he wants to win Ohio and stay in. and now there’s talk that Rubio will stay in even if he loses Florida. And Rubio and Kasich have both said that they are rethinking their pledge to support the nominee. It came as recently as a week ago. Isn’t that why Trump has supporters in the first place because so many Republicans make promises and then break them? So the fur is flying and the establishment is making one last gasp here. Well it won’t be the last.”