{"id":4268,"date":"2016-02-05T17:32:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T17:32:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-02-05T17:32:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T17:32:47","slug":"why_did_trump_drop_the_cruz_attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/02\/05\/why_did_trump_drop_the_cruz_attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Did Trump Drop the Cruz Attacks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: Everybody\u2019s stumped today. Everybody\u2019s stymied. Everybody\u2019s curious. Can\u2019t figure it out. All of a sudden Donald Trump says he doesn\u2019t want to criticize Cruz anymore. All of a sudden Donald Trump says (paraphrased), “Yeah, you know what? I like Ted! I might even have him as my vice president if I get the nomination.” “But, wait a minute! Everybody says you\u2019re thinking of suing him \u2019cause he\u2019s from Canada. What the hell\u2019s going on?”<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t figure out what happened. <\/p>\n

So they\u2019re assigning it to, “Well, you know, maybe Trump\u2019s insane.” <\/p>\n

Then they say, “No, he\u2019s not insane. So what\u2019s going on here? Well, maybe he\u2019s just trying to keep everybody on their toes and off guard and not knowing what\u2019s coming next?” No. That may be, but that\u2019s not what\u2019s going on here. “Well, but then why? He abandons Dr. Carson! Dr. Carson was his big friend, and then all of a sudden doesn\u2019t care about Carson. He likes Ted Cruz? All of a sudden he\u2019s not gonna complain about Iowa? What\u2019s going on?” And they\u2019re all struggling to try to figure this out. And the answer can be found by going back to yesterday\u2019s program here on the EIB Network<\/a>. This is why…<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: Now, I understand that the polling is hit or miss and that 13 of them were wrong. I understand. Thirteen polls had Trump winning. And I\u2019ve got nothing against Dr. Carson. I think Dr. Carson\u2019s one of the finest men alive today walking this planet. This whole episode, nevertheless, boggles my mind — this whole thing — manufactured as it is. It just boggles my mind. We\u2019re on the verge here, we conservatives, of wresting control of the Republican Party from the establishment and getting sidetracked with this stuff. It isn\u2019t helpful. I wish it would stop, but I\u2019m not running all these campaigns.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: And I said even more than that. I got specific. I said, “This notion that you can\u2019t take a tweet that\u2019s found on CNN and spread the news around it without correcting some kind of controversy is silly. It\u2019s a waste of time. It\u2019s a distraction,” and a couple of times yesterday, I just said, “Stop it. Stop this stuff. There\u2019s way too much going on to get distracted by this. Too much time is spent on this.” You know, it\u2019s okay to disagree with people; it\u2019s okay to have policy differences with \u2019em.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no reason to start excommunicating people either from the party or from the movement, people who you know are conservative but may be wrong on an issue here or issue there. Fine, disagree with \u2019em all you want. Defeat them all you want. But this excommunication stuff, and banishing them? I had enough of it yesterday. It\u2019s destructive. I mean, this election is too important. I\u2019m rehashing much of what I said yesterday, and adding a couple things to it. But, really, there\u2019s just too much at stake here. So I\u2019d just had it. <\/p>\n

I was telling people in my circle of friends that this stuff\u2019s starting to get embarrassing to me. There was no election stolen in Iowa and all of this about… You know, I did hear from a guy named Bill Saracino. Bill Saracino, goes way back to my days in Sacramento. Bill lost his hearing and he was one of the first guys I talked to about what life was going to be life with a cochlear implant way back in 2000, whenever that was, and he was extremely helpful.<\/p>\n

<\/a>He had gone to the House Clinic just as I had, and he helped me to prepare for what hearing and life and getting along was gonna be like with a cochlear implant, before I had had mine surgically implanted. And then after that, I lost track of him. I got an e-mail from him yesterday, the first time in 12 years, and he is in — or was in — California. I guess he\u2019s still California. He\u2019s working on the Carson campaign, and he was telling me, “There are people who had their votes shafted away from \u2019em, Rush. <\/p>\n

“I heard you on the radio today saying that not one person\u2019s popped up to say that they were gonna vote for Carson and didn\u2019t because of what Ted Cruz\u2019s campaign was doing. Well, Rush, I got a couple of them here. You need to know this.” So he was telling me that a couple of people had stood up. But I still haven\u2019t heard it or seen it. Whatever, it wasn\u2019t gonna add up to 25,000 votes, which is what Carson needed to tie Rubio phone number third place. That wasn\u2019t gonna happen — and furthermore, Carson outperformed what he was supposed to get if you believe in polling data. <\/p>\n

So the whole thing to me just seemed unnecessary, and I had the usual, “Oh, you\u2019re just in the tank for Cruz!” I\u2019m not in the tank for anybody here. It\u2019s not my job to win a campaign for any candidate. It\u2019s not my job to take people out of it, either. It\u2019s not my job to make \u2019em win it or help \u2019em. It\u2019s not my job to see to it that they lose it. That\u2019s up to them. And it\u2019s always been my philosophy. But when I see really unfortunate time-wasting things like this, and it just feeds right in to the Drive-Bys. Here we\u2019re on the verge…<\/p>\n

Like I said, here we\u2019re on the verge of wresting control of the party from the establishment, which is what has to happen for us conservatives, and now here we\u2019re in the process of trying to destroy two or three of \u2019em. It\u2019s a circular firing squad. So, anyway, that\u2019s what I said yesterday. Last night on CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, interviewing Donald Trump. Cooper said, “You came in second in Iowa to Ted Cruz. Let\u2019s talk about Cruz! You basically accused him of fraud, stealing the election in Iowa. You talked about wanting a new election there. Have you actually spoken to Republican Party officials about that?”<\/p>\n

TRUMP: Nah. Look, I\u2019m into New Hampshire now. It\u2019s just one of those things. It was sort of a lot of strange things. And, you know, I like Ben Carson very much, and he got pretty roughed up, frankly. Although it affected me maybe more than Ben. But I\u2019m so much — because I\u2019ve been now here for two days. I\u2019m so much into this, into New Hampshire that I just… I don\u2019t care about that.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. So that\u2019s what happened. He doesn\u2019t care about it anymore. He\u2019s moving on. H esaid what he had to say about it, got his message out, thinks Cruz is from Canada is a fraud and is now moving on. He\u2019s dropping it. But the media\u2019s not happy. That\u2019s why, folks, “Are you saying that you have…?” Who else did? Nobody can figure it out. I\u2019m giving you a possibility, certainly. So then Anderson Cooper… The media\u2019s the last group of people who want to see this happy. The media want to see Trump loaded for bear. <\/p>\n

The media are deathly afraid of Cruz. And they are afraid of Trump. And they\u2019re gonna end up being parade of Rubio at some point. They want Cruz taken out. They\u2019re frustrated. The media is frustrated that they haven\u2019t been able to take out Republican front-runners yet, and the Republican front-runners-in-waiting are the bottom of the pile. The media candidates of ours, they prefer, can\u2019t get any traction. They\u2019re frustrated. So here comes Trump aiming at Cruz; they loved it. Anderson Cooper said (impression), “Oh, no! But — but — but wait! Donald… Donald, you think… you think Ted Cruz intentionally was spreading false information, right? How can you do this?”<\/p>\n

TRUMP: I don\u2019t care. I mean, I don\u2019t — I don\u2019t want to even say. Let\u2019s see what happens. I guess people are looking at it. Who cares? We\u2019re into here. I picked up a lot of delegates, you know? I was second. I picked up one less than he did. So that\u2019s not gonna be even a factor. But this is the place that I\u2019m focused.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right, he\u2019s focused on New Hampshire now. So everybody\u2019s running around, “What happened? What, I mean, why did…?” There\u2019s a possibility for you. By the way, Cruz? This guy is so sharp. He is so quick. Did you hear he…? A reporter tried to — and they ought to give up trying. They\u2019re never going to do it. No reporter on earth is gonna be able to outwit, in a match wits, Ted Cruz. They\u2019re just not gonna be able to sabotage the guy. A reporter kept hounding him about this “dirty trick.” <\/p>\n