RUSH: An unidentified reporter on CNN’s newsroom. They played a clip of a female reporter talking to Mitt Romney about Trump and the comments he has made. It’s about 11 seconds. It goes by pretty quickly.
REPORTER: Do you think Donald Trump’s comments on Mexicans have hurt the Republican Party?
ROMNEY: Yes, I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican Americans and I feel it was unfortunate.
RUSH: Severe error, where have we heard that? He made a severe error, Mitt Romney says. Let’s go back to 2012, February 10th, it was at the GOPAC conference.
ROMNEY: I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor.
RUSH: Oh, yeah. That’s where I heard that. I was a severe conservative Republican governor. Saturday in Merrimack, New Hampshire, campaign event, Jeb Bush speaking with reporters about Trump’s campaign.
BUSH: He’s doing this to inflame and to insight and to draw attention, which seems to be the organizing principle of his campaign. And he doesn’t represent the Republican Party or its values.
RUSH: He doesn’t represent the Republican Party or its values. Sunday morning Fox News Sunday. The all-star brainiac panel, fill-in host Shannon Bream speaking with George Will about Trump. She said, “Jeb went on to say, he took this personally. His wife is from Mexico.”
WILL: If Donald Trump were a Democratic mole placed in the Republican Party to disrupt things, how would his behavior be different? I don’t think it would be. There’s all this loose talk but it’s something to it about the Republican brand. Picture him on stage in Cleveland. He says something hideously inflammatory. The debate gets hijacked. The process gets hijacked. And at the end of the day, he is a one-man Todd Akin.
RUSH: There it is. There it is. George Will says that Donald Trump is Todd Akin. Says something inflammatory. Gets up there on stage. Hijack — I have heard that theory, by the way. You know, I’ve got people that have pointed out to me and said, “Rush have you seen all the money that Trump gives to Democrats. Do you see the money he’s donated to Democrats and Hillary and Chuck Schumer and all these New York Democrats?”
I said, “Yeah, I’ve seen it.”
“Well, what if Trump’s doing this to just totally destroy the Republican Party? What if he’s going out there, what if he’s going to be made whole by the Democrats when this is all over? He’s going to get all his money back. He’s going to get his relationship with Macy’s back. NBC is going to rehire him to do the Apprentice? All this he’s going to be compensated for in exchange for taking out the Republican Party.”
I’ve heard that theory bandied about. A lot of establishment Republicans believe that that’s what’s happening. They do. And I guess you have to add George Will to the mix. Piling on, here’s Michael Steele former chairman, Republican National Committee on Meet the Press. Chuck Todd said, “This is a tough call for Reince Priebus. I don’t envy him here. On one hand he wants to play referee. You know inside he’d love to totally denounce Trump, but they don’t want to alienate part of the party. What would you be doing here?”
STEELE: You’ve got to have that Sister Souljah moment with the party where youÂ’ve got to be honest and call it what it is. People are sophisticated enough to know when you’re just full of BS. Everyone in the country reacted to this and you didn’t, the party didn’t, and those who want to be president didn’t — until what? This week. That’s a problem. It’s a problem of authenticity. ItÂ’s a problem of legitimacy when you’re going to go speak to that community.
RUSH: Here’s Ted Cruz also on Meet the Press. Chuck Todd says: “Donald Trump, you’ve defended him. Your former Governor Rick Perry has criticized him. You’ve had experience with plenty of Mexican immigrants in Texas. Are these immigrants that are coming in Texas what Donald Trump’s describes, are they drug dealers, rapists and such?”
CRUZ: I like Donald Trump. He’s bold, he’s brash. And I get that it seems the favorite sport of the Washington media is to encourage some Republicans to attack other Republicans. I ainÂ’t gonna do it. I’m not interested in Republican on Republican violence. I salute Donald Trump for focusing on the need to address illegal immigration. The Washington cartel doesn’t want to address that.
RUSH: Well, now, what do you think of that? Is that not somewhat a reasonable reaction to this? I mean, Trump is running as a Republican. It is clear that the base of the Republican Party is opposed to amnesty. Trump is the only guy that appears to be opposed to it. Well, Cruz is obviously. “I like Trump. He’s bold. He’s brash. I get it that some people want Republicans to destroy him. But I’m not going to. I’m not interested in that kind of crime. I salute Trump for focusing on the need to doing something about illegal immigration.” And Trump says (imitating Trump), “Hey, I don’t get it. I’m trying to keep the country safe. Why am I the bad guy?”
Here is Governor Christie also on Fox News Sunday. Question: “You made some comments out there about people building walls and so forth and you kind of made fun of it. Is that a jab at Trump, and secondly, what is your plan for the border?”
CHRISTIE: It’s not a jab at just at Donald Trump. ThereÂ’s been lots of people whoÂ’ve talked about, as you know, over time — building a wall across the entire southern border. I think it’s the wrong message. And by the way, I know the human spirit. I haven’t found a wall that can be built that a determined human being can’t get over, under or around.
RUSH: Back in just a second.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Dustin in Branford, Connecticut great to have you on the program, sir.
CALLER: Quite the honor, Rush. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet, sir.
CALLER: I wanted to make an observation on the clip you played of Romney a while back about him talking about Trump’s comments about illegal aliens and him calling them Mexican Americans.
RUSH: Let me find that. Let me find that Romney clip. It doesn’t take long to go by. I just have to find it. Grab number 12. It’s only nine — wait, wait. That’s not the one. Number 11. It’s a female reporter asking Romney about Trump.
REPORTER: “Do you think Donald Trump’s comments on Mexicans have hurt the Republican Party?”
ROMNEY: “Yes, I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican Americans.”
RUSH: Mexican Americans, that’s what you’re zeroing in on.
CALLER: Yes, I thought it odd I thought Trump was talking about illegal immigrants.
RUSH: He was.
CALLER: Then is Mitt Romney not that intelligent or is he just being disingenuous, not honest?
RUSH: Well, there’s a third option, and that is that Romney and other Democrats or Republicans think that these illegals are going to be citizens some day so they may as well be Mexican Americans.
CALLER: I think you’re right about that. And I think all these Republicans that are meeting with Mitt Romney speak volumes to their position, and I think it’s actually the Republican Party that are trying to fight with each other. I don’t think the media is doing it. I think the Republican Party is trying to separate the conservatives out of the party.
RUSH: Oh, no, no question about that. That’s been going on for quite a while. But that is an interesting thing you heard, Mexican Americans, that zoomed passed me because I heard severely in there, which reminded me of something else.
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