Rush Limbaugh defended himself Tuesday against critics who say he should have done something to prevent Donald Trump from winning the GOP presidential nomination and potentially handing the presidency to Hillary Clinton.
Limbaugh drew fire, even from some of his loyal fans, when he heard from a caller on Monday's show who said Limbaugh was doing the Republican Party and the country a disservice by not calling Trump's change in tone on immigration a "flip-flop."
"For you to sit here and say that now that he adopts all the positions of everybody he ridiculed as not even being a flip-flop and it's no big deal?" the caller said. "This is why so many Republican voters have such a hard time going to the con man!"
Limbaugh responded that it was the job of the 15 Republican candidates who ran against him to do that, and they failed. Besides, he said, "I never took him seriously" on his plan to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and build a border wall.
Every other Republican running called Trump out, and his supporters "still don't care," Limbaugh said.
Talk show host John Ziegler wrote on Mediaite that he once considered Limbaugh a mentor, but has lost respect for him over his failure to disavow Trump.
Josh Feldman, writing on Mediaite Tuesday, went after Limbaugh's attempt to explain himself with another caller earlier that day, saying the host "followed up on his uncaring attitude by saying, once again, that it doesn’t matter to Trump’s supporters."
The caller, who agreed that Trump supporters such as herself do not care if Trump changes his position on immigration, said, "it's the same thing with the tax return thing. I do not care what is in Donald Trump's tax returns. You know why? Because he's not a career politician. He made his money in the private sector doing something else, and I don't care where his money came from or what his tax return says. If he were a career politician, I would say that it is required. But I just don't feel like it is a big deal."
Limbaugh said, "I have tried all last fall to explain to people why people like you and others support Trump and why you are not going to abandon him. … And my effort has been to try to explain to them why Trump is immune from this traditional way of analyzing the fates and fortunes of candidates. … but the primary reason that Trump is supported ... It's tough to nail one, because there are actually many. But the primary thing is he's not one of 'them.' He is a genuine outsider. He's not a Washington politician claiming to be an outsider. He really is."
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