Rush Limbaugh on Thursday slammed Republicans on their poor support for President Donald Trump, saying "they don't want Trump to succeed with his agenda."
"They can't afford that," the radio talk-show host told Sean Hannity on Fox News in an interview to be broadcast Thursday night.
"I'm not exaggerating here — and I'm not trying to say things that will be in a soundbite that Fox replays for the rest of the day."
Fox released transcripts of the interview, which were reported by The Daily Caller.
"The lid's blown, the gig is over, the joke is revealed if an outsider with no prior political experience can come in and fix messes that people have been promised would be fixed for 30 years, how does that make them look?" Limbaugh asked. "They can't allow that to happen."
He also ripped NFL athletes for kneeling during the national anthem.
"I don't think they understand what's going on," Limbaugh told Hannity. "They think they are relating to the majority of their fan base.
"They're not. They are driving them away — and I hate it.
"Use something besides the NFL sideline," he continued. "Use something besides the flag.
"Use something besides something that people use to escape everything leftists are trying to force on us."
Limbaugh also attacked a longstanding target, the mainstream press.
"The media isn't media," he said. "When you think of media, they got people out there looking at things where you're not — and they tell you what happened.
"That's the news.
"They don't do the news," Limbaugh told Hannity. "There is no news.
"There is the advancement of the Democrat Party agenda, which is get rid of Trump — and they are totally devoted to it."
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