CNN’s Smerconish to Limbaugh: Trump Never Would Have Won Without Climate You Helped Create
CNN’s Michael Smerconish took a few minutes today to respond to Rush Limbaugh about how the popular talk radio host dismissed some commentary he made earlier this week.
Smerconish contended a few days ago that President Donald Trump is the embodiment of a decades-long trend on the right of empowering voices like Limbaugh’s to the point where they exert more control over the conservative base than the Republican leadership.
Limbaugh responded by saying this:
“What in the hell are these people talking about? But I have another question. Who the hell empowered me? What does that mean? And who empowered Fox News? And who empowered Matt Drudge? Who are these mysterious forces that are empowering us? Who is it setting the table so that we can come in and dominate the way we have? Who made that happen?… If I’m empowered by anybody, it’s the American people.”
Smerconish said on his show this morning, “Donald Trump would never have been elected president without a climate that you helped create.”
He argued that Trump is the logical end result of the distrust of the media and the Clintons that Limbaugh was championing well before 2016.
The problem, Smerconish continued, is that this has allowed provocateurs to supplant traditional conservative leadership in winning people over by reflecting the kinds of things they’ve grown accustomed to hearing from talk radio. And he said that’s a bad thing because politicians “are not supposed to be entertainers.”
Watch above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
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