Radio host Rush Limbaugh used Wednesday’s show to do an experiment on Donald Trump’s supporters.
“I found a YouTube last night, and I’m gonna play this for you, and I’m curious to know how Trump supporters react to this,” Mr. Limbaugh told his audience before playing a 2012 clip from Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”
Mr. Trump said at the time that he thought Hillary Clinton was a “terrific person.” He also called former President Bill Clinton a “really good guy.”
Mr. Limbaugh then used his email account to gauge reactions to the broadcast by the billionaire’s supporters. He also asked listeners to weigh in on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
“This is exactly what I was expecting,” the host said after a commercial break. “One reaction is, ’You know, this would make a great ad debunking how Trump is attacking Hillary because she’s a woman. This can just get rid of all of these attacks that Trump’s out there hitting her because she’s a woman, that Trump hates her or whatever.”
A caller identified as Duane from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, then was given airtime to discuss his reactions to Mr. Trump’s comments.
“People out here are mad, and they want somebody that’s gonna go in there and do and say anything they have to to look out for the common man in this country, because we have been just raked over the coals from top to bottom and side to side for so many years now; it’s just gotten to the boiling point,” Duane said.
The radio host continued to read emails before concluding, “One way or another, Trump supporters are finding a way to not be upset by that and actually turn that into a positive. There’s another preemptive Trump defense. It kind of goes like this: ’Well, you know, you take any 12-second clip of Trump from years ago and you take it out of the larger context that we now have of the guy, and you can’t do that. That’s not fair.’”
Mr. Limbaugh said many conservatives in the “Never Trump” camp would be “livid” at his experiment’s results because, “they don’t understand even now the depth of the bond that exists [between Mr. Trump and his supporters].”
Conservative commentators Bill Kristol and George Will were then cited as two men who were likely incapable of understanding Mr. Trump’s fan base.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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