Rush Limbaugh says President Trump is risking the same electoral fate as George H.W. Bush if he deals with Democrats on new gun control legislation.
The conservative icon said Mr. Bush’s attempts to placate Democrats after pronouncing “Read my lips: no new taxes” to supporters should inform Mr. Trump in the wake of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.
Mr. Limbaugh told listeners on Friday that “swamp-dwelling Republicans” are urging the president to compromise with Democrats who will demonize him no matter what he does.
“You cannot satisfy them,” he said. “You cannot make them happy. You cannot compromise with them. Like they’re talking about gun control. Don’t give them a thing! It’s not going to buy us anything!”
“I know that there are people in the West Wing, in the Trump administration, urging him to do it, swamp-dwelling Republicans,” he continued. “Just like there were people in the George H. W. Bush West Wing, ’You’ve gotta compromise on that tax cut promise you made. You gotta do it! You gotta raise taxes, you gotta give the left something.’ George H. W. Bush who had said ’Read my lips: No new taxes’ raised taxes. And any kind of a deal with the Democrats on guns is going to risk the same fate happening to Trump.”
Mr. Limbaugh said that Mr. Trump is a politically savvy man who “drops the hammer” on dishonest negotiators but stated that history does not favor Republicans who attempt to placate Democrats.
“I’ve been watching this mistake made for 30 years — thinking that you can calm them down, make them go away, make them like you, make them drop the issue, even, if you just compromise with them,” he said.
“It never works because they’re never happy because their objective, as is now plain as day, is wiping us out. … Every one of these shooters already violated some law — including murder! You don’t need any more laws. There’s not a single new law that would change anything. The only thing a new law would do is it would drive a wedge between Trump and his voters and the NRA.”
“I just want to remind everybody, ’Read my lips: No new taxes,’” Mr. Limbaugh added. “George H. W. Bush thought that he was demonstrating to Americans that he had compassion. The media was out there, Democrats were talking about what a cold-hearted guy he was, people were going hungry because of these tax cuts, Bush needed to raise taxes. … He thought they could make a deal. And he never recovered from it. Never recovered from it and it’s probably one of the key reasons he did not get reelected in 1992. [The] same kind of potential pitiful is out there again awaiting Trump.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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