It’s a mystery why he would very publicly provoke the Tea Party but we’ve seen other examples of this (Boehner, McConnell).
One reason could be, he’s doing it to please and attract anti-conservative donors to his campaign - he’s spent a lot of his war chest on all the campaign advertising he’s had to buy trying to avoid a runoff.
If he is forced into a runoff, conservatives will smell blood and rally behind his opponent in a tidal wave, like they did behind Ted Cruz.
That would be a strange strategy...it would seem that using the power of incumbency would be a better path to raising campaign $$$. Plus he’s got the Rover superpac with plenty of money there for him...so I’m skeptical.
I think it’s just old fashioned hubris. He’s getting ticked off that one of the peasants is giving him a hard time and he’s not able to contain his wrath. So his tongue gets loose and he spouts off.
Regardless, here’s hoping he goes the way of Dewhurst.