“So was Rush. Rush was all in for Rubio early on.”
Any evidence of that. The most that I saw was Rush saying ‘good things’ about Rubio, which I would agree were ‘weird’...but Rush otherwise was quite neutral, although he did lean towards Cruz at the very end.
...and Rush was NEVER close to being a Never Trumper, when one remembers what the NeverTrumpers were saying about Trump (using far stronger language to attack Trump than they ever used to attack any liberal). In fact, I remember Rush saying flat-out, at least once, that Trump is no liberal (Rush knew him personally)...which is what moved me away from Cruz and over to Trump.
...but the crap with Rubio was weird, and I’m still clueless as to why he said what he did, after killing himself to fight Rubio’s Amnesties over the years.
Rush lived in Rubio’s area. They probably were personally acquainted.
I remember it mostly like that. Rush was never “Never Trump” but was skeptical of him not seeing the motivations of the other side through an ideological prism and how “making a deal” wasn’t going to work with the other side...and Rush specifically said “Trump is *not* a conservative” for which there was a lot of evidence to suggest as such and he, like me, were very skeptical he did a genuine 180 degree turn in such a short period of time on a host of issues. Until just before running he was still in favor of amnesty, and he had blasted Romney for supposedly being too harsh on immigration and blamed that for his loss in 2012.
Rush never endorsed Rubio but went beyond saying just “nice things.” He was also very defensive of Rubio after his “robot Rubio” gaffe at the NH debate.
Rush was still enamored for the establishment Republicans until Trump proved himself.
Rush, unlike Levine, knew better, for his career, to stay somewhat neutral.
Levine on the other hand was a vile and vicious never-Trumper, even joined the establishment attack machine until Trump proved himself. Then he became a huge defender.
Incidentally, I remember when Rush told his audience that he met with GW Bush (before his first election) and that he was definitely a conservative...That wasn't true then and certainly isn't true now.