February 5, 2016

Ted Cruz Uses Rush Limbaugh in Radio Ad to Take Down Marco Rubio

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/20994510876/in/photolist-xZdmDs-y2x3Tr-x5vig7-x5vnw1-y1DUqo-xJVvtG-y3cVV6-x5DNdt-xJVaaY-xK1VyM-y3cQai-y2x18M-xJVFj3-y2x7jz-xZdouG-xZdCUy-xK2dq2-xJUc5w-xZcVGo-y2wK5a-xZdAPG-x5v6cN-xK1Z2i-xJUkd5-x5DgRM-x5vCJA-y1E3iC-A8yUYS-fye9Qg-fye9Uv-fye9Xk-rrMLi6-fysWim-hnE5gj-fye9Zg-fye9S4-fysWos-hfnpsJ-hfno5o-hfnoMA-fyeMbe-fyeiSp-dmUvsq-hsiXHw-CaVyzK-dPbG2A-DLwS8b-CRsDbH-A2XoWg-DNRmsi">Marc Nozell</a>/Flickr

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Ted Cruz is hoping Rush Limbaugh can push him over the top in next Tuesday’s New Hampshire Republican primary. Here’s a spot that the senator from Texas is running on a Boston sports radio station, using the conservative yakker’s words to brand Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who holds a slight edge in the race for second place, as a pro-amnesty hypocrite:

Rush Limbaugh: “If you’re looking for the Republican candidate who is the most steadfastly opposed to liberalism, whose agenda is oriented toward stopping it and thwarting it and defeating it, it’s Ted Cruz.”

Narrator: “Rush is right. It’s Ted Cruz who’s led our fights in Washington. To secure our border. To stop taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants. And it was Cruz who stood up for us against the Washington establishment. When the Gang of Eight proposed amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants, it was wrong. Ted Cruz fought them. But what about Marco Rubio? When Rubio ran for Senate, he made this pledge:

Marco Rubio: “I will never support it, never have and never will support any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty.”

Rush Limbaugh: “That’s what he said. It’s not what he did. It was Marco Rubio that was a member of the Gang of Eight, and Ted Cruz that wasn’t.”

Narrator: Ted Cruz, the only one we can trust.”

The ad is not an endorsement from Limbaugh, who made the comments on his radio show. Limbaugh isn’t quite the voice of God, but in a tight Republican primary, he might be the next best thing. Cruz is talking about immigration every chance he can get in the Granite State—even when he’s supposed to be talking about heroin—as he tries to catch up to Donald Trump and keep his rival from Florida at bay.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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