Just a few days after he smacked “asinine” conservatives who have vowed not to vote for Donald Trump should he get the nomination, influential conservative talk show host Mark Levin announced on his radio show Friday that he’s now officially gone “#NeverTrump” himself.
Though he said that he’s not calling for his audience to follow his lead (yet), he said that some recent “sleazeball” tactics by the Trump campaign, particularly via Roger Stone, have changed his perspective on Team Trump. RightScoop summarizes Levin’s rationale for switching:
Levin attributed his #NeverTrump conversion to the sleazy tactics of Trump thug Roger Stone, who he says put out an obscure article claiming he was bought and paid for by the Establishment, simply because the Senate Conservative Fund bought copies of his books to promote membership a couple of years ago. But Levin said he wasn’t involved in it, nor did he have any control over it.
“Now, there are sleazeballs, like him, sleazeballs like [Ann] Coulter, and sleazeballs like some talk show hosts, and I’m biting my tongue, who are so contemptible and pathetic, they want to use the most outrageous attacks on one of their colleagues to try and promote themselves. It’s truly pathetic,” said Levin. “Now, I’ve backed [Ted] Cruz, and I’m going to continue to back Cruz, but here’s what I’m going to do. As a result of what the Trump supporters have attempted here, particularly Roger Stone, I am not voting for Donald Trump. Period. … And if anybody has a problem with that, Donald Trump, you can talk to Roger Stone.”
He continued, “These bully, dirty tricks, Nixonian tactics, they’re only going to backfire. They’re only going to backfire. So, count me as never Trump. There’s been too much of this folks, way too much of this. The crap in the National Enquirer against Ted Cruz, the attacks on Michelle Fields, I mean, I can go right through the list, too much, too much, too much. At some point, you’ve got to stand up to it.”
Levin ended with a warning, saying “if they piss me off one more time, I’m going to urge millions and millions of you, should he get the nomination, not to vote for him either.”
Listen to Levin’s announcement here.
The statement is a sharp reversal from what Levin said earlier in the week. On Tuesday, Levin slammed Republican voters who would let heir distaste for Trump give Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders a free pass to the White House.
“Now those people out there, those people out there who are saying ‘stop Trump,’ I can understand ‘stop Trump’ in a primary process,” Levin said. “But stop Trump or you’ll vote for Hillary? Stop Trump or you won’t vote at all? These people are not conservatives. They’re not constitutionalists. They’re frauds. They’re fakes. They’re not brave. They’re asinine. They’re buffoons.”
After he reversed course Friday, Twitchy called Levin out on the “buffoons” comment:
Here’s the rest of Levin’s remarks from earlier in the week:
“If you believe Hillary Clinton is virtually as off her rocker, left-wing socialist as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), if you believe that Hillary Clinton is in part responsible for the rise of ISIS and for what took care of Benghazi and what’s taking place in Libya and that [Vladimir] Putin is on the move and that China is on the move and all the rest of it, then how the hell – how the hell could you take any steps – passively or affirmatively that would put that woman in the Oval Office?
“How could you do it under these circumstances as bad as the Republican may be, how could you stay home and allow that?” he continued. “Or worse, how could you vote for that? That’s a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. So you duke it out in the Republican primary process. You duke it out Republican convention. You insist that rules are rules and the rules be followed. And you call them out if they try to change them. And you fight like hell. But you do not vote for Hillary Clinton. Or you don’t not stay home. ‘Wah, my candidate isn’t nominated,’ and let the left elect their favorite candidate. Not in this election. That’s my view.”