Well-known Donald Trump critic Erick Erickson said Friday that the fire lobbed at the front-runner by his two chief rivals during Thursday’s Republican presidential debate in Texas was intended to impress donors more than voters.
Erickson, who disinvited Trump from the RedState Gathering over the summer following his impolitic comments about Fox News host Megyn Kelly, made clear on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that he has not changed his mind about Trump. But he argued that Sen. Ted Cruz, not Sen. Marco Rubio, is the better alternative.
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“I think Cruz would be better than Rubio on” immigration and border enforcement, he said. “In fact, I think Cruz would be better on a number of issues, would be a far more conservative president, I think, than Rubio.”
Erickson, now with The Resurgent, said the clashes with Trump were music to the ears of the GOP’s big-dollar contributors.
“They had to do that, I think, more for the donors and people who were starting to get really nervous. I thought it was interesting that Rubio went after Trump on personality and Cruz went after him on policy,” he said.
Erickson said he counted five times during the debate when Cruz and Rubio “name-checked” each other so they could get another shot in on Trump.
“It was somewhat funny, and I don’t really think it was that coordinated given just how angry the campaigns have been with each other,” he said. “But clearly they both listened to all the people saying, ‘You gotta not focus on each other tonight.’”
But Erickson questioned whether it will matter to voters.
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“I don’t know if it will change the trajectory of the race unless they follow it up with an ad campaign, which it looks like both Cruz and Rubio were doing,” he said. “But from the perspective of the ‘not-Trump’ camp, it was nice to see Rubio and Cruz spending more time going after Trump than being like kids going after each other.”
Erickson stood by his commitment to oppose Trump even if he become the Republican nominee. He said Trump’s past statements on issues like abortion put him in a different category — not just a disappointing candidate like Mitt Romney or John McCain, but someone who would force him to compromise his values.
“We don’t really know what we’re getting with Donald Trump,” he said. “He’s been on both sides of every issue … I just don’t believe Trump when he says these things.”
Erickson acknowledged that barring Trump from the RedState Gathering in August “wound up overshadowing all the other candidates.” But he declined to call it a mistake.
“There was a level of decorum I think he breached with his attack on Megyn Kelly,” he said. “So if I had to do it over again, I would make the same call.”
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