Larry launched his weekly syndicated radio show yesterday morning with a long and emotional attack on Senator Ted Cruz over his “New York values” campaign snipes against Donald Trump. Among Larry’s toughest lines were
“He’s as divisive as Obama,”
“Mr. Cruz is disqualified for being president. Disqualified. Disqualified. Hang it up,”
“Cruz – get out. Get outta here. You are not what we want. Obama, the divider. Cruz, the divider.”
“Donald Trump eviscerated Senator Ted Cruz.”
And then: Larry implied that Cruz’s hit had a whiff of anti-Semitism. Kudlow’s monologue / tirade – a political Final Judgment rendered against the Texas hopeful – was a long (11 minutes) take-no-prisoners, give-no-quarter, carpet bombing that begins at 6:25 of the podcast. For my sins, I’ve transcribed it:
One other point: Like Donald Trump, I am insulted and offended by Ted Cruz’s remarks that New York values are bad. OK? I am insulted, offended — what I see here is bigotry and division. And that’s not what I want for president. Now I know Senator Cruz; I know his wife who’s a charming, wonderful lady. He’s always been kind to me – he’s been on this show several times. I’ve been with them at dinner. He made a terrible mistake … terrible mistake. And Mr. Donald Trump handled it with finesse and calmness and directness. And I think of the Trump’s finest moment in the entire campaign — entire campaign. Not just the six debates or whatever they are — the entire campaign. Donald showed calmness, class, steadiness, while at the same time he eviscerated Cruz. He didn’t knock him down. He didn’t injure his arm. Donald Trump eviscerated Senator Ted Cruz. I’m going to talk some more about this later in the show. I just want to get my licks in right at the top.
You talk about New York values — well I don’t know who you’re talking about, it’s a big city. Here’s what I know as Donald Trump indicated, New Yorkers … New Yorkers: police, fire, emergency services, first responders, ordinary citizens, were phenomenal. Even the politicians we great. Remember? Rudy Giuliani, a great American. George Pataki governor behind-the-scenes helping every step of the way. And our magnificent fire department, our magnificent police department. I don’t want to leave anybody out — people who went down to the 9/11 Trade Center disaster and catastrophe, risking their lives to rescue and somehow help. When I say “risking their lives” I don’t only mean risking their lives from the fall out and the crashing and the dissolution of the World Trade Centers, but getting diseases, chest diseases, things that will be going on for the rest of their lives — they didn’t think twice. That’s heroism. That’s not bad values. That is heroism which is the finest value of America. Go back to all our wars defending freedom against the totalitarian barbarians, all our wars, beginning with the Revolutionary War – 911 was war, and the courage of American responders here in the city … and let me say this – responders came from all over the country. Don’t you remember? Go back, go back and Google it up or YouTube it up: There were people – cops, fire, first responders, health care people, came to help New York from all over the country. Including Iowa. Where Cruz is transparently trying to develop a narrative that Donald Trump is some kind of crazy liberal whacked-out New Yorker who doesn’t hold the values of Iowans, so vote for me in Iowa; I’m one of you.
No you’re not Senator. No you’re not. You want to know why? I’d like to get a count, if any listener hears this send it in, email to me or call in — I believe there were people from Iowa, just like the entire Midwest, who came to help New Yorkers at 9/11 while New Yorkers we’re literally risking their lives on 9/11 and since then.
New York ain’t perfect. We’ve got bunch of liberals running the government that we haven’t recently, by the way. It’s another stupid thing Cruz did. Michael Bloomberg — I may not agree with Mayor Bloomberg on everything, but he was no wild-eyed liberal, he was no wild-eyed liberal. And he ran a good city. He was a great education reformer — the evangelicals in Iowa want school choice, religious schooling. So did Mike Bloomberg. So did his man Joe Klein. Bloomy kept the city going. Bloomy helped business to create jobs and recover after the devastation in the financial services area that occurred in 2008. Rudy Giuliani as Mayor – he was mayor at the time, left City Hall, tore his jacket off, tore his sleeves up, went into the most dangerous area to help pull people out. That’s Giuliani. That’s called bravery. And that bravery is a New York value. You go into middle class homes in this city, middle-class families in Manhattan and Queens and Bronx and Brooklyn and you will see the finest people with the best values in this country. Or put another way regarding Iowans: New Yorkers are just like them and the Iowans who cherish family and family values and churches and temples and a higher power, God, religious values that are just like middle-class New Yorkers folks, just like middle-class New Yorkers.
OK? So Cruz made a despicable mistake in trying to cater to conservative evangelicals who will play important roles in the Iowa caucuses — I’m going to be out there in Des Moines covering it for CNBC, I can’t wait. So let me say this: Evangelicals are good people – I’m a Born Again, I’m a born-again Catholic, and evangelicals – I’d like to evangelize more the Catholic Church, but that’s not the point. My point is: They are just like us, we are just like them. We cherish our families and our kids and our country and our bravery and our courage and our schools. We cherish them. How dare Ted Cruz go off … now he wants to apologize. All he was doing was dividing this election. He’s as divisive as Obama. As divisive as Obama. And that ain’t what we want.
I believe … I will say to you today Mr. Cruz is disqualified for being president. Disqualified. Disqualified. Hang it up. And I’m telling you … I make forecasts – sometimes Kudlow forecasts are right, sometimes Kudlow forecasts are wrong — I’m going to tell you this: It ain’t gonna help Cruz in Iowa, and it may very well hurt. And Mr. Donald Trump showed class, and a heart, and compassion, in defending those middle-class family values. Alright?
Cruz – get out. Get outta here. You are not what we want. Obama, the divider. Cruz, the divider. And God help him, and I want to say this, God help him if we found out in some private conversation Cruz have with somebody, that his reference in New York had just an ounce of anti-semitism. Again trying to appeal to the worst instincts of the evangelicals, by the way, by the way Senator Cruz … you went to Princeton, so did I, you went to Harvard Law School, I didn’t, but let me tell you something: Church-going Evangelicals all across this country love the State of Israel for its democracy and its values. And however many Jewish people there are in New York, these are good folks. These are good folks. And evangelicals have stood behind them as Iran and Isis and all the terrorist groups that Obama is playing footsie with try to destroy Israel. We won’t have it. We will not have it. New York is part of that battle, but so are evangelicals all across the country – in Iowa, in Colorado, in Texas, in California. Don’t pull that sophomoric stuff Cruz. You are disqualified. I am disqualifying you.
If Donald Trump’s going to win, and he looks like he will, if … let him choose Marco Rubio or someone with a cool head, an open mind; someone who loves America and understands good values here in New York as well as Iowa as well as Michigan as well as Texas as well as Georgia. That’s a uniting force: goodwill, family values, religious values, defense of freedom, here, overseas, Israel. Cruz bombed. I don’t want the story to go away. I don’t want this story to go away. I want him out of the race. I’m sorry, I want him out of the race.