In response to news of Ted Cruz and John Kasich’s coordination over the upcoming primaries of Indiana, Oregon, and New Mexico, Donald Trump made sure to tell the world how he felt about the so-called deal. In case you missed it, John Kasich promised to give the Cruz campaign a “clear path in Indiana.” The Cruz campaign has agreed to pull out of Oregon and New Mexico. Both campaigns stressed that the decisions were purely tactical and allowed them to better concentrate campaign resources at such a critical point in the primary process.
Donald Trump said the following at a rally on Monday:
“If you collude in business, or if you collude in the stock market, they put you in jail. But in politics, because it’s a rigged system, because it’s a corrupt enterprise, in politics you’re allowed to collude.”
What Trump fails to acknowledge is the fact that the Cruz and Kasich campaigns made official, public statements on their choices. Collusion is defined as a “secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.” Regardless of whether Trump knows the proper meaning of the word, his accusation is yet another example of his tendency to make accusations on opponents that have no basis on the truth.
Perhaps a more accurate example of collusion would be Donald Trump colluding with Fox News for favorable news coverage in exchange for exclusives and ratings boosts. This is just a hypothetical, of course.
Radio host Mark Levin also took issue with Trump’s allegation of collusion, pointing out that the Cruz-Kasich arrangement was not as unusual and as Trump makes it out to be.
“Collusion is an anti-trust term,” Levin explained. “You know, if you collude on prices, on market share. It has nothing to do with politics. Zero. I would think the man who prides himself on ‘The Art of the Deal’ would understand this.”
In response to the claims on other media outlets that Ted Cruz is “selling out,” Levin asked, “Isn’t the goal to stop the other guy and get the nomination? There’s nothing illegitimate about it. It’s amazing. I guess we should just stop right now and give the nomination to Trump!”
Levin also posted a preview of his remarks on tonight’s Levin TV episode, explaining that what Cruz and Kasich are doing is completely normal, legal, and acceptable:
H/T: Conservative Review
