Rush Limbaugh slams 'so-called conservative movement' that accuses him of selling out

Right-wing talk show icon Rush Limbaugh derided members of what he described as the "so-called conservative movement" for accusing him of betraying the cause and "selling out." He made the comments Wednesday on his radio show.

Limbaugh was addressing a caller who said he was mainstream, not right-wing.

"But do you realize there are many, Carl," he said, "in the so-called conservative movement who think now that I have sold out and betrayed conservatism because I did not help to try to destroy [President Donald] Trump during the primaries?"

"The measure of a real conservative," Limbaugh continued, "according to them, is somebody who would have seen that the Trump poses the greatest threat to conservatism ever and a real conservative would have joined the effort to take him out."

"The only person that could destroy the connection he had with those gazillions of people showing up at the rallies was he himself," he continued later in the segment. "Nobody else could. And so I never doubted. And I always thought that Trump was gonna win. And I always thought Trump would beat Hillary. I probably cannot go back in archival broadcasts and find such precise predictions, but I mentioned it over the course of campaign, many people here, Mr. Snerdley, I never had any doubt about it. But during the primaries I never endorse anybody, so I didn’t endorse Trump and I didn’t try to destroy any of them. They do it themselves."

"But because I didn’t join the effort to destroy Trump, I was considered to be a conservative fraud. And, believe me, the Never Trumper conservative coalition, it’s still alive, and it’s still functioning, and they are bitter today, almost as bitter as the Democrats that [Jon] Ossoff lost."

"Because, to them, it’s all about Trump," Limbaugh said, "and Trump is just the worst thing that’s ever happened to America, to conservatism, to American politics, to civility, to everything, comity, crossing the aisle, to the establishment, you name it."

The commentary from Limbaugh gives some insight into the quarrel inside the conservative movement despite the sweep in special elections by Republicans.

Fox News' Sean Hannity is one of the more vitriolic attackers of conservative Trump critics, who he equates with the "deep state" of liberal obstructionists to Trump's agenda.