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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Alice Herman

These talkshow hosts once called Trump a bully and an idiot. Now, they’re his biggest defenders

a man in
Donald Trump campaigns in Vandalia, Ohio, on 16 March 2024. Photograph: Jeff Dean/AP

It was March 2016. Wisconsin’s Republican primary was just days away, and the GOP establishment was making a desperate last attempt to block Donald Trump from the Republican nomination.

Vicki McKenna, a popular Wisconsin-based conservative talkshow host, had just spent 25 minutes grilling Trump on policy when she turned to Trump’s decision to mock the physical appearance of Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi. “So, no more wife-bashing?” she asked. When Trump tried to excuse the attack, she wouldn’t let it go: “How about this: how about wives and kids, off-limits?”

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