“So many of these guys were on his side until he made that one big error in their eyes,” said Rich Noyes, a research director at the conservative Media Research Center. “Republican primary voters are conservative talk radio listeners, and what they hear has a reinforcing affect. It helps immensely to have them on your side, and immigration is his biggest problem with that.”
There are some influential conservative pundits with whom Rubio’s relationship appears beyond repair.
Ingraham, Malkin and Coulter consistently hammer Rubio for his past support for immigration reform and warn their audiences regularly that if elected president, he’ll fold on the issue.
They got more ammunition on that front when billionaire Republican Paul Singer, who supports immigration reform, announced last week he’d throw his financial support behind Rubio in the primary.
“What worries me really about Marco Rubio is Paul Singer, his big benefactor, who is [for] open borders, [is] terrible on social issues and, as far as I can tell, is more concerned about the globalism agenda than the issues that are the best for the American people,” Ingraham said on her Wednesday show. “That’s my concern.”
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