This Former Presidential Candidate Just Ripped 2 of His Former Competitors

Wednesday’s third hour of Simon Conway’s drive-time talk radio show on the Des Moines, Iowa, based WHO-AM is certainly grabbing headlines in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

Conway’s guest that hour was former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who was once among the early favorites to win the Republican presidential nomination. The governor heaped praise on fellow Texan U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, while ripping into two of his former competitors on the campaign trail.

“Marco Rubio is basically still open to a pathway to citizenship for those individuals who have come into this country illegally and I think I know how Iowa caucus goes pretty well,” he said. “I think I know the primary voter in a Republican primary and this illegal immigration and those that would create a pathway to citizenship at this particular juncture even though Marco Rubio says it’s way down the road, that is still the third rail of politics in the Republican primary and I think again he has a very, very difficult time of divorcing himself from the work that he did with that Gang of Eight [bill].”

“It’s kind of like Donald Trump and the Second Amendment,” he continued. “I mean, are you gonna trust someone who said they’re basically for a pathway to citizenship relative to Marco Rubio or are you gonna trust someone who said that they’re for an assault weapons ban?”

Perry said Trump and Rubio have been inconsistent, while Cruz has been “very disciplined” on the campaign trail. His disgust with Donald Trump was well-documented earlier in the race, and by most accounts, led to his eventual downfall. But criticism of Rubio—thought by many to be the likely establishment contender for the GOP nomination—is a new wrinkle in the primary landscape.

But much of his barbs were aimed at Trump.

“Consistency is a very, very important thing for a leader of the free world and I have not seen that consistency out of him,” he said. “I don’t know what he believes in to be real honest with you. I think he believes in Donald Trump and promoting Donald Trump and Donald Trump’s brand.”