Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry — one of the Republican field's many presidential contenders — delivered a fiery and biblically inflected speech aimed at fellow Republican candidate Donald Trump during the Opportunity and Freedom PAC forum Wednesday afternoon.
Although Perry covered a range of topics, from the recent nuclear agreement with Iran to criticism of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders's presidential platform, he saved most of his speech — and vitriol — for Trump.
Trump, whose financial disclosure records just went public today, is the current GOP frontrunner. According to the most recent Washington Post/ABC News Poll taken over the weekend, Trump is clocking in with 23 percent of the vote of leaning Republicans — putting him at a 10-point lead over second-place finisher Jeb Bush. However, Trump has come under fire in recent weeks for his comments on Mexican immigrants and, more recently, his dismissal of Arizona Sen. John McCain's military record.
Here are a few of the shadiest jabs at Trump from Perry's speech:
1) "He offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued."
2) "Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded."
3) "Conservatism can lead us out of the Valley of Economic Ruin."
4) "Donald Trump is the modern-day incarnation of the know-nothing movement." The Know-Nothing Party, as Perry notes earlier in his speech, was a political group known for "scapegoating Irish and German immigrants for the problems of the nation."
5) "When a candidate under the Republican banner would abandon the tradition of magnanimous leadership of the presidency, when he would seek to demonize millions of citizens, when he would stoop to attack POWs for being captured, I can only ask as Senator Welch did of Senator McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?""
6) "My fellow Republicans, beware of false prophets. Do not let itching ears be tickled by messengers who appeal to anger, division and resentment."
7) "We must move past the empty calories of Trumpism, and return to conservatism."
You can read the full text of the speech here.
