“But to me it seemed Rush was distancing himself far more from Trump than from Erickson.”
He comment on Erickson is standard talk, but if you may want to reconnect the dots if you think he was distancing himself from Trump. He did surprise me, though; he says he had never heard the expression, “blood in the eyes”. I talked to a former prison guard onetime about his experiences. He said you could always tell which inmate was guilty of a violent act; his eyes were invariably blood red.
As I said, merely my opinion. The transcript might show he said something like, “He’s a friend...I mean I know him...” followed by a golf story not exactly flattering to Trump. But you may see it different.
Glenn Beck uses that phrase frequently. He gets so angry blood shoots out of his eyes. When on TV countless times in his show he would state anger=blood shooting out of eyes. Now it is as common as bacon and eggs. And STILL correct...WTP are so angry that blood is shooting out of our eyes, nose, and everywhere else.