Fireworks After Your Host Says the GOP Establishment Plans to Vote for Hillary - The Rush Limbaugh Show
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RUSH: There is a story on the Trump side, somebody suggesting -- it's a media person, I forget exactly who, I didn't print it out. But it's simply one of these analysis pieces showing how Trump could get all the delegates in New York with only winning 40% of the popular vote.
It was just an analysis, all coming under the theme of either everything's rigged or how in the world do states, party organizations, set up their processes here and how different they are from state to state. And so it's my bad. It's all about Pennsylvania. It relates to nothing. We'll save it for when the Pennsylvania primary comes around.
So even now the media, New York-centric media, is, on balance, pro-Trump, but that's because they want Hillary to be elected. And there is a bit of conventional wisdom throughout the media that Trump or Cruz, either one, will lose in a landslide to Hillary Clinton. That's what they think. I, of course, have stated often and will say again, I don't think it's true.
You know, Hillary Clinton had another coughing fit. There's something wrong with Hillary Clinton. There's something wrong in the Hillary Clinton campaign. She's gonna win New York. Bernie's not gonna even get close. If you want to talk about landslides, it looks like Hillary will have one in New York, maybe 10, 15 points, which is not gonna sit well with the Bernie people. My point is that for all this talk of disjointed disunity on the Republican side, don't overlook what is happening on the Democrat side, 'cause it's a mess there.
Now, the latest polling data from TheHill.com, Donald Trump now 40% nationally. NBC News/Wall Street Journal. Ted Cruz at 35%, John Kasich is at 24%, according to the poll. Trump support's up 10 points from a March poll. And in that poll, Cruz was at 27; Kasich was at 22. So Trump is up after what has supposedly been a rotten two weeks for Trump on the delegate side. Mitt Romney is saying that Trump's gonna win this if Cruz and Kasich stay in. The explanation coming up with the audio sound bites in a moment, to hear why he thinks that.
But let's go to the audio sound bites. Martha MacCallum on Fox News this morning did something I think is kind of brave. She played an audio sound bite of me from this program that you'll hear coming up in a moment and stood by it, in a sense, and she had a couple of guests. She had Rich Lowry from National Review and some Democrat that I have no idea who it was. His name was Matthew Littman, a former speechwriter for Biden. That's why I don't know who he is. Anyway, here's the bite. Here's how the segment opened, and you'll see what I'm talking about here as it unfolds.
MACCALLUM: Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh argues that if either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz is the eventual Republican nominee, the party may be prepared to let Hillary Clinton win, and he explains why he thinks that is.
MACCALLUM: There's a lot of talk about exactly what Rush is saying in that sound bite.
RUSH: Now, it's one thing for me to say it on the radio, and I have no problem. It's true. The only reason I said it is I have seen, and it's an increasing number of elected Republicans, some anonymously, some with names attributed, saying if it's Cruz, some saying if it's Trump, that they'd vote for Hillary. And there's only one reason why, and that is they don't think the country's in crisis. They don't consider the Democrats and Hillary to be a real threat to their way of life, to the nation at large. They don't consider the Democrats to be a threat to the Constitution. And what's more important is holding on to what they have, keeping their establishment intact and their role in it intact. And look, it's undeniable that they have said it.
You've seen stories of these named Republicans, elected Republicans, a lot of senators -- I think five -- have said they're not even gonna go to the convention, even before we know who the nominee is 'cause everybody knows the nominee is gonna be either Trump or Cruz. And they're not gonna go. They're saying, "You know, I can do more for myself staying home with my voters. Yes, I can stay and do a better job for myself back in my own constituency and dealing with people in my state." It's not unprecedented, but it's weird.
I mean, the focus of particularly this convention -- you know, if the Republican Party knows what it's doing -- you know, you've heard Trump talk about the need for this convention to have showbiz, that it's boring otherwise, you gotta find some showbiz aspects to the convention. They don't need to do anything other than let things --. If you go to a contested convention and you have floor votes where the outcome is unknown, you're gonna have tune-in factor like they've never had for a convention, not since 1976. The showbiz is built in if somebody doesn't get to 1,237. The showbiz is simply drama, and the drama comes from an outcome not being known.
So I don't know what kind of planning actually needs to happen here for there to be showbiz because it's built into this. I mean, this whole campaign has been showbiz, from that standpoint, meaning the great unknown equaling drama. Why do you think NFL games are the highest rated television programs in this country? I'm talking about regular season, some 4:30 starts, some of the prime time starts, not playoffs, regular season, why do you think it is? Because NFL games -- it's true of NBA and Major League Baseball, too, but the NFL right now happens to be the national pastime sports-wise. It's the drama.
It's the only thing on TV where you don't know the outcome. You know how The Oprah show's gonna end. Somebody's gonna hug and somebody's gonna cry and their life's gonna get fixed. You know how every crime drama on TV is gonna end. The bad guy's either gonna get caught or he's not gonna get caught. The bad guy's gonna get away with it and get caught the next episode or he's gonna get caught and everybody's gonna be sad.
But there's no drama in terms of unknown. Depending on how good the program is if the writing is really good and the stories are good, they could overcome the fact that the outcome is known. But the NFL, I mean everything that happens in the game is unknown, everything playing out is drama. And so that equals big tune-in. Republican convention has the potential to have the same draw, without writing any showbiz into it. Now, that's, again, if the convention is contested.
Now, anyway, back to the sound bite here. So Fox plays the sound bite here of me theorizing. You don't see this discussed on TV. We discuss it on radio. It's just one of these things where that gap, the bridge to TV oftentimes this doesn't come up, something as open as, "Are Republicans actually going to vote for Hillary Clinton rather than vote for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz?" Now, I'll let you hear Rich Lowry and this Democrat's reaction to it 'cause there's a couple more bites to it when we get back.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. So after playing the sound bite where I say that it looks like I've heard of Republican establishment types saying that if Trump's the nominee or Cruz is the nominee, they will vote for Hillary or they will not vote. They just can't hold their nose and vote. The explanation for that is that it's only about one thing: Self-preservation. If you can vote for Hillary Clinton... If you're Republican, establishment or otherwise, and you can vote for Hillary Clinton in this election cycle, then you can't possibly be in touch with where things are in this country.
Here's Rich Lowry reacting when Martha MacCallum said, "Do you agree with Rush, Rich?"
LOWRY: Yeah, there's a lot of talk like that, but that has nothing to do with voting for Hillary Clinton. And I think if Trump's the nominee, you would see the party establishment -- at least as it's exemplified in the RNC and most elected officials -- getting on board with Trump, even if tentatively and with a lot of hesitation. It's only as clear if Trump is gonna crash and burn in a general election; then you would see everyone scurrying for cover. And the irony of what Rush is saying, actually, Trump is gonna be desperate for establishment support, and especially establishment money, if he's the nominee. Because he's not liquid enough, certainly, to fund his own campaign.
RUSH: That happens to be true. And Rich's point here that, yeah, he's heard talk of people voting for Hillary but it has nothing to do with voting for Hillary? That's precisely right. That makes it even worse. It's not that they're voting for Hillary. It is that they are voting for themselves, and voting for Hillary is what preserves themselves. You know, I'm hit with this allegation all the time. I have been hit with it for 27 years. It comes at me, "You really want the Democrats to win, don't you?
"You'd much rather have the Democrats in the White House so you have something to talk about every day. You'd much rather have the Democrats do a by do's you can stand up and oppose it. Otherwise if your buds are in the White House, you have agree with 'em every day all the time." You could not be farther wrong if anybody is of that opinion. People like Obama win the White House twice, when Clinton wins it twice, I am maybe more devastated than the average voter is, because part of me takes it personally.
And they have to be defeated politically. And that's why I make a big deal of this when I hear Republicans say, "Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, if Trump's the nominee, if Cruz is the nominee, I'm voting a Hillary." That just frosts me, I can't tell you how much. Now, the next bite she talks to the Matt Littman, the former speechwriter for Biden. Martha MacCallum says, "Okay. Let's get to the heart of what Rush is saying. He's saying, Matt, not that they don't like these candidates.
"What he's saying is they're so desperate to hang onto the establishment, the cartel, as Ted Cruz calls it, that they're willing to throw their lot in with Hillary because they don't like these guys. They think Cruz and Trump are gonna shake up the system, and they don't want the system be shaken up." I think that's a pretty courageous stand for her to take in explaining to these guys what I mean. Here's this guy's reaction to it.
LITTMAN: Rush Limbaugh is not the first person to say that anybody who disagrees with him must have nefarious motives. We hear that a lot on both sides right now. But Rush Limbaugh's wrong. There are a lot of people who think that Donald Trump would be terrible for America. A lot of those people are in office, that's true. Some of those people are on the Democratic side; a lot of those people are on the Republican side. They do not want Donald Trump to be president because of the things that Donald Trump says. That seems very reasonable. The other thing I would say is, "Why are people still listening to Rush Limbaugh?"
RUSH: Let me tell you, the point he says here about, "Rush Limbaugh isn't the first person to say anybody that disagrees with him has nefarious." It's not because they disagree with me. And listen to this. Here's a guy saying, "Yeah, I can understand voting against Trump for what he says." What he says? How about voting against Hillary because what she's already done and what we know she will do more of? These guys run around... Have you seen? There's a video that's gone viral. A guy went to a college campus. I'll get the details somewhere.
He wanted to find out from students what he could do or say to make them judge him to be wrong, and he couldn't find anybody. He's about five ten, 180, and he says, "I am a six-foot-five Chinese woman. I'm telling you right now, I'm a six-foot-five Chinese woman. What's your reaction?" "Well, I can't condemn that, if that's what you think you are. If you want to be -- if that's who you are -- it's not for me to tell you that you're not a six-foot five-inch Chinese woman." And he gave example after example, and not a'one of these students would condemn him, judge him, say he was wrong.
It has led to a great discussion.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Politico headline: "Trump's Staffers Face Threat of Blacklist -- Some political operatives are shying away from working for Trump for fear of being shunned by the establishment." Can anybody say See, I Told You So on this establishment stuff? I mean, they're circling the wagons here, folks. It's all... What we're learning is, that's not new. That's what's been going on the last seven years and maybe longer.
