Posted on 07/21/2015 12:20:58 PM PDT by Kaslin
RUSH: So I'm reading and I start getting e-mails and text messages, saying, "They're talking about you on CNN. You're all over CNN." Of course, nobody tells me. In fact, most of these e-mails say, "I assume you know that you are all over CNN." No, I don't know, because I don't have CNN on at the time. It turns out that Anderson Cooper's show was on. They were talking about me rallying you, the audience of this program, to Donald Trump's defense. And then another e-mail said, "You've probably seen it but the New York Times is all over this and you today."
No, I haven't seen that, either. I went and found it and got it. Here it is. It's a blog section of the New York Times posted last night by Maggie Haberman, who used to be at The Politico. "Rush Limbaugh Rallies Listeners to Donald Trump's Defense -- The conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who has a substantial following among grass-roots Republicans, came to the defense of Donald J. Trump on Monday as prominent leaders in the party stepped up their criticism of Mr. Trump's pointed comments about Senator John McCain.
"Such a defense is not entirely surprising, since Mr. Limbaugh's distaste for the Republican establishment is deep and well documented." No, it's not. I mean, just last week the New York Times and the Washington Post or somebody was writing about how I run the Republican Party. You know as well as I do that one day I'm running the Republican Party or I'm the titular head of the Republican Party. The next day I'm just an entertainer. But last night in the New York Times, I have a "distaste for the Republican establishment is deep and well documented."
"But the supportive words from Mr. Limbaugh may provide Mr. Trump with the inoculation he needs to survive the scorn of the party's elders long enough to be included in the presidential debates," something that never came up on this program yesterday. Trump surviving whatever, we didn't talk about it here. They may have elsewhere. And then they quote me accurately. When they start quoting me accurately, it isn't bad. The thing... Look, I don't want to make too big a deal of it.
I'm the one who tells you, "You really can't trust the Drive-Bys, and they don't get it right a lot." My point yesterday was not to come to Trump's defense. My point yesterday was to illustrate a teachable moment for the American people with a chance to see something they don't often see, haven't seen in a long time. I'm sorry to be redundant, for those of you who were here yesterday. But for people who weren't, I want to set the record straight on what happened on the program yesterday.
It isn't complicated at all. Here's the setup: The conventional wisdom in circumstances like this goes this way: You have a Republican public figure who says something that constitutes stepping in it. In this case, it's Trump's supposed comments about McCain, but even those were distorted. And whatever the perp (always a Republican, never a Democrat) says is something so bad, so beyond the pale that the entire media establishment and the Washington establishment immediately demand that the perp apologize.
And usually the perp does.
The conventional wisdom is, "The perp apologizes, begs forgiveness, says (sobbing), 'That wasn't me! I don't know who that was, but that's not what I really think. I really didn't mean it,' and they apologize, and they slink away, never to be heard from again." And the key point... This was not talked about all night and even today on CNN. The key point that was not mentioned that makes all of this come together, as far as I'm concerned, is the element of all of this conventional wisdom is an assumption that the outrage expressed by the media and the Washington establishment echoes national outrage.
So you have the networks, Drive-Bys, the newspapers, all the media people, the Washington establishment, and they're all telling everybody how horrible it was what Trump said. "How over the top! How this is beyond the pale! This is the last straw. He's gotta go. This is not who we are. This is not what our politics ought to be." You've heard it all, and the assumption is that everybody in America feels the same way. The assumption -- the presumption, in fact -- is that the outrage you see in the media is reflective of a majority of the American people.
I'll give you another example to try to illustrate all this. Let's go to back to Indiana and the religious freedom law which was passed which ultimately led to a little pizza shop being shut down by the Gay Mafia and a bunch of trolls on Twitter, or one of the sewers of Twitter because the little woman proprietor said in response to a question that they would not cater a gay wedding. A pizza shop! They'd never been asked to cater one.
We had a media reporter that was shopping around the whole state for controversy and walked into this little pizza store 30 miles outside of Indianapolis. "No, we would not cater a gay wedding here at Pete's Pizza, whatever, because of our religious beliefs." Well, that made the news and then, of course, there was outrage over that. The media had outrage. The Gay Mafia was outraged. Twitter was outraged. The political establishment was outraged.
The assumption was that everybody in America thought that little pizza shop should be shut down, sent packing, never to be heard from again. My point has always been that that is what makes this collective outrage and demand that a public figure apologize and go away work: This assumption that a majority of Americans agree that whoever and whatever the perp did is just unacceptable and intolerable, and we must get rid of this person. I've always believed that's not the case.
I know it isn't the case from my own personal experiences. So what I said yesterday is, "We're having this put to a test now. We have an opportunity to see, because Trump isn't following the rules. Trump is not doing what perps are supposed to do." Your average Republican who steps in it -- and, by the way, it's always the media and the establishment that define whether somebody has stepped in it, not the American people. If the media find what Trump said outrageous, that's all you need, and if the establishment finds that it's outrageous, that's all you need.
And then you act like everybody thinks so. And then the perp apologizes, begs forgiveness, and is never to be seen or heard from again. Trump didn't do any of that. He doubled down. He doubled down on his criticism of McCain. He tried to switch the focus of the issue from him and McCain to Veterans Affairs. In doing so, the American people have seen something they haven't seen in a long time, and that is a target stand up and refuse to go away, a target stand up and refuse to apologize.
On the basis that the target doesn't want to be run out of the race by a bunch of media people or the Washington establishment. If the target's gonna be run out of the race, it's gonna be by virtue of votes or what have you. So Trump's not playing by the rules and he's hanging around, and he doubled down, and the point I tried to make yesterday was we're now going to see. The American people are gonna be polled over the next few days and weeks, and we will see if what Trump said about McCain actually hurts him or not.
The reason that's important is because when the outrage originally happens -- when the media hears what Trump says about McCain and blows their gasket, then the Washington establishment blows their gasket -- that is presumed to be the end of Trump. This is how it works. This is how they get rid of Republicans. Should I throw a name out there? Sharron Angle. Todd Akin. Any number of them. I mean, the list is long. They tried to Sarah Palin over and over. This is how they get rid of Republicans.
It's always an arbitrary decision or judgment that some Republican has said something so intolerable, so politically correct, so reprehensible that civil discourse demands this person just go away. Maybe even die! But certainly get out of our sight and stop talking. That's always what happens, because the perps fall for the belief that the majority of the American people share that sentiment. But we never really know. We never know because the perps leave too soon. So there can't be any polling data a week or two afterwards, based on the perp's staying in and fighting.
Trump is staying in and fighting, and we're gonna have some polling data on this, and we're gonna find out. Now, it just so happened that at the end of the day yesterday the Washington Post and ABC News released a polldia and the establishment.
We will find out because Trump is staying in. He's doubling down. He's in South Carolina. He's not apologizing, and he can't apologize now even if he had a change of heart and wants to. He's gone too far; he can't. Even McCain is saying, "I don't want an apology. I don't want one. We just gotta move on. I'm tired of this," and so forth and so on. So we'll find out. None of this was offered in support of Trump. I was simply offering cutting-edge analysis, and I was observing something that I thought was a teachable moment that we don't see much.
Most of the time the targets of these kind of things are dealt with and done away with and sent packing. I mean, what was the little...?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The Drive-Bys, the media, the establishment in Washington are all trying to figure out why is Trump getting so much support. Why is he getting it? I'll tell you why. On my left hand here, I've got the Planned Parenthood story, where we are murdering babies in the womb and selling body parts for profit. Planned Parenthood is doing it, bragging about it, setting prices, woman saying she wants to get a Lamborghini. Over here we've the got Trump saying words about McCain. And in those two circumstances what's everybody upset about? Trump.
There's a sordid lack of proportion in this country, and my contention to you is that the American people are far more fed up with what they learned about Planned Parenthood. A vast majority of Americans are livid and scared and shocked and repulsed by what they've learned about Planned Parenthood, to the point that makes Trump's comments about McCain pale in importance and comparison. And yet over here we have the establishment and the media, and they haven't said a word about Planned Parenthood, but they're beside themselves with anger and shock and dismay over what Donald Trump is saying. I mean, you talk about disconnect.
People in Washington, DC, at all levels of the political class -- being media, elected officials, people that work at lobbying firms, fundraisers, the whole mess, the bureaucracy, I don't think they have the slightest idea what it is that's on the minds of your average American citizen these days. So, the average American does everything he or she can to get their attention. In the case of Republicans, sit home and not vote and let Barack Obama be elected.
No doubt in my mind that the four million or so Republicans that so the home in 2008 didn't vote for Romney, or in 2012, didn't vote for Romney, did that as the only way they could get a message to the Republican establishment. They were disgusted, they were fed up, asked for money, and never being listened to. So, to me, this is evidence of just how sick our whole political structure, and maybe culture at large, is right now.
Anyway, we've got a bunch of sound bites from CNN last night, and even this morning. This conversation about me and Jeffrey Lord from the American Spectator. God bless! Jeffrey Lord did everything he could to explain, 'cause he was the guest last night and this morning on CNN. He did everything he could to explain to these people why they were upset at me. He did everything he could to explain to them what happened on the program yesterday here. And it was good.
But we'll find out, folks, in not too long a period of time. My guess is that Trump's not gonna suffer long-term polling damage over this, precisely for the reasons that I have given and more.
The liberals, the GOPe (redundant, I know), the media (redundant again) were all just waiting, salivating, for Trump to say something they could use against him.
We need to stop the politics of personal destruction. Because it’s used most effectively against conservatives. Liberals could care less when they are called out (lena dunham, for example)
Rush is SPOT ON as usual. And Donald hang in there. You may not end up being the nominee...but your staying in and speaking for us is what the GOPe chamber of commerce GOP need to hear
Like the movie network..We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore
Freegards
LEX
Bingo.
Exactly. I love what Trump is doing. Will I send him money or vote for? Not sure at this point. The fact that he has 14 of the 16 off their talking points is hilarious and refreshing.
You got that right brother!
Rush got it mostly right, but he didn’t take this to it’s logical conclusion.
DT didn’t apologize because he planned it. It was a trap. And essentially all of the uniparty pukes, the pundits, and the other candidates fell for it.
He’s a Pinochle Champion. He always knows when to use his Trump card.
What Trump openly is saying, is that NOT what most of us are mad about, not having a voice to be heard but screwed by the District of Corruption (DC) is all about. Like “fresh” Air??? He got the false birth certificate displayed what 535 cowardly CONmen/CONwomen are running away from !!!
Will I send him money or vote for?
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One of the reasons Trump doesn’t have to cave and apologize to anyone is that he is not reliant on your money or anyone else’s but his own.
One of the very few things I like about him.
A very good point.
It also allowed Trump to know who his friends are and who is enemies are.
GOP-e, MSM, Fox News, Little Jebbie, McCain’s GF are clearly his enemies.
Cruz is a friend.
The politics of personal destruction will stop. Because one presidential candidate has figured out how to use it. Others will quickly learn.
I don’t think you need to send him any money. He has plenty enough and he is not asking for contributions. As a matter of fact he is paying for his campaign all by himself
What makes you think Fox News are not his friends?
By Rush complimenting Trump on his courage, (for not backing down to the media like so many others,) and not criticising, it IS support. It’s not direct support, but it still is support.
Great analysis from Maha Rushi.
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