Posted on 02/05/2016 7:54:05 AM PST by mononymous
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We're gonna start here, as I told the broadcast engineer, with F. Chuck Todd on the Today Show today with Savannah Guthrie. They were speaking about Ted Cruz's campaign, telling voters about Carson's leaving the race because of a report on CNN. Now, let's review this. Let's review what we know, just before we get to the sound bite. Somebody at CNN -- I forget the name -- tweeted that Carson was leaving the race and going home to Florida and then to the National Prayer Breakfast. That was a CNN tweet.
And the CNN reporter had to get it from somewhere, and he did not get it from Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz didn't know. And, by the way, this is 10 minutes, 20 minutes before the caucus begins. This is between the hour of 5:30 and 6:30 PM on Monday. Somebody had to tell the CNN reporter that Ben Carson was going back to Florida. The CNN reporter tweets it; the campaigns see it. It clearly said that Carson is returning to Florida and not going to New Hampshire or South Carolina, but is going to attend the National Prayer Breakfast today.
So the Rubio campaign and the Cruz campaign get in gear and point this out to their people on the ground, and they pass it around as though it could be that Carson or CNN is saying that Carson is leaving the race. He is, what the CNN tweet said, going back to Florida. Well, then the results come in, and Carson outperforms what the Real Clear Politics polling average showed that he would do. Cruz wins when Trump was forecast by the polls to win by four. That shakes up everything.
The Democrat side's a mess.
Democrats and the Des Moines Register, a whole bunch of people, are still embarrassed over what happened there. Because of all the embarrassment on the side of the people who lost. Then somehow it ends up that the Cruz campaign engaged in a "dirty trick" by simply passing on information to caucus-goers that was supplied by Carson or his campaign to CNN. This was then said to be "a dirty trick," and Dr. Carson went out there and said he was righteously indignant and offended and so forth.
He went so far as to make it look like he thought Cruz ought to fire somebody for making this happen. In the meantime, not one caucus-goer has yet come forward and said, "I intended to vote for Dr. Carson, but when I saw that Cruz tweet that went out that he had left the race, I changed my vote." Not one person has come forth and said so. And I am here to tell you that if those people existed, they would have found by now, and you would have seen them all over CNN, PMSNBC, and Fox.
Ben Carson would have needed 25,000 votes...
He ended up with 17,000, a solid fourth place. He would have needed 25,000 votes to tie Rubio. Nobody is making the claim that he was cheated out of 25,000 votes when his total was 17,000. The CNN reporter is Chris Moody. Okay? So that's what happened. Now let's go to the Today show today with Savannah Guthrie speaking with F. Chuck Todd of Meet the Press. She said, "Donald Trump is accusing Cruz of stealing the election in Iowa. Number one, is there anything in the substance of that, and, number two, is Trump's attack a smart political attack, do you think, Chuck?"
TODD: I have to say, the more they fight, the more this helps one candidate. Not Ted Cruz, not Donald Trump, but Marco Rubio. The private polling I've been hearing about over the last two days post-Iowa indicates that Cruz hasn't gotten a bump, and I think partly because Trump has been beating him up. Trump's been eroding a little bit. And there's only one guy on the rise: Marco Rubio.
RUSH: Okay. So F. Chuck cites "private polling" (meaning we're not allowed to know who) that says Trump's attacks on Cruz are working because Cruz isn't getting the bump that you would normally expect to see after a big win in Iowa, that Trump's numbers are eroding a little bit, but the big gainer happens to be Marco Rubio. And people are scratching their heads, wondering how that happened. "Why is that? Rubio? How in the hell does Rubio get a bump? What is happening here to cause Rubio to rise in the polls?"
People are scratching their heads and looking in the deep, dark crevices of the sofa trying to figure what's happening here. And F. Chuck thinks that Trump's attacks on Cruz on this Carson thing are actually hurting Cruz even though Cruz has apologized. But, of course, we're not finished.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I gotta quick question. I want to go back just a little bit here to audio sound bite number seven, Savannah Guthrie asking F. Chuck Todd, "Hey, Chuck, anything in the substance of this Carson, Cruz, Trump business reporting that Carson was leaving the race? And number two, is it a smart thing for Trump to attack Cruz on?" (replaying of sound bite) Stop it right there. Stop it. Stop it right there. What is this, "Cruz hasn't got a bump"? We just had the story that the Iowa winner doesn't get a bump in New Hampshire.
I just regaled you with it.
I just informed you of the story that New Hampshire voters, they do not like to rubber stamp what comes out of Iowa. This is what we're told in the Drive-Bys today, that New Hampshire voters go in there and no matter who wins Iowa, they're not gonna win New Hampshire. New Hampshire voters go in there and they make a point to make sure they vote for somebody other than who won Iowa, right? So what is F. Chuck talking about here when he says that the polling data he's hearing about indicates Cruz hasn't gotten a bump?
According to these guys, there is no bumping coming out of Iowa. So that means one of these things isn't true, and I'll tell you which one isn't true. This silly assertion that New Hampshire makes sure to not vote for the Iowa win is absolute flat-out BS. Stop and think for a moment how in the world that could be made a reality. Who would organize that? Who sends the memo out to all of the voters in New Hampshire? "All right. Ted Cruz won in Iowa.
"That means he cannot win in New Hampshire. You know what to do! Now get out there and vote." Really? Is that how it happens? Or does every New Hampshire voter consciously say, "Screw Iowa. I'm gonna make sure that whatever happens here is not what happened there." That's what they want us to believe? Of course there's a bump coming out of Iowa! Of course it'd be a huge bump coming out of Iowa for Cruz, especially given how it happened and what the expectations were. There are a huge...
He was supposed to lose, suppose to come in second, it'd be a huge bump. Now they're trying to say there isn't a bump and they don't expect a bump. And, yeah, Trump's attacks? Boy, they're brilliant. They are really, really, really hurting Cruz, and not really helping Trump much, and Rubio's picking up the pieces here and really moving forward. Now, here's the next bite. This is Fox News Channel with Greta Van Susteren last night. She's interviewing Trump. She said, "What do you mean, Ted Cruz stole the Iowa contest?"
TRUMP: I think what he did is disgusting. He said that Ben Carson, who's a fantastic guy, had dropped out of the race during the caucus. He had dropped out of the race and vote for Ted Cruz. All of these people, come and vote for Ted Cruz -- and many of them did. I think it was a disgrace that he did it and I don't think it should be even allowed. I think those votes should be taken away, and there were plenty of 'em.
RUSH: Really? What do we know? Again, I think I know a lot. I may not have heard everything -- and now that I've brought it up, I'm sure somewhere, it's gonna happen. Sure as I'm sitting here, somebody in Iowa is gonna pop up and say, "Hey, I did! I intended to vote for Dr. Carson, but when I saw that Ted Cruz said that he was leaving the race, I said, 'Well, okay, I'm voting for Cruz.'" But nobody has said that. I'm sure since I have pointed it out somebody's gonna pop up now.
We head to the phones. Josh in Decatur, Illinois. It's great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, buddy. Good to talk to you again. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: To me, Trump ain't looking very presidential, whining about this. I'm still undecided, but why is it just assumed that all the votes went to Cruz? Couldn't Trump have benefited from --
RUSH: Now, wait, wait.
CALLER: -- Carson voters not showing up?
RUSH: Wait a second. This is the kind of stuff... You know, you say that Trump isn't looking very presidential and this is the kind of stuff he does that has launched him. He doubles down when things like this happen, and people say, "It's incredible he's saying this." He doubles down on it. And he has been gaining. His support's been increasing. His appeal has been broadening as he does these things.
CALLER: It just ain't plain to me. I mean, it might be... I think whenever he's attacking Democrats or attacking things that are against our values. But I don't see anything in Ted Cruz that I would attack. It just turns me off to hear.
RUSH: Well, I understand that. But if you are in the Republican primary and you're expected to win Iowa, and you didn't -- and the guy who did is somebody you don't like anyway -- and you got an opportunity here to point out that he's a cheater and a fraud, you'll do it. Because what you want to do? You want to win New Hampshire! Before you get to the Democrats, you gotta knock these guys out. So you understand there are going to be vicious battles within the Republican Party. I agree with you that a lot of this looks childish, but realize that people benefit. That's the story of this campaign, that some benefit during all this.
CALLER: Yeah, and he could have benefited, too, from Carson. I mean, I don't think he should assume that all the people that weren't gonna vote for Carson automatically went to Cruz. Some of them might have said, "Heck, you know, I'll throw in Trump."
RUSH: Well, look, the dirty little secret here (and I hate on overuse that cliche) is Ben Carson was not, does not appear to have been harmed greatly by this. He outperformed the Real Clear Politics polling average. Now, I understand that the polling is hit or miss and that 13 of them were wrong. I understand. Thirteen polls had Trump winning.
And I've got nothing against Dr. Carson. I think Dr. Carson's one of the finest men alive today walking this planet. This whole episode, nevertheless, boggles my mind -- this whole thing -- manufactured as it is. It just boggles my mind. We're on the verge here, we conservatives, of wresting control of the Republican Party from the establishment and getting sidetracked with this stuff. It isn't helpful. I wish it would stop, but I'm not running all these campaigns.
The point here, is not how many votes were won or lost either way but rather, how this game is played. I wonder if this kind of stuff would be pulled against a Democrat party candidate in a general election.
“I wonder if this kind of stuff would be pulled against a Democrat party candidate in a general election.”
It is typically more a Democrat kind of ploy. I can imagine the howls if it were a Democrat deception in the general. And rightly so. The hypocrisy is strong in this one.
Ben Carson would have needed 25,000 votes...
Exactly.
But this won't stop Trump supporters from accusing Rush of being a member of ISIS.
So basically cheating or sleazy behavior is ok if it doesn’t affect the outcome in a net fashion.
Got it.
The only reason this boggles Rush’s mind is because he cannot accept that his conservative and therefore perfect candidate is flawed and will resort to dirty tricks to sway an election. Gasp! (as Rush quite often does)
Bingo. FR really needs a “LIKE” button.
And, as Breitbart pointed out in his audio clip, the Cruz camp knew it was a lie. Let’s not forget that.
Yes its dirty and deceitful but its politics as usual. I think this stuff happens all the time. Its also good politics on Trump part to expose it. So far, Cruz not getting much of a bounce.
Agree completely that the hypocrisy is strong, on this one. The Des Moines Register is calling for an audit of the DEM caucus.
Rush is similar to a ‘politician’ or a ‘governor’ he has big backers, and without those ‘big backers’ he doesn’t have a microphone to speak out of...so when they say something how he needs to portray something, it’s ‘yes sir, yes sir’ ...
I quit listening to Rush when I finally figured out there is no difference between the ‘unti party’ and Rush Limbaugh...
Rush’s math is WAY off. He’s “forgetting” that we are talking about votes that shifted, not voters that simply did not show up.
For instance, if Rubio had beaten Carson by 10 votes all it would take to create that ten vote gap is 5 voters switching from Carson to Rubio. That would lower Carson by 5 and increase Rubio by 5, creating a 10 vote gap.
In other words, if Rush had done his math right, it would have shown Carson was potentially in range of a third place finish. No wonder Carson is still mad.
The math is different, but it is also possible that this dirty trick is what put Cruz over Trump.
This is NOT the minor little thing Rush is trying to make it. It very well may have changed the whole dynamics coming out of Iowa.
What’s the saying....a lie gets completely around Iowa, before the truth even gets its pants on? Something like that...lol.
Maybe the CRuz campaign should take a break for a new set of clothing.
Rush subtly has shifted from Trump to Cruz. Oh I know he is so subtle he can claim he never supported either one. And he even has made it clear (has he?) that Rubio is ok as well.
I never enjoy Rush when he thinks he’s cleverly avoiding saying something.
Rushie wants his private golf courses.
Speaking of Rush’s math being off....wasn’t it just the day after that Rush suggested CRuz give Carson a couple of delegates? That would’ve put Trump as the delegate leader/winner of IA.
If you listen to Rush with any regularity you soon conclude he’s often either is behind the curve, or is leading the prescribed false narrative.
Wouldn't matter. Pooh-slingers just gonna sling pooh...and get him all dirty again.
The lesson I have learned is that no matter what the error, if it is committed by someone other than your candidate, it is intentional, criminal, planned in advance, unethical, and fraudulent. There is no such thing as an error based on misunderstanding, miscommunication, failure to verify, or in relying on some source that everyone knows should be disbelieved.
That is what I have learned. There are no exceptions, because anything other than outright fraud never happens.
Also, I learned that in any organization, malicious intent is ascribed to the candidate, regardless of whether that candidate was personally involved or aware of it - unless you are a Democrat.
I don’t think I will learn anything else on FR until after the election, but I hope I’m wrong.
I know my opinion will not matter much in the scheme of things, but I certainly see a lack of disciplined thinking lately.
And Rush’s tap-dancing lately has shown he is no Fred Astaire. His shows all this week have been a sad display of babbling incoherence as he attempts to work two sides of the same street.
I listened to Rush for an hour yesterday, in that time I heard two Cruz ads starring Rush. Yeah, he can be trusted.
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