All Episodes
Previous Next
Sept. 25, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:43
September 25, 2013, Wednesday, Hour #2
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
The views expressed by the host on this program, documented to be almost always right 99.7% of the time, I figured out why the Sullivan group may be holding out on me.
Well, they send me some forms that I've got to sign and get back, and I haven't done it for about a month.
No, no, no, not opinion auditing forms.
I have nothing to do with that.
I can't be allowed to corrupt my own data.
Well, I can't corrupt their survey, but they need some other stuff for me, and I just haven't had time to do it.
So I know.
It seems like it ought to have moved up from documented to be almost always right 99.7% of the time.
Anyway, happy to have you back here, folks, as am I happy to be back.
The phone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
For those of you expecting Senator Cruz right now, so are we.
Just found out mere moments ago that there's a Senate vote at 1 o'clock, if it's on time.
Whenever that vote ends, Senator Cruz will come here.
Well, he will go to the nearest phone, and via phone, he will come here.
So we're floating and awaiting that moment when the Senate vote has completed.
I wanted to finish one thing.
The crux of his message throughout the 21 hours, and I think it's important to point out in all those 21 hours, he didn't say one critical personal thing about anybody, Republican or Democrat, despite the fact that the only opposition to him was personal, vicious, and mean.
He did not sink to that level.
Obviously, didn't need a teleprompter for any of it.
But the points that he tried to make over and over again were this bill, this legislation, this health care reform is a disaster.
It doesn't deserve to be implemented because it's so bad.
The Medicare cuts that help pay for this have been delayed.
The employer mandate has been delayed until 2015, which after the midterm elections, the employer mandate mandates the employer to provide health insurance.
Now the employer doesn't have to.
The employer can cut loose employees from health care.
And guess who's going to get blamed?
Not Obamacare, not the government, but the evil corporations, evil management.
And they're free to offload now these health care plans.
And that's the idea.
The idea is to get rid of as much private sector health insurance as possible.
That's what this plan has as its ultimate aim, is for you to have only one place to go get health insurance, and that's a government exchange.
That is the ultimate utopia.
That is the objective of Obama and the demand.
And hell, I guess, even some of the Republican establishment.
Subsidy verification, that was when you go to an exchange and verify that you qualify for a subsidy.
That's been delayed.
Virtually anybody can now go to an exchange and get a subsidy.
Which, while it might sound good, oh, yeah, well, that's free.
That's paid for health care.
It's going to bust the maps.
It's not good.
And it's, you know, all we do.
Didn't take as long as I thought.
Senator Cruz, we welcome you to the EIB microphone and the program.
Great to have you here, sir.
Rush, it's fantastic to be with you.
I have to tell you, I've had so many people.
I've been off the past couple of days, but while this has been going on, I've had so many people email me, so uplifted by what you did in the last 21 hours and what you did leading up to it.
So many people so happy that there finally is some leadership, so happy, finally somebody doing in Washington what they were elected to do, what they said they were going to do.
And I just, before we started, I'm sure you're hearing much the same thing, but I wanted you to know that while you're getting all these arrows, as pioneers do, there's a lot of appreciation and a lot of love for what you're doing out there.
Well, Rush, thank you so much.
Thank you for that encouragement, and thank you for your leadership.
You know, I really hope that over the course of this week we'll see more and more Republicans step forward.
We had quite a few Republicans come down to the floor and support the effort.
And I hope that we'll see as many Republicans as possible and even some Democrats come together and listen to the American people.
As you know, every week you talk to 20 million Americans.
You know where the American people are on this, and it's not a close call.
Obamacare isn't working and millions of Americans are hurting.
And if the Senate just listens to the American people, we'll do the right thing and we'll vote to defund it.
Well, in a political sense, it's been one of the things that surprised me because you're right, no matter what poll you look at, a vast majority of people oppose this.
And I look at this, politics isn't my business, getting votes isn't my business, but it seems to me that this is a ready-made opportunity.
Here's a chance for the Republican Party to connect to a majority of the American people on a fundamental issue.
If they're looking for something that could get them back, that could give them an identity, could give them a little boost.
This seems to me to be it, but they seem to want to have no desire to oppose this in any meaningful way.
And it's got me and a lot of people befuddled.
Well, look, Rush, I understand that frustration.
It's why I think in many ways the central issue that we were trying to focus on in the filibuster was not the continuing resolution.
It wasn't even Obamacare as horrific as it is for the economy.
The central issue, I think, is the long-standing problem we have had with Washington not listening to the American people, with Democrats and Republicans, a lot of folks who've been in office way too long, who stopped listening to their constituents.
And as a result, we see lots of theater, lots of empty symbolic votes, and very little willingness to actually stand up and fight on behalf of the American people.
Theater is what you were accused.
Michael Barone, as soon as you finished, accused you of engaging in theater and that you knew it and that you knew there's no way you have any prayer of accomplishing what you want to accomplish.
Others have said that you're just fundraising and you're making it look like you're doing something substantive, but it's just theater.
Well, you know, one of the approaches that those who want to mainstay the status quo, who want to make sure Obamacare stays funded, who want to avoid any risk, one of the approaches they do is they try to make this all about people.
They try to make it all about personalities.
And listen, most Americans could not care less about any politician in Washington.
They don't care about me.
They don't care about anybody else either.
And what is utterly maddening about all of these reporters is what do they write about all day long?
They write about the process.
They write about the horse race.
They write about this personality or the other.
They act like they're Hollywood gossip columnists writing about bickering.
I mean, how many times have you and I both read the word Republican Civil War in the past week?
Because that's what they like to write about.
And listen, what I tried to spend much of the filibuster all but begging the media to do.
In fact, I explicitly said, listen, all right, you guys can't resist writing some about the process, some about that silliness, but let me just ask you 50% of what you write.
Discuss the substance of how Obamacare is the number one job killer in the country, how millions of Americans are suffering, how it's forcing people into part-time work, how it's threatening millions of Americans' health insurance.
Just write a little about the substance.
And the strategy on the other side is really twofold.
Number one, confuse the voters, confuse the voters with procedural obfuscation, with complexity, so that they don't understand what's going on.
And number two, make it all about personalities.
And listen, others can engage in that game.
Rush, I have no intention of defending myself or reciprocating.
It's not about anybody.
It's not about us.
It is about listening to the American people and stopping this disaster, this nightmare, this train wreck that is Obamacare.
One of the things I wanted to ask you about is a I know you just said you don't want to defend yourself, and I'm not asking you to do this, but I do want to put to you a criticism that I have heard,
and it is, you have to, that you have, oh heaven forbid, you have ignored the inside rules of the Senate, that you didn't go to your party conference to try to convince them, et cetera, to do this, and that you love just being an outsider, and that the precious rules of the Senate were not observed, and because of that, you're harming the party.
Well, I will note that some of the folks making that argument, in fact, the only folks I've seen making that argument are not, in fact, senators, not in fact, senators who attend the meetings.
Indeed, I've heard it referred to as the Thursday meeting of the conference.
It meeting is actually on Tuesday.
So the people who go on television purporting to know what they're talking about, they don't actually know what day the Senate meets.
And more fundamentally, I've attended not all, but virtually all of the meetings since I've been in the Senate.
And we have been discussing number one strategies on Obamacare for at least six months.
Mike Lee and I have been going over and over and over again saying, does anyone else have an alternative?
Does anyone else have any plan?
And there's never been a plan.
And we've been talking about this for months.
So nobody has an argument, at least no one that's actually attended those lunches, that we didn't discuss this ad nauseum.
Now, they have a different argument that we didn't wait for and get their approval and permission to stand up and do our best to fight this fight because, look, each of the 100 senators, we're elected by our constituents, and I've got an obligation not to my colleagues, but to 26 million technologies to fight for them.
Senator, most of your colleagues said exactly what you've said in the last 21 hours, in the last two weeks, in the last year.
Most of your colleagues said years ago what you said.
At the moment of truth, they're not to be found.
They've sought solace somewhere else.
But they don't seem to.
I look at what you're doing.
Forgive me for characterizing.
I look at what you're doing as simply doing what you were elected to do, as you said, but you're also drawing a line.
At some point, we've got to say we're not going to allow this kind of freedom to be lost in this country.
I think this is what this is about.
What Obamacare substantively is is what you're about.
Rush, I think you are absolutely right.
And to be honest, look, I think what Mike and I are doing, I don't view as a terribly big deal.
We're trying to actually stand for the principles that every Republican in the Senate says he or she believes in.
We're trying to actually listen to the American people, and we're trying to tell the truth.
I mean, part of why, you know, people ask why does Congress have a 10, 12, 15 percent approval rating?
It's because for years, Congress has ignored the will of the American people.
This process, I think it's important for your listeners to understand how this process is going to play out this next week, because much of what the Senate does is engage in show votes that are designed to look one way to the voters and, in fact, be like World Federation Wrestling, entirely fixed.
So what's going to happen next is on Friday or Saturday, we are going to have a vote on what's called cloture on the bill.
That is the vote that matters.
It takes 60 votes to grant cloture.
What cloture is, is cutting off debate, saying there shall be no more debate.
And the reason that matters is if Harry Reid gets 60 votes to cut off debate to get cloture on the bill, he will then file one amendment, and he said only one amendment, that guts the House continuing resolution and that fully funds Obamacare.
And so any Republican, in my view, who votes for cloture, who votes with Harry Reid, who votes with the Democrats to cut off debate and give Harry Reid the ability to fund Obamacare fully on a 51-vote partisan vote of only Democrats, is voting to fund Obamacare.
Now, a number of Republicans are going to maintain that, no, their vote to cut off debate is in support of the House bill.
And, Rush, that's simply not the case.
It's a show vote.
Now, if Harry Reid gets 60 votes, every Republican then will vote against his amendment to fund Obamacare.
And so all 46 Republicans want to go home to their districts and say, gosh, I voted to defund Obamacare and Marvel of Marvels we lost, which, to be honest, is the outcome that I think more than a few of them affirmatively desire.
And part of what's so problematic with Washington is how many Republicans want a show vote to pretend to their constituents they're fighting for what they say they're fighting for rather than actually fighting for it and actually winning.
Well, that's it.
It's in a nutshell right there.
I mean, that's the whole point.
I mean, when you were running for Senate, you probably thought you were joining a lot of people that were like you, wanted to stop this.
You get there, you find out you're one of three or four.
I will tell you the single biggest surprise on arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here.
I mean, we don't even talk about how to win a fight.
There's no discussion about that.
We talk about, hey, let's get a show vote so we can go tell our constituents we're doing something.
But I promise you, Rush, if you had to sit through one Senate lunch, you'd be in therapy for a month.
I don't know that you could.
As bad as you might think it is, and listen, these are good men and women.
I respect them.
I like them.
Many of these are my friends.
But they've been here a long time.
And they're beaten down.
And they don't believe we can win.
They don't believe it can happen.
And the answer they say on every issue is, no, we can't do it.
We can't do it.
You're trying to get the American people to stand up and rise up and give them some energy.
I understand that.
That's another thing what you're doing.
I think it's misunderstood.
Look, I know you're really tired.
I've got a couple more questions.
I've got to take a break.
Sure.
Can you hang on?
If you can't, I totally understand.
I am here for as long as you like me.
Cool.
Be right back, folks.
Do not go away.
Senator Ted Crew is with us here on the EIB Network.
And we're back with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Little over an hour removed from his 21-hour filibuster on the floor of the United States Senate.
Senator, this happened while I was away.
Chris Wallace at Fox News said that something happened to him that was unprecedented, and that is that Republicans were providing him opposition research on you.
Now, you just talked about personalities.
I find it perfectly illustrative of the divide in this country, that here you are on a substantive effort to stop the encroachment of freedom and the growth of government in this country.
And the issue is you and your personality.
The media, but the Republicans, apparently, some of them have joined this and made you and whatever your personality quirks are the issue rather than what you're talking about.
I've not heard of the media being given opposition research by Republicans on another Republican.
Right.
Well, unfortunately, there's an alliance between the Democrats, who certainly don't want to discuss the merits of Obamacare because it is such an abysmal failure, and many of the Republicans who are scared of this fight.
I mean, they're scared that it won't work and that Republicans will get blained and there's political risk.
And so.
Yeah.
And so from day one, they said it can't work, it can't work.
And the more momentum it got, the more the American people got motivated behind it, the more scared they got.
And so that alliance, both the Republicans who don't want to have this fight and the Democrats who don't want to discuss the merits of the issue, they want to make it about anything else.
And the easiest thing is to make it about personality.
So they, you know, get a bunch of anonymous congressional staffers to give all sorts of scurrilous quotes, and particularly if you include a little bit of profanity and, you know, throw insults.
And you know what?
Who cares?
The American people do not care.
And, you know, from my end, I'm not interested in playing that game.
Senator, are you afraid of me?
Because Britt Hume and others at Fox News say that you are afraid of me and others on Talk Radio.
And that's really the only reason why you're doing what you're doing, to avoid being primaried next time or whatever.
I mean, I have to ask.
You know, with all respect, I respect you, Rush.
But listen, I would be surprised if you and I agree on, disagree on many issues at all.
But the reason is not that there's any fear involved.
The reason is that I've got a job to do, and it's to listen to the people, listen to 26 million Texans and fight for them.
And the reason why I can't think of an issue on which you and I are likely to disagree is you spend every day listening to the people, too.
We're listening to the same bosses and trying to respond to the same people who are frustrated.
I'll just listen.
I respect them.
I love them.
That's exactly right.
I trust them.
And Washington, look, in both parties, you've got entrenched politicians who have barely veiled contempt for the American people.
I mean, they think their voters are gullible rubes, and you give them a little show vote, you tell them, hey, I'm totally with you, and then they go to Washington, and they don't actually do what they say.
Well, you do have that support, Senator.
I've got to wrap it up here, and I know you have other things to do, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate this time that we've had with you here since your filibuster.
Thank you, Rush.
Let me quickly say three things as we're wrapping up.
Just, one, I had the great privilege during the filibuster of reading your dad's essay, The Americans Who Really.
I'm so honored I have the tape.
It was inspirational, and I'll tell you, it brought tears to my eyes.
It's really powerful and beautiful.
Just number two, quickly, to all of your listeners, this week is the fight in the Senate.
And the reason the House voted as they did, the reason we've gotten where we are is because the American people have risen up an incredible level at Don't Fund It Development.
Hang on for number three.
Hang on.
Hang on.
We had that dreaded hard break that I couldn't move.
But Senator Cruz, hang in there, hung in there for the third thing.
Why don't you mention number two and number three again?
You had to hurry, number two.
Sure.
Well, look, this week is the week that the Senate will decide.
This vote will be Friday or Saturday.
And the only reason we got to where we are is because the American people have risen up in incredible numbers.
We've seen over 1.6 million people sign the national petition at don'tfundit.com.
That is why the House voted last week to defund Obamacare.
For weeks, everyone in Washington said they wouldn't do it.
This would never happen.
They would never fight this fight on the continuing resolution.
But the American people rose up in enormous numbers.
And so what I would say is, listen, at this stage in the fight, the fight is in the people's hands.
And if we want to change Washington and get Republicans to listen, get Democrats to listen, what has to happen is I would urge every one of your listeners to go to don'tfundit.com to sign the national petition number one.
Number two, to pick up the phone, call their senators and tell them, vote no on cloture, stand strong for defunding Obama.
Would I be correct in pointing out that this has been your objective all along?
You really do believe that the people of this country can affect change.
You believe that the system is designed for this ability to exist.
And that's all you're trying to do.
You're not trying to overthrow Washington.
You're not trying to upset the apple cart.
You're not trying to rewrite anything.
You just want the citizens to get involved and let their voice have and be the power it can be, correct?
That is exactly right.
And it's the only way to change Washington.
I mean, at the end of the day, look, I think some of the reason you've seen the unhappiness is by going to the people.
We're basically appealing to the senator's boss, to my boss.
I've got 26 million bosses.
And if the American people stand up and light up the phones, light up Twitter, light up Facebook, light up email, and if elected senators hear from enough of their constituents, I promise you it gets their attention.
And even those who don't want to stand and fight, all that has to happen is it has to get politically more risky to do the wrong thing than to do the right thing.
And suddenly the numbers change in a big, big way.
That's what happened in the House.
The Senate's going to be harder.
Well, it's been done on the 2010s.
In 2007, the people rose up and stopped immigration reform.
And that summer was pretty powerful then, Senator, because the Republicans at that point, we had a Republican president who was in favor of the immigration reform that was in the legislation.
They had to go along with it.
But it was the first time that they hadn't.
The people rose up.
It can be done.
Rush, you're exactly right.
We saw it in 07 on immigration.
We saw it this year on drones.
We saw it this year on guns.
We saw it this year on Syria.
When the people rise up, the politicians listen.
Now, this fight, the politicians are dug in more.
And the Senate, they're really entrenched.
And so it's got to be a grassroots tsunami.
So I would urge folks, don't just sign the petition.
If you really want to change Washington, let me ask everyone listening, and there is no radio audience like your audience, Rush.
Let me ask everyone listening to find three people this week to sign that petition and call their senators.
If everyone listening to your show did that, it would shut down the Senate switchboards and it would focus the minds and attention of senators.
They wouldn't be happy about it, but it would focus them like nothing else.
And it would help change Washington so we listen to the people, which is what we should be doing in the first place.
I'll tell you, the prevailing conventional wisdom is that Reed's got his votes, that there's no way that this is ever going to happen.
That even if the Senate did vote the way you want him to, that Obama's going to veto it, there is just no way that you can actually realize the outcome that you want here.
Well, that's because virtually nobody in Washington believes it's possible to win the argument for the American people, to persuade, to move people.
I think if the American people get engaged in sufficient numbers, first we unify Republicans on this vote, then we move Red State Democrats.
Listen, once we unify Republicans, if we can get 46 or all we need is 41 Republicans, then the phones light up on Mark Pryor and Mary Landrew and Kay Hagan and all the Red State Democrats and Mark Begich.
And listen, if you're running for reelection in 2014 in, say, Arkansas and Louisiana, and you get 10,020,000, 50,000 calls from your constituents, I guarantee you that changes your calculus.
But that won't happen until the Republicans stop shooting their own, until the Republicans unify first.
And so our objective is very simple, which is get all the Republicans to do what they say they believe in, just to stand up for what they've been telling their constituents over and over again they believe in.
Well, it's so frustrating because the thing is such a disaster.
And I think you made that point.
All the delays, all the waivers, all the ways this thing's falling apart already.
It doesn't deserve to be implemented just in the basis of competence.
Look, it's exactly right.
And it makes no sense that there should be special rules, special exemptions from President Obama for his buddies, for the rich and powerful and connected, for big corporations.
And members of Congress, they get exempted, but not hardworking Americans.
Yeah, Congress is going to get subsidized, Office of Personnel Management.
And that's Washington and the budget, which is rules for thee, but not for me.
We get special treatment.
You know, Dick Durbin came on the Senate floor and said, look, our health care is first class.
We want to stick people back and coach.
You know, I don't think members of Congress ought to have better treatment than the American citizens who are losing their health insurance because of Obamacare, who are being forced onto exchanges that aren't worked.
It was really stunning.
I forget the exact day, but I see this story that said that congressional and Senate staff, both parties, were complaining that what they earn, which is six figures, that they couldn't afford it without the subsidies.
They make more than far more than national average.
It left me speechless.
We can't afford this.
You wrote it.
What do you mean you can't afford it?
And that's why I support David Vitter's amendment to make every member of Congress, every congressional staff, every federal employee, including Barack Obama, subject to Obamacare.
Now, they will hate that.
And listen, my goal ultimately is not to put them under Obamacare.
It's for them to say, well, gosh, if you hate that, how about exempting the American people too?
If it's miserable for you, don't make it happen to the American people.
But the worst outcome is to subject the American people to this failed health care law and exempt the Washington ruling class.
That's why the people are so frustrated with Washington.
Well, I'd say, I think if more people knew that, it reminds me of the House bank scandal in 1988 and 89.
That was so easily understood.
So is this.
If more people understood that whatever is going to be the law of the land for them, Congress has exempted themselves from it.
That, to me, is if more people could be made aware of that alone, which has been an effort here.
Look, you had a third thing that you wanted to say.
You want three points you wanted to say in closing.
The three were, one, mentioning reading your dad's wonderful essay.
Number two, sign up at don'fundit.com.
And number three, light up the phones to your senators all this week.
Well, Senator, I thank you again for your time.
Real pleasure, honor to have you here.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, what's next for you?
You've got Senate activity all afternoon.
When do you get some rest?
Keep fighting this fight.
We had a vote.
I'm actually going to go and try and get a little bit of a shut eye and then return, hopefully, with the strength to keep fighting right up until the vote.
I'll confess I'll take a little bit of sleep and then be right back in the trenches.
Would you prefer this vote Friday or Saturday?
Does it matter?
You know, I would rather it Friday.
And the reason is I want the American people paying attention to it.
And I think Friday afternoon is a great time to capture the American people.
Saturday, people are watching football.
People are distracted.
I think the Democrats and a fair amount of Republicans would like it Saturday because they don't want the American people engaged.
I want to pick the maximum time for the maximum number of Americans to follow exactly what's happening and know exactly where every senator votes.
Pretty comprehensive.
Well, there you have it.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Thank you again, sir, and all the best.
Thank you, my friend.
God bless you.
We'll be back, folks.
Do not go away.
My father, back when I was a kid, my brother and I were kids, wrote a speech that he delivered all over Southeast Missouri called Those Who Risked Everything.
And it was about the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Americans who risked everything.
Our lives, our fortunes are sacred.
I researched the speech, researched it, and it was about what happened to the 56 men and their families who signed.
And he read it.
He read the whole speech.
It's about an hour.
And that's what he was talking about there.
And my brother sent me a quick note, would have tweeted me, except I don't tweet.
Well, I've got a we tweet.
I don't tweet in the way people tweet.
What's that?
Well, we tweet.
We got followers.
Don't misunderstand.
But I mean, I don't, I don't say, gee, the eggs were good today.
I'm off to work, folks.
C and 30.
I don't do that kind of tweeting or Facebooking.
But anyway, my brother sent me a tweet saying that Cruz was reading the speech.
And in cookies, oh, it was great.
She put it together.
So we've got some excerpts here.
And I was going to save those until after we spoke with the senator.
I didn't want to air those beforehand so as not to do damage to the total objectivity of the interview.
And I've got also Senator McCain who just went to the Senate floor and trashed Ted Cruz.
Yeah, and I haven't taken any phone calls yet, other than Senator Cruz's.
Grab 3738.
We can do these and we'll go to the phones.
I'm sure you'd like to hear these.
This is on the Senate floor during the debate on the continuing resolution and defunding Obamacare.
We have two sound bites from Senator McCain.
Here's the first.
I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could, and in every single campaign rally, I said, and we have to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Well, the people spoke.
They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke.
And they re-elected the President of the United States.
See, this is the problem.
The Democrats win and they want some far-left radical judge.
Well, they won, they get it.
When we win, they don't accept it and do everything they can to subvert, corrupt, disrupt, and stop the implementation of our agenda.
We are respectful and men.
Well, they won.
They got what they want.
Senator McCain, look at the president.
Look at the polls on Obamacare.
You will not find a majority of the American people in support.
This is what amazes me.
The Republican Party has a guaranteed majority out there waiting to be connected with in the massive numbers of Americans that oppose this because Americans are losing faith in their country.
And that is so sad because it's so unnecessary.
They should be losing faith with the Democrat Party and the architects of the policies that have created this malaise.
We don't sit here and just accept this when there's a chance to stop it.
Anyway, Senator McCain, I don't think I have ever heard him attack a Democrat like he does here.
He went on to say, I suspect those same pundits who say defunding Obamacare can't be done.
If it had been in the 1940s, we would have been listening to them.
They would have been saying, you cannot defeat the Germans.
I resoundingly reject that allegation.
I think it's wrong.
It's a disservice to those who stood up and shouted at the top of their lungs that we cannot appease and that we must act.
And we did act.
I do not begrudge Senator Cruz or any other senator who wants to come and talk as long as they want to, as long as they can.
But I do disagree strongly to allege that there are people today who are like those who prior to World War II didn't stand up and oppose the atrocities that were taking place in Europe.
This must have been in reaction to when Cruz called him a bunch of Neville Chamberlains.
I don't know what McCain's talking about, Mr. Snerdley.
McCain says, I campaigned all across this country for too much.
I said we have to repeal and replace Obama.
must be talking about campaigning for Romney.
He must have been talking about campaigning for Romney because, of course, Obamacare was not.
Well, maybe when he.
No, there wasn't any Obamacare.
It was just a dream.
It was just an idea.
Anyway, this is it.
I mean, the willingness to accept defeat.
The willingness.
That's what Cruz said.
They don't even, at these Senate lunches, he said, Rush, if you spent an hour at one of these, you'd need a year of therapy.
He said, there's not even any talk of winning.
It's all about how they can massage whatever they have to do so it doesn't hurt them at the polls.
He actually said that.
Let me grab a phone call or else I'm going to be in heap big trouble with the audience.
We're going to start in Acton, Massachusetts with Beth.
And Beth, I really appreciate your holding on.
Thank you.
It's a privilege to speak with you, sir.
I just want to say to Mitch McConnell, you know, I live in Massachusetts and I manned the phones for Scott Brown the first time he ran.
And, you know, we all worked really hard to get him elected.
And he was elected because people wanted him to do something great.
And all he did was reach across the aisle and, you know, back down to these people.
He was the vote to stop the automatic passage of Obamacare.
That's why he got elected.
Yes, sir.
In Massachusetts, of all places.
Yes, that's right.
And he got elected because people came out of the woodwork to vote for him.
And then he lost his integrity when he got to Washington, and he kept bowing down to the liberals.
And I'm telling you, it's integrity and the truth that people find compelling.
I want to thank Ted Cruz, you know, all in the name of all Americans who value their freedom and love this country.
I want to thank him for being the one man who's willing to stand up for what we need in this country in order to survive.
This is the only country in the world where we're this free.
When we lose this freedom, we're done.
You know, and nobody's going to be able to save us because we're the country that saves everybody.
So, you know, if Mitch McConnell and Senator McCain want to trash Ted Cruz and give him a hard time, they should bear in mind what happened to Scott Brown because all of those people who voted for him, and believe me, it had to be a huge segment of the population to come out and vote against the liberal machine, the leftist machine in this state.
You know, they stayed home because they just looked at him voting for all of these things that Obama wanted.
And they said, forget it.
We don't want you in office.
You don't represent us.
You know, I know we've got somebody much worse now.
Nobody's going to.
You know, George W. Bush was elected twice, and I don't remember one Democrat ever saying, well, you know, he won.
The American people have spoken.
I'm supporting the war in Iraq.
I don't remember one Democrat after their first vote to do so, after that for seven years, six years, I don't remember one Democrat saying, well, Bush won.
We have to go along with this.
Not one.
And Obama, the Democrat National Committee, they were all for a government shutdown in Wisconsin to stop Scott Brown.
Oh, yeah.
All for a government shutdown.
I got to take a break back after this.
Well, my friends, that's it.
Now, when we come back at the top of the hour, by the way, Jake Carney said Obama didn't watch any of Cruz's speech.
Who cares?
It wasn't aimed at Obama anyway.
But I don't believe that.
Anyway, we come back, and I want you to hear some of the just three soundbites, Senator Cruz reading from my father's speech.
▲
Export Selection