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Jan. 11, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:27
January 11, 2016, Monday, Hour #3
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Hey, look, when I when I started the discussion of the Bengals Steelers game, it was not from the standpoint of being a Steelers fan.
I sh I guess I should have made that clear.
I was hoping it would be.
As a Steelers fan, that game was lost.
You have that game was we won that game with 30 yards of penalties.
It's a moral victory, if nothing else.
We'll take it, but you know.
My comments have nothing to do with being a Steelers fan.
You gotta strip the partisanship out of this.
What happened in that game is problematic for a host of reasons.
You Bengals fans, you also think that what starts we had a couple calls here.
You think what started this was that Ryan Shazier hit on Giovanni Bernard, the running back for the Bengals hang number 24.
You think it was a crown of the helmet to crown of the helmet, an explicit violation of the of the rules, and there should have been a flag and it wasn't a flag.
What's Shazier supposed to do when a running back lowers his head into the hit?
And that's that's I think why that wasn't called was that just straight that that's just straight good old-fashioned up and down football.
And the running back lowers his head.
Supposed to keep your head up, he lowers his head, it ends up with the crown of a helmet, the crown of the helmet.
Uh, and I don't know if that hit happened to five yards or not.
But anyway, my comments had nothing to do with being a Steelers fan.
The game was was to me.
They better get a handle on it, it's only going to get worse.
Look, I've I've I've said enough about the stick to the issues crowd, is pulling their hair out by now.
Uh greet have you got phone calls from them?
Just one cool.
That's why I'm telling you, there is politics in everything that happens, and there was in that game and the way it was dealt with and handled.
The real takeaway, forget this game.
I how many dumb penalties do you see?
Well, I'll tell you, won the Steelers.
Number 22, William Gay picked up a fumble, scored a touchdown, it was called back, but he participated, not for the first time.
He participated in an illegal celebration after the touchdown by having two or three players celebrate with him.
You're not allowed to have more than one player celebrate.
And he was doing some bird dance in there, and he got 15 yards penalized.
The touchdown was not allowed, but the penalty was upheld, and it was big.
The Bengals got 15 yards, it was stupid.
You know, and I'm asking myself, why can't the coaches take these guys aside and say don't do it or you're not playing?
And the answer I get back is the coaches all say, hey, these are grown men.
I can't tell them what to do.
Really?
When did what when did authority vanish?
Authority is a problematic thing.
Like we don't want authoritarian presidents.
We don't want presidents violating the law by running roughshod over the Constitution like Obama with executive orders and executive actions.
That's not authority.
That's authoritarianism.
That's that that borders on tyranny.
That's violation of the Constitution.
But when you have a structure, when you have boss and employees, parent and child, when you have somebody responsible for enforcing the rules and conduct set done by the team, somebody an authority figure has got to be able to tell people you can't do that or punish them otherwise.
And if you're gonna throw your hands and say, I'm sorry they're grown men, I can't tell them what to do, uh, then all bets are off.
If nobody can tell them what to do, what they can't do, then you have to expect that no authority figure is gonna be respected.
And then when one comes along and does implement his authority like Goodell ends up being despised and hated.
It's to me eye-opening and revealing about a lot in our culture.
Great to have you back here, folks, Rush Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone, 800-282-2882.
Okay, back to uh the Republican side of things.
In Reno, Donald Trump with a rally on Sunday afternoon.
Now, Trump has four or five days running now.
Um toying with this idea that Ted Cruz has a citizenship problem.
And it's understandable.
Cruz is leading in Iowa.
Trump wants to win Iowa.
Uh Trump has had Some success going after Obama's birth certificate and his uh eligibility and so forth.
It could be argued that's what set put Trump on the political map, in fact.
So now Trump has focused on Ted Cruz.
All of the official recognition is in, and there's no question.
Ted Cruz is a United States citizen, up, down sideways, inside out.
There's no question there.
He's a total 100% American citizen, and it's not a matter of dispute.
Now that doesn't mean the Democrat Party won't sue.
If Cruz is elected president, they will sue.
Just like the people sued Obama, sued to find out the truth about his birth certificate.
So Trump is running around saying, do we want that distraction?
Do we want to nominate somebody who's going to end up being the subject of lawsuits?
He says, so Cruz is a problem.
And here's the problem.
It's called uncertainty.
It's called you just don't know.
Trump said yesterday this is it's not a settled matter.
And that he's not the only one raising questions.
He said if Cruz becomes the nominee, the Democrats could challenge his eligibility in lawsuits, it could drag on for years.
He said, Does anybody know more about litigation than Trump?
Trump asked.
And believe me, nobody does.
Trump is the king of litigation.
And he said, okay, I know a lot.
I'm like a PhD in litigation.
And then he started, he led his audience in a chant.
He let the audience weigh in at the rally yesterday afternoon.
He shouted, is he a natural born citizen?
Was in a ballroom in some uh Reno hotel.
And members of Trump's crowd shouted back, no.
And then Trump said, I don't know.
Honestly, we don't know.
Who the hell knows?
We have to find out.
And then you know what?
The song Trump played to open his rally.
Well Bruce Springsteen, born in the USA.
Now it's funny, I'll I'll grant you, but this, you know, born in the USA is a leftist anthem.
It it actually isn't, but the way it has been used up to now in pop culture is uh it's it's uh song that the left uses to criticize America in many ways.
That's kind of the irony of it.
I've always found it kind of curious.
They think Springsteen's song, it's about a vet that comes back and is royally dumped on and uh mistreated and America's at fault and so forth, says that's the anthem.
And Trump using it here borders on Trump going after Cruz again from the left.
But there's nothing here.
I mean, there's there's there's no question about Cruz's citizenship.
But Trump's right, the Democrats will file uh lawsuits.
They they're still litigating Florida and the recount in uh in 2001.
They probably they've file lawsuits if Trump wins over hairstyles or some such thing.
But Trump's not letting this go, and I think the reason is he's bothered by Cruz's resiliency in uh in Iowa, which takes us back to the audio soundbites.
We're up here to number two.
And this happened this morning on CNN's New Day, the co-host Chris Como speaking to Errol Lewis, who is a host on uh New York One inside City Hall.
And they had this little chat about evangelicals and the Hawkeye Cockyeye and Trump and uh the power structure, and who really makes it all happen there?
How confusing is it for these voters, the evangelical types, but just really mainstream conservatives in Iowa to have the radio people, these demigods for them, saying, Don't listen to this stuff about Cruz.
This is crazy.
Trump's way off.
Meanwhile, at the same time, they have all this enthusiasm for Trump.
I mean, there's a real clash of the Titans.
Trump is their guy because they think he's a warrior who can go in there and set things right.
And that doesn't mean they're not evangelical, And it doesn't mean that they're overlooking the fact that he has one author put it almost runs the table on the seven deadly sins, you know, wrath and all this.
But he is somebody who they think can do something that they want done, which is to uh stop a process of erosion and of slippage and of losing their position in the country and in the world.
And Chris Cuomo frustrated there because his guests did not pick up on the real meat of his question, and that's who responsible for all this, and that's the radio people, these demigods.
These talk radio people, these demigods.
No wonder these people in Iowa are confused.
People on radio have way, way too much influence.
Same network, CNN this morning, Alison Camarada, speaking with the senior political editor, the Daily Beast or name of Jackie Kucinich about the presidential primary, the battle between Trump and Cruz, and Alison Camarada said Trump has been raising questions about Cruz's eligibility to be president.
But so far, all Cruz has done in response is put out a video of Fonzi.
And trying to signify Trump has jumped the shark.
Does Cruz need to do more than that?
Trump does have to be careful when he's going after Ted Cruz.
You remember a couple months back, it actually backfired on Trump because of those talk radio guys, started really not liking how Trump was going after Cruz, someone who has really pushed the conservative message during his day job in Washington.
So while Trump keeps on hinting and putting this out there, he does need to be careful with some of those voters who really do like Ted Cruz, not to overplay his hand.
Well, that's the way Trump's handling it.
He said, hey, we got a problem.
I don't know.
We might have a problem.
It could be a lawsuit problem.
I'm the king of litigation.
I know how it all works.
I like Ted Cruz, a good guy.
We could have a problem.
I don't know.
What do you think?
Is Ted Cruz nationally born?
No!
Well, it's a possibility.
We don't know.
Here comes Springsteen singing, born in the USA.
So it's a bunch of subliminality going on here.
Trump is saying it without saying it, because according to Jackie Kucinich, she's got to be afraid he's talk guys.
Trump's got to be very, very careful as it uh it backfired those talk radio guys.
She said.
Now we move on to CNN's reliable sources.
This is their version of the media, navel gazing.
This is the show where the media analyzes itself and supposedly calls out its problems or sings its own praises.
Michael Harrison, the guest, he's the publisher and editor of Talkers Magazine.
Brian Stelter, the host, says, Do you credit talk radio with Donald Trump's success in the past six, seven?
Now, that question, let me explain the question.
People on the left, remember, and I've uh made a point of this last week.
You have to understand the way these questions are asked and where they come from.
And it's not just the Democrats.
The Republicans are the same way.
When it comes to you, people they think are considered to be average ordinary Americans, you must understand one thing.
They do not believe you are capable of independent thought.
Whatever you think, if it goes against what they want to believe, if you happen to support things they don't think should be, if you believe things they don't think should be, then somebody's to blame for making them think that.
For making you think that.
And it's always been me.
Talk radio has always been blamed for what you do and what you think.
And Brian Stelter, obviously schooled in this art, thinks the same thing.
That you are incapable, making up your own mind about anything.
You're in cap otherwise you'd be a good liberal.
You'd be a good liberal and willingly turn over your life to the government.
You don't want to do that.
You want to turn your life over to talk radio.
Therefore, you are mentally disabled.
You are incompetent, you're incapable.
And that's where the question comes from.
Here's the question he asks Michael Harrison.
Uh do you credit talk radio with Trump's success?
And it couldn't be anything to do with Trump, you see.
It couldn't be that you independently and on your own like Trump.
No, no, it has to be that you're being brainwashed.
It has to be that you are being Propagandized by talk radio.
Here's Michael Harris again, the editor-publisher of Talkers Magazine.
Here's his answer.
Absolutely not.
Talk radio is just one of many media that is playing into Donald Trump's success.
Donald Trump was created by Donald Trump, and Donald Trump's media success was created by NBC and the apprentice.
He's a shock jock that is now running for president.
Whoa.
Donald Trump is a shock jock.
You know what he's saying?
He's saying Donald Trump is talk radio, not that talk radio is Donald Trump.
But Michael Harrison's a believer in talk radio.
He's not a critic.
Well, I mean, he's a critic in the sense that he likes certain things, but he's not a universal critic of the format.
He's he he believes in it deeply and admires it.
And so here's Stelter sitting there at uh CNN.
So has it talked radio guys?
No, Brian, actually, here you are.
NBC and the Apprentice, your favorite networks, they're the ones that gave Trump the media exposure.
Don't blame it on our talk radio guys.
They're just capitalizing on it.
So Stelter's not totally satisfied, and he probes, now making it personal.
You don't think that Rush Limbaugh show and others they represent and they uh reflect the anger in the country that Donald Trump has taken advantage of?
There's anger in a lot of places.
I think liberal talk radio has created Bernie Sanders, if you want to look at it that way.
That's interesting, but liberal talk radio is so much less influential than conservative talk radio.
You know that Russia's number one.
Yes, but I think that we give far too much credit to all of Talk Radio for creating the situation that talk radio really, very intelligently, like the rest of the strategic media, is reflecting.
I wouldn't be so quick to say that conservative talk radio is creating the hate and anger that uh Donald Trump is tapping into.
I don't know about hate, but look, this came up last week.
Why shouldn't people be mad at what's going on to this?
Why shouldn't people be angry at what's being done to this country?
Anger is called for.
Anger is perfectly legitimate.
But the reason people are angry is not because talk radio or Trump is making them angry.
They're angry at Obama.
They're angry at the Democrat Party, the Republican staff, they are angry at what liberalism and its and its implementers are doing to this country.
Trump's tapping into something that already existed.
But you listen to little Brian here.
Wait a minute.
You don't think Rush Limbaugh, you don't think Russ Limbaugh is reflecting the anger, and Donald Trump is just coming.
You don't think Russ Limbaugh's responsible for it?
Is essentially his question.
You don't think Russell Bow's Well, liberal talk.
Oh, come on, Brian.
Liberal talk right now have any influence at all.
He's right about that.
But you don't think Rush Limbaugh's responsible?
You know, see, they believe, they're not just saying this, they really believe that when things are not going their way, and people are mad at them, it's only because you're too stupid to know, and you've been told to be mad at them by me.
Anyway, good job by Michael Harrison here.
Well, quick timeout.
Back after this, don't go away.
Back to the phones.
This is John in Reading, California.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Thank you for taking my call, Rush.
Yes, sir.
Yes, you being the tenured professor at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies have taught us students out here that words mean things.
Yes.
That being said, I have looked at every naturalization act from 1795 to 2016, and I do not find the words natural born citizen in any statute.
So then how is it that Cruz being a naturalized citizen?
How is he a natural-born citizen?
No, he is natural born.
How?
You have to go back.
This is why the original intent of the founders is so important when talking to the Constitution.
Back in the days the Constitution was written in Article II, natural born citizen was a derivative of natural-born subject.
I believe that the founders use Vital more than they did uh Blackstone or somebody along those lines.
Which he stated, born in country to citizen parents is a natural-born citizen.
Well, it has been debated.
Words Have been written.
It's it's been there have been lawsuits over this.
It is a I I mentioned last week I saw a blog post of 75,000 words, some legal uh website with 75,000 words of opinion on this.
Uh, because it was not defined in the Constitution.
The best anybody's been able to do is go look at what they meant by natural-born citizen and they're the Supreme Court has weighed in in minor versus Hapersat.
Very clear, very clear on what the definition is.
Uh-uh that I would that was a 9-0 decision by the court, and the chief justice wrote the uh the opinion.
Are you telling me the Supreme Court has opined in such a way that Cruz is not a legal citizen?
That is correct.
Then you're not right.
You're not right.
You're not right.
I don't care what you're not right.
You can sit there all day long and try to tell if Ted Cruz is not a citizen, and you're wrong.
I don't care what you're citing or sourcing, the Supreme, if it were true, Cruz would be out.
There are legal opinions all over the place, quite to the contrary.
On this, uh I endeavored to answer the question honestly, and the moment I got the first sentence of my heartfelt, honestly intended answer, bam.
Here came the you don't know what you're talking about.
Blackstone versus the town.
I'm saying to myself, what the hell is Blackstone versus the town?
Natural born subject, founders, British law at the time, it's settled.
Cruz's mother was a citizen, therefore he is.
Deal with it.
Well, we just have a uh new poll out from Quinnipiac.
A poll that many consider to be credible.
And in this poll, Donald Trump has retaken the lead in Iowa by two points over Ted Cruz.
The margin of error here is four points.
So it's essentially a tie.
Trump leads the Republican field in Iowa, according to the Quinnipiact poll just now.
31 Cruz has 29.
But again, that lead is within the four-point margin of error.
Uh now, in the same poll, voters view Ted Cruz more favorably than they view Trump, however, and more are open to the possibility of voting for it.
Now, one of the things that the uh powers that be running around the the way the establishment's dealing with Trump now.
Well, okay, yeah, they're admitting, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's got big crowds.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he's got a lot of polling support.
But they ask, how many of his supporters are actually gonna show up and vote?
So now the latest grasp the establishment's taking is that, yeah, Trump's got a lot of supporters, but we don't think very many of them will actually show up and vote.
They just like to go to his rallies and be entertained.
But as far as actually registering and voting, nah, ain't gonna happen.
And then there's this.
The Republican establishment is also trying to comfort itself by telling themselves that Trump has no ground game anywhere.
Meaning he doesn't have armies of volunteers in various places in New Hampshire and Iowa, working the phones and pounding the pavement and knocking on doors and trying to get out the vote.
What they're saying is, eh, Trump, he flies in, he lands his entourage, goes from the airport to the venue where he's speaking, he does his little appearance, he heads back to the airport and leaves.
He's got no ground game.
He has no prayer.
Trump is no, there's no mechanism here to help these people get up and actually go out and vote.
This is what the establishment is telling themselves.
So they're gonna look at this Quinnipiact poll and they're gonna be enthused.
They're gonna be encouraged because the Quinnipiact poll says that Cruz is viewed more favorably than Trump, and that more of his supporters claim that they're gonna vote than Trump supporters do.
It's phrased, more are open to the possibility of voting for him, according to the new findings.
This is only the third poll of the last 11 in Iowa in which Trump has led.
Other recent polls have shown Ted Cruz in first place.
So I'll tell you what's gonna happen with this.
Trump is gonna think that what has bumped him back into the lead here is focusing on Cruz's citizenship, his eligibility.
So you can expect Trump to double down on this now.
My guess, anyway, because that's what they're going to think is uh resulted in the change.
So just be prepared, keep a sharp eye.
That's probably what Trump's going to do.
And then I all eyes will be on Cruz to see how he uh plans to deal with it.
Robert Coronado, California, I'm glad you waited.
You're next.
It's great to have you here, sir.
I uh rad radicalized by Trump Ditto's rush.
Um I would like to I'd like to comment on uh Dion Sanders' uh full-on defense of uh Vontez Burk Berfe's uh horrible hit the other night and basically tried it to explain very briefly why I think it was not an accident.
Wait, wait, wait.
Did Sanders defend the hit?
I didn't see that.
Yes, he did.
He said it was an accident.
He and LT got up on the stage and he tried to explain that he just ran past him and his shoulder clipped the guy in the head, but it was completely an accident.
So I think I can describe very quickly why I don't think it's an accident.
When the human being runs, your arm hangs at your side, basically unflexed at the elbow, and then with every stride it comes up to about a 90 degree flexion.
Happens every time I run, you're right.
Yeah, absolutely.
If I said Rush, I need you to break down a door uh with your shoulder, what would you do?
You would flex your arm up past ninety degrees, fold your fist over onto your chest, and now you would have your yourself in Montez Burfect.
I would be leading with my forearm, you're exactly right.
Yes, you would you would have your forearm across your chest and bracing your shoulder, and that's how he hit the guy in the head.
He didn't hit him as he casually passed him on the field with his arm in a running position.
He's well there was nothing casual about it.
He launched.
Yep.
Absolutely.
I mean, and then you know, for Dion to go on and you know, pull a mild race card and and basically wasn't even critical of him.
He basically said his only problem was he didn't address the media properly.
I mean it was what race card.
Well, he said, you know, this you know, people what people are gonna see is an African African American male putting on a wife beater shirt.
Oh, that I thought you meant I thought you meant racism in the hit.
No, no, no.
But I mean he it was subtle.
I mean, I'll give him credit.
You know, he threw it out there.
I don't know what the intent was.
I think his intent was to defend the N the NFL brand.
I mean, it was um I mean I it was uh it was an appalling uh scene that's a very good thing.
Well, I didn't watch I can explain Dion.
I I've I've not met Dion, but I I uh you know Michael Irvin is uh is great friends with with Dion, and I've got to know Michael Irvin fairly well.
And I've I've watched Dion, and I think I think Dion considers himself a mentor for current players younger than he is.
Uh he's an advisor hired or unhired.
Uh he's he's uh try to be helpful in a mentor way.
Grab soundbite twenty-three, this is what the caller is talking about.
Uh Burfecht in his locker room after the game at his locker.
Uh reporters were asking the the reporters scared to death of the guy, by the way.
I mean, you can tell when a reporter's afraid of a player.
The questions are timid and they're soft-spoken.
And uh reporter number one said, Yeah, boy, what a way to lose, Von Tees.
Another reporter said, uh, what words of encouragement or what have you said to your teammates after this loss?
Uh have they said anything to you?
How do you summarize the season, Bunt?
I mean, they were everybody was afraid to go there.
And every answer he got, I don't know.
I don't know.
Every answer.
Dion was not happy, and uh attempting here in this sound bite to advise Vontez Burfect on how to do this the right way next time.
You're not gonna get any sympathy in America.
The African American man putting on no we call it the white beat, the tank to put on your weight, putting on your jewelry, and saying no, I don't know.
It doesn't look good whatsoever.
Whatsoever.
That really upsets a lot of people.
All he just wants is answers, man.
Right.
And but don't answer the tank top Von Tays put on that wife beater tank top after a game like this and say you don't know when everybody knows.
They saw what you did and everybody said you don't know.
And then you don't put your weight on men, meaning your jewelry.
You don't throw your weight on on top of the wife beater shirt and run around and say you don't.
So Dion's trying to mentor Von Tae is here.
Is my humble analysis of that little Zach.
Snerdley just reminded me that I haven't yet commented on Sean Penn and El Chapo.
What?
What needs to be said?
You couldn't have two bigger blithering idiots in the world getting together than these two guys.
I mean, it speaks for itself.
El Chapo trying to stay hidden from law authorities, grants access to Sean Penn, who's being followed by the CIA, the FBI, and Interpol because he's a well-known associate of third wing or third third party, third, third, uh, third world nation left-wing dictators.
And he's got the entertainment media following him all over the place.
El Chapo.
So eager?
These two deserve each other.
And oh and Sean Penn, by the way, do you hear what he said?
He defended.
He defended El Chapo.
He said it's not El Chapo's problem.
He said he may be a billionaire murderer and peddler of poison, but what of our own guilt as customers of his wares?
We're the consumers.
And as such, we are complicit in every murder and in every corruption of an institution's ability to protect the quality of life for citizens of Mexico and the U.S. that comes as a result of our insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics.
As much as anything, it's a question of revelative morality.
He admits it.
Hey, now he's got a point.
I mean, the the the demand side of this is one of the focal points.
We're going after the demand side, and and since we're talking addiction, you're you're the demand side's not the way to solve this, but as far as Sean Penn's concerned, hey, this guy just taking advantage of customers' willingness to buy it.
That's what we really need to focus on.
Um but as far as Sean Penn's concerned, it's always America's fault, no matter what.
And in his mind, Guzman's a hero, El Chapo.
He's a hero because he's running away from United States authorities.
But if there was ever a pair of people that deserve each other, how stupid is this El Chapo guy?
You know, grant an interview with somebody in MSNBC.
Nobody will find you.
MSNBC would get lost on the way to the interview.
CNN inside politics.
Are we still here with little Bryant?
No, this is uh John King's show.
Talking with senior political reporter Manu Razu about the presidential primary.
Said Ted Cruz starting to move in Iowa.
We talked about this for a while, but number two, if you're Trump, you're close enough still, and a Quinnipia now Trump's back up by two there.
The idea is keep crews from growing.
Is Trump looking for a win or just to keep it close in Iowa?
He's finally found something to go after Ted Cruz.
Remember, he tried to, you know, raise questions about his being evangelical.
There are not many evangelicans who came from Cuba, kind of a questionable attack.
He also said that he acted kind of crazy in the Senate.
And when he did that, he got blowback.
Yeah, he got blowback from conservative talk radio.
Of course, that's great.
He should be doing that.
And now he finally on the ethanol and the Canada thing.
He sent some traction.
I'm sure he's continued to push that.
So uh Trump has to try to attack Cruz without drawing blowback From me.
That's the upshot here.
Because you see, you people, you're too stupid to be able to understand what Trump is saying.
If you're a cruise supporter, you need me to tell you when you should get mad at Trump.
And Trump also needs me to tell him when he should stop doing what he's doing.
That's what these people think.
It's amazing what I control.
Just amazing.
Why doesn't Sean Penn want to interview me?
Yeah, we're off to a rousing busy broadcast start.
Busy Broadcast week start here, folks.
As always, a thrill and a delight, and a great opportunity.
Be here with you each and every day.
We'll uh start working on tomorrow's program in a couple of hours.
Be back here loaded, revved and ready.
Same time tomorrow.
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