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Feb. 29, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
30:57
February 29, 2016, Monday, Hour #3
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Views expressed by the host on this show, documented to be almost always right, 99.8% of the time.
Great to have you with us, folks.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
And the email address, lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
So I'm going through the stack here of remaining news items to discuss, and quite a few of them have audio soundbite support.
So let's just get back to the audio soundbites.
Sunday morning on Meet the Depressed, F. Chuck Todd had Ted Cruz on, and among other things, said this.
Let me ask you something Rush Limbaugh said earlier this week about your candidacy.
He said, Ted Cruz has fought these guys every day that he's been in Washington, and for a lot of reasons, that doesn't register.
Basically, he's, it sounds like he was almost lamenting it, but the fact is, Donald Trump stole your outsider brand.
Super Tuesday was supposed to be the day you were going to be solidifying your status as the frontrunner, and it's not turning out that way.
How did Trump steal your outsider brand?
And this is what Ted Cruz responded.
We really saw this on the debate last week.
We saw a contrast between Washington deal makers, and this is how we've gotten in the mess we're in now, is Republicans who cut deals with Democrats, grow the debt, grow government, and give away our constitutional rights.
A contrast between deal makers and a principled constitutional conservative.
It was striking when Donald Trump said, Ted, you got to be willing to compromise on the Supreme Court.
You got to be willing to compromise on religious liberty.
Let me tell you, I will not compromise away your religious liberty rights.
I will not compromise away your Second Amendment.
And Donald Trump is telling us if he's president, he'll cut a deal with Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and give away your constitutional rights.
All right, let's go back to the question here from F. Chuck Todd.
He said, sounds like Donald Trump stole your outsider brand.
Super Tuesday was supposed to be the day you were going to be solidifying your status as the frontrunner.
It's not turning out that way.
Well, Donald Trump has stolen everybody's brand.
You know, this race was shaping up before Trump gets in, even after Trump gets in, because nobody thinks Trump is going to go anywhere.
He gets in June 16th.
Prior to that, it's just rumored he's going to run, but the rumors are being greedy.
No way, he's just negotiating for a new deal on The Apprentice.
That's everybody was saying last summer.
And then he did get in and had that speech announcing his candidacy.
And I had CNN on while Trump was doing that, and I stayed with CNN.
And every commentator they had said, this is the most ridiculous thing.
This is the funniest.
This is a laugh riot.
This is going to go nowhere.
This guy's not serious.
And then the first polls came in, and the political world was shocked.
Now, I'm sure Cruz had a plan.
I know what Cruz's plan was.
Cruz believes, or believed, I'm sure he still does, that 2012 returns, 4 to 5 million Republican conservative voters didn't show up.
It has been theorized that many of those are evangelicals that opposed Romney for a host of reasons.
On religious reasons and the fact that Romney's a faux conservative, wasn't a real guy, but just fed up with the Republican Party didn't vote.
And it was thought that that was the margin of victory.
And if those 4 million people had shown up, that Romney would have won.
So Cruz immediately, I believe, strategized how to get those 4 or 5 million back to the polls.
Well, then the field fills up and Rubio decides to go and Jeb is in there.
And early on, before Trump gets in, don't forget, everybody thinks Jeb is going to be the guy and Jeb's money is going to be the obstacle.
And so everybody's focused on how to get around Jeb while Jeb is figuring out how to win without exciting the base.
I mean, it was a really convoluted situation.
But the Cruz strategy was always to be who he is, the unquestioned, unquestionable, rock-solid, anti-Washington establishment conservative.
On whatever issue you're talking, you can never doubt.
You can have no doubt that Ted Cruz is your guy.
And then Trump's candidacy starts blowing all that up because it took the ideology out of everything.
You know, F. Chuck Todd is right in one sense here.
Ted Cruz is the only guy that was taking on the Republican establishment of all the Republicans in the race.
Now, you might want to throw Ben Carson in there, but he was not an elected official, so he had automatic outsider status, and he had come to national awareness by virtue of his remarks at the national prayer breakfast in Obamacare.
But everybody else that was in the race, they were either governors or senators or something, and they were all establishment in one way or the other.
Ted Cruz was it.
And he was the only guy who had been fighting the establishment.
He had done it to their face.
He goes to the Florida Senate.
He calls Mitch McConnell a liar on any number of issues, from the budget to amnesty to Senate rules.
And Cruz had made it plain he was the guy that was going to take it to the establishment.
He was such an outsider that even as a member of the Senate, he was hated, despised.
And that was always going to be a resume enhancement point.
Well, Trump coming in with the force of his personalities to upset all kinds of apple carts, including Ted Cruz's.
But through it all, everybody else in the race and Trump, there still is only one guy who has actively demonstrated opposition to the establishment, and that's Cruz.
But like I mentioned in that comment that F. Chuck Todd quoted to Cruz in his question, and that is, it hasn't registered that that's who Cruz is.
And his question was a legitimate.
How is it that your outsider brand has not, I don't think, stolen by Trump.
It was just superseded or overpowered.
I don't know what the word would be.
And Cruz has an excellent point here.
And Trump has done this two or three times.
It's in a way of disqualifying Cruz.
Trump has said that he's hated in the Senate, can't get along with anybody there, and therefore can't make any deals there.
I have to tell you, the people that support Ted Cruz don't want him making deals with McConnell.
They don't want him making deals with any of those people.
They want him going in and blowing the place up.
And by contrast, it's Trump talking about the ability to get along with these people, which is a huge contrast.
It's in diametric opposition to what people think of Trump being.
It's Trump that's out there talking about how he likes Pelosi and Reed.
He could do deals with them if he had to.
Now, his caveat is: I will win those deals for the Republicans as opposed to losing those deals like every other Republican has been doing.
But Cruz has an excellent point here to keep making if he wants to.
If he wants to try to regain the idea, the notion that he is the singular fighting opponent to the establishment, and he is, he's the guy.
You can point out that Trump's the guy talking about working with him and making deals with him.
And Cruz wasn't finished.
Chuck Todd then said, now you've released summary pages of your tax returns.
So did Marco Rubio.
You said the only reason you released summary pages is because Rubio did.
Well, how are you forcing Trump to release his tax return if you only release your first two pages?
Would you be happy if Trump just releases summary pages of his returns?
Look, it would be a very positive step in the right direction.
You know, Chuck, maybe it is the case that, Donald, there have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia.
Maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported.
That's a regardless of the state.
Let me stop.
Wait a minute.
Senator Cruz, let me stop you there.
That's just openly speculative.
You have any facts to support that Donald Trump has been a matter of time.
Oh, sure.
ABC, CNN, multiple news reports have reported about his business dealings with, for example, SNA Construction, which was owned by fat Tony Salerno, who is a mobster who is in jail.
Okay, so you can make of that whatever you want.
Tax returns, I guess they would show if you're dealing with the mob.
A mob deduction here, mob deduction there, deduction for working with mob here on this building there.
I suppose.
They just, look, Chuck can say, hey, it's speculative, Senator Cruz.
Well, that's all Harry Reid was about Romney.
Harry Reid was entirely speculative.
Friend of mine says that Senator Romney or Governor Romney hasn't paid his taxes in 10 years.
Oh, yeah, who?
It doesn't matter.
My friend told me.
Who is your friend?
It doesn't matter.
You need to be go asking Romney why he hasn't paid his taxes in 10 years.
Media said, oh, yeah, right, good point.
And off they went to ask Romney why he hadn't paid his taxes.
They are not off asking Trump if he's doing deals with the mafia.
They are saying, well, how dare you, Cruz, to speculate like that?
Who the hell do you think you are?
Show us any proof.
And we get the fat Tony Salerno answer.
Here's Trump on State of the Union.
Talked about this earlier, Jacob Tapper.
Will you unequivocally condemn David Duke and say that you don't want his votes or that of other white supremacists in this election?
I know nothing about David Duke.
I know nothing about white supremacists.
And so you're asking me a question that I'm supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.
I have to look at the group.
I mean, I don't know what group you're talking about.
You wouldn't want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about.
I have to look.
If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them.
And certainly I would disavow if I thought there was something wrong.
But you may have groups in there that are totally fine, and it would be very unfair.
So give me a list of the groups, and I'll let you know.
Well, Jake Tapper was Klan for crying a lot.
A Ku Kross Klan and David Duke.
So Trump is now saying he had a lousy earpiece.
Donald Trump on Monday ListentheHill.com blamed a poor earpiece for sparking a misunderstanding over white nationalist David Duke's support.
Yeah, I'm sitting in a house in Florida with a very, very bad earpiece they gave me.
Trump told Matt Wauer on the Today Show today.
So I sit down.
I had a lousy earpiece provided by them.
You can hardly hear what Tapper was saying.
What I heard was various groups.
I have no problem disavowing groups, but I'd at least like to know who they are.
It'd be very unfair disavowing a group if they shouldn't be disavowed.
But in this soundbite, Trump says, I know nothing about David Duke.
So you heard that.
I know the Trumpists are going to be all over me here.
This is why I don't endorse folks.
There's nothing to win.
So I mentioned that Trump was on the Today Show of Matt Wauer.
Well, at Savannah Guthrie, she had a question.
You were asked about David Duke, the former grand wizard of the KKK.
You said three times in the interview that you don't know who David Duke is, and you refuse to disavow or distance yourself from him.
People are scratching their heads over that.
You disavowed David Duke two days ago.
Why were you presenting that you didn't know who the person was?
Why not disavow Duke, disavow the Klan?
What's going on here?
I know who he is, but I never met David Duke.
How many times do I have to continue to disavow people?
And the question was asked about David Duke in various groups, and I don't know who the groups are.
I'm sitting in a house in Florida with a very bad earpiece that they gave me.
And you could hardly hear what he was saying.
But what I heard was various groups.
And I don't mind disavowing anybody.
And I disavowed David Duke.
And I disavowed him the day before at a major news conference.
I have no problem with disavowing groups, but I'd at least like to know who they are.
I've disavowed David Duke all weekend long on Facebook, on Twitter, and obviously it's never enough.
Okay, folks, I'm telling you, this is all true.
And I'm going back to why he disavows them on Friday.
He disavows them on Saturday.
He disavows them today, but he won't disavow them on Jake Tapper's CNN Sunday show.
And here he's admitting he's disavowed it everywhere.
I disavowed David Duke.
I disavowed him a day before at a major news conference.
I have no problem with disavowing groups.
I'd at least like to know who they are.
I disavowed Duke all weekend long on Facebook, on Twitter.
But why not on the CNN Sunday show?
Oh, that's right.
He had a crappy earpiece.
I'm sorry.
That's right.
I'm telling you, there's a reason why he chose not to disavow on that show.
And I think it's wrapped around the fact that it's a Sunday show.
Now, you can say Russia, what does it matter?
Because all these other disavowals are everywhere.
So it's not as though he can hide the disavowal by not making it on Sunday.
Because all these places, Twitter, he's disavowing it everywhere.
Yes, that's true.
But Twitter does not carry the weight of a Sunday show appearance.
Can we agree?
Would you agree?
Facebook doesn't carry the ⁇ would you agree that a campaign appearance in anywhere in Alabama does not have the weight of a Sunday show?
I'm just asking.
I'm just like you, I'm trying to figure this out.
You want to stick with the crappy hearing piece?
Okay.
Well, you stick with the crappy hearing piece.
We here have an obscene profit break at the EIB network, and no fundraising here, folks.
Look, I know the Democrats never have to disavow anybody.
They never had to disavow Sheets Bird.
I mean, the Democrat Party actually had a KKK member as a ranking leading Democrat in the Senate, Robert Sheets Bird.
He was a Grand Kliegel, which meant that he was a leading recruiter back in the day.
They never have to disavow Calypso Louis Farrakhan.
They never have to disallow Al Sharpton.
They're never made to disallow anything.
And they've got Looney Tunes creeps saying some of the most outrageous, crazy things all over this country, and they never are forced to disavow.
I'm sympathetic to Trump.
He did disavow Duke and all these guys several times.
He left the Reform Party way back when because of Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.
But I'm telling you, there is a reason why he chose not to do so on Sunday.
By the way, you know, the Republican establishment is discombobulated over the Christie endorsement of Trump.
Nikki Haley, can't believe it.
And the Jeff Sessions endorsement has kind of shaken up some others.
I think these endorsements of Trump have been in the works for a while.
I don't think they just happened.
I think most of the things that happen in politics have a long history of being in the works before they are actually announced.
Anyway, here's Sally in Columbus.
She'd been waiting a while.
I appreciate that.
And how are you?
Fine.
How are you, Rush?
Very well.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for taking my call.
Just as a, you know, you have always led us conservatives through some pretty dark times.
And there were a few places to turn.
You never let us down.
You always gave us perspective and truth.
So I just kind of wanted to say that.
But to get to my point, you know, last week you were discussing Trump and the way he talked about we have to get rid of the lines around the state during the debate.
Well, I have a different take on that.
Not only did he say it that way, and you suggested it was because of his advisors that were kind of, you know, doing a tutorial for him for interstate insurance commerce.
And then also the thing that bothers me is that when he comments regarding his and the Democrats' touchback program, which is theoretically what it is when he says we're going to send them back and let the good ones back in, you know, Trump isn't this inarticulate.
I think he does it to dumb down his speech.
I think he does it to mislead and not have to give explanations.
And it keeps his comments kind of on the remedial side.
And that's how I look at this.
I know it's different from what you think, but it's how I feel.
I think he's talking to a base that he doesn't have a lot of confidence in.
Are you suggesting that Trump is aware or thinks that his base is sort of rudimentary?
Absolutely, because I think many of them are.
Well, I'm using that word because they won't know what it means, so I'm safe.
I'm sorry.
I'm just talking to myself there.
So he's purposely dumbing it down to relate to them.
Absolutely.
That's a heck of a charge.
Are you kidding?
Then he says we're going to send them back, and we're going to bring the good ones back in.
That's the Democrats, theoretically, the Democrats' touchback program, am I right?
Well, yes, it is in the Gangamig Bill.
It's all part of the E-Verify, the getting back in line, going home, and then coming back in legally, of course, with an asterisk by your name as having been here so you move to the front of the line.
It's all scam, you know, but you're right.
I've had it explained to me no less than Senator Humer.
Here is Back to the Audio Sound by Jeffrey Lord, who is a writer at the American Spectator, was on CNN.
They've hired him to do commentary.
They've got a conservative there.
CNN's actually hired a conservative to do analysis and commentary.
And he was on their New Day show today.
John Berman was hosting.
And they were talking about Trump and the Klan and David Duke.
And Berman said, look, I just, I want to know your reaction.
You watched his interview with Jake Tapper.
Not once, not twice, three times.
Trump was given an opportunity to just say, I disavow David Duke, KKK bad.
He didn't do it.
This is respectfully typical of what Rush Lindbaugh calls the drive-by media.
And they make up some sort of quote-unquote controversy about something that isn't really a controversy at all, and then drive off.
The sort of undercurrent here is that Donald Trump is playing for the white supremacy vote, which is just BS.
It simply isn't true.
I mean, I don't know what to say, but if we're going to have a conversation about race, then we should turn it back on the Democratic Party.
You know, they still haven't apologized for slavery after 151 years.
I think that's pretty basic.
Why don't we ask them that?
Where's Debbie Wassman and Schultz?
Where's President Obama?
Hello.
Right.
And the CNN people, I guarantee you, have never heard this.
What do you mean?
And Democrats apologize for slavery.
What are you talking about?
The Democrats.
That has to be a foreign language to them.
They have never heard anybody with that point of view.
And this next soundbite illustrates it.
When Ronald Reagan ran for governor of California, the press kept trying to get him to renounce the John Birch Society.
And finally, Reagan's answer was, I am not endorsing them.
They are endorsing me.
I have nothing to do with them.
He didn't play the game.
Donald Trump isn't playing the game, although he certainly denounced him.
David Duke is a hardcore leftist.
He's an anti-Semite.
The Ku Klux Klan is a function of the left.
It was the military arm of the Democratic Party.
Hello?
I mean, Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law are Jewish.
David Duke is an anti-Semite, for heaven's sakes.
I mean, this is ridiculous.
The person you heard say left was Margaret Hoover, who I think, if I'm not mistaken, is the granddaughter of Herbert Hoover, a great-granddaughter of Herbert Hoover.
Not sure which.
But she is a quote-unquote Republican strategist.
And this was the first time she had ever heard it explained that the Klan was a leftist organization.
People at CNN think the Klan is far-right, Uber-right.
They're not.
The Klan, Jeffrey's right, they were the military of the Democrat Party back in those days.
They were the armed forces of the Democrat Party.
The segregationist South Accrangale, I need to give you the names.
Jay William Fulbright, Lester Maddox, George Wallace, who are all these people?
They're all Democrats.
But Lord's point here is that how many times are you going to ask the guy to denounce when he already has?
This is like the drive-bys.
They drive by, they stir up a controversy, and they create a mess, and they leave the mess for others to clean up while they're on and down the road ready to do it all over again with something else and somebody else.
Now we move on to Marco Rubio, who, by the way, lost his voice this afternoon.
He was, I guess he was in South Carolina.
Not South Carolina.
Where was he?
He was someplace stumping, and it was with Nikki Haley.
That's why I think so.
He lost his voice.
But he was very courageous.
He said, even though he lost his voice, he was going to keep talking for America.
But before he lost his voice, Roanoke, Virginia, last night.
He's always calling me Little Marco.
And I'll let me.
He's taller than me.
He's like 6'2 ⁇ , which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's 5'2 ⁇ .
Have you seen his hands?
They're like this.
And you know what they say about men with small hands?
You can't trust them.
Ooh, and now people are wringing their hands talking about the depths to which the Republican campaign has sunk.
Why, why?
We can't believe it is sunk to this kind of bathroom parlor humor.
This is so beneath everyone.
Why in the world is this happening and so forth?
The Republican campaign has been reduced to stand-up comedy routines and so forth.
Well, whatever it is, it has people fired up.
It has people reacting like they never have.
People are saying they've never seen a political season like this, and they consider it exciting.
I think that the people wringing their hands over all still do not get the mood of the American people.
They still don't get it.
This disconnect, and I think it's huge and deep.
It must be even bigger and deeper than I even suspect.
Here's Trump, by the way.
Now, they've accused Trump of retweeting a Mussolini quote.
Did you hear about this?
Oh, yeah.
Well, he did.
Somebody sent Trump a quote that he thought looked good.
So he retweeted it.
It turns out to have been something Mussolini said.
So here we go, meet the press, Chuck Todd yesterday.
There's a trending retweet of yours, Mr. Trump.
You, excuse me, you retweeted somebody from Ilduce 2016.
Iilduce 2016.
Well, they may not know that Ilduce was what Mussolini was called.
Ilduce 2016, it was a Mussolini quote, but you didn't know it was a Mussolini quote when you retweeted it.
It said, it's better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.
It's a famous Mussolini quote.
You retweeted it.
Do you like the quote?
Did you know it was Mussolini?
It's okay to know it's Mussolini.
Look, Mussolini was Mussolini.
It's okay.
It's a very good quote.
It's a very interesting quote.
And I know I saw it.
I saw what, and I know who said it, but what difference does it make whether it's Mussolini or somebody else?
It's certainly a very interesting quote.
You want to be associated with a fascist?
No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes.
Look, it's okay.
It's okay to know it's Mussolini.
Look, Mussolini was Mussolini, okay?
It's okay.
It's a very good quote.
It's an interesting quote.
Who cares it comes with Mussolini?
You don't mind being associated with a fascist?
No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I heard Chris Rock say that Hollywood's racist.
It is.
Hollywood.
Remind me.
Well, we'll get into that tomorrow.
We can do that.
Have you heard the latest controversy between Trump and Chris Christie?
Apparently, at the end of a long campaign day, some sort of thing, on the day that Christie endorsed Trump, they're standing there at a podium on a tarmac, and an open mic catches Trump telling Christie, go ahead, go home, get on your plane, it's over there.
And they're trying to say that Trump was fed up and irritated with Christie the way he'd been acting and was dispatching him.
Go ahead, go home.
Get on your plane.
It's over there.
Now, Greta Van Susteris says, no, no, no.
I was on Sunday show to ABC yesterday, and I was with Christie in the green room, and I asked him about it.
And he said, Trump was just telling me to take some time off.
It'd been a long day.
Go ahead and head home.
It's been great.
There was nothing here to see.
There's nothing at all going on.
There's no falling out between Trump and Christie.
But yet people are trying to create the idea that there has been a falling out already.
What?
The business with the Rubio comment on Trump's little hands?
Well, you think it looked bad on Rubio or Trump?
What do you mean?
You think it looks bad on Rubio?
Well, Snurdley is asking me, how can Rubio get away with it?
It's got to come back and haunt Rubio, right?
I mean, they'll start making jokes like that in a presidential campaign.
Come on, it's got to haunt Rubio, right?
He can't get away with this kind of thing.
Depends who you're asking.
If you're talking to an anti-Trump crowd, they'll love it.
I haven't seen, I mean, I've seen some reaction about it.
I've seen a lot of news on it.
I haven't seen anything about it that would end Rubio's campaign.
But, of course, we know what he's talking about.
Of course, we know what he's talking about.
Wait, you think That kind of stuff isn't said on television every night in every stand-up comedy routine.
It's part of prime time television now, those kinds of jokes.
This is the pop culture taking over the presidential campaign.
Are you actually of the belief that presidential campaigns now are still separate and apart from our pop culture?
Because they're not anymore.
That's what all this means.
You telling me you think that's going to hurt Rubio when what Trump has said over and over, time and time again, has not hurt him?
Well, see, Trump is Trump, not one of them, but Rubio is considered an establishment.
What?
Pinstripe suit professional politician making comments like that are really just beneath the pale and so forth.
Well, we'll find out.
We'll find out.
Time will tell.
Rubio hasn't won anything yet.
And he's not on schedule to win anything.
He's not leading in any poll.
So you may have your answer already.
Yeah, you know, Rubio, he made a sexist joke there with the small hands.
And he also got racist.
He made fun of Trump for being a person of color.
Orange.
Spray tan comment.
It's really getting brutal out there, folks.
I don't know if we can take much more of this.
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