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March 25, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:28
March 25, 2016, Friday, Hour #2
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Time Text
What me?
Me mediate?
As the titular head of the party, me mediate Trump and Cruz.
Yeah, right.
Okay.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny, South Florida.
It's open live Friday.
Yes, sir, Rebob, here we are back at it, wrapping up another extraordinary week of broadcast excellence.
Say.
I mean, it's a sheer delight to have you with us each and every day.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
It's open on Friday, so you can talk about Anita.
You can.
Doesn't have to be the campaign, though it likely will be, but if you're interested in anything else, this is the day to have at it.
800-282-2882, the email address L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
The Politico.
And you'll have to, folks, my I I have been using my voice many more hours this week than I normally do.
So I'm a little hoarse right now.
And I don't know if you can tell or not, but in case you can, I apologize for it.
It's I don't want it to be distracting.
So the more you know in that regard, the least or the less distracting it'll be.
Political story, insiders to Trump, no majority, no nomination.
Republicans say it's 1,237 delegates or bust for Donald Trump.
Now I have to tell you before I get into the details of this story.
If you are interested in history, that has always been the way it is.
You in the primaries, you you hit the number or exceed it, and the nomination is yours.
If you don't hit the number, it isn't.
It has never been the case.
I don't think it has.
I can't recall.
The rules have never been changed to say that a plurality, if you get close enough, you get you've got to hit the number or exceed it.
It's always been the case.
And that and the powers that be in the Republican establishment are insisting it's gonna be that way this time.
A majority of Republican insiders say that Donald Trump should not get the nomination if he falls short of winning a majority of delegates.
Even if he amasses more than any of his opponents.
And of course you would expect them to say that.
It's according to the political caucus.
You know what the political caucus is?
It's a bunch of establishment types.
It's a panel of strategists, activists, and operatives in seven key swing states.
And roughly six in ten Republicans said the party should nominate another candidate if Trump finishes with a plurality rather than the required 1,237.
That's some polling data.
That's not the political caucus here.
Six and ten, well, maybe it is.
Maybe it is the caucus.
Six and ten Republicans say the party should nominate another candidate if Trump finishes with a plurality.
Wait, wait a second.
Why should no hold it a minute?
That's not right.
That's essentially saying Trump's disqualified from whatever they do if he doesn't get to 1237.
Well, that's what it is.
They may not want it to sound that way.
How else would you interpret this?
Six in ten Republicans said the party should nominate another candidate if Trump finishes with a plurality, rather than the 1,237.
Well, okay, let's play this out.
Trump doesn't get 1,237, neither does Cruz, nobody else does.
So therefore we go contested.
Cruz and Trump are immediately disqualified from whatever the party does, because neither of them got to 1237?
Is that how they're gonna plan to work this?
That's that's crazy.
I know that's how they're gonna work it.
Do not misunderstand.
I can't believe they're admitting it.
But what they're saying is if neither of these two get to because they don't want either of these two, folks.
They don't want Trump, they don't want Cruz.
And so they're trying to say that if in the primary, neither candidate gets 1237, they're gonna take that as akin to the party rejecting both of them.
And then meaning we gotta go to somebody entirely new because the party did not choose either one of these.
Well, why are either of these two going to be disqualified from participating in the contested convention should that happen?
But make no mistake about that's the only way to read this.
These guys are not going to get away with that.
They may think they can, but but Trump and Cruz are gonna have too many delegates, too many pledged and loyal delegates to just be told, you know what?
You guys, you've been running since last summer, some of you even longer than that.
But you know what?
You didn't get 1237.
So you're disqualified.
So we're gonna pick somebody who maybe didn't even run, or we're gonna pick a guy who got four or five delegates.
We're gonna pick a guy who ran but dropped out.
You're gonna really try to tell these two guys that you know darn well that's what they're angling at.
What is this?
Trump, sorry, Cruz was asked about the National Inquirer article, and he says it is garbage.
He's blaming Trump and his henchmen for it.
Said the publisher is a close friend.
That would be uh David Pecker.
Again, what a name.
For a guy running a national inquiry.
David Pecker, uh, apparently close friends with New York magazine had that too, that uh Pecker and Trump are close.
But it was just on the Fox News channel, and and Cruz was asked about this.
This is the inquirer article that's that's that's effervescing out there in the internet that uh Cruz has got five mistresses or has had five mistresses.
He's finally asked about it, and so now it's it's it's garbage.
Anyway, back to the back to the political story.
Virginia Republican, like every respondent was surveyed anonymously here, is one of the political sources, but he's anonymous.
A Virginia Republican said rules is rules, you have to get a majority.
That's a problem with our country.
No one ever wins anymore.
The question is central to the GOP calculus before the Cleveland Convention.
Should the party award the nomination to the candidate who wins the most delegates in total, as Trump has advocated, or stick to the rule that a candidate has to win 1237 or more in order to be the nominee.
The majority of insiders who want the party to choose somebody else if Trump doesn't get to 1237 said they are motivated by questions of electability, Trump's capricious campaign style and personality.
Well, there you have it.
Another Republican, this was from New Hampshire, said, I am firmly in the never Trump camp.
The GOP gets killed if he's a nominee.
We probably get killed if he doesn't support a different nominee anyway.
So if it makes no difference to the eventual outcome, my conscience will be clear going down with a responsible.
So these guys are prepared to lose exactly as I you know I knew it.
I have been forecasting it.
These people are prepared to lose in order to save the establishment.
Make no mistake about it.
And by saving the establishment, they are saving themselves personally.
They are willing to lose the presidential election for personal reasons is what these people are saying.
I told you so, but that's exactly who these people are.
They owe their very existence to this establishment, to this club, whatever you want to call it.
It's where their daily existence is.
It's where their future is, it's where their standard of living is, it's where their power is.
Everything that tells them they're special, everything that tells them they are the elite.
And they are willing to hold on to that structure.
Even if it means means losing the white.
Listen to this guy.
Hey, look, if if if we're gonna lose this election anyway, I want to lose with a clear conscience.
Meaning I want to lose with somebody I could support rather than lose with somebody I don't.
But they're still talking about losing.
That's the thing here that is inescapable.
You know, I ran across a story.
It's from McClatchy.
It was published yesterday.
And I was frankly stunned to see this.
I mean, McClatchy News.
Uh I mean, they're way, way, way.
I used to work for McClatchy.
That's who owned the Sacramento Radio Station when I first went out there, Sacramento B. I mean, they are.
And they have a story, America to Establishment, Who the Hell Are You Peoples by David Lightman.
It's statelined out of St. Louis.
But folks, it sounds exactly like a combination of a bunch of monologues from this program over the past couple of months.
It details who the establishment is, why they are the establishment, how you get in, how you can't be thrown out, all of this.
It details, but more importantly, it details, it nails why people resent the establishment and why they've had it.
Why they're no longer buffaloed by it.
You know, one of the examples given in this story.
Republicans and Democrats alike are asking who in the hell would pay Hillary Clinton a quarter million dollars to do a speech.
And why won't I get paid a quarter million dollars to do a speech?
They know full well what this is.
They know full well.
Let's say Goldman Sachs, she did a number of speeches for banks, and her going rate was a quarter million.
When it came out, the Hillary camp tried to say, hey, that's just what they offered.
Well, that's not what we asked.
Of course they offer buying you, Hillary.
She admits they're buying her.
But more importantly, you know what else this is?
This is how members of the establishment help keep each other wealthy.
It's how they keep each other established.
It's how they keep each other in the game.
You scratch my back, I'll scratch your back.
This is purchasing loyalty, this is buying influence.
Because there's no way Hillary Clinton ought to get 250,000 for showing up and doing a 20-minute speech, a closed speech to a bunch of bankers.
And she won't release the transcripts of these speeches, and I'll tell you why.
And she demanded that transcripts be made.
She won't release them because she's praising them to the hilt.
Meanwhile, most of the people voting for her hate the banks, hate Wall Street, and she can't afford for it to become known that the banks and Wall Street are pretty much bankrolling the Democrat Party.
Not just her, but the entire Democrat Party structure.
This idea that corporate America and Wall Street and big business and so forth are all part of the Republican machine is just BS.
It hasn't been the case in years.
And it's worse than the fact that just they support Democrats.
It's there is now very narrow, if it exists at all, line of distinction between government and business.
They're in bed with one another.
The only way Obamacare could be happening is if the hospitals, the insurance companies are bought in.
And there's no way they would in a legitimate free market circumstance.
But if you're going to offer me access, if I'm an insurance company or a hospital, you're going to offer me access, and you're going to pass a law mandating every America has to, American has to buy my product.
Hell yes, I'll give you a campaign donation.
Mrs. Clinton can't afford for her voters, and certainly Crazy Bernie can't afford for his supporters to find out just how in bed corporate America, Wall Street, the banks are with the Democrat Party.
And that this story in McClatchy details how people get this.
They understand it and they're fed up with it.
And that they're being, who the hell do you people think you are?
They don't trust them.
As far as they can throw them.
In fact, the story says that the establishment is defined now as Wall Street, Washington, and big media.
That Hillary Clinton is the embodiment of the establishment.
And practically everybody sees the establishment as incestuous and isolated.
And the fact that Hillary gets a quarter of a million dollars over and over again from this bank, that bank to do speeches.
People are not dumb.
They know what's going on.
There are two things going on.
The banks are buying influence from somebody who might be elected president.
They're buying influence, somebody who was Secretary of State still has contacts there, not just at state, but around the world.
But they're also in their own way contributing to the Clinton's personal wealth.
And maybe even further, they're contributing to the Clinton's foundation.
Whatever they are contributing, they are making it possible for the Clintons to stay wealthy and rich.
And this happens throughout the establishment.
This is how you end up getting wealthy and staying well, we're not accomplishing much of anything other than becoming a member of the establishment.
Stories of what is the establishment?
Nationally, eight in ten people told a McClatchy morning consult poll this month.
It includes members of Congress.
Similar numbers cited a Democrat Republican parties, political donors, Wall Street bankers, and the drive-by media.
In essence, the establishment lives and thrives in a small world that lives and works in New York and Washington, on Wall Street, in big media and in politics, connected by the high speed, a seller corridor, and often by mutual self-interest.
Many do care deeply about the common good, though they are anything but common themselves.
They hire each other.
They hire each other's children.
Another example given in this story, there is nobody under the sun that doesn't know what happens when Hillary Clinton's kid gets hired by NBC for $600,000 a year and has never been on TV before.
The story makes it clear that everybody, not in the establishment, the general public knows full well what that is.
That is everything I just it's buying influence with the Clintons.
It's buying into Clinton good graces, it's buying access, and it's helping to make Chelsea Clinton rich.
It's helping to keep the Clintons wealthy.
And everybody knows their kid couldn't get such a deal.
Their kid who's never been on TV, never had any experience at it, would never be hired by NBC at $600,000 a year.
It would never happen.
And then when when Chelsea is hired, and then the NBC suits go out to what a great find they've come up with.
What a great discovery, what a natural talent.
Nobody believes it.
Okay, back to the phones.
This is Vinny.
This is the Vinny in Long Island.
Vinny, great to have you back with us, my man.
How are you?
Maha Rushi, this is the real Vinny.
Always a pleasure to speak with you.
Yeah, same here, same here.
Glad you made it through today.
Thank you.
I think what's different, one of the things that's different about what's happening with uh with this dust up between Cruz and Trump and their wives is, you know, Megan Kelly was a willing combatant.
Uh Collie Fiorina was a candidate.
And uh Ted Cruz's wife is is just the wife of a candidate who's really made no news up until now.
Um and it's really quite surreal what's happening.
I mean, to me, um, if I could just uh extrapolate, Trump is really an empty suit in regards to politics.
And while I while I agree uh with what you've been saying now for months that people are not in the mood to elect an establishment candidate, uh you know, I really don't think uh they're fully committed either to a person who boils down to little more than a carnival barker.
Well, now why why do you say that?
Because the the uh are you using polling numbers to conclude that or just your gut?
In regards to Trump, I I just uh uh what I'm I think what I'm gonna say next will sum it up.
I think the longer this goes on, people can be talked out of Trump.
And I think you may be seeing some of that now.
I mean, he he did cross a line here with going after Cruz's wife.
Uh I thought that last caller was just laughable, the uh woman lawyer.
Um, you know, how this is all Cruz's fault.
I thought she sounded quite ridiculous.
She may have thought she was good, but I thought she was ridiculous.
Trump university graduate.
Yeah.
Okay.
And um I I just think that as time goes on, uh people can be talked out of Trump, and now that uh the stage is a lot larger for people to hear what Cruz has to say.
By the way, I meant that she sounded like she is part of Trump campaign.
I didn't mean as a put down a Trump university.
Look, Vinny, hang on, I got a break here, and we'll continue this right after this finishes here, so don't go anywhere.
Okay, Vinny, I um welcome you back here to the uh EIB network.
I ha I didn't mean to erupt you right in mid-thought, so resume where you were here.
We'll continue the the uh conversation.
Thank you, Russia.
You did say you said something in Trivial.
You you you think we've reached a tipping point where we had not been, and that is where people I think this is uh I want to make sure that I heard you right.
You said you think we've gotten the point where people could be talked out of supporting Trump.
Well, yeah, I think uh that's never nobody's we th that's the the the glue that Trump has, nobody has been able to separate him.
Well that that's that's true.
I mean, some of some of my uh my very best friends are are rabid Trump supporters, and I listen, if push comes to shove, you know, I will be voting for Trump.
I will be.
Um because the thought of Hillary is just repulsive or Bernie.
Right.
But having said that, um I believe now that the stage is a little less crowded.
I believe people really hearing uh Ted Trump for what he is, what he offers, uh his uh his his just unbelievable knowledge regarding the Constitution, the way our government works, its checks and balances, and what Ted Cruz has done uh while he uh while he's been in the Senate.
It's it I thought you nailed it a few months ago when you said Ted Cruz's only real sin here is uh he's been elected.
And um so henceforth he's part of the establishment.
He's not part of the establishment.
Uh he's never been part of the establishment since day one.
And I resent anyone that says he's part of the establishment.
Uh Ted Cruz has always stood up and and fought for uh the things that conservatism is.
And I think now that people can hear who and what Ted Cruz is without eleven other candidates on the stage vying for time.
Um I think Trump this is this is what I meant when I said I believe people might be able to be talked out of Trump.
Maybe not his super hardcore supporters, but there's a lot of people I think uh that are gonna turn, especially in light of the.
Well, you just you just said something I I want to react to because it this is um an observation I made months ago now, when this was all just percolating, and people couldn't for the life of them understand the Trump phenomenon.
And particularly hardcore, solid, really decent conservatives couldn't understand it because over here you have Cruz, who you just said epitomizes it, and over here is Trump, and the pro-Cruz people kept saying, but don't you people realize Trump's not a conservative not a conservative phony conservative.
I had people say something like that to me personally, can't tell you the number of people.
And my reaction was what you're not understanding is that conservatism is not the defining factor of this primary.
You wish it was, I wish it was.
But the fact that the people supporting Trump don't care about ideology, it's so far and above and be that this is why, in fact, I detected that so many people who have established identities as conservative fundraisers, conservative thinkers, conservative uh media people, conservatives or that, fundraisers and uh like were threatened because Trump isn't that.
He's he's gaining energetic enthusiastic support without being ideological.
That's when people started calling it populism or or what have you.
And I think it's still largely that way.
I think most of Trump's supporters, in fact, I'll say this.
I had a conversation.
I cannot tell you who it was off the record.
But this was somebody who heads up a giant conservative organization who is willing to roll the dice on Trump because he rattled off the various areas that Trump is articulating conservative theory and policy.
He admitted to me that Trump doesn't know conservatism versus liberal.
He doesn't look at life that way, not like committed conservatives do.
Trump doesn't.
But this guy did not want to close the book on Trump.
They wanted to give him every opportunity.
I found it fascinating, actually, because this was the kind of person who I thought would be scared to death of Trump succeeding because of what it might mean to the quote unquote conservative movement.
Well, look, all I could say to that is to me, and to a lot of conservatives, Trump is the consolation prize.
Ted Cruz is the prize.
But if we don't get that prize, then Donald Trump is the consolation prize.
And I'll take it.
But I just think when Trump puts his foot in his mouth, as he's wont to do, and as he's done it this week, I think more people are swayed from him.
I do watch the polls as you do.
And I have noticed what's gone on in Wisconsin.
Okay, and I see in California he's not that far from Donald Trump.
And you just don't know.
Well, let me give you the latest one.
This is from Fox News.
I just printed it out.
It's actually from the uh the uh Red Alert politics website, but it's Fox News poll.
Fox News latest poll shows Ted Cruz jumping to a massive 14% lead over Hillary Clinton among voters under the age of 35 millennials.
The same poll, the same Fox News poll shows Trump losing the same demographic, 35 and younger, to Hillary by more than 20 percent, despite having a 67 percent uh Hillary having a 67 percent unfavorable rating among these voters.
Now, I've not seen this before.
I've I've I've never seen a poll that shows this, that Ted Cruz creams Hillary with millennials under 35 by 14 points, and Hillary creams Trump by 20 points in the same group of people.
I've never seen that until today.
Well, I think something might be happening out there.
I think this latest um teta between Now this can't this this this poll was going on two or three days prior to this teta tip again.
Okay.
Okay, then maybe just people uh again they're just hearing things they're hearing more from someone else uh and they're starting to hear who Ted Cruz is.
You know, this is a very uh constructed um uh well-spoken uh uh uh you know uh uh free uh what's the word I'm looking for?
He's just um you know, straight standing uh man who who's who's who says what he means and and means what he says, and I think that message may be breaking through.
Well, I don't I don't know.
Uh campaigns are fluid and polling data.
Like I say, I've never seen this uh anywhere.
I I I've never seen a poll with any Republican winning millennials anywhere.
Either either period or up against Hillary.
I just have never seen it.
This is stunning.
Fox News latest poll shows Ted Cruz jumping to a massive 14 percent point lead over Hillary Clinton among voters under 35.
Now we must the lament of the Democrats, they always win the youth vote, and the youth vote doesn't show up and vote.
It never does.
Everybody gets all excited about it.
Every election, every campaign, because the youth vote seems in polling data to always line up with Democrats, but they just don't vote in great numbers.
They never have.
Everybody keeps holding out hope that this will be the election that they do.
The Democrats do.
And the same poll shows Trump losing the same demographic millennials 35 and under, losing to Hillary by more than 20 points.
That's a 34, 35-point spread here.
And as I say, I've not seen this.
I've not seen any poll of millennials showing a preference for Republicans either in general or over Hillary Clinton.
Vinny, thanks for the call.
I appreciate it.
You know, folks, I'm I'm I don't want to present this as one-sided.
I knew it would happen too when I opened the program mentioning that I've never seen this kind of response in the campaign from women that I am seeing now over the Heidi Cruz Melania Trump side-by-side photo tweet that Trump put out.
Now I've got the women reacting to that uh inundating me with, hey, I don't care about it.
Don't dime it.
I'm not lost my support for Trump whatsoever.
Doesn't bother me.
Heidi Trump's part of the campaign.
Let me read you one.
At the risk of going against the narrative on your show today, Mr. Limbaugh, since you're mentioning emails from women as a data point.
Well, what hit a nerve with me, Mr. Limbaugh, was the BS.
It wasn't me, it was my super pack.
Cruz Melania ad.
I thought Trump's counterpoint, uh counterpunch, photo for photo was well deserved.
And Trump's response was the lowest level he uses.
It was a retweet.
It wasn't even a tweet.
And just so you know, Mr. Limbaugh, I am not a cruise fan, to put it mildly.
And then she points out, and for all of these people telling you that that ad was an anti-Trump ad and not pro-Cruz.
Go look at it.
It says support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.
It was a pro-cruz ad, Mr. Limbaugh.
Now that's I mean, it contains the data that is consistent with some of the emails I'm getting from women who do not want to be thought of as abandoning Trump.
So hearing it from all sides here, back with more after this.
This afternoon in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Senator Ted Cruz spoke with reporters about this national inquirer story.
It's not a story yet, is it?
It's just it has published.
Oh, okay.
I thought it was just something rumored to be working on if the inquirer had this information.
Well, whatever.
Uh Cruz spoke to reporters about National Choir's story that claims Cruz had affairs with five mistresses.
This is what he said.
Let me be clear.
This National Inquirer story is garbage.
It is complete and utter lies.
It is a tabloid smear.
And it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.
There you have it.
Uh and of course, New York magazine with a uh story last October that Trump is very tight with David Pecker.
The publisher, the National Inquirer, obviously reminding everybody of that with a tweet today, uh, trying to get in on the story.
Here's Tommy Orlando, Florida.
Great that you waited, sir.
I appreciate your patience.
Hi.
Hi, how are you today, Russ?
Well, I'm fine and dandy.
I'm glad to hear from you.
Good.
I spoke with you about two years ago.
Um I am a registered Democrat, so I could not vote in the Florida primary because it's a closed primary, but I'm one of three current registered Democrats who will be crossing over to vote for Trump in the general.
Um mainly the three main issues succinctly that I'd like to mention or basically.
Wait, wait, wait.
You're you're you're one of three current registered democrats in the state, you think that'll vote for Trump?
I have two other friends that are going to be voting for Trump, yes.
Oh, okay.
You're you but you're not saying you're the only three in the state.
You just I just wanted to make sure that you uh didn't know something we don't know.
No.
And I've also, I'm also friends.
I have several Republican friends as well.
And um everybody's trying to label Trump as he's not a conservative.
He's this, he's that.
I I think he's he comes across some people have described him as a blue-collar billionaire.
And I think that's a very, very astute adjective to use whenever you describe them or a populist or a nationalist.
I mean a lot of his ideas are not necessarily conservative per se, but I've got one of my friends who's been a Democrat for 35 years and he is so he's even more worked up about Trump than I am.
He actually said he would go to Canada and open the door for some of uh the people we both know here in Orlando and let them go to Canada to get out of the country if Trump gets elected the liberals that we both know here in Florida.
Yeah but they never do you know so it's an empty threat.
It's an empty promise.
They never leave they never move so I don't I take all those promises with a grain of salt.
Correct.
But he you know I I I asked them what they think about Ted Cruz and Cruz doesn't have the crossover appeal to any of my friends uh who are Democrat or libertarian that Trump does.
So I just wanted to make that point.
I think Trump is your reference to Trump is a blue collar.
What is a billionaire?
Blue collar.
And you like that, huh?
You think that's a good characterization?
Well, you know, he talked about he has some friends out there.
He knew some Republicans as a Democrat.
So he's a well-rounded guy.
Well, you know, I know some trial lawyers, too, a trial here.
I mean, these people are as dyed-in-the-wool liberal Democrat as you can get.
The trial lawyer, the trial lawyer, the plaintiff's guys, the plaintiff's bar, these people, they have sold everything to the Democrat Party.
They are all in on the Democrat Party.
They raise money.
They donate.
They whatever.
Because it's the Democrats that are constantly opposing tort reform.
You can't find a trial lawyer who's a Republican.
And if you do, they won't admit it around other lawyers.
It is that universal.
And I know some of these people.
I've met them playing in charity golf tournaments.
I've ended up as the celebrity in their foursome.
And, you know, it's always interesting when that happens because they show up predisposed to thinking I'm this bad thing, that bad.
They end up thinking I'm the greatest guy in the world.
And why can't everybody know this side of you?
These guys end up being very open with me.
And I just got a note from one of them last week that he is abandoning the Democrat Party.
And he has become a supporter for Trump because it has taken Trump to open his eyes to what the Republican Party is.
Trump's a Republican.
this guy loves Trump he I don't I don't know just loves Trump thinks Trump is one of the greatest guys so Trump being a Republican this guy was forced to go beyond whatever he thinks in cliched terms the Republican Party is and he found out that he had much more in common with your average ordinary everyday Republican than he ever would imagine.
And he wanted me to know specifically that it would have never happened.
He would have never admitted, not only admitted it, he would never have abandoned the Democrat Party in a presidential campaign had it not been for Trump.
He gave me details.
I don't have a lot of time to go into details.
Details don't matter.
I just it's I've known that Trump is attracting crossovers.
it in these open primaries I think I might have been one of the first to allude to the phenomenon and point out that it's exactly what the Republican Party claims they have to be doing.
Why support amnesty?
You want Hispanic voters, you want minorities, you want here's Trump putting and they don't want any part of it.
I've always been fascinated by that.
I think my voice can make it through the final hour here, folks.
Excuse me, but I might be relying a lot on uh those of you on the phones.
One big hour left open line Friday today.
Hang in there.
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