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April 29, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:34
April 29, 2016, Friday, Hour #2
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And greetings to you, music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists, all across the fruited plane.
It's Friday, and that means Obama Friday, two big hours left and the fastest three hours in media.
It's where you get to choose what we talk about.
The telephone number is 800-282-2882, the email address, ilrushbow at EIBnet.com.
The cable news networks at this very moment breaking news.
The Indiana governor, Mike Pence, just endorsed Ted Cruz.
Cable news networks have assembled panels of experts to discuss what it all means.
We never need a panel of experts on the EIB network because I am the expert that you have come to know, love, and to trust.
So here again, Mike Pence endorsing Ted Cruz.
This is the first half of his remarks.
It happened about one hour ago on the radio in Indianapolis.
I like and respect all three of the Republican candidates in the field.
I particularly want to commend Donald Trump, who I think has given voice to the frustration of millions of working Americans with a lack of progress in Washington, D.C. And I'm also particularly grateful that Donald Trump has taken a strong stand for Hoosier Jobs when we saw Jobs and the Carrier Company abruptly announce leaving Indiana, not for another state, but for Mexico.
I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for his voice in the national debate.
And let me say I've come to my decision about who I'm supporting, and I'm not against anybody, but I will be voting for Ted Cruz in the upcoming Republican primary.
Okay, that first unbite was 40 seconds, and then about 35 seconds into it, Ted Cruz was mentioned and mentioned as the candidate that Mike Pence is supporting.
Here is what he said next.
I see Ted Cruz as a principled conservative who's dedicated his career to advocating the Reagan agenda, and I'm pleased to support him.
I really admire the way Ted Cruz has been willing to stand up for taxpayers in opposing runaway spending, deficits and debt, calling for and leading on repealing Obamacare.
And I also have to tell you, I'm very impressed with Ted Cruz's devotion and knowledge of the Constitution of the United States, of the freedoms that are enshrined there in our Bill of Rights, from our liberties to our Second Amendment.
And of course, I appreciate his strong and unwavering stand for the sanctity of life.
And so it is being dissected, as I mentioned on cable networks left and right, and I'm sure other places too.
The analysis of this endorsement, and you're going to hear all kinds of takes on it.
I can probably imagine you having your own reaction to it in one of a number of different ways.
But anyway, it was highly anticipated.
It was eagerly anticipated and looked forward to.
And now what's happened next is that Carly Fiorina has demanded that John Kasich get out of the race.
Carly Fiorina says it's time.
Governor Kasich, it's time.
It's time now to realize that Fantasy Island, the plane never really landed.
You're still circling and it isn't going to land.
There's no Herve Villiche down there waiting to greet you with a mimosa.
Just returned to Ohio.
And of course, Kasich will not do this because in Kasich's mind, I mean, he's going to be the nominee.
You realize he is playing out a fantasy here.
He's living a fantasy.
He's living the fantasy of him being elected president.
I don't know whether he knows it's not going to happen or I don't know how grounded he is in this, but you start firing a confetti gun after an election when you win your own state.
And you start running around talking the way he is.
I think he's going through the motions.
He wants to be able to have pictures, videos, thoughts, memoir about his presidential campaign and how close he came and so forth.
So I doubt that he will accede Carly Fiorina's request or admonition to get out.
But she has made it.
Funny little thing here.
Actually, I've got some funny things coming up at CNN.
The first, Carol Costello.
This happened this morning.
She was speaking about Trump and a tweet that he sent out talking about Hillary.
And this, we have two soundbites.
This is the first characterization that she made.
Listen carefully.
Trump just tweeted out this this morning, quote, crooked Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most dishonest person to have ever run for the presidency, is also one of the great enablers.
And I can only assume he's talking about Hillary Clinton enabling Bill Clinton's naughtiness, for lack of a better term.
Naughtiness.
But there was Ronald Brownstein that was the guest there.
And they're sharing, you know, they're chuckling among themselves.
A couple leftists.
Yeah, here's Trump.
He's going after our girl Hillary again.
Now, Carol Costello is married.
If her husband were a serial philanderer, if her husband routinely had trysts with 19-year-old interns in his office, and if semen could be found on one of the interns' dresses, would Carol Costello refer to her husband's behavior as naughtiness?
Yes, yes, Trump just tweeted out this morning, quote, crooked Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most dishonest person to have ever run for president, one of the great enablers.
And Costello says, I can only assume that he's talking about Hillary Clinton enabling Bill Clinton's naughtiness, for lack of a better naughtiness.
You know, it's such an eye-opener.
You know, these people will eventually, on occasion, tell us, show us their mindset.
And as far as all these people, even these leftist women, all of these feminist women, all of these women first people, all these babes in media, Bill Clinton, yeah, a little naughtiness.
Let their own husbands do it.
We're talking castration.
But let Bill Clinton do it.
He's just behaving out just a little naughtiness.
You know, just Bill being Bill.
I just find it humorous.
These are the women.
They are the thoroughbred feminists.
They're the ones that are not going to let men run around on them.
They're not going to ones that are going to let men run the show.
There, no way, no how.
They're going to hang together.
They're going to stick together.
It's equal pay for equal work.
It's all of the stuff.
They're going to be in there on pro-choice.
They're going to be in there on whatever it happens to be.
And then some revered left-wing male politician comes along and treats women like they're nothing but sex objects.
And it's naughtiness.
He's so cute.
Yeah.
Well, you and I are not the only ones to react this way.
Sometime later, before the segment ended, somebody either said something to her in her IFB, or else she had her computer there and was getting flooded with tweets, texts, emails, or whatever.
But even before the segment she was doing there with Brownstein ended, she said this.
I want to correct my word.
Naughtiness was not the right word.
What Bill Clinton did was way more than that.
And I apologize for using that term.
Something that was before the segment ended.
This was not 10 minutes later.
This was a couple of minutes later.
So somebody might have been a producer.
You never know.
Might be a female producer.
Say, Carol, naughtiness, you better fix that everybody.
Then later on CNN.
Let's see what we have here.
This is trying to find out who the CNN host is here.
I think it was still Carol Costello, although I'm not sure.
Let me see.
Doesn't matter, but I think it still is.
Let me set this up.
We have Scotty Nell Hughes, who is a Trump spokeswoman, an analyst, and strategist.
She, Katrina Pearson, and a couple others, they show up on TV now and then to explain what's going on in Trump world and if there are any controversies to explain them and so forth.
And with Scotty Nell Hughes is Cruz supporter and former member of Congress Bob Barr, Republican Georgia.
And they are talking about the delegate process nationwide.
They're talking about how delegates are chosen and how delegates are apportioned and how delegates vote, all of this.
And Barr is a delegate.
Barr is a delegate for Cruz to the Republican convention from Georgia.
Scotty Nell Hughes.
Now, remember, she's a Trumpist, so she is convinced, like many of you in the audience are, that this whole delegate thing is rigged, that there haven't been fair elections or any elections in some places like Colorado, and yet we've got delegates, and Cruz has got some delegates in places, and he didn't win the popular vote.
So there has to be cheating.
Scotty Nell Hughes obviously has that.
What are you laughing at?
Just setting it up so you understand the bite.
Snurdle's in there laughing himself silly.
I'm just telling you, so you understand.
I'm giving you the context of the bite.
Scotty Nell Hughes is convinced that there's all kinds of cheating going on out there, like many of you Trumpists are.
And furthermore, she is convinced that Barr is one of the guys out there cheating.
And she thinks that she is about to expose him.
And we have this in two sound bites.
Here is the first one.
It's a corrupt system, and I think a rigged system.
Congressman Barr, aren't you a delegate as well to the convention this year?
Yes, and I've already been getting nasty calls from your Trump supporters because of that.
Are you going as a Cruz delegate?
Sure, I am.
I'm a very strong supporter of Senator Cruz.
And that's the thing.
And who won the state of Georgia overwhelmingly?
Mr. Trump in the popular vote.
The fact of the matter is that the Georgia delegation will vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot, which is according to the law.
Now, you all may want to operate outside of the law.
But the fact of the matter is that the laws in each state provide for delegates to vote on the first ballot at least for the winner of the primary.
That will happen.
See, she was convinced she's on the verge of exposing Barr as a fraud.
He makes it plain to her exactly what's going on.
He's a cruise delegate, but on the first ballot, the Georgia delegation is voting for Trump because the popular vote in Georgia was won by Trump.
So he's making it clear.
But then she says, does that include you?
As though he's somehow going to worm away in to vote for Cruz even on the first.
Does that include you?
Does that include you?
And he's that you don't understand.
I'm trying to explain to you, yes, yes.
He said, you all may want to operate outside the law.
And then she, does it include you as well?
You're going to vote for Trump, right?
She's just convinced because all, not all, many of these Trump people think that what's going on is illegal.
And since Cruz lost Georgia, there's no way any delegate should be voting for Cruz ever at the convention.
Barr is a cruise delegate, and he's going to vote for Trump.
He has to because on the first ballot, but after that, which is where it broke down, and she doesn't, doesn't seem to understand it.
Here is the, here's the next bite.
In fact, you know what?
Go back because for the context, need to play these things back to back Friday.
So as soon as Soundbite 1 ends here, just continue to hit number two immediately.
Here they are in total.
It's a corrupt system, and I think a rigged system.
Congressman Barr, aren't you a delegate as well to the convention this year?
Yes, and I've already been getting nasty calls from your Trump supporters because of that.
Are you going as a Cruz delegate?
Sure, I am.
I'm a very strong supporter of Senator Cruz.
And that's the thing.
And who won the state of Georgia overwhelmingly?
Mr. Trump in the popular vote?
And the fact of the matter is that the Georgia delegation will vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot, which is according to the law.
Now, you have to go to the bottom of the status.
Y'all may right to operate outside of the law, but the fact of the matter is that the laws in each state provide for delegates to vote on the first ballot, at least, for the winner of the primary.
That will happen.
So that means you're actually going to vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot because that's what the police are.
No, you don't understand the process.
No, I do understand the problem.
I don't know.
I don't know if there's any problem with Mr. Trump.
I do understand the process.
You don't vote per se personally for a delegate.
It's the state delegation at large that does.
But after the first ballot, I intend to vote for Senator Cruz.
All right.
It was fascinating to watch because she's convinced that there's cheating going on.
She's convinced.
So she thought she was going to expose Barr there.
So you're a cruise delegate.
And even you, even you, you're going to vote for Trump?
And she expected him to say no.
No, I'm voting Cruz because I'm a cruise delegate.
And he kept saying, no, no, the delegation is going to vote for Trump, including me.
And the wind came out of her sails because she thought she was on the verge here of finally exposing what the Trump campaign has been alleging ever since Colorado.
Okay, it's Open Line Friday.
We head back to the phones now.
This is Patty Naugata, Connecticut.
Great to have you.
I'm really glad you waited.
And hello.
Oh, thank you so much for taking my call.
And I'm so glad I got in to talk to you about this because I've been observing the election, and my perception is this, sir.
I think this election, the strategy used against Senator Cruz has been by his opponents, have been one of three things.
And the first one actually is the composition of smear.
So this way we'd redefine his character.
We take away the character of him, and he's now lying Ted.
He is no longer trusted.
And they use this over and over again, and they keep repeating it.
And the second thing they do is they create faux perceptions.
Every single win that Senator Cruz has gotten has either been rigged or stolen.
And he creates this perception so that everything that Senator Cruz does, including the landslide victory that was used in the last election you talked about, that if you state something, the opponent is actually going to take away.
They actually had a landslide win.
But the perception now with the change of language has been the distortion, and actually we're going to lose with the shutdown.
The shutdown did not lead to loss.
It led to a landslide victory.
Senator Cruz's engineering of his ground game and his ear game and his plans for years should have been his brilliance, his intellect, and what he's going to do for us as a leader.
Instead, it's being that he stole it from us.
It diminishes the value of the win.
The third thing they do is induce fear.
Wait, wait, wait.
Just don't lose your place.
But who is they?
Okay, the they could be this.
First, this is Donald Trump.
He creates the smear.
He creates the faux perception.
And the third thing he does is he induces fear.
The Republican candidate or the Republican, Mr. Boehner, what he actually does is he's trying to smear him, but he's also trying to distort the perception that the shutdown led to loss.
And in fact, the shutdown led to victory because he stood up for his principles, for the people, and instead of losing, they won.
They just have to whisper the word shutdown, and they want the perception to be lose, when in fact, shutdown associated with principles and doing what the voters said you would do would invoke that the people would support you more.
Okay, so the they is Trump and a Republican establishment.
Yes, sir.
And the media.
They have to throw the media in with those two.
And the third thing that they do is induce fear.
Donald Trump uses this over and over again.
He's going to use Senator Cruz, and if they go to the election, he is convincing people by intimidation, talking about maybe riots in the street induced fear.
There's been discussion of calling delegates and threatening.
It induces fear to use the leverage to change people's votes.
So by inducing fear, again, we change votes.
So what we do is we smear, create faux perceptions, and intimidate to have the chosen out results.
This way, if we destroy Tenator Cruz's character, who has been principal, trusted, trust Ted, we diminish him that he's distorting, he's stealing things, that he's lying Ted.
We now have changed and redefined Senator Cruz.
Well, you're right about that, and it's profound the way it's been.
I mean, if there is anybody who is, you know, the phrase clean and pure as the wind-driven snow, it's Cruz.
Yes.
If there's anybody who is morally, I don't know why he used the word superior, but if there's look, an unquestioned character.
Yes.
And they have been in the proverbial day.
If you say a big enough lie over and over again.
So what would you do?
Look, this is what happens to conservatives, be it Cruz or if it's just Democrats versus Republicans, this is what they do to Republicans as well.
Yes.
So what?
Okay, so they've done it.
Now, what's Cruz's recourse, if you think he has one?
Point out the strategy, point out the plan, identify the factors, and use it to benefit yourself that he is not the liar.
In fact, he's being smeared to be a liar when, in fact, he isn't a liar.
He's actually trusted.
It's dice to think.
See, we're back to square one.
You want somebody to fight back against the smears, and he's not satisfactorily to you anyway.
And who, by the way, who owns that one?
Trump is now known as the fighter.
It's amazing.
I have one observation.
Back in a sec.
Hey, what a great call we just had.
You talk about a woman that was able to ABCD 1234 explain exactly what's happened to Ted Cruz.
But It's the same lament.
I mean, if it's not about Cruz, and in her case, it's accurate to say what has been done, the things that have been done to change the perception of Ted Cruz, but are not those the same things that are used to change the perception of Republicans at large outside of presidential races.
I mean, exactly what has been done to Cruz is exactly what the media and the Democrats do to Republicans every day, just in a normal, every political day sense, outside of this campaign.
And I don't know that anybody's come up with a response for it.
The Republicans clearly don't have a response for it.
That's why one of the many reasons why Trump is where he is, Trump.
Although, you know, you could argue whether or not there have been similar efforts to change the perception of Trump.
But he's been the guy that has actually taken it back to the media, taken it back to the Democrats in many ways, in ways that Republicans don't do.
And this is one of the primary reasons that Trump has the support that he does.
That's no revelation.
I'm sure you all know this.
But what's Cruz to do about it?
Everything the caller said is right.
Everything.
But for Cruz, and I asked her, so what's the recourse?
She said, Cruz has got to go out and start telling people that this is what's happened.
Well, I know that that's the instinctive thing to do, but actually think about that.
Envision a press conference this afternoon or tomorrow, whatever, with Ted Cruz detailing all of these things as a means of correcting the record, explaining who he really is.
How would it be perceived?
Yeah, it would be perceived as whining, but it would certainly make Cruz appear defensive about it.
And so the candidate can't do it.
In many cases, the target of this kind of attack can't do it.
But there has to be a way to do it.
Again, I use Trump as an example of how it's been done.
But Trump is not subject to the same litany of complaints that the media and the left throw at Republicans and conservatives day after day after day.
Trump's getting hit.
Don't misunderstand.
I'm not saying he's getting hit.
He's being criticized, but in different ways.
But what Trump does that, I mean, I'm just using this as an object lesson.
What Trump does is either get a head start on it, get out in front of it, or just fire back at the people who are going to hit him before they do or right after they do.
That seems to be his modus operandi.
You hit him and it's over.
He's going to come back at you with 10 times what you hit him with.
Now, the caller that we had, I don't know, this is going to get me in trouble here.
But that caller, imagine if that caller were on television every day as a Cruz surrogate.
Trump has his surrogates out there and Cruz has his too.
Imagine if that caller were out there every day doing that.
It would have some impact.
I don't know how overwhelming the success would be, but clearly it would have some impact.
But there have to be ways to refute these kinds of things.
Now, well, I don't know, Snurdley is saying, shouting in me in my ears, ad campaigns, ad campaigns.
Yeah, I guess.
They have to be well done and really, really, really well targeted.
It could end up being very expensive.
But I want to go back that's related to this to the point, and I kind of glossed over it or spoke quickly about it.
Campbell Brown, former NBC anchor, Today Show, reporter, anchor at CNN, who is now, I don't know what she's doing now.
Does she do documentaries?
She occasionally shows up, you know, once a quarter, does something, but she either wrote or was someplace and spoke of her massive disappointment in the media, the mainstream media, and how they have totally sold out to Trump and how they have just, they have squandered everything they are.
They have basically stopped being the media.
And she's right about a lot of things, and it is noteworthy because you know as well as I do, there are many, many Republicans and conservatives who hate, put it this way, who consider the media to be as big an opponent as any Democrat is.
We have two opponents.
We have a Democrat Party and the media, which is always on the Democrat side.
It's equivalent of having the referees in the game all on one side.
And we have two opponents on every issue, every day, everything that comes up.
And Campbell Brown likes that arrangement.
But what has happened in the Trump campaign, from cable networks to newspapers to internet websites, you name it, but primarily television was her focus.
By the media actually going wall to wall on Trump rallies, covering Trump rallies with no reporter, not reporting on the rallies, but just giving the whole hour or whatever it is, hour and a half to Trump, and then going back to the studio where anchors then discuss what they just saw and marvel at it and praise it here or there or question some of it.
But the point is that the media has ceased their primary objective of destroying Republicans when it comes to Trump.
And instead, they're propping him up.
And the reason they are doing it is media landscape is changing so fast.
It's becoming so compartmentalized.
It's becoming so niche that attracting massive big audiences anymore is not possible because there's just too much competition.
There are too many places people can go for news.
Their Facebook feed, for many people, is their primary news source, for example.
But you can now stream whatever you want on your phone or your iPad.
You can get news in any way, shape, matter, or for you.
The network television guys and the cable news guys don't own it anymore.
And as such, they've suffered massive audience erosion, Fox News excluded here, and massive financial drain.
And so what has happened, they have found gold in Trump.
Trump attracts and holds an audience like they can't.
Nobody will watch an hour of Wolf Blitzer, but if Wolf Blitzer is giving over his hour to Trump rally, they'll watch it.
And it's reflected in the ratings and it's reflected in advertising revenue.
But, and this is Campbell Brown's point, more importantly, the news media themselves love it because where they work now has audience again.
And so they now know that eyeballs are watching them and they're doing it.
It's happening because they're carrying Trump.
And so the beast feeds on itself.
And if Trump is the reason for, say, a cable news revival or a particular network revival, then more Trump is what we want.
And then more Trump after that.
And you can't, to continue the theory, you can't destroy the Trumpster.
You can't do anything because that destroys what has become your new cash cow.
That will destroy what has become the new magnet that you have that attracts eyeballs to your network that otherwise very few people watch anymore.
The traditional wisdom, conventional wisdom is that after conventions, when both parties have their nominees chosen, that the media will then revert to norm and become a 100% lapdog for the Democrat.
And some people are thinking, if Trump's the nominee, that's not going to happen this year.
And if it doesn't, it is monumental.
If during the general campaign, I guarantee you, with all of these polls that people are taking on Trump disapproval versus approval, Trump versus Hillary and this, Trump versus, nobody's factoring this media phenomenon into it.
What if, just as a little hypothetical game here, what if the media continues covering Trump the way they are now, if he's the nominee, what if they don't ever revert to the normal position of destroying the Republican nominee?
Because they can't, because they don't want to, because they're newly relevant again.
Their networks are earning money again.
Their networks and their shows have audience again.
Trump has become so important.
This explains why they'll let him phone into a Sunday show where everybody else has to show up on camera.
But Trump can phone in.
Whatever Trump wants, Trump gets.
Whenever Trump wants it, Trump gets.
And Campbell Brown's fear is that when the general election finally comes, this isn't going to change.
Because they like too much this Trump phenomenon.
They're benefiting from it way too much.
That they will not want Trump harmed.
That they will not want Trump destroyed.
Because in doing so, they will essentially end the Halcyon days that they are experiencing now.
And Campbell Brown, as a legitimate, quote-unquote, real journalist, is appalled by all this.
The way they ought to be doing this, Trump does a rally.
Then you have your reporter go on for a stand-up afterward to talk about what a reprobate SOB Trump was, how mean he is, how he insulted people.
Where's the reporting?
She's down.
Where's the reporting?
Where are our media people telling people what to think of what they just saw?
They're not doing it, she says.
We are not telling people what they should think of what they just saw with Trump doing.
We're letting Trump define it all.
We in the media are giving up too much power, she says.
We have the power to tell people what to think of what they just saw.
But when it comes to Trump, we're not doing that anymore.
We're letting Trump define it all.
She sees the end of media as everybody's known it.
Now, that's a little bit of exaggeration because of panic that has set in, but it is.
If it were to manifest itself that way in a general campaign, I guarantee you, nobody is factoring that kind of role for the media in whatever polling they're doing, general election matchup poll that they're doing.
But if the media, for example, is not on a daily basis telling their audience how rotten a guy Trump is, what a liar he is, how he hates women, what a racist he is, the usual things they say about Republicans.
If they're not doing that with Trump, well, then Hillary has lost over half of her arsenal.
Because the media is who shapes these perceptions of Republicans.
The Democrat candidates get to add on to it, but they don't have to take the lead.
The media has always done it.
Our caller talking about the perceptions that have been created of crews that are not true.
That's what the media does to Republicans in a normal political day.
But they're not doing it to Trump.
And if it continues, Hillary's going to have to do it herself.
So I think it's this, it just adds up to how much is unknown and therefore unpredictable about what the future holds.
And it's hard to believe that even Trump is going to, after decades and decades, redefine or neuter or forever change the role of media in politics.
But some of them fear it.
Some of the drive-by people deathly afraid that that is going to happen.
So it's interesting to factor it in.
Campbell Brown is married to Dan Senor, not Jay Carney.
That's Claire Shipman that's married to Jay Carney.
It's all incestuous there.
Dan Senor was the spokesman for Paul Bremer, who ran the green zone in Iraq after we had kicked Saddam out of the place way, way back in the early to mid 2000s.
Her piece ran in Politico, piece that I'm referencing here.
Folks, we are a weekend, and I've got a Hillary soundbite coming up.
You It'll amuse you.
The Hillary soundbite.
This is again on CEO with Wolf Blitzer.
And she's actually, it's from an interview she got coming up later with Jake Tapper.
And Tapper says, Donald Trump has had some rather personal and pointed tweets out there.
Have you learned anything from watching the way that Republicans dealt with him in primaries that will inform you how you will deal with such an unconventional candidate like Trump in the general election?
Well, you know, remember, I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation and the way they behave and how they speak.
I'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me.
What?
Say whatever he wants to say about me.
Is she revealing we have to take a break here?
Hillary Clinton says that she has a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation and the way they behave and how they speak.
She's the most cheated on woman in America.
And then she says she's not going to deal with their temper tantrums and their bullying.
Well, who is she talking about there that's gone off the reservation on her?
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