All Episodes
Previous Next
May 6, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
34:15
May 6, 2016, Friday, Hour #3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Hi, folks, we're back.
As I say, Rush Limbaugh, executing assigned host duties flawlessly, zero mistakes.
It is Friday.
We want to kick it in the gear.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Open line Friday where you get to query, interrogate, comment on anything you choose.
Kind of surprised.
You haven't had any phone calls today.
Well.
No, I'm not really.
It's gone as I expected.
800 282-2882 if you want to be on the program in the email address, L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
So I checked the emails during the break.
Like clockwork.
Enough of them on the same theme that I could summarize them.
Rush, whatever you're talking about here, how are you talking about Trump, you talk about the Republicans about Obama and so forth, it's you nothing's gonna change with the media the way it is.
And all of it is academic, Rush.
You know it, you just don't remind us enough of it.
But if the media being who they are, you know, you ask why why has conservatism continued to I did ask a caller a question with you know it seems like 1988 and going forward there was more and more conservatism available in the media.
But that conservative presence in the media has not been reflected.
Uh ex well, maybe the midterm elections, 2010, 2014.
But even then, folks, let me ask you a question about that.
You voted in 2010, 2014.
You're part of the Tea Party, and you show up and you just you Republicans said they needed a house, you gave it to them.
Then they said they needed Senate, and you gave it to them.
Do you feel like winners even after those two elections?
Probably not, because you you you really didn't think the Republican Party was going to change their stripes and start acting on all this.
Uh and the media, I I've I've tried explaining it any number of ways.
I'm going to try a different way here using a really uh clever analogy that a blogger came up with.
But I've got the soundbot I could play here for you if I if I wanted to take the time.
Essentially, there is no media, folks.
There just isn't any media in the sense that there are reporters out there uncovering things you and I don't know and telling us what they are.
I mean, that's what the news is.
You turn on the news every night, whatever you watch, and you're expecting to see things that you didn't know happened.
And that's not what it is.
That's why we began calling it the Daily Soap Opera.
Or it's just the uh place on radio and TV where the Democrat Party agenda is advanced, but it isn't media.
You give the White House press corps sitting there at a press briefing.
That's not, they're not news gatherers there.
There really isn't any media.
And I I mean, and yet people talk about the media as a co-equal branch when talking about Republicans and you know, Republicans have to overcome the media, and then uh the Democrats.
Wait a minute.
Why should anybody have to overcome the media?
The media, there's just news gatherers.
Why in the world are the media a factor?
Well, of course they are a factor, and the reason is they're not media.
They happen to pretend or portray people running around finding out things nobody else knows and telling everybody, but that's not what they do.
You don't need 70 people at a White House press conference to tell people what happened there.
You need a camera, and maybe a couple reporters, and that's it.
And meet with the camera, you might even not need the reporters.
But you see, media can't trust you to watch Obama without them telling you what you just saw and analyzing it.
Look, Jonah Goldberg wrote about this today, and this is the this is really a classic way to understand what I'm talking about with the daily soap opera rather than media.
There's a blogger out there by the name of Ace of Spades, and this guy is good.
The Ace of Spage, Whoever he is, uh, has written numerous times about things that happen on this program, and he gets it.
The guy is uh he's it's almost like he's here when he when he starts commenting on things, controversial things he's able to identify.
For example, when the media gets exercised over something I say that they find righteously indignant, he understands it was a joke and that they have no sensitivity whatsoever.
But here's the point.
And Jonah Goldberg reminds us of this.
He wrote a blog post about three years ago that was titled The McGuffinization of American Politics.
Do you know what a McGuffin is?
In a movie or a book, the McGuffin is the thing the hero wants.
So in the Maltese Falcon, for example, the hero wants the Maltese Falcon.
But there's always somebody trying to stop the hero from getting what he wants.
There's always a villain in every book, in every movie, every story, you have the hero and what he wants.
And that is the McGuffin.
The Liam Neeson movie taken.
The McGuffin is his daughter.
His daughter's taken by terrorists, he wants her back.
The villains, the terrorists don't want him to get her back.
The whole thing is about who's going to get the MacGuffin.
And the piece that this ace of spades blog wrote about is that that's how the media covers Obama.
And I have observed this in my uh different ways over the have you have, for example, when it comes to have you ever the Democrats always set the agenda.
Whatever the Democrats say they want, that's just what's gonna happen.
There's no questioning the policy.
Did the media ever question anything about Obamacare, the intricate do's and don'ts, the policy cogs up?
No, no, no, just Obama wanted it.
What every issue, the coverage of Obama is, will he get?
How will he look?
Does this help or does this hurt Obama?
There's never any questioning of what he wants in terms of is it good, bad for the country or not?
It's just, hey, Obama's the hero and he wants Obamacare, and so the coverage is totally devoted to whether or not Obama's gonna get it.
Now, in that scenario, who are the villains?
Well, your good old, reliable Republicans are the villains.
And they are always portrayed as the people trying to deny our beloved hero what he wants.
Ace of Spades says that this became clear to him in a revelation one night.
He was watching Chris Matthews interview Obama, and he didn't get one question.
He didn't ask Obama one question about how Obamacare works.
Every question was one degree or another.
How do you feel about Boehner opposing it?
How do you feel about what will make you happy?
Do you think you can get it?
What it was was irrelevant.
The details of what Obama was going to do to the American health care system didn't matter.
All that mattered was whether or not Obama was going to get it.
If somebody comes up and says Obama was born in Kenya, the story becomes will Obama succeed in refuting this charge, and then can we make these villains making the charge look like reprobates?
No examination of the allegation, no examination of the issues.
No examination.
So but here in, folks, lies the answer of Trump's success.
In other words, the the media covers things as stories that you would read about in a book or watch in a movie or a television show.
And in this case, in the Republican primary, Trump was not the villain.
Trump wanted the nomination.
And all these other Republicans and their supporters didn't want Trump to Have the nomination.
So who became the villains?
And what Trump wanted became the story.
Will he get it?
Will Trump get the 12th?
And did not Ted Cruz become a villain in the middle of this by virtue of trying to stop the hero by getting delegates at all of the state conventions.
Everything Cruz was doing was legal.
It was above board, but it was portrayed as Cruz is the villain, and here's Trump and what he wants, and will he get it?
Will he get the 1237 before the convention?
And if he doesn't, will they block it?
And that's became the news.
And therefore, the substance of Trump policies never got covered because it wasn't what interested the media.
So, going forward, which story will the media find more interesting?
Trump's or Hillary's?
Does Hillary even have a story?
Does anybody even care?
Hillary has a resume.
What is the story in Hillary's resume?
Four dead in Benghazi, illegal emails, trafficking in classified information.
Media hasn't gone there on that yet, because when covering that aspect of Hillary minus Trump, the story is the same.
Will Hillary survive?
Or will the villains call me and the FBI and the Republicans?
Will they succeed?
There isn't any coverage of whether or not Hillary actually broke law.
Media's not interested in whether or not she actually trafficked in classified data.
The story is whether or not the villains, in the eyes of the media, will win or can be stopped.
But when you when you change the dynamic and make it Trump versus Hillary, well, we already know the media has already once gotten caught up and captured and totally engrossed in the Trump story.
Because they don't know how it's going to end day to day.
They don't know how it's going to end minute to minute.
But they know what Trump wants.
They're fascinated with the idea.
Can Trump really get this?
Because Trump's nothing professional about him.
He didn't have a speechwriter, doesn't have a teleprompter, he doesn't have a pollster, he doesn't have a consultant, he doesn't have campaign staff, he hasn't ran fundraising, he hasn't done anything you're supposed to do.
And look what he's doing.
They are fascinated.
Now, when you get down to Trump versus Hillary, how's this going to manifest itself in the media?
Nobody knows.
But Hillary doesn't have a fascinating story to get behind.
She didn't have a fascinating story to tell.
The only thing about Hillary is, you know, first female president, that's it.
And that's nowhere near, by the way, as powerful or penetrating as the first African American president.
I mean, women, yeah, I may make it make the case that they've been victimized, but they can't put themselves in the same shoe as with the slavery legacy, for example.
Now, women might try to make the case, Hillary might try to make the case and not being able to vote and all that, but it isn't gonna fly.
So the whole idea of the first female president, not nearly as momentous or exciting as the first African American.
So you take that away from Hillary, what's her story?
What is fascinating?
What's interesting about Hillary?
Coughing fits, the lump in her throat, that she has to cover with the Mao jackets.
What's her story?
She's been there done that.
Bill, yeah, what role will Bill have?
Yeah, that'll excite the media.
What role will Bill have?
Versus the Trump story.
But in all of this, the key to remember is that we're not talking about media.
And I mean, the the Ace of Spades example that Jonah Goldberg remembered here, and I that made me remember too, is that Chris Matthews' interview with Obama during the run-up to Obamacare, not one question about it.
And when you stop him, there never is.
The Democrat, the media never questions the substance of anything the Democrats do.
The coverage is always will they get it?
Will they get what they want?
And really, it's even worse than that.
It's not will they get it?
How soon will they get it?
And what are the villains going to try to stop them from getting?
And the villains get more villainous, and the villains get bigger and the villains get meaner.
Ken Starr became a sex pervert villain in the Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky story.
People were scratching their heads.
How in the hell can this happen?
You have a president who's out there fornicating Siemens on the dress to prove it with a 19-year-old intern who lied about it.
He lied to a grand jury, and the story is Ken Starr's the sex pervert.
Well, that's how it happens.
The McGuffin in that instance was Clinton staying in office.
That's what he wanted.
And the media was hell-bented.
Ken Starr wasn't.
So how the media covers Trump Hillary, who knows yet how it's going to manifest itself, but I guarantee a lot of people are thinking.
And I made the prediction, well, not a prediction, but I I I said, folks, it's entirely possible that the media will continue to be sort of hands-off on Trump.
Let me put it to you this way.
Any Republican other than Trump in this primary season, who had uttered even one of his insults or gaps, would have been gone.
He survived all of them.
Now there are many reasons why.
One primary reason his supporters didn't care.
And in fact, and frustratingly so, his supporters ate it up.
His supporters loved it.
That's another thing the never Trumpers can't figure out and despise.
But the media did too.
Media was fascinated.
Trump was ravings.
He was money, still is.
He was good copy.
The guy, he does improv.
He doesn't do stump speeches.
He does appearances like thing in West Virginia last night.
He puts a miners hat on.
You know what the story was last night, by the way, on that?
I kid you not.
I read it, if I read it once a day, last night I read it three places.
The media summon it were concerned, or hoping that Trump would have helmet hair when he took the helmet off.
They were hoping that he had so much hairspray on that the miners' helmet he was wearing would leave an indentation in his hair.
That was actually a subject in some of the stories I read.
So the McGuffin.
No media.
There isn't any news.
The media traditionally is simply an arm of the Democrat Party that is used in service of advancing the Democrat Party agenda.
And the Republicans haven't come up with a way of having a more engaging, entertaining story.
Because the Republican story is never anything other than we don't want Democrat X to have what he wants.
That's it.
The Republicans have never had in their story, conservatives either have never had, I'm talking about this in media context now.
They've never had an agenda or a story that the media would like them to have.
The Republicans are never anything but villains.
Whatever the Democrats want, yeah, they should get it.
We're for it.
No, no, I'm just saying there may be ways of unlocking this deadlock here and the way the media covers people, Republicans and Democrats, and there may be a way for Republicans to change it around.
Trump may be showing how it's done, but I run great risks in saying that.
Anyway, I take a break here, folks.
We'll get back in.
Your calls are next, so hang in there.
Dick Cheney says he's going to vote for Trump.
Lindsay Gramnesty says he won't because he doesn't think Trump's a reliable conservative.
Lindsey Graham says, Trump, I'm not, I may not vote.
I may not vote for the presidential race because Trump is not a reliable conservative.
Tom in Reading, California.
Welcome, sir.
I'm glad you waited.
Hi.
Greetings from the land of fruits and nuts, sunny California.
That's great to have you here.
That was my little kid.
She said I love you.
I thank you very much.
Hey.
Look, I'm not some slack child yokel named Cletus who lives up with the hecks in the mountains.
Uh come from a middle class background.
I'm a professor now.
We make good money.
Make six digits.
We've got three kids.
And I've never voted before.
Didn't vote for McKean.
Didn't vote for Ronnie just because I just didn't like the cloth they were cut out of.
But we're 100% voting for Trump.
Um We see him as Captain America.
We uh really don't care too much about the lack of quote unquote deaths of his policies.
Uh Tom, where do you teach?
You live in Reading.
Where do you teach?
I teach at a small school called Shasta Bible College.
Oh, yeah, okay.
And you've got you got two degrees, did you say?
Yeah, I got two degrees.
I studied in Jerusalem and then came back to the States, and my family lives here and and we teach here.
And uh we one of the main reasons we're voting for Trump, besides just we like his personality and his hooksaw and all those kind of things, but like I said, he's just he's the he's a great American, Captain America.
And some I mean, we look at things like you know, the if you take all the zeros on.
There it is.
I okay, make America great again.
You know, to a lot of people.
Well, that's that's jingleistic, that's nationalism, that's that's cheap, that's rank, it's not a movement.
Turn it up.
Yep.
Yeah, turn it up to at least 800 decibels, folks.
Make sure you don't miss a single syllable.
Can you believe that it's it's already early May?
We had on a coal front go through here.
It was what was it, 69 67.
Well, we're uh you're you're at two degrees chili or out in the sticks.
It was sixty-nine this morning.
By this time, it's usually eighty by eight a.m.
It's it's it's lingering effects of El Nino.
But anyway, it's also helping to forestall or delay the perception that we're coming up on summertime.
Uh May the first around here.
That marks the beginning of what we like to call tea season, two if by tea season.
Two if by tea, that's our tea, folks.
It's it's absolutely the best-tasting patriotic iced tea in America.
It's manufactured right here in the U.S., manufactured by proud Americans, delivered right to your doorstep and Rush Revere, the star of all the Rush Revere time travel adventures with exceptional Americans uh books.
Rush Revere is the main spokesperson for two of my tea.
And uh basically a modern day milkman.
And we always at the beginning of tea season put the stuff uh, I don't like to call it on sale.
We just reduce the price to make it even more affordable for people.
And that's what we're doing here.
All you have to do is go online to the all-American store, purchase the best iced tea in America, and a few easy steps will be sent right to your door, and people can't believe how quick the shipping is.
Uh and the shipping, by the way, well, it's almost free, and in some cases it is.
Uh two if by tea, we proudly sponsor the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.
Iconic photo of Iwo Jima is on every single label to remind us all of the sacrifices made by our precious United States military.
You know, over two million dollars have been donated to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation uh in monetary and advertising donations since we um since we began our sponsorship.
So tea season, two of my tea season officially begins in honor.
We're offering very special discounts throughout the online store.
It's your time to stock up.
Folk, the tea is delicious.
We have some of the best flavored iced tea.
I'm not kidding, that you will find anywhere.
And we sell it on the internet direct to you.
You can serve it, Memorial Day Barbecue, any other celebration, or just any time that you wanted.
Some people like Vladki in there.
You never know.
It's it it's multifaceted, multi-purposed.
You find it at RushRevere.com now.
Everything has been put under the Rush Revere Umbrella.
Two if by T uh is now at RushRevere.com.
Click on the All American store, and that's where you will find it.
And by the way, every year when we do this, uh supplies vanish quickly.
So then the prices that you will see are good up until eleven fifty-nine p.m. Pacific tonight.
So that's basically two fifty-nine Eastern time, two fifty-nine Saturday morning Eastern time.
So two of my tea is now found at Rush Revere dot com and the All American Store.
Okay, back to the phones.
James in Richmond, great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Hey Rush, how are you doing?
Listen, um Trump may have rearranged the party recently, but it all started with Eric Cantor.
I live in his district, and when we threw him out and elected Bratt, uh that was a major change that started this whole thing.
What do you started started what whole thing do you mean?
I believe the the the way we show that we're fed up with the Republicans in Washington, that we sent them there and they did nothing.
They've they've really done nothing.
They haven't gone up against the press, they haven't gone up against Obama.
No, no, I get that.
But I mean, what what did it start?
Are you saying that was the first block default that led to Trump?
Are you saying that No, I think it was the first incident uh that started, you know, what ended up with Trump.
That uh the guy who was next in line for speaker was defeated in a primary, but it would never be.
That's the thing.
That I'll tell you, you know, you're right about that.
That was momentous from the establishment perspective.
They could not believe it.
Eric Cantor had raised what?
My memory says six million dollars or something for his race.
And he was.
He was next in line to be speaker, and the establishment thought that Cantor's district voters were impressed by that, that that was the kind of thing that voters voted on.
That mattered that their guy, that their representative, their member of Congress, he was going to be speaker someday.
And he was dispatched.
They I don't think they've yet gotten over that, to tell you the truth.
That that began a um shall we say attitudinal bitterness at the at the establishment level.
Now, I don't know to what degree that has uh uh any impact here on Trump.
It might.
I mean, I it's hard to take a single incident uh when there have been a whole lot of things happened, cumulatively had a cumulative effect impact on things.
But clearly that was a shocker.
And when that happened, the establishment, you know, they they oh yeah.
All right, you think you they refused to get that message.
They fought back against the message.
I mean, their attitude was, oh yeah, you think you voters well we'll show you.
I mean, there was no way that the establishment was going to quote learn any lesson from that.
Uh unquote.
Here's Jim in Dallas, Georgia.
Great to have you next on the EIB network.
Hello, sir.
Hi, Rush.
How are you doing?
I'm good.
I'm good, thank you.
28-year ditto.
I've been listening to you since the beginning, uh, August 1988, and you've got a phrase.
This is a perfect open line Friday call, by the way, because I'm not going to talk politics.
You've got a phrase you've been using forever.
Um, phony baloney, plastic banana, good time rock and roll.
Right.
Where on earth does the term plastic banana come from?
I don't know.
I've Googled it.
I can't find it.
It just rolled out of my mouth back in 1985 sometime.
I've been using that since since uh since I worked in Sacramento.
And I I I don't remember what it was that made me put plastic and banana together.
Something had to be.
Well, there's an answer.
I just can't recall what it is.
Uh okay.
Well, yeah.
Do you remember Snerdley?
That may have been the germination for it.
When I was growing up, um we had all these plastic fruit displays, you know, the artificial fruit in a basket that you put on the table, and it was designed to look like you had real fruit there, except that you didn't.
And you know, it was all plastic.
So I mean, there were plastic bananas, and there were plastic apples.
Uh-huh.
But plastic plastic banana, it was all part of the alliteration of the of the phrase.
Uh that made it attractive.
It's just one of those things.
It just rolled off one day, and I said, Wow, that sounded cool.
And I endeavored to try to remember it.
I had a lot of those great phrases that I uh you know, I ought to sit down somewhere, write down all these things that I have come with and and come up with over the years so I don't forget them.
But I appreciate the call.
Jim very much, Christopher in Richmond, Virginia.
You're next on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi, L.R.S. Both.
How are you?
Just fine, sir.
Thanks much.
Long time listener, first time caller.
I wanted to comment on something you said in your opening monologue, and had a life-changing question to get your help on.
Sure.
Uh first off, I want I should preface this by saying that I am a student at Liberty University and a uh Ted Cruz supporter, well, former supporter, but had supported him from the time he and M to the time that he dropped out.
And earlier in your monologue, you had made the premise that why aren't Republicans as upset over the last seven, eight years of Obama as they are over Donald Trump's candidacy.
But I think that the premise isn't is is incorrect.
I think that Republicans are upset, but at what Obama has done, but when they see Donald Trump, they see the same type of policies that are being are going to be enacted in their own party.
So it creates some panic.
Wait.
Mais if I understand this, your theory is that Trump is actually uh for all intents and purposes a liberal democrat.
And they're I would say he's a rhino.
Pardon?
I I would say he's a rhino, yes, sir.
He's a rhino.
Okay.
And so the they when they see Trump, they see just another Democrat.
Correct.
Well, then if they're getting if that they have the capacity to get mad at a Democrat, why is it only Trump that they get mad at?
Because I think they see it in their party.
Like when the Democrats are doing it, they say, well, the Democrats are destroying their own party or destroying the country, and they can point blame at the Democrats.
But when it's in their own party, it's it's to go on an analogy like that.
Wait, no, no, wait, wait, you that whole breaks down that the Republicans don't think the country's being destroyed.
That's that's the the breakdown here.
The the Republicans in nobody in Washington agrees with people not in Washington that we have a crisis here.
They don't think that.
They don't think the Democrats are destroying the country.
I mean, they wouldn't agree with so much of what the Democrats are doing if they thought that.
That's I think that's the breakdown.
That's one of the many disconnects, actually.
But I get the your your premise is the reason that they get so mad at Trump is because he's a rhino and he's exposing him.
And that's what they're mad at.
It's an interesting theory, but I don't quite think that's what's going on here.
You know, people have uh sent me emails.
You never did get to the Donald Trump Paul Ryan contra time.
That's right.
You're right.
I you know why?
Because it isn't a priority with me.
I'm sorry.
I I I was gonna get into it, but it it in the grand scheme of things, it's just another one of these gotta care about, gotta care about it, gotta ri I'm I'm gonna tell you everything you need to know about it.
Basically, what it is is Ryan won't endorse Trump yet.
Trump comes back and says, Well, uh I forget what Trump said, but it was a typical Trump response.
I'll just tell you this.
This is all you need to know.
If Trump, in order to get Ryan's support, moves toward the Republican agenda, it's not good for Trump.
That would be an error.
It would be maybe an even an unforced error.
Uh Trump is where he is precisely because he's not perceived as being part of that.
So if anybody's gonna move here, it's I mean, Trump's the nominee.
Figuredly, yeah, he hasn't got it locked down, but that's my thought on it.
That that if there's compromise here, it better be not Trump moving to Ryan.
I know that's blasphemy to some, but I'm sorry it is what it is.
You know what Trump, this is another classic illustration.
Trump yesterday didn't synchromile outreach to Hispanics by eating a taco bowl.
And these uh picture of Trump with that typical devilish Trump smile with the taco ball in front of him there, and he's eating a fork full of it.
And I'm reading all these people.
This is outrageous!
Trump, this is silly Trump, Trump, what Trump, Trump's insulting Hispanics!
Look at Taco Bowl!
Is that how you think you get to Hispanic?
And Trump's putting everybody on Trump's it's typical Trump.
And everybody takes it so seriously, and think, oh my god, this guy doesn't have any sense.
He's got no sensibilities.
He's insulting Hispanics by telling them he loves them by eating a taco bowl.
Oh my god, this guy's so stupid.
Hillary's gonna win in the lands.
Oh my god, we're doomed.
Even Vicente Fox, who apologized to Trump earlier this week, said this.
I have a salute to Senor Trump.
Not paying for that word, Trump.
Mexican food, that Trump power.
That's a fake.
That is not true, Mexican food.
He will get indigestion.
Vicente Fox.
Not paying for that wall, Trump, Mexican food at Trump told us a fake.
It's not true, Mexican food.
You'll get an adjusting Trump.
But he wasn't finished.
Passionate.
Compassionate.
Intelligent leadership.
That's what we need for humanity's case.
And that's what we need for the world.
That's why I like Hillary Clinton.
She's an idle lady.
She has a firm kind.
But she also has a compassionate card.
Can you guys understand what he's saying?
Okay.
She's experienced.
And she will be a great president.
Alright, that's enough.
That's enough.
It all sounds like noise.
I can barely hear him, but I'd have a transcript.
I wouldn't know what he's saying.
But he basically, he uh Trump's insulting people with taco bowls, not even real Mexican food, Trump, fooling meat Trump.
He was so mad, he endorsed Hillary.
Passionate, compassionate, committed, intelligent leadership.
That's what we need for United States, and that's what we need for the world.
That's why like Hillary Clinton, she's the iron lady.
Well, testicle lock box is made out of iron.
I guess.
And that's about it.
Yeah, we're gonna be back here Monday, of course.
Have a good weekend, folks.
And we will.
Right back here behind the golden EIB microphone to serve humanity yet again on Monday.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Look forward to it as well.
So have a great weekend, folks.
▲
Export Selection