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 into 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 and the email address, LRushbow 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, Harvey's about Trump.
You talk about the Republicans about Obama and so forth.
Nothing's going to 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 the media being who they are, you ask why has conservatism continued to – I did ask a caller a question.
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.
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 – Republicans said they needed a house.
You gave it to them.
Then they said they needed a Senate and you gave it to them.
Do you feel like winners even after those two elections?
Probably not because you really didn't think the Republican Party was going to change their stripes and start acting on all this.
Yes.
And the media – I've tried explaining it any number of ways.
I'm going to try a different way here using a really clever analogy that a blogger came up with.
But I've got the sound bite I could play here for you 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 place on radio and TV where the Democrat Party agenda is advanced.
But it isn't media.
You need the White House press corps sitting there at a press briefing.
That's not – they're not newsgatherers there.
There really isn't any media.
And I mean – and yet people talk about the media as a co-equal branch.
When talking about Republicans, you know, Republicans have to overcome the media.
And then the Democrats – wait a minute.
Why should anybody have to overcome the media?
The media – there's newsgatherers.
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 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.
Jonah Goldberg wrote about this today.
And this is really a classic way to understand what I'm talking about, 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 Spades, whoever he is, has written numerous times about things that happen on this program and he gets it.
The guy is – it's almost like he's here 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 – He wrote a blog post about three years ago that was titled The MacGuffinization of American Politics.
Do you know what a MacGuffin is?
In a movie or a book, the MacGuffin 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 MacGuffin.
The Liam Neeson movie Taken, the MacGuffin 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 – different ways over the – for example, when it comes to – have you ever – the Democrats always set the – whatever the Democrats say they want, that's just what's going to 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 is going to 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.
But herein, folks, lies the answer of Trump's success.
In other words, 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 12?
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 to 1237 before the convention?
And if he doesn't, will they block it?
And that 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.
The 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 in the FBI and the Republicans?
Will they succeed?
There isn't any coverage of whether or not Hillary actually broke law.
The media is 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 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.
They know what Trump wants.
They're fascinated with the idea.
Can Trump really get this?
Because Trump, there's nothing professional about him.
He doesn'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 been 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 doesn'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 mean, they can 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, not being able to vote and all that, but it isn't going to 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 Mau jackets.
I mean, 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 Ace of Spades example that Jonah Goldberg remembered here, and 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 it, 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 it?
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.
He lied about it.
He lied to her grandeur.
And the story is Ken Starr is 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 held meant that he was going to get what he wanted.
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, not a prediction, but 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 miner's 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 summoned 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 miner's 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 MacGuffin.
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 or next, so hang in there.
Dick Cheney says he's going to vote for Trump.
Lindsey Gramnesty says he won't because he doesn't think Trump's a reliable conservative.
Lindsey Graham says, Trump, I may not vote.
I may not vote for the presidential race because Trump is not a reliable conservative.
Tom in Redding, 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 job yokeled named Cletus who lives up with the Hicks in the mountains.
I come from a middle-class background.
I'm a professor now.
We make good money.
We make six digits.
We've got three kids.
And I've never voted before.
Didn't vote for McCain.
Didn't vote for Browning just because I just didn't like the cloth they were cut out of.
But we are 100% voting for Trump.
We see him as Captain America.
We really don't care too much about the lack of quote-unquote death of his policies.
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 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 we teach here.
And one of the main reasons we're voting for Trump, besides just we like his personality and his hootslaw and all those kind of things.
But like I said, he's just, he's a great American.
He's Captain America.
And I mean, we look at things like, you know, if you take all the zeros on.
There it is.
Okay.
Make America great again.
You know, to a lot of people, well, that's jingle whistle.
That's nationalism.
That's cheap.
That's rank.
It's not a movement.
It tries to turn it up.
Yep.
Yeah, turn up to at least 800 decibels, folks.
Make sure you don't miss a single syllable.
Can you believe that it's already early May?
We had an a cold front go through here.
It was, what was it, 69?
67.
Well, you were at two degrees chillier out in the sticks.
It was 69 this morning.
By this time, it's usually 80 by 8 a.m.
It's lingering effects of El Nino.
Anyway, it's also helping to forestall or delay the perception that we're coming up on summertime May the 1st around here.
That marks the beginning of what we like to call tea season, 2F by tea season.
2F by Tea, that's our tea, folks.
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 books.
Rush Revere is the main spokesperson for 2F by Tea and basically a modern-day milkman.
And we always, at the beginning of tea season, put the stuff, I don't like to call it on sale.
We just reduced 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 in a few easy steps and be sent right to your door.
And people can't believe how quick the shipping is.
And the shipping, by the way, well, it's almost free, and in some cases it is.
2F by T, 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.
And over $2 million has been donated to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation in monetary and advertising donations since we began our sponsorship.
So tea season, 2FIT season, officially begins in honor.
We're offering very special discounts throughout the online store.
It's your time to stock up.
Folks, 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 want it.
Some people like vodka in there.
You never know.
It's multifaceted, multi-purposed.
You find it at rushrevere.com now.
Everything has been put under the Rush Revere umbrella.
2F by T 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, supplies vanish quickly.
So then the prices that you will see are good up until 11.59 p.m. Pacific tonight.
So that's basically 2.59 Eastern Time, 2.59 Saturday morning Eastern Time.
So 2FIT is now found at rushrevere.com and the all-American store.
Okay, back to the phones.
James and Richmond, great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Hey, Rush.
How are you doing?
Listen, 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 Brat, that was a major change that started this whole thing.
What do you mean?
Started what whole thing, do you mean?
I believe the way we feel that we're fed up with the Republicans in Washington, that we sent them there and they did nothing.
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 did it start?
Are you saying that was the first block to fall that led to Trump?
Are you saying that?
Well, I think it was the first incident that started, you know, what ended up with Trump.
The guy who was next in line for Speaker was defeated in a primary, but he said he would never be.
That's the thing.
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, $6 million 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.
I don't think they've yet gotten over that, to tell you the truth.
That began a shall we say, attitudinal bitterness at the establishment level.
Now, I don't know to what degree that has any impact here on Trump.
It might.
I mean, it's hard to take a single incident when there have been a whole lot of things happen, cumulatively, had a cumulative effect, impact on things.
Clearly, that was a shocker.
And when that happened, the establishment, you know, they, oh, yeah.
All right.
You think 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.
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 dittos.
I've been listening to you since the beginning, 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.
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 cannot find it.
It just rolled out of my mouth back in 1985 sometime.
I've been using that since I worked in Sacramento.
And I don't remember what it was that made me put plastic and banana together.
Something had to happen.
28 years of wondering and there's no answer?
Well, there's an answer.
I just can't recall what it is.
Okay.
Well, yeah.
Do you remember Snerdley?
That may have been the germination for it.
When I was growing up, 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 banana, it was all part of the alliteration of the phrase 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, you know, I ought to sit down somewhere, write down all these things that I have come with and come up with over the years so I don't forget it.
But I appreciate the call, Jim, very much.
Christopher in Richmond, Virginia, you're next on the EIB network.
Hi.
Hi, El Rush Boat.
How are you?
Just fine, sir.
Thanks much.
All-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.
First off, I should preface this by saying that I am a student at Liberty University and a Ted Cruz supporter, well, former supporter, but had supported him from the time he announced to the time that he dropped out.
And earlier in your monologues, 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 is incorrect.
I think that Republicans are upset 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.
Let me see if I understand this.
Your theory is that Trump is actually, for all intents and purposes, a Liberal Democrat.
I would say he's a rhino.
Pardon?
I would say he's a rhino, yes, sir.
He's a rhino.
Okay.
And so when they see Trump, they see just another Democrat.
Correct.
Well, then, if 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 to go on an analogy like this.
Wait, no, no, wait, wait, that whole breaks down that the Republicans don't think the country's being destroyed.
That's the breakdown here.
The Republicans, and 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 so much on what the Democrats are doing if they thought that.
I think that's the breakdown.
That's one of the many disconnects, actually.
But I get 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.
It's an interesting theory, but I don't quite think that's what's going on here.
You know, people have sent me emails.
You never did get to the Donald Trump Paul Ryan contra time.
That's right.
You're right.
You know why?
Because it isn't a priority with me.
I'm sorry.
I was going to get into it, but in the grand scheme of things, it's just another one of these.
Got to care about it, got to care about it.
I'm going to 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, 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 even an unforced error.
Trump is where he is precisely because he's not perceived as being part of that.
So if anybody's going to move here, it's, I mean, Trump's the nominee.
Figuratively, yet, if he hasn't got it locked down, but that's my thought on it.
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, Trump, this is another classic illustration.
Trump yesterday did an syncredomile outreach to Hispanics by eating a Taco Bowl.
And he's a picture of Trump with that typical devilish Trump smile with the Taco Bowl in front of him there, and he's eating a forkful of it.
And I'm reading all these people.
This is outrageous.
This Trump, this is silly.
Trump, Trump, Trump's insulting Hispanics.
Look at Taco Bowl.
Ain't that how you think you get to Hispanics?
And Trump's putting everybody on Trump's.
It's typical Trump.
And everybody takes it so seriously and thinks, 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 going to win in the lens.
Oh, my God, we're doomed.
Even Vicente Fox, who apologized to Trump earlier this week, said this.
I got a salute to Senior Trump.
Not paying for that Walt Trump.
Mexican food at Trump Tower.
That's a fake.
That is not true Mexican food.
He will get indigestible.
He's crying out like the TMZ website.
Vicente Fox not paying for that Walt Trump Mexican food at Trump Tower.
That's a fake.
It's not true Mexican food.
You'll get it in Justin Trump.
But he wasn't finished.
Passionate.
Compassionate.
Committed.
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 hand, but she also has a compassionate heart.
Can you guys understand what he's saying?
She's experienced, and she will be a great president.
All right, that's enough.
That's enough.
It all sounds like noise.
I can barely hear him.
I'd have a transcript.
I wouldn't know what he's saying.
But he basically, Trump's insulting people with taco bowls, not even real Mexican food.
Trump, fool and meet Trump.
He was so mad, he endorsed Hillary.
Passionate, compassionate, committed, intelligent leadership.
That's what we need for the United States.
That's what we need for the world.
That's why, like, Hillary Clinton, she's the iron lady.
Well, testicle lockbox is made out of iron, I guess.
And that's about it.
Yeah, we're going to be back here Monday, of course.
Have a good weekend, folks.
And we will.
And 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