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July 21, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:23
July 21, 2016, Thursday, Hour #2
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Now look, here's another thing folks to not forget.
We're going to go back here and analyze Trump versus Cruz in the Battle of the Wives.
Who got that started?
You remember?
And what did they do?
That's right, at Cruz Super PAC.
And of course, the candidates are not allowed any contact with the Super PACs at all.
Never.
It doesn't happen.
At Ted Cruz Super PAC published photos of a scantily clad Melania Knauss, which she was a model back there before she'd become, maybe even after she had married the Trumpster.
And so that page got flipped by the, you could say the Cruz campaign, even the Super PAC is not related, not officially associated with the campaign.
It was after that Trump himself opened fire on Heidi Cruz and Goldman Sachs and whatever else it all was.
Greetings and great to have you here with us, folks, as we roll on on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Rush Limbaugh here at 800-282-2882 and the email address at lrushmo at EIBnet.com.
I just got an email with a question.
Do you think that the Republican establishment will now like Ted Cruz any more than they did?
It's an interesting question.
The Republican establishment despised Ted Cruz for a host of reasons, not least of which was his personal attack on the Florida Senate, Mitch McConnell.
They blamed Cruz for engineering a worthless government shutdown over Obamacare in 2013.
They really hated Cruz.
They just despised Cruz.
But some of the GOP establishment hates Trump, hated Trump, don't like Trump at all.
And here came Cruz last night for all intents and purposes.
Cruz said, I've never said a critical word of Donald Trump, and I'm not going to say a critical word, but by not endorsing Trump and uttering words that made it sound like he'd be fine if people didn't vote for Trump, will that make the Republican establishment soften on Cruz and like him again, whereas they had previously grown to dislike him intensely?
Well, if not, if this does not cause the GOP establishment to soften on Cruz, so he would at this point be despised by the GOP establishment and gave more ammo.
One of the things about the establishment, you could tell last night, and I knew this was going to be, can I take you back to my appearance with Chris Wallace sometime back this spring?
It was on Fox News Sunday.
He asked me what I thought was going to happen with all this.
And I said, my best guess is, and what I hope, that by the time all this ends at the convention, we move on, that there's going to be, for the most part, unity, and everybody will focus on what needs to happen here and beat Hillary Clinton.
And for the most part, that happened.
You have some never-Trump outliers out there, but many of them are not in the convention hall last night.
You have some never-Trump outliers in the media, in the conservative media, and you have some never-Trump outliers in elected office in the Senate and in the House.
But for the most part, one of the reasons people got mad at Cruz last night is because despite the fact that you can't plug Trump and his campaign into the usual playbook of presidential campaigns and conventions, the one thing that is universal in terms of almost the necessity to win the White House Party unity, and they were on the way last night.
I mean, they, in fact, I actually think, as I said an hour ago, I think what Cruz did last night has actually hastened the unification behind Trump, particularly among GOP establishment people who were going to hold out.
But they saw what not unifying looks like last night, and they don't want to be in the same class as Ted Cruz.
They don't want to be in the same room.
They don't want to be thought of in the same way.
They actually saw last night the people who didn't want to unify behind Trump.
They saw what it looks like When the vast majority of Republican voters and convention delegates think that you're not unifying, it's not a pretty sight.
So I think I don't think this is going to lessen the establishment's resentment of Cruz much at all.
And in addition to that, I can tell by calls that we've had, calls that are on hold, emails I've had, a lot of Cruz supporters are disappointed.
I mean, Cruz has a lot of people that are devoted to him, and many of them, not all, but many of them wanted him to just follow the script.
You know, do what you have to do here and get ready for your next turn.
Get ready for 2020.
And join the effort to beat Hillary Clinton.
All of this is academic if Hillary Clinton does not lose the election.
If she wins this election, all this is nothing more than an academic discussion.
You know, talking about who's going to be up in 2020, you talk about the epitome of selfishness.
That's four years from now.
We don't want those four years to make 2020 important to somebody who's not an incumbent.
That's not what we're angling for here.
I don't think anybody is.
Now, I don't know what contingent of GOP establishment who six months ago, three months ago were publicly saying, and some of them for attribution, that they would vote Hillary.
I don't think that's going to happen.
I think they said it.
I think they probably meant it when they said it.
But I think when the rubber hits the road, they're not going to.
And they're certainly not going to be out there actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Republican, Republican establishment types.
So the unification is something that I think actually was hastened last night by what Cruz did, but he remains ostracized.
And he did further damage to himself by putting distance between him and some of his supporters who really did want him to follow the playbook, endorse Trump, and then vanish and let Trump sink or swim, maybe do a couple of campaign appearances or whatever.
But don't tie yourself to Trump.
Don't link your success to his.
Don't do any of that.
But certainly appear to be a party guy.
Appear to be unified in the singular cause here of defeating the Democrats.
And that's the case he didn't make last night.
You know, vote your conscience is one thing.
But that I thought was the maybe the biggest mistake, even not endorsing the non-endorsement, the bigger mistake that Cruz made.
He explained that freedom's under assault.
He explained it as well as anybody has.
But he didn't close the loop.
He didn't make clear the difference a Clinton and Trump presidency would make to freedom itself and to the Constitution.
And I think that was a mistake.
think his supporters one of the reasons they love ted cruz is they don't want hillary clinton and they want her defeated
and i know he had some words for hillary last night but at the at the moment that he's talking about freedom and its importance and how it was under assault uh he just he just couldn't bring himself to promote trump as a as an agent to defend and protect freedom
So he's actually angered the GOP establishment probably even more.
He's disappointed his supporters, a lot of them, who wanted him to follow the playbook and then do what he has to do to stay viable in the Senate for a 2020 rerun.
But now every branch there is in the Republican Party is loaded for bear against Cruz, and his gamble is that his revival or resuscitation now relies on Trump being defeated.
What a gamble that is.
Back to the audio sound bites.
What are we up to next?
We have, let's see, let's stick with Cruz.
This is in Cleveland.
This is at the Texas delegation breakfast.
After he had explained in detail what he did last night, he stood there for Q ⁇ A from people at the breakfast of Texas delegates.
And a woman said, I supported you, and we're family.
We can agree to disagree, and that's okay, but you signed a pledge that you said you would support the party nominee.
As a girl, my mother and father said that your word is your bond.
Oh, she plagiarized Michelle.
Did you see that?
That Texas delegate has plagiarized Michelle Obama.
Wait till the media hears about this.
As a girl, my mother and father said that your word is your bond.
And if you didn't believe that you were going to do it at the time, then you shouldn't have made the promise because your word is your bond.
And I supported you too, and I expect you to keep your word and say that your word is your bond.
I'll tell you the day that pledge was abrogated.
The day that was abrogated was the day this became personal.
I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.
And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I'm going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father.
And with that, we found out why everything that happened last night happened.
That we just lifted the lid off of all of it.
And every explanation prior to that was not really quite there.
That explains everything right there.
A grudge, a remaining anger, lingering anger over Trump's insulting and character assault on his wife and his father.
And the Texas delegation was applauding that when he got revved up on that.
So a supporter tried to explain to him why the answer you just heard was idiotic.
It is not about Ted Cruz or Heidi Cruz or Rafael Cruz, it is about the United States.
Ma'am, I agree with you emphatically.
It is about the United States.
What I said last night is what I believe is the only path to saving this country.
And it is not simply blindly chanting a name and yelling down dissenters.
Ooh, blindly chanting a name.
Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.
That's not the answer to our problems, he says, and shouting down dissenters.
Well, well, yeah.
Well, let's go back to March the 3rd in Detroit.
This is live on the Fox News channel, a Republican presidential debate.
Brett Baer and Ted Cruz.
Senator Cruz, yes or no?
You will support Donald Trump if he's the nominee?
Yes, because I gave my word that I would.
And then what I have endeavored to do every day in the Senate is do what I said I would do.
March 3rd is when Senator Cruz affirmed the pledge that he had made previous August.
I've forgotten when it was that Trump came out and said he had seen a picture.
Somebody that looks like Raphael Cruz passing out pamphlets with Lee Harvey Oswald before JFK was shot.
That must have happened after March the 3rd.
Let's go back even further to the grooveyard of forgotten hits, audio soundbites.
This is August 12, 1980 in New York City at the Democrat National Convention.
And Teddy Kennedy.
I congratulate President Carter on his victory here.
I am confident that the Democratic Party will reunite on the basis of Democratic principles and that together we will march towards a Democratic victory in 1980.
For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end.
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Translation, screw you, Carter.
So here, Jimmy Carter did not receive Ted Kennedy's endorsement.
This was 1980 was a great campaign.
I don't know how many of you were old enough or even born, but there was a great moment in the 80 campaign.
Jimmy Carter was a disaster.
It was an absolute disaster.
It was so bad that Ted Kennedy thought that even he could be elected president.
Even he, with all of his Mary Joe Copey and Chappaquittick Bridge, all of that, even he thought he could be elected president.
He granted an interview to the iconic Roger Mudd of CBS News, who asked a very simple question every candidate gets, Senator, why do you want to be president?
Dream shall never die.
Had no answer.
He had no answer.
He hadn't the slightest idea.
What do you want to do when you become president?
What do you think needs to be done?
Had no answer.
It was clear he was campaigning for president because he's a Kennedy and thought that was enough.
He didn't have to have a reason beyond that.
He didn't have to have an agenda beyond that.
Just the fact that his name was Kennedy.
Now, a lot of people talking about Reagan and Ford 1976.
I was in Kansas City in 1976.
That convention, you think this was bad last night?
That convention, there have fist fights that broke out on the floor.
It was at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City.
And there were Fisser.
Nelson Rockefeller was practically inebriated every night.
One night got so mad, walked out of there, went to an art gallery, and went over to Plaza 3 and had dinner.
He said, screw it.
I mean, they were throwing fists.
It was brutal in the 76th convention in Kansas City.
I'm going to take a break.
We'll come back, have some soundbites here.
It's all about did Reagan or did Reagan not endorse Ford in that convention.
August 19, 1976, Kansas City, Missouri Republican National Convention at the Kemper Arena, Ronald Reagan.
Mr. President, before you arrived tonight, these wonderful people here, when we came in, gave Nancy and myself a welcome.
But that, plus this, and plus your kindness and generosity in honoring us by bringing us down here will give us a memory that will live in our hearts forever.
You know what Reagan was talking about?
He was the loser.
He had lost.
He'd been invited to speak on the last night.
And by the way, the speech that Reagan gave, and this is what Cruz was trying to do last night, which makes this even stranger.
Reagan's speech, after having lost the primary, and he lost it on the convention floor, one of the last brokered, if you want to call it that, conventions that we've had.
Reagan's speech was so good, everybody on the floor began to think they had nominated the wrong guy.
And that set Reagan up for 1980.
And all the pre-pup yesterday on Cruz said that's what he was trying to do last night.
That he wanted to deliver a speech that was Reagan-esque in the sense that the delegates would walk out of there thinking that they should have nominated him.
He didn't get there.
No matter whatever else, he didn't get there.
One more from Reagan, Republican Convention 76.
This is our challenge.
And this is why, here in this hall tonight, better than we've ever done before, we've got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we've ever been, but we carry the message they're waiting for.
We must go forth from here united, determined that what a great general said a few years ago is true.
There is no substitute for victory.
Mr. President.
That's what Cruz wanted to pull off last night.
That's what everybody said anyway.
That's how you do it.
Ronald Reagan 76.
Ernie in Warrington, Virginia.
You're next as we head back to the phones.
Quickly, great to have you with us.
Hello.
Thank you, Rush.
I appreciate you taking time to listen to me.
I think Ted Cruz could have shown himself a better man last night if he claims to be a Christian.
And he's, and as a Christian, we're supposed to love each other.
And with all the stuff that's going on in this world, he could have been a very good example to the whole world that by forgiving Trump, that it would have sent a message to the world that we can press on.
And it's more than just our feelings and our emotions, but we're supposed to be showing love.
And that's what he should have done.
Yeah, it's a good way of putting it.
I think that's what a lot of people expected.
Remember, there was a lot of hype about Cruz's speech yesterday.
It was all over the media.
The biggest question is, is he going to endorse?
Is he going to endorse?
But the Cruz people had spoken to some of the media who were out then pre-publicizing Cruz's speech, and they actually said that there's going to be an attempt here to replicate, in Cruz's own words, his own personality, what Reagan had pulled off in 1976, which was to realize Ford had won and move on back in a moment.
You know, we're coming up on 28 years in 11 days, August the 1st, 28 years.
No, no, no, no, no.
Nothing big planned.
If anything, we'll wait for 30 if there is one, but we're not getting too big in 28.
That's not a year you do big.
Dolores in Columbus, great to have you.
By the way, Dolores, after your call, we just have a just got a new poll in from Ohio, University of Ohio, Suffolk University, Ohio poll.
And we'll have details of that after you finish.
What's up?
Well, I have a little bit different take on the happenings of last night.
Until last night, I had almost persuaded myself that I could actually vote against Hillary Clinton by voting for Donald Trump.
However, I did not watch the convention last night.
I haven't watched any of it.
But our local station puts on a program reviewing.
So when that came on last night, they were talking about Cruz being booed and what a terrible performance he had.
So this morning I went online and watched it, and I thought it was an absolutely wonderful speech.
I thought it was marvelous.
I thought it was very patriotic and uplifting.
However, I also, toward the end of it, heard the endorse Trump endorse Trump.
And since Trump knew what he was going to say and knew that he was not going to endorse him, I have to sort of think that maybe that was put up.
That over the last year, I have come to have a very low opinion of Donald Trump's character.
And I think, you know, that was, it was deliberately planned to make Cruz look foolish.
And I'm sorry.
I think Donald Trump is an insecure, ariant, arrogant, thin-skinned bully.
And nothing that I've seen or heard in the last year has persuaded me anything but that that's what he is.
I don't know what I'm going to do now.
I cannot vote for Hillary Clinton.
I didn't like her 25 years ago.
I certainly don't like her now, but I don't know what, right now, I don't know.
I just have a very low opinion of Claude.
Dolores, I'm going to tell you what you have to do.
And it is not going to be easy for you, but it will be a patriotic thing.
You have got to vote for Trump.
Voting for anybody, if you vote for the, if there's a third-party option and you vote for that, you're voting for Hillary.
No matter you may not be pulling the lever for her, but if you don't vote Trump, you are voting.
You're helping Hillary Clinton.
There's no, unless the third party would happen to be Bernie Sanders or Folk Harris.
That's even worse.
But that's not going to happen.
The third party candidates are going to be people who would take votes large part away from Trump.
Now, I'll tell you, I think you have a point, however.
I think, you know, Peter King, a congressman from New York out there on Long Island, hates Cruz.
He hates Cruz more than Mitch McConnell, hates Cruz.
He hates Cruz more than Boehner hates Cruz.
He hates Cruz more than Boehner and McConnell combined hate Cruz.
And he's in the New York delegation.
And if you're right, it would have been Peter King leading that joint, that chant.
Endorse Trump.
Endorse Trump.
Probably the New York delegation was behind that.
Now, your theory is that it was set up, that it was planned, that if Cruz didn't endorse it, the New York delegation at some point in the speech is going to launch into Cruz, disrupt him, and so forth.
That's right.
Well, I'm not going to be able to do that Trump's character.
I'm sorry.
He's the one that's presented himself the way he presented himself.
I probably in the end will, once again, hold my nose and vote for a Republican, although I don't really think he's a Republican.
But I wrote our Secretary of State and my state representatives asking for an option on the ballot, none of the above, so that everybody who felt like me could vote for neither one of them.
But they didn't respond.
I know you want to vote your conscience.
What is it that you don't like about Hillary Clinton?
Why could you never vote for her?
Well, you've paid attention to her for the last 25 years.
The woman's a creep.
She's dishonest.
She's corrupt.
She's dishonest.
She's corrupt.
She's incompetent.
Yep.
She does think of herself as royalty.
I know.
I know.
You're in a position that I don't know how many people are in, but you're not alone in your opinion of Trump and your dilemma here over what to do.
But this is – that's what it's always been for me.
This whole campaign, to me, this is – and Newt said – maybe was it Newt last night?
If it wasn't Newton, it was somebody.
Mud, it might have been Cruz.
It might have been Cruz this morning to the Texas delegation.
It was either that or in his speech.
Cruz said just trying to defeat Hillary Clinton is not going to be enough.
You've got to be voting for principle.
You have to be voting for freedom.
You have to be voting for things.
I forget the exact riff, but it was either Newt or Cruz that made the point that the anti-Hillary motivation is simply not.
Yeah, maybe it was Cruz's speech last night isn't enough, which, again, coming from Cruz is a slap at Trump because that's one of the primary reasons people that have cold feet about Trump are nevertheless going to vote for him is because anything is better than Hillary.
But that's what it's always been for me.
I mean, it's not even close.
I didn't want to fall into a trap this year of ever feeling like I couldn't vote because my guy didn't win.
And that then leads to my vote or non-vote eventually helping Hillary Clinton.
That's unacceptable.
Because folks, voting for Hillary is voting for Obama.
It's voting for everything that's going on now continuing and being doubled down and tripled down.
And it's just four more years of this stuff is not recoverable.
You know, Pence had a great line last night.
Hillary Clinton Secretary of Status quo.
That's a great, great, great line.
Pence speech was fabulous last night.
Pence was great last night.
And Pence, I'll tell you something, Pence, neighboring state, Indiana, Dolores, Pence ought to give you a little comfort level because whoever Trump's vice president is is going to have a much bigger day-to-day role than vice presidents usually do.
The New York Times had a story yesterday.
Get this.
The New York Times had a story yesterday that Trump's son, Donald Jr. or Eric, I forget which one, had approached Kasich and said, look, if you accept the VP position, you're going to be running the show.
You're going to be in charge of domestic policy and you're going to be in charge of foreign policy.
And Kasich said, well, what the hell is Trump going to do?
And his son said, he's going to be making America great again.
But you're going to be running domestic policy.
You're going to be running foreign policy.
That was the pitch to Kasich.
Now, this is according to the New York Times.
Now, if there's any truth to that, well, the various elements of conservative media are already running with what their interpretation of that means.
And here is the consensus.
And by the way, New York Times, many in the establishment believe it.
If it's in the New York Times, there's some truth to it or a lot of truth to it or total truth to it.
Just the way the establishment people look at their newspaper.
And they are interpreting that story, the offer of domestic and foreign policy to Kasich as a tantamount admission that all Trump wants is the pomp and circumstance.
He just wants to be called the big guy.
He just wants to be president, but the day-to-day, he don't want that.
This is just a mountain to climb.
This is just a height to achieve.
This is just another notch in the belt.
But when it comes to actually, there's actually this analysis.
I forget where I read it because I read so much and I didn't print this out.
But Kasich now is out saying he was never asked to be Trump's VP.
So that kind of blows the New York Times story to smithereens.
Now, why would the New York Times run a story like that?
So that certain conservative media could look at it and believe it and say, see, see, Trump doesn't even want to be president.
He just wants to win the election.
He just wants to be the big guy.
He just wants the ego thrill.
He knows he doesn't know any about foreign policy.
And he knows he doesn't know anything about domestic policy.
So he's going to put the vice president going to run the show while Trump goes to the state dinners and the parties and so forth, and that's it.
And that's what people are saying off of that New York Times story.
Kasich is blowing it by saying it was never approached.
Which is kind of strange if Kasich, if the Trump campaign came to him and said, look, you accept VP and you run the show.
How's little John turned that down?
But he did, but he also says that he was never asked.
It was New York Times Magazine, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, six of one half dozen or another.
The Suffolk University, Ohio poll, when we get back to the break with Dolores, since you didn't watch, go find Mike Pence's speech.
And that'll comfort you to know that he's there if Trump wins as vice president.
Believe me, it will help you.
I was misinformed out there.
It's not Kasich who is saying that he was never offered a job.
It was the Trump campaign saying that they did not offer the job.
So the New York Times story has not been out and out denied.
The original New York Times magazine story was the Trump campaign, Trump's son, Kasich said, You can run it all.
Domestic foreign policy, we want you to be VP.
And the upshot, and then a bunch of media ran with that as proof that Trump really doesn't want to do this.
He just wants the glory, just wants to sit in the Oval Office and be thought of as the big guy, but doesn't actually want to do all the work.
And they're saying, we told you so.
And the first version was that Kasich said, nobody ever talked to me, but that's not the way it happened.
Apparently, it's Trump who is now denying that Kasich was ever offered the job.
And it was confusion over poorly crafted and written headlines that caused the confusion.
This report is from yesterday, anyway, and it hasn't gotten a lot of traction.
Not a whole lot of people have been talking about it beyond some of the blog reaction.
Now, here we go.
Suffolk University, a poll of Ohio.
As Donald Trump and the Republican delegates prepare to close out their party convention in Cleveland, a new Suffolk University poll of Ohio voters shows the race is a dead heat.
Hillary Clinton and Trump are tied at 44% each and 11% undecided.
However, the favorables and unfavorables are not that good for either of them, but they are worse for Trump.
Both Clinton and Trump are viewed unfavorably by a majority of voters.
Clinton looked on favorably by 41% of Ohio voters.
Trump 38%.
Favorable Ohio voters.
Unfavorable, it's Hillary 51% and Trump 53.
So margin of error on that.
However, this is where it becomes troublesome.
In a four-way scenario, with the Green Party nominee Jill Stein and the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson added into the mix, then Clinton wins 43 to 39 for Trump, with Johnson getting 5%, Stein getting 1% with 12% undecided.
So here we go.
Third-party candidates are going to gum up the works here if they actually run.
I guess is it definite Gary Johnson's in?
Oh, yeah, the Libertarian candidate.
Well, here in Ohio, again, that poll, if it's just Trump and Hillary straight up, it's 44-44 with 11 undecided, four-way.
It's Trump 39, Clinton 43.
Four-point spread, still margin of error, but the third-party candidates getting a total of 6%.
Johnson, 5%, and Jill Stein 1.
Here is Carol in Scarborough, Maine.
Great to have you with us.
I'm glad you waited.
Hi.
Thanks, Russ.
And I apologize if I'm a little nervous.
No, not at all.
Okay.
I am a Ted Cruz supporter.
I was not originally for Trump.
And I have a couple points just by being on hold and listening leading up to why I actually called.
I don't agree with the previous caller because I think that Trump, I mean, I think because Cruz had to be there, because Trump and Cruz were the last two men standing.
So Cruz had to do something.
during the convention.
Secondly, I don't think Cruz could have won no matter what he was saying.
If he came out and endorsed Trump, you know, rah-rah-rah, Trump, people would have said, Ted, what about your principles?
You said this, this, and this, and Trump doesn't have to say that.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Principles, he could have fallen back on the pledge.
But he wouldn't have had a problem at all with the principles.
He could have done it in a way that would limit whatever damage, because most of his supporters wanted him to do it anyway because it's the path of least resistance forward.
Okay, well, I think you're right.
I want him, but just hear me out to where I'm going.
Okay, okay.
My lips are zipped.
Oh, no, you can interrupt, but I think the reason I think that Cruz did the best he could in endorsing Trump because he said, vote your conscience.
So he spoke of honesty.
Well, is that Hillary?
No, not so much.
He also said, vote for the love of your children.
Well, look at Benghazi.
What difference does it make?
It wasn't my kid.
And I think the reason why Trump allowed Cruz to get up there, the big picture, this is what I think, is that if Trump wins, he's going to nominate Ted Cruz for the Supreme Court.
Well, I got to unzip my lip here on that.
I don't know anymore about that.
I realize many people speculated that might be the case, but I'm not so sure.
But winning takes care of a lot of things, so anything still remains possible.
It was Donald Trump Jr. that the New York Times magazine said offered a panacea to John Kasich.
But Donald Trump Jr. says he never did it.
He never offered it.
Thank goodness.
That would have given me pause.
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