So I got a quick note here from my old buddy Seaton Motley.
Not to be confused with Marion Motley or Bob Motley or Muttley, the Wonder Dog, has said, you want to hear fake news?
Fake news is every story you read.
Reporting Obama said you keep your doctor if you like your doctor.
You get to keep your plan if you like your insurance plan.
Your premiums are coming down $2,500.
Average every year under Obamacare.
If you believe that was fake news, and that's exactly right.
Live from the Southern Command in Sunny, South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
El Rushmore here at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Thank you.
Hillsdale College asked to swallow the Limbaugh Institute.
I said no.
We're going to remain.
We're going to remain independent.
Just kidding.
Snurtley took his glasses off in the It is open line Friday, and whatever you want to talk about is okay, fine and dandy.
800-282-2882.
Email address, lrushmo at eibnet.us.
The drive by media and others are.
Well, look, we have to admit it, they're excited and they're breathing rapidly.
Over the news that Donald Trump is going to meet with Mitt Romney to discuss the possibility of Romney becoming Secretary of State.
Ranking cabinet position.
For example, here at NBC, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will meet with Trump this weekend to discuss the Secretary of State position, a source close to the president-elect with direct knowledge of his thinking, told NBC News in March.
Romney called Trump a phony and a fraud when discussing Trump.
Separately, former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich told NBC News on Thursday he will not be in Trump's cabinet.
Instead, choosing to focus on strategic planning for the emerging Republican majority.
Newt wants to be Steve Jobs.
He's going to be the Steve Jobs of the Republican, the grand visionary.
Those are my words, not his.
He's not saying he's that's when when when Newt says he wants to be in charge of strategic planning for the emerging Republican majority, he was the Steve Jobs.
The visionary that sees it all.
How to put a dent in the universe and change the world.
That's what Newt wants to be.
Now I want to take you back.
I know many of you are shocked.
A lot of you, why would Trump do this after what Romney said about him?
I mean, Romney single-handedly tried to derail a Trump nomination, the Trump campaign.
What in the world is Trump doing?
Take you back to this program.
July 13th.
July 13th.
We're barely a month into Trump's campaign.
And Trump was talking about other Republicans, and he was, I mean, back then it was lying Ted and all these other names that he had for all these, you know, little Marco.
All that stuff was going on.
Trump was just it this was in the stage of a campaign where nobody believed he was even serious, and nobody believed it could win.
And people were surprised he still hadn't been forced out after what he had said after coming down the escalator on June the 16th.
I mean, this is a month into it, and the and the brilliant thinkers at the GOP establishment are convinced that Trump's on the way to imploding.
You know, he has said that he didn't admire McCain because he doesn't like military people that get captured.
Uh could go down the list of things that Trump had said.
And once again, it was left to me to explain Donald Trump to you in this audience and to anybody else who cared to listen.
I'm just making observances right now and quasi predictions.
Of course, you're probably talking about, well, among others, Jeb Bush, when you talk about things Trump is saying that he would have a tough time walking back.
Don't forget, Trump is Trump.
I think Trump, if he wants to, so will be able to explain anything later on that he says about Jeb.
He goes, Jeb called me.
Jeb told me I was right.
Jeb and I finally agreed.
Jeb's a great guy.
That's vintage Trump to do it then.
Trump, I don't think I have a problem walking back anything he said.
I told you back in July that all this criticism that Trump was making of the Republicans, he'd be able to walk it back and unify the party if he was the nominee.
Because I know Trump, I know the personality type, and I tried to tell everybody, and I look, I know some of you heard and some of you listened, but other people were just so distraught that they thought this giant betrayal of conservatism was going on that they weren't hearing anything else.
But given that, and given that I have pretty much uh been able to explain everything Trump said and did, why did it, what it was going to ultimately mean, what to believe, what not to believe, what to get upset about, what not to get upset about, let's now s fast forward to Trump choosing Romney.
Is this not exactly what I was talking about?
Why in the world would he choose Romney?
Why would Romney agree to show you you really are I don't mean to sound why would so Trump invites Romney?
Why would Romney show up because of what Romney said?
I know it was, I know it was.
The Romney speech where he criticized Trump as a reprobate and all the rest was how to explain this.
What yeah, and Trump said that Romney would have dropped to his knees or did drop to his knees trying to get his endorsement in 2012.
Okay, well, but you've got to go back to 2012 to find the root of this.
In 2012, they were on the same page.
Romney had reached out for Trump's endorsement, Trump endorsed him, and they were fast for fast friends.
Look, I um can this is this is politics.
How much of what people say in politics is for the moment, meant for the moment, meant only to satisfy an emotional demand or requirement of the moment, but is not really sincere.
My view of people in politics is that most of what they say is not sincere during campaigns about other Republicans.
Look at by the way you're thinking, whoever wins any Republican nominee, nomination should remain the enemy of every Republican who lost.
They can never unify, they can never come together.
These campaigns are vicious, but that's exactly what they are.
They're campaigns.
Now there's something bigger out there.
The the the fight is over.
The decision is made.
The party has its nominee.
If you're a Republican who likes power, and if you are a Republican who has got all the money in the world that you need and you like power, and you couldn't get the brass ring for yourself, and and there's an opportunity to get in on some one of the hottest political movements of the moment, you will do it.
I think it's I think it's easier to understand Romney taking the call and accepting the invitation than it is Trump extending the invitation.
Why does that not give you any curiosity?
Why are you more surprised over Romney accepting the invitation than Trump extending it?
I mean, it was Trump about whom Romney said all those things.
Now, I may not have I may not be verbalizing this well, but this doesn't surprise none of this surprises me, and it doesn't say one thing or another about either of these two guys to me.
They are who they are before this happened.
I know who they both are.
I know whether I like them or not.
What I don't know is what's really going on.
I don't know if this is simply a public outreach on the part of Trump to show he's willing to let bygones be bygones.
I don't know if he's doing this knowing Romney's not going to accept it, but being able to benefit from the outreach.
Something like this, if this were diplomacy between new nation two nations, I'll guarantee you Romney is going to accept the job.
This kind of thing does not go public until everything signed off on it.
For example, at every summit between world like let's take uh let's take there are a couple exceptions to this.
Reagan Gorbachev, in fact, was an exception to this.
But where two nations are going to have a summit and joint agreement's going to be announced, the joint agreement and the language is all decided before the summit ever happens.
The summit is the mere formality, the ceremonial demonstration of what was agreed to long ago, weeks, months before the summit.
So the analogy would be if this were a summit between two nations, what would really mean would be is that Romney is going to be Secretary of State, and this is all a reenactment of what has already happened for public consumption.
Because theory goes, if you're going to offer a position of great power and importance to somebody, you're not going to do that publicly unless you know they're going to accept it.
Because to refuse it is a rebuke.
So you do it behind the scenes, away from the cameras and lights and microphones, so that if Romney says, no way, I still think you're the reprobate that I thought you were back in March.
I'm not, then you never go public with the fact that you're going to offer him a job.
Unless you have another agenda.
Unless this isn't about Romney accepting it, unless it's about Trump trying to accomplish something else by going public with the meeting and the invitation.
That's what I don't know.
The only thing I don't know is if this is already a done deal and all this is for ceremony, or if it isn't a done deal and is being done for reasons other than what it appears to be, i.e.
getting Romney to accept Secretary of State.
And we won't know that till time unfolded.
But let's listen to some other learned opinion on this.
Because most of when I say something about anything, there's really not much left to be said.
Which is why I don't tell you everything I think about everything.
Otherwise, there's nothing else to say.
So I leave it open sometimes for you to tell me what you think on the phones, or here.
We'll go to the audio sign about some bites and find what others think.
And we'll start here with Dr. Krauthammer.
Wait.
Wrong page.
It is Dr. Krauthammer.
It was last night, special report, Brett Bear, Fox News Channel.
And the report had been of the meeting with, well, the upcoming meeting with Romney and that Dr. Kissinger had met with Trump.
And Crowthammer's weighing in.
I think bringing in Romney, whether he gives him a job or not, is quite a signal.
For Trump to bring him in, I think helps to blunt the sort of the prejudice that people have that he will only stick with loyalists, a small group, outsiders.
I thought that was the most important signal of the day.
And of course, bringing in Henry Kissinger, he's Mr. Foreign Policy, you really can't be sworn into office unless you met Henry Kitty.
I think it's in the Constitution.
Okay, the interesting point of this, I think bringing in Romney, whether he gives him a job or not, it's quite a signal for Trump to bring him in.
Helps blunt the sort of prejudice that people have, that he will only stick with loyalists, a small group of uh of outsiders.
Now, who thinks that?
If you've heard that said, who's saying it?
Who is saying this Trump guy, he's only gonna bring in a bunch of yes men, a bunch of loyalists, a bunch of fellow outsiders like him.
He's not gonna bring in any of us, he's not gonna bring in any of the smart people.
He's not gonna bring any academics, he's gonna bring in these outsiders.
Who is saying that?
The drive by media and the establishment are Saying that.
Do we have the slightest idea that Trump is thinking it?
So what we have here is the application.
This is not a criticism of Dr. Krauthammer.
What we have here is the actually not application, the assignation of concern of establishment thinking automatically being attached to Trump by the establishment.
We have no evidence that Trump has ever said or is thinking that all he's going to do is bring in a bunch of outsiders and renegades and have nothing to do with the current members of the establishment.
That is one of their fears.
But I may be wrong.
Trump may have said something along those lines.
I haven't heard him say it.
He may have surrogates who implied it.
I haven't heard that either.
So, Dr. Crowhammer, oh yes, it blunts the prejudice that people have.
Where does that prejudice exist?
So in other words, short version, ah, Trump is behaving in ways that we think he should behave.
Trump is doing what we would do if we were Trump.
Trump is demonstrating he's not as stupid as we think he is, is what this means.
All politics is local.
Here now Mark Halperon from Bloomberg's with all due respect.
This is on that show last night, and he is speaking with Bob Schrom, a well-known Democrat campaign manager and strategist who has yet to steer any candidate to a victory.
That's a resume enhancement in the Democrat Party, and they're talking about Romney as Secretary of State.
The selection of Romney, if it comes to that, the reviews for the constituencies that Trump wants to please, that Trump wants to get momentum from, would all be positive.
Romney alone would send such an important signal to Washington, to the country, to people around the world about what Donald Trump's trying to do.
It doesn't wash away everything else that people might be concerned about.
But it would be a big message and a big pick, and the kind of pick, as compared to, say, Giuliani, where people would say he's not rewarding loyalty, to say the least.
Who is saying?
Who who is saying and thinking and expressing all these concerns we have about Trump supporters aren't.
Trump supporters are not saying, boy, I hope he I hope he appoints Romney so that people will realize he's not an idiot.
Gee, I hope he appoints Romney to something so people will realize that he knows a lot more people than just the people he's hanging around, but Trump's supporters are not saying it.
Who's saying this?
Who's saying these kinds of things?
This is how it's not even conspiratorial.
This is just how establishment types with access to the media do it.
This is how they essentially implant the way they think into Trump by claiming that Trump is thinking just like they are.
Which, in their minds, makes Trump a little bit more acceptable.
Which nobody knows what Trump is thinking.
But they all think they do.
And it's all Trump, in their view, Trump has to show he's not a mental midget.
Trump has to show he knows that there is a Secretary of State job.
Trump has to show he knows that Secretaries of State negotiate with other countries.
Trump has to demonstrate that he knows that he needs a Department of Transportation Secretary.
Trump knows he needs to show us that he's a smart guy because we all know that Trump is a blithering idiot.
That's what all of this means.
Now, why is Trump reaching out to Romney?
I'll tell you later.
Back in just a second.
Don't go away.
Okay, let's listen to Democrat campaign manager and strategist Bob Schrum explain last night what he thinks of Trump, maybe selecting Romney, certainly extending the invitation to meet with him.
What does it mean?
I'd feel a lot better for the country.
I think it would indicate that maybe if he's not pivoting, he's doing a half-pivot.
You know, everybody's been waiting for him to pivot all along.
He never has, but he could do a half-pivot.
I think people would feel better about the future of foreign policy, about how we were going to deal with Russia, we're going to deal with some of the other problems.
Look, I was against Romney in 2012.
But I didn't fear for the future of the country if he got a.
He's a straightforward, honorable guy with whom I happen to disagree.
But I think he would bring some real clout and some real heft to this administration.
The hell with this.
These people destroyed Mitt Romney.
Bob Schrom was right in there with the people, describing Romney as a bully at the prep school as not caring that wives of employees were dying without health care, and that he didn't like animals because he put his dog on the station wagon roof vacation.
And here comes the old Obamas.
Well, you know, I thought Romney was over.
I never felt country's gonna be in wrong hands.
Dangerous position uh with Mitt Romney.
And they think what they said about Romney about every Republican, this is no different.
I feel a lot better with Romney.
Yeah, well.
This Bob Schrum comment, the arrogance here and the condescension.
I can't do the combination of those two things.
Those two characteristics, those personality traits, just the two of them together.
I can't bear it.
I can't be in the same room.
And Schrum exhibited both.
Look, I was against Romney in 2012, but I didn't fear for the future of the country.
And that's what Obama's out there.
So they got they've got their talking points.
Well, you know.
I disagree with George W. Bush and I disagreed with with uh Mitt Romney and John McCain.
But they're both honorable guys.
And I didn't fear.
Well, the future of America.
But I can't say the same thing with uh Donald Trump.
This just frosts me, this superiority these people exhibit, even when they have been sent packing, when they have been shellect, when they had been repudiated, when they have been humiliated and embarrassed and told to dig a hike.
They still act like they're the smartest, the biggest, the winners, and so forth.
It just it's like fingernails on the chalkboard.
Yeah, Romney would really comfort all of us who lost.
Romney would give us great comfort that we're not going to be in a nuclear war next week.
Romney would give us great comfort that the country is going to still be around when we seek the White House the next time.
Yeah, Romney would give us great.
Do we want somebody that's gonna comfort the Democrats anyway?
They lost.
The Democrats are the architects of the mess we're in that we are trying to get out of, that we're trying to extricate it.
They why do we want to accommodate them?
Here's one more sound by Steve Cornackey, who is a correspondent.
He's a drive-by mediaist at NBC.
He was on today's show today with Savannah Guthrie, who said, let's talk about Mitt Romney because we're so smart.
The name is out there.
There's obviously a question of whether this is a head fake, but if it's real, what would be the pros and cons, Mr. Expert Cornacki?
The pro is, I mean, again, this is probably not understating it either.
A public relations home run.
I mean, this is a pick no one would see coming.
This would be the ultimate gesture to establish Republicans to skeptical Democrats to people who think Trump has too many enemies.
So that would be the pro.
But the con is it's an odd couple.
What if he wants Romney to fix the VA?
You know, Romney's a turnaround specialist.
Romney's a turnaround artist.
What if what if he's looking at Romney to do something like fix the VA or be secretary of Olympic games acquisitions or what so I don't know.
But I did just the idea that, oh, this would go a long way toward comforting the established.
I don't want them.
I like it when they're nervous.
I get a kick out of it.
This will go a long way to be the ultimate gesture, establishing Republicans as skeptical.
Skeptical Democrats lost.
They don't have to be coddled.
There's one more, Matthew Dowd.
Now, Matthew Dowd used to be a I don't know, he was an advisor of some kind in the Bush campaign, the Bush 43 campaign, and and White House.
And then when Bush lost, he joined what turned out to be a bunch of rhinos in that crowd and left and has become a no-labels moderate or even liberal, and now he's doing anti-Republican commentary.
For the most part, it's not always anti.
I think he's an employee of ABC News.
He was on Good Morning America today with George Stephanopoulos, who said it's interesting that Mitt Romney will be coming in this weekend for a meeting with Donald Trump talking about the possibility of Secretary of State.
Whether that turns out to be true or not, even talking about it is a political boon for President Elect.
You see how these people all think?
This is establishment thinking 101.
What can we do to make somebody think we are what we're not?
What can we do to create buzz?
What can we do to hide what we're really thinking and doing?
That's how they all think.
What will this look like?
How will this be received?
How will this be accepted or not?
How will this be?
What if Trump actually wants the guy?
What if Trump remembers during the 2012 campaign?
Don't get mad at me.
2012 campaign, Romney went out and detailed the number one, number two, number three geopolitical enemies and adversaries we had.
And Obama and the Democrats poo-pooed him and laughed at him and told him he didn't know what he was talking about.
He ought to go back to driving the dog on the roof of the station wagon and take vacations more often.
It turned out that Romney ended up being right by virtue of how world events panned out.
The one real conflict here that I think people should be talking about.
Romney made it clear when he ran in 2012 that Russia and Vladimir Putin represent the biggest threat right now to the U.S. Trump may not think that.
Trump might not have that, but Trump might think that of China and not Russia.
So how do how does that work?
I mean, if if Romney thinks that that Russia is a far greater enemy and Trump does, then what does that say about?
I think they ought to be looking at it like that rather than this.
Yeah, it could be a head fake, yeah, it could be a home run.
Yeah, look at what we can make people think, wow, this has been Trump really showing that he's got a bigger brain than the peace size we thought he had all wow on this.
On and on stuff.
Uh but I what if it's this?
What if Trump has invited Romney in and they sit down and Trump, did you really think I was going to have you here to offer you something?
After the kind of stuff you said about me?
I want you leaving here with everybody knowing you haven't been offered diddly squat.
I'm just speculating.
I think there are probably some Trump fans that would love that.
Who's to say that Trump may actually think Romney smart?
Trump may actually think Romney would be good for the job.
Do you notice how nobody looks at it from that standpoint?
Now, you may have your problems with Romney if you're a Trump supporter.
If you're a conservative, you do.
You've got legitimate problems with Romney.
But what if Trump thinks that Romney would be good for what he wants to do?
You notice that nobody, none of these experts has even considered that.
They're all looking at these other nefarious buzz and PR and head fake explanations for this.
Let's see.
We've got time to grab another call here before the break.
This is Barry in Folsom, California.
Is it Folsom, California?
Is that where you are?
That's right.
Thank you, Rush.
Great to have you, sir.
So earlier you were talking about how the left was in kind of a state of chaos, and it got me thinking about my friends on the left.
And uh most of them are actually really truly smart people.
They're from like MIT, Brown, Urbana, and have really tough technical jobs.
But as smart as they are, they rely solely on the mainstream media for the truth.
Uh, You know, I you know, you try to offer them something from the right, and they'll pick it apart, they'll research the living heck out of it.
But uh they'll rely on the Washington Post and CNN and anything they say is gospel.
New York Times.
So I guess I'm I you know how can smart people be so blind to things that are obvious to me, like you know, the day of there was announced.
This is a brilliant question.
I should say the answer to it offers the opportunity for brilliant.
It's a great, great, great, great question.
And I'll tell you something.
I've pondered it myself.
I remember back in 198, for some reason I found myself reading an issue of Playboy, and there was an article in that issue of Playboy by William F. Buckley entitled Redefining Smart, and he took on this what I thought was a giant premise of how do we define smart today?
Not IQ, that's one way of measuring it, but that's not I mean, well, it is one really smart guy, high IQ, but but what is like you've just described things that are not smart.
Your guys may be Ivy League educated, but they're not smart.
Their minds are closed, actually.
The direct answer to your question is prejudice.
What prevents them from seeing anything other than what they already believe is prejudice?
They're literally prejudiced, they're closed-minded because they are arrogant superiorists, and that can only mean that they're liberals.
They're not open to anything else, and not only are they not open, they openly denigrate people who are thinking in ways other than the way they do.
I don't think that's smart.
I I don't think there's anything smart about that.
That's educated, and it's a problem with education.
They are highly educated, as you just said, they come to these Ivy League schools, but so do the media people that they are reading and listening to.
The New York Times is filled with Ivy League graduates, and so is the Washington Post.
I mean, it's all the same club.
They actually are mind-numbed robots.
They have been programmed all their lives.
They're not even thinkers.
If you if you want onto the truth, Barry, they're they're not thinkers.
These are people who've been programmed to believe what they believe.
They are committed believers, not thinkers.
And that's what your problem is.
How can these people be so smart?
What you're really asking is how can people be so close-minded and not even question things, not even think about things.
And uh, you know, when you the concept of when do you think it was?
This kind of question fascinates me.
At what point in human history, when was the last time it was possible for any human being to know everything that was known at that time.
For example, it is humanly impossible for any human being to know everything now.
So how are we going to define smart?
You have to go back to before the printing press.
You have to go back.
Buckley worked this out.
It was in the story.
You have to go back centuries to find somebody about whom it was capable of knowing everything that was known at the time.
Whatever it is, mathematics, science.
I mean, you have to go back a hell of a long time when we didn't know anything to find somebody who knew it all.
It's not possible to get even close to knowing it all.
So how do we define SMART?
I'd submit to you, we're redefining it, misdefining it.
We are we are we are assigning smart to the all wrong people.
And that's another reason we are in the trouble that we're in.
We are just assuming because People come from certain institutions that they're automatically smart if they graduated.
And I submit to you, that is not the case.
I know people that didn't see college one day that are smarter than anybody else I know.
Just in terms of the ability to critically think, to understand common sense, to open mindedly learn and accept what they learn as what is and what to question and what not to question.
There's so much closed-mindedness.
There is so much closed off thought, there's so much bigotry and prejudice within knowledge that it I think is stunting the actual intelligence growth of our population.
Not our capabilities, but our actual intelligence growth because of all of the stigma that's attached to people that don't have formal educations as opposed to those who do.
But the people at formal educations have been programmed and indoctrinated in many cases.
Not in all the disciplines.
I mean, there's some people some graduates that are in medical school, you have to know it, for example.
You have to know it.
And they make sure you know it before they turn you loose.
If you're a practitioner.
Look, before I go, Barry, would you like a brand new iPhone 7 or 7?
Well, that would be That would be amazing.
Thank you.
What kind of phone do you have now, Bear?
I have uh ATT 6.
Okay, so do you like that size, or you want a bigger screen?
I'd getting older, I'd love a bigger screen.
Oh, right.
So your ATT, do you have a color preference?
Uh black, but uh not really.
Black, but no, I can accommodate whatever color you want.
If you want black, we have black.
That'd be great.
Black.
ATT iPhone 7 Plus.
Hang on, and Mr. Snerdley will get your address so we can FedEx it to you for tomorrow delivery.
Don't go away, folks.
Boy, do I ever know it.
Am I really on?
I've been on all week.
Setting a new standard.
Actually, for the past months, not just all week.
What did I do with the story of San Francisco?
What did I do with it?
Aha!
Here it is.
In addition to the story, make sure it's yes.
No, what did I do with the San Francisco story?
Come ah.
No.
Did I put it at the bottom?
I can't.
I don't want to take the risk.
Uh it's not.
Well, damn it, I had it in this stack.
You know the story about parents slammed Texas high school after two tenth graders allowed to perform skit, portraying the assassination of Donald Trump.
Let me do this from the get go in case you are just joining us.
Parents slam a Texas high school after two tenth graders were allowed to perform a skit portraying the assassination of Donald Trump in front of classmates.
And it took the parents raising hell for the school to take any action against this.
As far as the school was concerned, oh, well, you know, it's our students exhibiting a little performance.
Parents had to raise hell about this.
And I just like to ask, can you imagine if somebody would have done something like this, say, after Obama had been inaugurated?
No, in fact, what was going on after Obama had been inaugurated was little school kids were giving songs that were pro pledging loyalty to Obama to sing.
But there's a story here in the stack about the new curriculum in San Francisco schools that I thought I had put in this stack, and I don't want to try to do this in paraphrase form, because it it's it's a new cur it's an anti-Trump curriculum that San Francisco has authorized and is promoting.
I'll find it and have it for you soon.
My my point with all this, and I I really want to be right about this.
I haven't been yet.
I have thought on a couple previous occasions we had reached this point.
I hope we have here.
I think because of the the the overall repudiation by policy of the Democrat Party in the last three elections.
Well, not well, 2012 they lost some seats too.
Obama won, but they lost some seats in 2012.
We got the Senate back.
I mean, since 2010, the Democrats have lost over 1,200 seats.
It's just, it's it's phenomenal and and all based on policy.
And I'm thinking, I'm hoping that low information people who don't see the ideology of oddball weird behavior are going to start seeing it.
In other words, okay, who acts out the assassination of a president in a school?
That's what liberals do.
And I'm I'm thinking we have an opportunity to educate, inform, and expose people to this kind of stuff now.
And the San Francisco story helps in that effort.
I will find it.
All right, I found the San Francisco story, but a lot of good it does you now.
Not enough time for me to tell you about it now.
You've got to wait.
I also reminded, while looking for it, I reminded myself, I need to give you some thoughts on Apple talking about maybe building iPhones in America, and Ford saying they're not gonna ship some jobs to Mako.