Politico Editor Fantasizes About Trump Quitting the Race
Jul 30, 2020
RUSH: Now, there’s a piece today at The Politico written by one of the Politico founders, a guy named John Harris.
He used to be at the Washington Post years and years and years ago and then he left with his buddy Jim VandeHei when they formed and founded The Politico. The Politico is now an official arm of the Democrat Party. They, of course, will reject that characterization, but they’ve already run the story that Plugs Biden’s gonna pick Kamala Harris.
They ran that story couple days ago. It wasn’t supposed to run until August 1st, but they ran it. It was in their library. It had been written. It was just waiting for publication. Somebody ran with it days early. But somebody in the campaign had told them. That’s how the story appeared. That’s how it was assembled, put together, fact checked and all that.
So now they’re totally embarrassed, and they had to walk it back, and say, “Due to an error in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we stated that Kamala Harris would be the Biden VP. Unfortunately, we were premature in this, and we’ve, uh, had to make a correction, blah, blah, blah, blah.†Well, anyway, the piece by John Harris today is all about how and why Donald Trump will quit and not seek reelection.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’m not sharing this with you to frustrate you, folks. I think that the point here is once again the Democrats are not confident that they’re gonna win this. It’s contrary to everything that’s appearing in the media, all these polling stories that show Biden up 10 and 12 and 13 or eight or nine, and especially the battleground states, none of it’s true.
So now we’re we have a wishful thinking piece that Trump would just quit. That would really be the best thing, if Trump would just quit. So this guy has decided to write a piece on how he might actually do it. He might actually quit. Trump might actually think the best thing he could do is quit. I’m not gonna read the whole thing to you, but here are some of the pull quotes.
“Among Donald Trump’s problems in his long, hot and mostly housebound summer is that he has lost his once unparalleled gift for changing the story. He still can stir outrage, but even among his supporters he no longer has much capacity to surprise.â€
Meaning, he’s becoming boring. Trump is becoming predictable, the worst thing that can happen to a hero. In fact, Ralph Waldo Emerson 100 years ago wrote, “every hero becomes a bore at last.†So, you see, in the opening paragraph, Trump’s become boring, he’s lost his hero status to his supporters, he’s no longer a surprise, he doesn’t even know how to cause chaos anymore.
“But here is a way Trump could demonstrate that an old master still knows how to tear up the script and leave the audience gasping. It is late but not too late to pull an LBJ.â€
So this guy, as far as this guy’s concerned, Trump’s not actually president because he wants to be president, he’s not president because he wants to Make America Great Again, he’s not president because of policy, he’s not president for any reason other than he is a performer and he needs the cheers of the crowd. And he’s lost the cheers of the crowd. The crowd doesn’t cheer him anymore, the crowd doesn’t get excited by him anymore and that’s what Trump misses and that’s what Trump needs to get back and there’s a way he can do it. By tearing up the current script, he can leave the audience gasping, he can get back all of that mystique again by quitting, you see.
“But even if one doesn’t really think Trump will drop out of the race–as a proselytizer of the theory I acknowledge it is a stretch.†So Mr. Harris here admits this is all wishful thinking. It, nevertheless, “is worth examining the reasons he just might.†So even though the writer admits it’s never gonna happen, it’s still fascinating to examine the reasons he might.
Now, wait. If you just said somebody ain’t gonna do something, then what’s the point of coming up with reasons why they might? Well, it’s “a way of illuminating the bleakness of his situation with just over three months to go before the general election.†That’s what we really want to do. We want to tell you and our readers how bleak it is for Trump out there, how hopelessly lost, hopelessly forgotten Trump has become.
“No doubt Trump would savor the validation of winning a second term. Under the current trajectory, that looks less likely than not. … The second question is how Trump conceives of the balance of his lifetime–and his historical reputation after that–if he were to lose to Joe Biden and join the ranks of defeated incumbents.â€
So the theory here is that Trump no way, no way will Trump run the risk of losing to some Looney Tune like Biden. Ain’t gonna happen. And that’s a reason why Trump just might as well quit, because he wants to save his postpresidential reputation. And if he loses to somebody with Alzheimer’s like Joe Biden, why, he’ll never get over that. His reputation postpresidency will be destroyed. But he can save it, you see, if he quits.
“The Trump-drops-out scenario hinges on the assumption that Trump is less concerned with wielding the levers of government than he is preserving his role as disrupter at large in American politics over the next decade.†So you see, we’re back to this. Trump really doesn’t care about making America great again. He doesn’t care about getting even with the ChiComs, he doesn’t care about any of that stuff. No, no, no. Trump is all about showbiz. Trump is all about disrupting. Trump is all about being the talk of the town. Trump is all about being the focus of attention. He doesn’t care about anything else.
And he might be able to maintain that kind of magic if he avoids losing. But if he loses, all the magic will forever be gone. And that’s all he’ll be known for. He lost to somebody with dementia. “Trump in recent days has scotched a planned rally and canceled plans for a massive partisan extravaganza at the Republican National Convention.â€
Wait. Aren’t all conventions partisan extravaganzas? Democrats do partisan extravaganzas every freaking day, not just at their convention. But Trump, you see, has canceled a partisan extravaganza. “He has gone from saying the coronavirus pandemic would be quickly routed in the spring to acknowledging … that the situation will probably ‘get worse before it gets better.’ After saying masks weren’t for him, and implying that they are for weak spirits, he finally began wearing one and urging others to do so.â€
So you see, it’s all falling apart on Trump. The only way to save face is to quit.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to go back for just a couple of more pull quotes from the John Harris piece at Politico on why Trump might just throw it in, throw in the towel, just quit. I mean, the embarrassment of losing to somebody with Alzheimer’s, losing to somebody with dementia, that’s not what Trump wants for his future. Trump, no, he would be better off, his postpresidential reputation will be far better, far, far stronger, far longer lasting if he quits, rather than loses to Plugs Biden.
“Trump knows also that perceptions of power and success have an intimidating effect. As he looks to the fall, it is not opponents that he needs to keep in line. It is allies. Trump’s presidency has been propelled by two great engines of enablement. One of these, Fox News, has been robustly enthusiastic. He’s been great for business, and Fox News’ most loyal viewers are loyal to Trump. The other enabler, personified by Mitch McConnell, is not enthusiastic but sullenly transactional. McConnell and the business wing of the GOP don’t much like Trump, but they do like the chance to push their agenda on judges and deregulation.â€
So Cocaine Mitch and the boys, they don’t like Trump, either. So all Trump’s got is Fox News. Notice they suspiciously omit talk radio here from the support wing of the Trump administration. So Fox News and their loyal audience are propping him up, but there are Republicans on Capitol Hill, they don’t even really like Trump. And, you know what? There may be something to that. I could tell you going back to the first year of Trump’s term, 2017, the first six months the Republicans in the house would not cooperate with Trump on anything, including repealing and replacing Obamacare.
You know why? They thought that Trump was going to be thrown out of office because they believe this Russia crap. I am not kidding you. The Republican leadership at the time really believed that Trump had meddled, really colluded with the Russians. They bought it. They believed the media like everybody else in that town believes the media. They thought Trump was toast. They didn’t want to do anything to advance the Trump agenda ’cause they thought they would be punished.
So Trump’s all alone trying to get these things done. He’s trying to get the wall built. He’s trying to implement the reform and replace of Obamacare. He’s trying to do everything. He took big bites of everything in the first six months, and he was all alone. The travel ban. Remember that? Democrats go out and find a federal judge in Hawaii to put a stay on the travel ban. Trump gets no help from the Republicans.
But he’s hung in there every day. And even now there are Republicans who I will guarantee they think Trump’s gonna lose in November. And they think they might lose in November if they get too close to Trump. Because they, sadly, believe the mainstream media each and every day.
So “what are the incentives of these enablers†like Fox News and the Mitch McConnells? What are the incentives of these supporters, “these enablers if, in late September or early October, Trump looks as beleaguered as he does in late July? In either case, an outright break with Trump is unlikely. Fox is concerned most about preserving its huge profitability. The network’s leaders would presumably be wary of potentially sustaining permanent brand damage with corporate advertisers by joining Trump in a last-ditch campaign of racially charged cultural warfare. That’s especially so if they perceive Trump is going to lose anyway.â€
The network’s leaders would presumably be wary of sustaining permanent brand damage with advertisers if they join Trump in a last-ditch campaign of racially — so the only thing Trump could do to save himself is to go after African-Americans. That’s all he can do, you know, support the Nazis and support the skinheads like he did in Charlottesville, and then go after the African-Americans, go after these people, and that’s gonna really harm him ’cause Fox can’t stay with him then, Fox would have to abandon him then.
Earth to John Harris. It’s not Trump who dissolves or devolves into this racist garbage. It’s your party, Mr. Harris. It’s your party that killed George Floyd, not Donald Trump. Democrats, Minnesota. Democrats, Minneapolis. George Floyd died in a blue state at the hands of blue state leaders. Donald Trump had nothing to do with it. Donald Trump’s not running the riots in Seattle or Portland. This is outrageous, these guys, what they’re coming up with here to suggest that Trump’s only hope is to pull an LBJ and to quit.
“In the case of McConnell, he knows that Trump’s unpopularity is the primary factor that continued GOP control of the Senate is at best a toss-up. He and other Republicans already are trying to localize their races, not splitting with Trump but finding distance from him.â€
So there are a couple other reasons why Trump should quit. And then this question: How plausible is all this? Not terribly. So you got this whole column of all the reasons why Trump should quit, why he will quit, why it makes more sense to quit, and then, how plausible is all this? Well, not terribly. So what we have here is wishful thinking.
What we have here is a bunch of people on the Democrat side who try to tell us that they are brimming with confidence, that Biden is leading by 10, 12, eight, nine, whatever, all the battleground states, Charlie Cook Report, why, I’ve had to turn everything Democrat. House, White House, Senate, everything going Democrat. Race is over. And we get pieces here on, in order to save his reputation, Trump should just quit. If they’re so confident, if they are so confident that Trump is gonna lose, if they’re so confident that Biden is gonna win, why not do everything to keep Trump in the race?
If Trump is so destined for defeat, if Trump is so hopelessly lost and defeated already, why not keep him there and keep driving him even crazier so that he loses even bigger? Because the bigger Trump loses, the bigger the Republican Party loses. But if you talk Trump into quitting, why, you may be reviving the Republicans’ chances in the Senate and in the House.
Why would they do this? They wouldn’t. Believe me, folks, if they thought they had Donald Trump losing by 12 points in a landslide, they don’t want him quitting. They don’t want him going anywhere. They want that happening. The fact is, they know it isn’t gonna happen.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Bob in Belmont, New York. Bob, I’m glad you waited. It’s great to have you here, sir.
CALLER: Hello, Mr. Rush. We’re pulling for you. You sound great on the radio.
RUSH: Well, thank you. I always enjoy hearing that. Thank you.
CALLER: Now, you know why I’m calling? Trump does not seem to have fire in his belly. He doesn’t have control. Get Dr. Sanity on that podium with him. Get Dr. Scott Atlas on the podium, okay? We are being told we cannot work, okay, but they’re not paying our bills. We need to get this country reopened. And one more thing. Go back to Hillary Clinton three or four years ago. If you remember — and I know you do, ’cause you remember this stuff – she made a statement. We cannot be civil until we take back the House and the Senate. She’s behind this as much as Barack Obama is.
RUSH: Behind what?
CALLER: All this rioting and all this upheaval and —
RUSH: Oh. Oh.
CALLER: I mean, think about Obama. Okay, he made that conference call, and it was leaked out. And three days later, George Emmet Sullivan started to fight against, you know, Flynn being excused from being prosecuted.
RUSH: Uhhh, so Hillary’s responsible for Emmet Sullivan going after Flynn? That’s your point?
CALLER: Well, they all are in effect. Hillary said that we couldn’t be civil until we got back the House and the Senate.
RUSH: I don’t think these people need any guidance. I think they’re naturally uncivil. They don’t need instructions in it.
CALLER: You don’t think so?
RUSH: They don’t need Hillary Clinton telling them or teaching them how to be uncivil. They naturally are. Look, you started off great here and then you tailed off. You said Trump is not leading. You say Trump is hiding in a bunker. You say Trump’s got no fire in the belly. You say Trump’s not inspiring you, that he ought to fire Fauci, and we need to reopen the country.
Last I hear Trump is in favor of reopening the country. He’s trying to get it reopened. But you also think that he’s being too soft on Barr, that he ought to tell Barr and Durham to release what they’ve got and get going. And it’s an interesting interpretation. Are you souring on Trump to the point that you’re not gonna support him or vote for him in November?
CALLER: No, no, no. No. He has my vote. You know, I’ve written a couple history books, and he actually has one of them while he was still a businessman. I actually got him an autographed copy because he was involved with Macy’s and my book’s about Macy’s.
RUSH: Well, then it’s obvi he needs to go back to what you wrote in your books. That could be the key to getting Trump back on target.
