http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/03/25/can_trump_voters_be_talked_out_of_itCan Trump Voters Be Talked Out of It?
March 25, 2016
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Vinny. This is the Vinny in Long Island. Vinny, great to have you back with us, my man. How are you?
CALLER: Maha Rushie, this is the real Vinny. Always a pleasure to speak with you.
RUSH: Yeah, same here same here. Glad you made it through today.
CALLER: Thank you. I think one of the things that's different about what's happening with this dustup between Cruz and Trump and their wives is, you know, Megyn Kelly was a willing combatant, Carly Fiorina was a candidate, and Ted Cruz's wife is just the wife of a candidate who's really made no news up until now. And it's really quite surreal what's happening. I mean, to me, if I could just extrapolate, Trump is really an empty suit in regards to politics. And while I agree with what you've been saying now for months that people are not in the mood to elect an establishment candidate, you know, I really don't think they're fully committed, either, to a person who boils down to little more than a carnival barker.
RUSH: Well, why do you say that? Are you using polling numbers to conclude that or just your gut?
CALLER: In regards to Trump?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: I just... I think what I'm gonna say next, I'll sum it up: I think the longer this goes on, people can be talked out of Trump, and I think you may be seeing some of that now. I mean, he did cross a line here with going after Cruz's wife. I thought that last caller was just laughable, the woman lawyer, you know, how this is all Cruz's fault. I thought she sounded quite ridiculous. She may have thought she was good, but I thought she was ridiculous.
RUSH: Trump University graduate.
CALLER: Yeah. And I just think that as time goes on, people can be talked out of Trump, and now that the stage is a lot larger for people to hear what Cruz has to say, it helps him.
RUSH: By the way, I meant that she sounded like she is part of Trump campaign. I didn't mean that as a put-down to Trump University. Vinny, hang on. I gotta break here, and we'll continue this right after this finishes here, so don't go anywhere.
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RUSH: Hey, Vinny, I welcome you back here to the EIB Network. I didn't mean to interrupt you right in mid-thought, so resume where you were and we'll continue the conversation.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: You did say something. You said something intriguing. You think we've reached a tipping point where we had not been and that is where people... I think this is... I want to make sure that I heard you right. You said you think we've gotten to the point where people could be talked out of supporting Trump?
CALLER: Well, yeah.
RUSH: That's never... Nobody's done it. That's the glue that Trump has. Nobody has been able to separate him.
CALLER: Well, that's true. Some of my very best friends are rabid Trump supporters. And, listen, if push comes to shove, you know, I will be voting for Trump. I will be, because the thought of Hillary is just repulsive, or Bernie.
RUSH: Right. Yeah.
CALLER: But having said that, I believe that now that the stage is a little less crowded, I believe people are really hearing Ted Cruz for what he is, what he offers, his just unbelievable knowledge regarding the Constitution, the way our government works, its checks and balances, and what Ted Cruz has done while he's been in the Senate. I thought you nailed it a few months ago when you said, "Ted Cruz's only real sin here is he's been elected," and so henceforth he's part of the establishment.
He's not part of the establishment. He's never been part of the establishment since day one. And I resent anyone that says he's part of the establishment. Ted Cruz has always stood up and fought for the things that conservatism is, and I think now that people can hear who and what Ted Cruz is without 11 other candidates on the stage vying for time, I think Trump... This is what I meant when I said, "I believe people might be able to be talked out of Trump." Maybe not his super hard-core supporters. But there's a lot of people, I think, that are gonna turn, especially in light of --
RUSH: Well, you just said something I want to react to, because this is an observation I made months ago now when this was all just percolating, and people couldn't for the life of them understand the Trump phenomenon -- and particularly hard-core, solid, real decent conservatives couldn't understand it. Because over here you have Cruz, who you just said epitomizes it, and over here is Trump. And the pro-Cruz people kept saying, "But don't you people realize Trump's not a conservative? He's not a conservative! He's a phony conservative."
I have people say something like that to me personally, I can't tell you the number of people. And my reaction is, "What you're not understanding is that conservatism is not the defining factor of this primary. You wish it was; I wish it was. But the fact is that people supporting Trump don't care about ideology. It's so far and above and beyond that." This is why, in fact, I detected that so many people who have established identities as conservative fundraisers, conservative thinkers, conservative media people, conservative this or that --
-- fundraisers and the like -- were threatened because Trump isn't that. He's gaining energetic, enthusiastic support without being ideological. That's when people started calling it populism or what have you. And I think it's still largely that way. I think most of Trump's supporters -- in fact, I'll tell you: I had a conversation. I cannot tell you who; it was off the record. But this is somebody who heads up a giant conservative organization who is willing to roll the dice on Trump because he rattled off the various areas that Trump is articulating conservative theory and policy.
He admitted to me in a Trump doesn't know conservatism versus liberalism. He doesn't look at life that way, not like committed conservatives do. Trump doesn't. But this guy did not want to close the book on Trump. He wanted to give him every opportunity. I found it fascinating, actually, because this was the kind of person who I thought would be scared to death of Trump succeeding because of what it might mean to the quote/unquote "conservative movement."
CALLER: Well... (sigh) Look, all I can say to that is, to me and to a lot of conservatives, Trump is the consolation prize. Ted Cruz is the prize. But if we don't get that prize, then Donald Trump is the consolation prize. And I'll take it. But I just think, when Trump puts his foot in his mouth -- as he's wont to do and as he's done this week -- I think more people are swayed from him. I do watch the polls, as do you, and I have noticed what's gone on in Wisconsin, okay? And I see in California he's not that far from Donald Trump. And you just don't know.
RUSH: Well, let me give you one. This is from Fox News. I just printed it out. It's actually from the Red Alert Politics website. It's a Fox News poll. "Fox News' latest poll shows Ted Cruz jumping to a massive 14% lead over Hillary Clinton among voters under the age of 35," Millennials. The same poll, the same Fox News poll shows Trump losing the same demographic, 35 and younger, to Hillary by more than 20%, despite Hillary having a 67% unfavorable rating among these voters. Now, I've not seen this before. I've never seen a poll that shows this, that Ted Cruz creams Hillary with Millennials under 35 by 14 points, and Hillary creams Trump by 20 points in the same group of people. I've never seen that until today.
CALLER: Well, I think something might be happening out there. I think this latest tete-a-tete between --
RUSH: Now, this poll was going on two or three days prior to this tete-a-tete began.
CALLER: Okay. Okay. Then maybe people, again, they're just hearing things. They're hearing more from someone else, and they're starting to hear who Ted Cruz is. You know, this is a very well-constructed, well-spoken... What's the word I'm looking for? Just, you know, straight-standing man who says what he means and means what he says, and I think that message may be breaking through.
RUSH: Well, I don't know. (sigh) Campaigns are fluid, and polling data... Like I say, I've never seen this anywhere. I've never seen a poll with any Republican winning Millennials, anywhere, either period or up against Hillary. I just have never seen it. This is stunning. "Fox News' latest poll shows Ted Cruz jumping to a massive 14-point lead over Hillary Clinton among voters under 35." Now, the lament of the Democrats, they always win the youth vote, and the youth vote doesn't show up and vote. It never does.
Everybody gets all excited about it every election, every campaign, because the youth vote seems in polling data to always line up with Democrats. But they just don't vote in great numbers. They never have. Everybody keeps holding out hope that this will be the election that they do, the Democrats do. And the same poll shows Trump losing the same demographic -- Millennials 35 and under -- to Hillary by more than 20 points. That's a 34-, 35-point spread here. And as I say, I've not seen this.
I've not seen any poll of Millennials showing a preference for Republicans either in general or over Hillary Clinton. Vinny, thanks for the call. I appreciate it.
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RUSH: Myron, Plymouth, Michigan. You're next. I'm glad you waited, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Well, thank you, Rush. I've been a longtime listener, over 20 years, and I love your show, and I agree with you probably 99% of the time, but lately I'm a little disappointed, primarily 'cause I just get this feeling that you're against Trump and you're for Cruz. But I'd like to put this thing on a positive note because I'm a retired real estate developer, and I know exactly what Donald Trump has to go there. I mean, it's incredible what that man has done. His achievements, his accomplishments are absolutely phenomenal.
And I look at the type of person -- granted I don't agree with a lot of his comments or decisions, but I try to look at the total picture. And here's a man that's got 50 years of success, he's had huge organizations, hired a lot of people, he's created a ton of jobs. He's the only one that I feel could straighten out the behemoth in Washington, getting the right people in there, cleaning house. And I think that, as you have been talking about, the establishment, they're definitely afraid that he's gonna clean house and try to put us back in order.
RUSH: Oh, they're scared to death of that.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: No question about it.
CALLER: And I agree with you. And I agree with you on most everything. My big problem with Cruz is he's another lawyer. And if you look at the history of this country over half of the presidents have been lawyers. And that's starting with Woodrow Wilson, who started the progressive movement, and then FDR, who extended the --
RUSH: Yeah, let's not talk about the number of them that came out of Harvard, either.
CALLER: And Ivy League people.
RUSH: Right. Exactly.
CALLER: And so I just feel we need to look at the positives that Trump has done. Everybody's jumping on the negatives, you know, the pimple on the elephant, and not looking at the total picture. Now, granted, I'm not saying I like all the things he says, but at the same token, he's got a --
RUSH: I know. I know where you're coming from. And, by the way, Trump's got his supporters. Nobody's talking Trump supporters out of it. We haven't reached the point -- I disagree with Vinny -- I don't think that can happen anyway. But, look, Myron, I'm out of time. I'm really, really up against it.
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