http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/05/03/all_trumpists_aren_t_brain_dead_dufuses_but_this_cruz_confrontation_bothers_meAll Trumpists Aren't Brain-Dead Dufuses, But This Cruz Confrontation Bothers Me!
May 03, 2016
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Josh in Jackson Center, Pennsylvania. You're first today. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It's an honor to be on with you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: I'd just like to ask you to please calling us Trump supporters names. You try to get on board because Trump is gonna get the nomination, and our goal here is to beat Hillary Clinton.
RUSH: I understand.
CALLER: He's the only one that's gonna be able to do it.
RUSH: I understand the goal is to beat Hillary Clinton. I understand in a lot of primary voters that's what guides their vote, who's gonna beat Hillary because that's number one the objective. I didn't call all of you Trump supporters brain-dead, but I'm glad you cited that because I need to address it. That whole incident haunted me and I'll tell you why: 'Cause I've been in it. You know, a lot has happened to me in 28 years doing this show. I have been in all kinds of circumstances.
I've not run for office, but I am treated, in ways -- or have been -- as somebody who is or as somebody who wants that kind of power. So I've been treated as somebody who needs to be exposed as a fraud or what have you. I have been subjected to stacked audiences when I guest hosted TV shows of people that were diametrically opposed to everything I believed, and were in there for one reason only, and that was to disrupt. I've been there. I've been in that situation Cruz was in with that guy -- the dark-glasses guy -- yesterday, I can't tell you how many times.
And that situation, by the way, is one of the reasons I don't do any media, because that's just like talking to reporters. You cannot change their minds. It's not the point. They don't... They're not there to have their minds changed. That guy was there to... Actually, Cruz approached him; I understand that. But that guy was there, just as somebody that had no desire to actively engage with anybody on any issue of substance whatsoever, and Cruz crossed the street to engage guy.
I'll tell you why he did it. It was not trying to persuade that guy, 'cause that's a lost cause. What Cruz was trying to... I'm guessing here, but it's because of my experience guided by intelligence. I think what Cruz wanted to do was get a video sound bite of him explaining the issues to a Trump supporter and telling the Trump supporter how Trump is not telling him the truth about things. I think Cruz is frustrated that he hasn't been able to get much substance in this campaign because he's always being asked to react to this or that that Trump is saying or doing.
Cruz knows the media hates him. He knows the media is against him. He knows that he's not gonna be treated with any kind of respect like Trump will be or like Hillary will be. He knows all of this, just like I know it every time I find myself in a situation like that. I have chosen not to put myself in those situations anymore. I had to learn early on, for example, that in a media interview... I actually thought in the early days that the media was really interested in what I thought. You know, I was new; there was nobody like me on the radio. I was a conservative nationally. Maybe they really...
They're not. All they wanted was to find ways of literally destroying me, or harming my image or what have you. I mean, my first appearance on Crossfire on CNN was a total setup. You go in there and you go to the greenroom, and the producer comes in and does the "interview" with you. The preinterview. Sometimes these happen on the phone before your appearance, sometimes they happen in the greenroom, and the producer makes you think they really want to find out what you want to talk about.
"What is it you feel passionate about? What is it that you want to tell our host or hostess today?" And the real purpose of the preinterview -- when it's conservatives -- is to find out what ticks them off. It's to find out what sets them off. It's to find out... I have yet to be in a preinterview... Other than with a couple of people at Fox, I have yet to have anything in a preinterview actually reflected in the real interview that I did on any show. I don't do 'em anymore. I just do not trust them. I have no evidence to believe that any of those people want to help me look good.
By that, I mean, they don't want to get out of the way and let me be me. Whatever I do, they're gonna take it out of context in further reports. They're gonna castigate me. They're going to chop it up and make it appear to be what they think I am and so forth. I cringed when I saw Cruz cross the street, 'cause I knew exactly what was gonna happen. And the reason I called the guy brain-dead is cause that's how he acted. "Trump! Trump! Trump! Lyin' Ted! Lyin' Ted!"
He had no desire to engage Cruz. Cruz was being polite. He crossed the street, wanted to engage the guy in conversation about issues. I literally was cringing when it happened; I cringed when it was over. Because it wasn't gonna work. And the audio was such that even if Cruz was trying to create something viral that could be on social media that would show him politely and graciously encountering a Trump supporter and explaining the issues (and hoping that that would go viral), it didn't have much of a chance 'cause the audio wasn't good enough for that to happen.
All the Trump people were shouting this or that, encouraging this guy. "Trump! Trump! Trump! Lyin' Ted! Lyin' Ted!" You know, Cruz was polite. He was everything that you would want somebody to be, and he's being mocked and laughed at and made fun of as a square, as a nerd, as a loser or what have you, which is exactly right in line with what's happening in our culture today. It is the renegades, and it's been this way for a long time. The renegades and the -- well, however you want to characterize them.
The people that do not stay within the guard rails of reality, they're the ones that are celebrated and praised. They get rich. They're made heroes. We've made celebrities out of them, and people that don't do that are just dull and boring and dryballs and usually tagged as conservatives or what have you. So I was not calling all Trump supporters brain-dead. You've heard me talk about the Trump people. You've heard me lionize the Trump people. You've heard me, on this program, celebrate the Trump people and explain to people why certain people behind Trump support him.
This guy was no different than a Code Pink protester, and so that's that. I'm sorry. I wasn't able to separate the personal experiences I've had just like that over the course of my career, and I knew it was gonna work when I watched it happening and I watched the replay. I knew it wasn't gonna work, and frankly there's a part of me that still -- even though I know the drill and I know the lay of the land and I know the reality and I'm the mayor of Realville.
It still bugs me when doofuses like that end up the winner in a circumstance like that. But welcome to America 2016, or whatever it is. There was no way... Now, as to your point about getting on board with Trump, let me tell you something. Josh, let me tell you: This is another reason why, for any of you who want to know why I don't endorse. Can you imagine the phone calls I would be getting today asking me to defend this Zodiac Killer stuff and Cruz's dad meeting with Oswald before the assassination?
That's exactly why.
There's a whole lot of explanations for the way I think, operate, and act just in the last two days of the Indiana primary. Now, do not misunderstand. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just laying the land out. What was sad to me about it was that Ted Cruz had no chance in that thing yet. There was no way that was gonna turn out positive for Ted Cruz. Not possible. The deck was stacked. (interruption) Well, I don't have... (interruption) No, it's not up to me to tell him. He's got people around that know this. If I know Cruz, he looks at those kind of things as challenges. If he could get to somebody like that, then he's got a chance.
I'm sure he looks as every one of those things as a golden opportunity and so forth.
You can't blame him for that.
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