http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/09/23/monday_night_debate_drama_what_should_trump_do_if_hillary_coughsMonday Night Debate Drama: What Should Trump Do If Hillary Coughs?
September 23, 2016
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RUSH: Everybody wondering what the debate rules are gonna be and how much leeway the presidential commission on Hillary winning the debates will give Hillary in her quest to win the debates. And it looks like the Commission on Presidential Debates for Hillary to win the debates is not gonna make it any easier on her than anybody else, at least on paper. We won't know until something actually happens.
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RUSH: Here's the latest. The debate's coming up on Monday night, and we know Monday Night Football numbers are gonna be down on the debate because we're expecting now eight to a hundred million, Super Bowl kind of numbers for the debate on Monday night. The Clinton camp wanted these debates on Monday Night Football, hoping fewer would watch, just like they scheduled her debates with Crazy Bernie on Saturday nights during the Democrat primary. And fewer people did watch.
But that's not gonna be the case here. So Mrs. Clinton is 5'4 in her flats. If she wears those little Nurse Ratched heels, she may get up to 5'4 and three-quarters or 5'5. Donald Trump is 6'2. Donald Trump is great television, just has it. Trump looks good on TV. And then everything he does on TV is an added bonus. You either have it or you don't, and that's why the people who have it earn a lot of money. It's one of those genealogical things that some people have and most people don't.
Hillary doesn't have it. She doesn't command the screen. She doesn't look intimidating, inviting, engaging. Man, you know what you people ought to do? Remember the audio sound bite we played yesterday where Hillary is speaking to some labor thugs, labor union people, and she said, "Why aren't I 50 points ahead?" You ought to see the entire video. Well, it's 45 seconds. It is great. The eyes, the anger on the face. Sorry, folks, it just doesn't work. As I say, it's not engaging. It's not welcoming. She just doesn't have it. I'm not predicting the impact of this, I'm just telling you.
And Trump has all of that. She doesn't have any of it, and now you throw in whatever is going on with her health, and the people in her camp know what that is. And the people in her camp, I'm sure they're scared to death. 'Cause they can't predict and they can't control when these episodes that she has happen. Like the coughing spasms or the things that look like seizures or the darting eyes.
They try to control it with medication. Medication has side effects. She's been taking a lot of rest in the days of this week, and they've said, "Yeah, it's to prepare and get ready for the debate."
I'm sure that the objective in the Clinton camp, unless we're being set up royally, which the Clintons have a propensity of doing, I'm sure their major task is doing everything they can to make sure she can get through 90 minutes of live TV without any kind of an episode. But I want you to keep in mind the Clintons set us up royally a number of times, get people expecting like I just mentioned Hillary to have an event and then just come out and just be 110 percent energetic and just mow everybody down.
Now, she's not done that once yet on the campaign trail, so it's a way-out-there possibility. But with the Clintons you always have to keep it in reserve as a possibility. So the Hillary people have asked for a stool that she could stand on so as to reduce the obvious difference in height, Trump 6'2, Hillary 5'4. The presidential commission on debates said, no, no stool. You've got to stand as you exist. You can change the height of the podium to accommodate your height, but you cannot have a stool. You cannot have footstool or any of that.
Now, what happens if she slips into a coughing fit? What happens if there's any other medical event during the debate? Well, the Drudge Report, having inside information, claims she's just gonna have to power through it, which, by the way, Drudge is very clever. That is a phrase that the Clinton campaign has been using to describe how tough their candidate is in dealing with all these obstacles. Yep, our Hillary, she's powering through it. She's just gotta power through all this stuff, and so that's what she's gonna have to do in the debate on Monday, supposedly, supposedly.
There are no commercial breaks, period. If you recall, the reason why that came up, there was a debate -- I think it was in Philadelphia -- and Martin O'Malley up there and Crazy Bernie and Hillary. And Hillary left the podium. She went backstage for ten minutes, and nobody knows what she did. So the mind begins to wonder. Was it a bathroom break? Was she on the verge of a coughing spasm and had to get back there and start coughing backstage? What was it? Then she came back, Crazy Bernie didn't try to capitalize on it or any of the sort.
But there isn't gonna be any of that allowed, according to the rules. That's what's on paper right now. I will wait to see if any of this really happens, what they choose as their way of dealing with it. Lester Holt's the moderator, NBC News. And, by the way, Lester Holt can see up close and personal what they've done to his buddy Matt Lauer for daring to ask Hillary questions about her email and her server. Don't think that Lester Holt is not aware of what could happen to him by people on his own side at his own network if he actually asks her a tough question or two.
"The presidential debate commission settled an early flashpoint when Clinton demanded a step-stool at the podium to add height to her 5’4 frame. Campaign Chairman John Podesta expressed concern that Hillary would be dwarfed by 6’2 Trump. The request was quickly rejected. The commission is allowing for a custom-made podium, which will accommodate the difference in stature."
No word on whether there's a secret teleprompter in Hillary's podium. But, folks, I have a serious question for you. I have a serious question for you. Whatever else you call to talk about today, I would like your thoughts on this, if you have any. We're going to engage in a what-if circumstance. If, during the debate, Mrs. Clinton has one of her medical episodes, let's start with coughing first. If Mrs. Clinton begins while she's speaking or whether Trump is speaking, or whatever, if she has a coughing spell -- now remember, we're being told no stoppage, no sitting down, both candidates gotta stand up, no commercial breaks.
So whatever event, if she has one, they can't stop it for that. Now, do we really think they won't? But that gets beyond my question. My question with coughing, if she has a coughing spasm, should Donald Trump leave his podium and walk to her podium to offer comfort and assistance? I know what some think, "No, no, remember what they did with Lazio." Yeah, but Lazio had a piece of paper and was challenging her to sign it. It was an agreement on campaign finance reform.
In this situation, when you have the former first lady and the former secretary of state obviously in distress -- if you've seen these coughing spasms, they can go on for four-and-a-half minutes -- should Trump leave his podium and either lean over to her or walk to her and offer to help, like pick up her bottle of water and hand it to her? Should he or should he not? If Mrs. Clinton looks as though she is feeling faint in a repeat or replica of the episode on Sunday of 9/11, remember where she was standing there waiting for the van to show up. The van arrived and she practically collapsed as she took the first step to get into the van.
It took two aides propping her up by the arms and then they basically threw her in the van. The campaign tried to say, "Yeah, nothing there. She lost a shoe when she stepped off the curb." Everybody knew that was not true. So in the event that there's something like that, should Trump make a move to aid her or assist her? I'm asking seriously. What do you think would be appropriate? You're watching a debate, we've got one of the participants in distress. I'm not gonna answer. If I answer my own question here there won't be anything left to say, so don't ask me. I'll tell you what I think about all this as the program unfolds.
But I want to know what some of you think, because I guarantee you they're talking about this. I mean, I don't know, I can't guarantee you, but I'm highly confident that they are discussing the strategy of this at Trump headquarters. "What do we do? What's the right thing to do, what's the wrong thing to do? I mean, our opponent could end up in real distress. What do we do? I'm sure they're bandying that back and forth." What do you think? And then we're told there are no breaks, right? No commercial breaks, no step stool, none of that.
What if one of these events happens and Lester Holt says, "We're taking a break." Despite the rules saying there are no commercial breaks, what happens then? Do people agree and sympathize with Lester Holt, or do they get mad at him for breaking the rules? All of this drama, not even the NFL can compete with this on Monday night.
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RUSH: Hey, do you think Hillary's podium will have handrails? It's a wonder she hasn't asked for 'em, handrails in there. Can you see that?
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RUSH: Here is the Trumpster last night in Aston, Pennsylvania. This is during a campaign event and this is how he's continuing to call attention to what he believes are her weaknesses.
TRUMP: Those peddling the narrative of cops as a racist force in our society, and this is a narrative that is supported with a nod by my opponent -- you see what she's saying, and it's not good -- share directly in the responsibility for the unrest that is afflicting our country and hurting those who have really the very least. Hillary Clinton does not have to worry about the sirens and the gunshots night. She doesn't worry about it. She's sleeping. She's sleeping.
RUSH: And she is. I mean, they tell us that she's resting. She's off the trail most of this week. Her appearance yesterday was by video to the union people, and now both candidates are supposedly off the campaign trail today as both are immersed deeply in debate preparation.
Last night on Lou Dobbs Tonight on the Fox News Channel, Dobbs spoke with Trump and said, "Your opponent --" and, for those of you in Rio Linda, that's Hillary "-- your opponent's taking four or five days to prepare for this debate. What are you doing, Mr. Trump, and how do you feel going into it?"
TRUMP: I've seen people prepare so much that they get up there and they get blocked and they can't speak. You've seen that, too, where they lock themselves in a cabin for three weeks and they don't want to do anything else. You have to be yourself. You have to go up and you just have to do it. So I'm really very much campaigning at the same time. I am prepared.
RUSH: You know, this is what I mean when I talk about Trump having natural instincts that can't be taught, that have to do with performance. And just the fact that he has whatever it is that works on television. And this debate, the criteria for this debate, let's talk about it for a second. What does Trump have to do to win this, in your mind, what do you think?
I'm gonna answer this myself later. If I answer these questions right now, it will shut down all discussion, because when I say something, that generally wraps it up. So what does Trump have to do? What does Hillary have to do to win, to be perceived as winning? And I'm not talking about what the pundits say afterwards, although that's a factor. I'm talking about in the eyes of the viewers. You know, Trump has his supporters and they want him to do so well. What does he have to do to satisfy them?
At the same time, Trump has been mischaracterized, misdiagnosed, his character has been assaulted from the get-go by both Republicans and the Hillary campaign. For example, look at this. This is a story at the Hill.com. "Poll: Nearly Half of Voters Think Trump Will Detonate a Nuke." Where the hell does that come from? Trump's not talked about detonating nukes. Who is it that's giving nuclear weapons away, it's Barack Obama. But yet half of voters think Trump will detonate a nuke. This is cockamamie, but this is the kind of stuff that's out there. This is the kind of stuff that people not voting for Trump believe.
What does Trump have to do in order to -- it's not that he's gonna prove these people wrong -- it's not that he's gonna convince them they're wrong, 'cause they're not gonna admit that. But he can do things that will cause people to question what they think they know about him. It happens to me all the time. You may not know this, but the Drive-Bys don't like me, and the Democrats don't, and they have lied and said really horrible, mean things about me for 28 years. And there are people who believe them. I mean, for a certain segment of the population that don't listen to me, my reputation's dirt.
But then when those people meet me they genuinely are shocked. "God, you're actually a nice guy."
"Yeah? Why didn't you think so?"
"Well, I read what they write about you." Same thing with Trump. So what does he have to do, and how much of it does he have to do? What constitutes a win for Trump? Same questions for Hillary. What does she have to do to win? And, by the way, I'm not talking about strict debate technique, debate points with a judge assigning victory here or there. I'm talking about the perception of the viewers, voters who watch this.
It's a golden opportunity for Trump, because he's got the name recognition, they already know who he is, and the people that don't like him don't like him not because of what they've seen, necessarily, although in some cases it might be. It's because of what they've been told. Can he change any of that, or can he mitigate some of that? By the same token, Hillary's got the same challenges. If you look at the polling data on her, dishonest, untrustworthy, corrupt. You throw them all out. Benghazi, her health, she's got any number of challenges.
Normally in a debate like this we go into it with the Democrat already ahead by 50 points simply because of the way the media aligns and we normally have a Democrat that's not hated and disliked by half the country. So she's got her own challenges. So in the case of Trump, what does he have to do to emerge from this thing maybe not even as a winner, but as something that helps him, what does he have to do to move the ball forward? What could he do that would slow him down? What could he do that could cause damage, and the same thing with Hillary. I'd be interested in your thoughts on all of this.
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RUSH: We start on the phones in Toms River, New Jersey, with Mike. It's great to have you, sir. You're up first, and welcome.
CALLER: Great to be on the show. I had a thought. With the feminists out there, is it gonna hurt -- the young feminists, Millennials that have been taught in school that they're as good as any man, is it gonna hurt Hillary Clinton that she needs a step stool to get high enough to be almost equal in height to Donald Trump?
RUSH: Well, she's not gonna get the step stool.
CALLER: Well, they said that they're gonna build a podium. I read that on Drudge. They're gonna build a podium that is gonna equal her to the height of Donald Trump, and the commission agreed to that.
RUSH: No. I'm gonna have to -- let me see. I have this in front of me.
CALLER: I know they denied her the stool.
RUSH: Yeah, they denied her the step stool. The commission is allowing for a custom-made podium which will accommodate the difference in stature. So you think that the podium -- but she's not gonna be standing on the podium. The podium is what's front of her. All that means is that the height of the podium will be appropriate for her height. In other words, it won't be at her lips.
CALLER: Oh. Well, I misunderstood that article. I assumed they were gonna jack her up.
RUSH: Wait, wait. Your question is still great. What is the effect on feminists when they learn that a woman who wants to be the most powerful woman in the world's asking for a footstool.
CALLER: That is my point. I mean, if she goes to other foreign countries and stands next to the leader of another foreign country who happens to be taller than her, does that mean that she needs something to bring her up to the same height? It defies logic if you're supposed to be the smartest woman on the planet.
RUSH: It shouldn't matter how short or dumpy, whatever, you are. But you're asking specifically about Millennial feminists. I'll have more on that as the program unfolds. I've got dwindling time here. But your question about how will feminists react -- not that it's gonna make any electoral difference -- when they learn that she has requested this. Don't think it's gonna hurt her.
Remember, one of the buzzwords in that young Millennial group is "equality." And they might think it's unfair that Trump's taller than she is. Who knows. But older feminists I think will be outraged that she has such a request. Just do it the way you are, Hillary, be who you are. Screw 'em.
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RUSH: "I ain't no ways short." Maybe Trump could show up and offer her some elevator shoes, ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz. I'm not laughing. I'm just vamping, filling time here 'til the segment ends. I don't mean any of this. I'm just talking.
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