http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/08/04/if_trump_is_truly_imploding_and_i_don_t_think_he_is_then_why_is_the_washington_establishment_panickingIf Trump Is Truly Imploding -- and I Don't Think He Is -- Then Why Is the Washington Establishment Panicking?
August 04, 2016
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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: The Washington establishment is in full destroy mode. The entire Washington establishment, consisting of the Republican establishment, the Democrat establishment, the media establishment, the think-tank establishment -- the entire political class -- has arrayed every gun that it has at the Trump campaign, and they are firing both barrels 24/7. It is a breathtaking sight to behold, ladies and gentlemen. Why all of this panic?
No, no. Now, hear me out on this. I understand on the surface of it, it would make sense. You've got Republicans over here and their nominee is now ten points down, and is losing some of the battleground states. And, as a result of that, yeah. If the nominee were Romney, or if the nominee were Ryan and this were happening, you could understand the panic. But these establishment types have been in panic since Trump announced.
They've been in panic since Trump didn't implode, and they have been openly expressing their opposition to Trump since the day Trump got in the race. And they've openly said that they want Hillary to win. Many of them have come out -- some quoted, some not quoted, some publicly, some anonymously. The list keeps growing of Republican establishment types who say they can't handle this anymore, they can't deal with this anymore. "Its' unacceptable. It's too embarrassing, and they've got to go with Hillary."
They always were going to go with Hillary! Why all of a sudden panic? Some of this doesn't make any sense to me, because look: If the people in panic had started out supporting Trump, then I would understand this panic. But the people I'm talking about have been predicting what's happening now from the get-go. They had predicted that there would be a Trump implosion. They predicted Hillary would run roughshod. This is part of their attempt to defeat Trump during the primary.
So, they want to get rid of Trump. Why aren't they out there dancing? Why aren't they celebrating? Why aren't they going on and on about, "This is what we wanted. We can't have our party taken over by this guy. This guy can't possibly win." I mean, this is exactly what they wanted to happen, so why the panic? And, by the way, who's telling us there's panic? The Drive-Bys. The Drive-By Media. And I don't doubt there's panic, but there's a part of it that doesn't quite connect logically.
Because the very people said to be in panic -- and some of the people saying they are panicked -- are getting (at least as reflected by polling and media coverage) exactly what they wanted. I can't remember the names right off the bat, but you know what I'm talking about. During the primary process it seems like every week there was a Republican -- elected or official of some prominence -- who would come out and make it clear, very publically, that he or she just couldn't support Trump. "I can't hear it. I can't do it."
And then they would either explore the possibility of finding a third-party candidate or finding ways to deny Trump the nomination at the convention or maybe voting Hillary. But they never have supported Trump. And they always have made it clear that this is kind of what they wanted to happen in a way. The people have been opposed to Trump do not want Trump being the agent that redefines the Republican Party.
So a Trump shellacking and Trump taking constant never-ending hits in the media should be cause for celebration. So why are they panicking? Any theories Mr. Snerdley? Or am I off track on this? Look, no opinion here. I'm literally asking a question. Some of this isn't making any sense. Why the panic from people who are seemingly getting what they wanted all along? Are they panicking because now it's one thing in, say, August, September of last year to dream about Trump destroying the party. But it's another thing to see it.
"Uh, oh, I didn't really want this to happen."
If you say you can't support Trump no matter what, your principles, whatever, do not permit you, for whatever reason, Trump is a reprobate or he's unqualified, if you can't bring yourself to support Trump and you've been publicly saying so and then you've been flirting with supporting, raising money for or even supporting Hillary, then why is any of this upsetting? These people seem to me to be getting exactly what they want.
Is it the sudden realization that Trump imploding, if they think that's what's happening -- by the way, don't bank on that yet, folks. Don't infer anything yet. But they perceive it. The media perceives it. The media is trying to create the impression, is it that they're associating a Trump implosion with a party implosion? Is it that they thought maybe they could arrange it so that Trump would bomb out but that wouldn't have any effect on the party?
How it can be that when these people, the people I'm talking about have made it clear that they're abandoning the party as long as Trump's there. The party's not worth standing with and saving. No. Because Trump's the head of it as the nominee, because Trump's saying he's a Republican. It's not worth saving the Republican Party. No, I'm going to join the Democrats or I'm going to join some third party or I'm going to go independent or raise money for Hillary or whatever.
Now, the need for an intervention, that story's coming from Trump supporters. And, by the way, who is it, somebody's claiming that Newt started that story, that it's not a genuine story.
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RUSH: Mike Huckabee on Fox last night, After the Bell on the Fox Business Network. David Asman said (paraphrased): Hey, Mike, Governor Huckabee. People like Rush Limbaugh are saying that you can't judge this campaign by the same measures you've used in others, because Trump isn't ideological. There isn't any ideological component in this race. What do you think about that, Governor Huckabee?
HUCKABEE: I think they're largely right. It doesn't mean he can just go off and do anything, because ultimately there are undecided voters. But here's what is true: This is not an ideological election where people are voting traditional Democrat or Republican lines. It's a disruptive election.
RUSH: Now it may be ideological on the Democrat side. I think Hillary is getting votes because there's a D next to her name. But on the Republican side, this is true. Whether you like it or not, Trump is not an ideological guy, and he's not running an ideological campaign, meaning Trump isn't running against liberals. He's running against the status-quo establishment. Now Robert Costa used to be a reporter at National Review. He was so admired by the Washington Post they, hired him away. He's now a reporter on the presidential campaign. He was on Charlie Rose last night. Charlie Rose said, "How deep and wide is the movement that Trump has...?" How long can it last?
COSTA: It's wider than any party. I mean, it includes some Bernie Sanders supporters. It includes some libertarians. The most important voter in this movement, uh, when I travel around the country, is the previously disengaged voter. They're almost a nonpartisan voter, but they've given up not just on the political process, but they've disengaged from civic society. They don't really follow politics. If that's a real coherent voting block, then Trump -- regardless of the polls -- will have a shot in November -- and regardless of all the mistakes -- because that's a huge block. There's so much of this country that rarely, if ever, votes, and if -- for some reason -- they come to the polls in droves, that changes everything.
RUSH: This is why they're scared, and this is why all the panic that doesn't seem to be sensible. Why panic when the guy you don't like is imploding? But they are.
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RUSH: I'm going to play this Bob Costa, Robert Costa sound bite again. There's actually a follow-up sound bite that goes along with it. I want to share a little story here with you. We introduced at RushLimbaugh.com, Rush 24/7. This is the pay side of the Rush Limbaugh website. There's a free side, which is just fabulous. But the subscriber or member side is just out of this world in terms of the collection of knowledge organized, the data, the historical record of this program. It's incredible.
So every now and then, we offer little premiums to new subscribers, and it always irritates people who subscribe when that particular premium is not available. The last one caused this controversy -- minor little headaches -- is the Never Hillary bumper sticker. It's a Never Hillary bumper sticker that we made available a couple months ago. We cannot keep these things in stock. They're flying off the shelves. We've got people signing up and becoming members of Rush 24/7. Don't get mad, folks, because I never talk about this.
I don't talk about this nearly as much as I should, in fact. But we've got people signing up at a rate that almost duplicates when we rolled out our website 15 or so years ago. It's incredible. And so we added in the EIB Store where we have, eh, some merchandise. Not a lot. T-shirts and golf shirts and bags and doodads. We created T-shirts modeled after the bumper sticker -- and those are flying off the shelves! I mean, there is so much anti-Hillary sentiment out there. You're not seeing any of this in media.
I don't mean my website. You're not seeing any of the anti-Hillary sentiment reported. It's just not being mentioned. I think Media Research Center did some calculations and for every negative story of Hillary, there are like 100 negative stories on Trump. It may even be worse than that. So what I did, is I went up to Connecticut for an annual golf tournament that I play in back on July the 13th/14th, and I took 50 bumper stickers with me. I got them free because I own the company. So I took them up there with me.
And everybody that saw one wanted one. But only 10 people took them. They were afraid that there would be vandalism on their cars or that liberal friends of theirs would criticize them. So they didn't want to publicize their anti-Hillary opinions. They didn't want anybody to know. Now, Connecticut is obviously a deep blue state. And the number of conservative Republicans there is not that great. But even the ones who are, do not want it known. There's a genuine fear.
Now, part of this fear is common. There are a lot of people who don't tell you what they really think about things because they just don't want to get into arguments. And particularly with people on the left because those people are vile. "They're disgustingly mean and potentially dangerous." This is what people think. "So it's best not to provoke them." Now, I'm not extrapolating this to mean anything.
I'm not suggesting that because of this little anecdotal story that you can expand it and suggest there's all kinds of anti-Hillary support out there but they're not going to tell anybody, including pollsters. But I think there's some.
Well, heck, I know there is! And it cuts both ways. There are people who are for Trump who don't want to say so. They see what happens to Trump supporters. I mean, if you're a Trump supporter and you see that the media every day is about what kind of degenerate and reprobate or whatever else Trump is?
My gosh, why would anybody want to say publicly they support that guy? But obviously a lot of people do. And then I doubled back. Pardon the repetition here, but I really want to make this point. I don't understand this panic. I understand if there's panic within the Trump campaign but, honestly, I don't know whether to believe that either. That could all be a media manifestation, a media creation. I know that if you just look at this and your only source of data is the media, you can't help but conclude it.
You have to fight the conclusion that Trump is in trouble. That's what everybody wants you to believe. And he may well be. I don't know. But what doesn't make sense to me is the people in the Republican Party who have opposed Trump since July being in a state of panic over what's being reported as Trump's campaign unraveling. Why would they be in a state of panic? Why wouldn't they be celebrating? Instead of telling reporters how panicked they are and how desperate times are and how, "Oh my God, we're going to get creamed," (they think), why aren't they out there dancing?
Because these are the people -- at least some who are supposedly panicking. These are the people that never wanted Trump. These are the people hoping and praying every week that Trump would implode. Many of them predicted that Trump would implode, and many of them said they're going to vote Democrat! Many said they're going to abandon the Republican Party. Many said they're going to sit out. Some said they're going to work for Hillary. Some said they're going to endorse Hillary. Why are those people panicking?
It doesn't make any sense.
And if they answer that by saying, "Well, we're panicking because look at what's happening with our party," well, I'm sorry, but isn't this what you wanted to happen to the party? Now, I know a lot of Tea Party people are not unhappy. The Republican Party may be in the process of imploding and then have to be put back together again. But I'm talking about establishment Republican types. If you don't want to stand and preserve your party -- and I'm talking about establishment types.
If you proudly, loudly affirm your opposition to the nominee -- in this case, the Trumpster -- and you say you're joining Hillary or you're sitting out or you're voting third party or whatever, well, by definition you are helping whatever your fear is will be happening to the Republican Party. So I just don't understand the panic. That would be -- and the people supposedly panicking don't want Trump to win anyway.
And the people supposedly panicking are the ones mostly who predicted that this kind of thing would happen, that Trump would implode. Not that he is. I'm reacting to media coverage. That's all that anybody is doing either. Except, folks, overflow crowds at every Trump event. You can't get into them. The people that do get in are as raucous as ever. They're as supportive as ever. I have talked to a lot of people that have attended these rallies.
I had a guy tell me, "Rush, you don't know what walking a rope line and signing autographs is until you do it with Donald Trump." And then he said, "Well, maybe you do, Rush, but I'm telling you: Most people don't. It's phenomenal." In the midst of all of this, all of that, that support that was with Trump from day one is still there. You just don't see it reported anymore. And the reason for that, supposedly, is that Trump isn't saying anything new. So the media has grown tired and bored.
And while all of this is going on, can anybody find Hillary Clinton? We need a search party. We need an APB. She hasn't had a press conference in over 200-some-odd days. She's not out there by design, because the people who don't want Trump to win, the vast majority of them realize that Hillary can't win it; they've got to take it away from Trump. They've got to gin it up so people are voting against Trump not for Hillary because she can't pull that off. Maybe in her base. Maybe she can energize her base, but no more than that.
So given all this, I want to go back to Robert Costa last night on Charlie Rose on PBS.
He's formerly National Review, now at the Washington Post. And amidst all of this panic, and by the way, there's celebration too. The media and the Democrats are celebrating whatever is going on or whatever they're reporting is going on with Trump. Let's face it, they're reporting an implosion, can I just use the word without worrying about it. They, in effect, are reporting that the campaign is imploding, reporting it's the worst two weeks any candidate for president has ever had. That's what they want everybody to think to conclude.
But I don't see -- I don't know. I don't see the dancing in the streets metaphorically. I don't see all this happiness that would accompany that. So here's Costa, he's a young guy. He's okay. But he was being asked by Charlie Rose about the Trump campaign and some people are still not sure about things. Because they know some of this is outside the establishment's ability to comprehend it when plugged into traditional formulas.
So first question to Mr. Costa: "How deep and how wide is the movement that Trump has in a sense accepted as his reason for being?" That's a convoluted question. What he's asking him here, who are these people? How big is this Trump movement? Is it bigger than what we see? How deep is it? Tell us. You're covering it.
COSTA: It's wider than any party. I mean, it includes some Bernie Sanders supporters. It includes some libertarians. But the most important voter in this movement when I travel around the country is the previously disengaged voter. They’re almost a non-partisan voter, but they've given up, not just on the political process, but they've disengaged from civic society. They don't really follow politics. If that’s a real coherent voting block, then Trump, regardless of the polls, will have a shot in November regardless of all his mistakes because that is a huge block. There's so much of the country that rarely, if ever, votes. And if for some reason they come to the polls in droves, that changes everything.
RUSH: Now, that's interesting isn't it? Nobody is talking about that group. Because you can't poll them. The group that traditionally doesn't vote, and there are tons of them. You probably know many of them. You know what they say: "I'm so fed up with politics. My vote doesn't count. Those people are cheating us. It doesn't matter. Don't waste your time voting. It's all set up. It's all rigged. You and I don't have a prayer."
There's a lot of people like that. Mr. Costa here says Trump's connected with them and nobody knows anything about them. Nobody know how big the group is. Nobody knows if they're actually going to vote. But at every Trump rally, no matter where it is or the size of the arena, it's overflowing. People have to put in satellite rooms with video monitors.
So Charlie Rose then said to Mr. Costa, "Well, what is your best evidence that Trump may be able to pull this off?" Remember now this question's asked right smack dab in the middle of what's being reported as there's an intervention coming, Trump's bottoming out, Trump's blowing up, Trump is imploding. It's a mistake. The Republicans are regretting it. Everybody thinks it's horrible. Trump may even quit. You know, you've heard all that. And yet here they are on Charlie Rose talking about how he can win it. Costa got his attention, Charlie is now concerned. Charlie says, "What's your best evidence that Trump can actually pull this out?"
COSTA: I'm seeing it everywhere I go, people are just frustrated with the country at large, not just with a specific party. And Trump may be the benefit of that, but he's not entirely making an overture to them in a straightforward way every day. He's a symbol of someone who’s an outsider, an interloper, someone who’s against the establishment and the elite class, however people want to describe it.
RUSH: And they are the ones that are carrying out the daily destroy mission on Trump. Understandably so. So this is interesting. And so Costa, he knows they're out there. And he knows that if anybody, this group is going to be attracted to Trump. But then he says: Trump is not really making an overture to them. In other words, Trump may not even know to whom he's appealing and how far and wide, which makes my point that this movement, whatever you want to call it, existed before Trump. It's not dependent on Trump.
That's another reason that the establishment is very worried and concerned, because it doesn't depend on Trump. Trump came along and connected with it like nobody else has. And that's why they're standing with Trump. They're not going to let people to take Trump out. It isn't going to happen.
I've got to take a quick timeout here, my friends. Seems like I go long in this segment, it's because they're all good. Let's admit it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay, so numbers that go along here with Mr. Robert Costa's point. Voter turnout in 2008 it was 62.3 percent. In 2012, it was 57.5 percent. So five percent dip in voter turnout. Almost half the people in the country who could vote don't. Or in 2012 didn't. Probably about 45 percent who could vote didn't. If they show up, if Trump gets a fraction of them, it would totally upend every formula everybody has out there. These people are not polled. And also keep in this mind, and I never see anybody dispute this. Let me just ask you to see if you recall. The latest number in whatever poll you want to take, the number is pretty consistent poll to poll, the percentage of America people who think the country is headed in the wrong direction, what's the number? It's 70.
It is 70 percent. This, I think, is why Mr. Costa, making the point that -- it's not Costas. It's Robert Costa. There's no S there. Don't make the mistake of discounting the guy because you think he's a gun control nut on Sunday Night Football. He's not the same guy.
Here's Bob from Coronado, California. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. I have two comments that I think are the reason that people are fearing an implosion. The first one, which I think is less important, applies to non-supportive Republicans and liberals. I think that's the Wilder Effect which you can explain better than I. But I think that scares that group. But what I think really scares the Republican establishment is, if in fact this group of people that you're talking about doesn't show up to vote, they're going to vote for Trump and that's why they're going to the polls. If they get disgruntled and say, "I'm not going to vote for Trump, I can't take it." They're going to stay home and that is minus one Republican vote for that senator, that House person. And they need the voter to go to the polls and the Donald supporter, if he gives up, isn't going to vote for the rest of the ticket.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Okay. That's a good point. But these people should have thought of that. They should have thought down ballot. If they're going to abandon the Republican Party because of Trump they're abandoning the Republican Party. They can't say they're going to work for Hillary and then -- I guess they could say they're going to turn around and work for their favorite senator or what have you. Anyway, we'll throw that in the hopper. Couple of good points there. Particularly the second one.
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RUSH: You gotta be very careful. Folks, I'm not saying that the Trump campaign is imploding. I don't believe that it is. The media wants you to think so. In all of these stories about there's going to be an intervention, everybody reputed, supposedly in charge of that, says it's not true. Other than Rudy who said Newt made up the story. But there isn't one. Don't misunderstand me. I'm just referring to what the media wants you to believe. I don't believe it is happening.
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