http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/04/01/if_you_re_a_republican_candidate_you_d_better_be_ready_for_an_abortion_trick_disguised_as_a_journalist_s_questionIf You're a Republican Candidate, You'd Better Be Ready for an Abortion Trick Disguised as a Journalist's Question
April 01, 2016
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RUSH: It's Open Line Friday. Rush Limbaugh, and back to the phones. More from Los Angeles. Rob, great to have you with us, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello. Great to speak with you, Mr. Limbaugh. I've been a fan for very, very long time.
RUSH: I appreciate your calling, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: I'll tell you, I've been listening to the show today, I'm listening to the news, and with this... You know, I mean, I could go in any direction; my head's gonna explode. But this thing with Trump and this abortion comment, I absolutely agree with you that it was a trap, but it really does show just how out of control -- and even more so than I thought -- the media is.
RUSH: You know, let me jump in here. I want to make one thing clear about this that I probably haven't. I want one pour stab at this. This whole interview that Chris Matthews did with Trump? Yes, he's asking Trump questions, and, yes, he's trying to trip Trump up on abortion. My point about that is that whole interview was essentially an attack on the Republican Party, not just Trump. It set up a campaign narrative for the Democrats to use against the entire party, not just Trump. It doesn't matter if Trump's the nominee or not.
They're still gonna be able to use this issue, or they're gonna try. What Matthews did was establish another vein of the War on Women meme and to try to keep that alive. And it wasn't just aimed at Trump. It was designed once again to caricature or characterize the entire Republican Party. And that's why I reacted to it the way I did, not because I'm worried about what it did to Trump. I'm concerned that the Republican Party doesn't have an answer to this.
The Republican Party themselves doesn't know what to do with this War on Women business, and it's about time they came up with something because it's ridiculous! Women out there asking to be exempted from taxes for tampons, for crying out loud? This is gonna happen. Folks, this kind of feminism is eventually gonna get what it wants. You laugh about it. "Oh, my God, look at these women in Ohio! They don't want to pay $4 a year."
The same thing happened with contraceptives. But, Rush! But, Rush! Why shouldn't they? I thought you were opposed to taxes?" I am opposed to taxes that's not what this is about. They are dividing us! These women are saying, "We shouldn't have to pay this tax because men don't have to pay an equivalent tax." They're doing everything they can to drive wedges between us, between men and women, between liberals-conservatives, between races. I can't wait to get this demographic survey that the Pew people did.
I'm gonna do it in the next hour. This whole thing that Matthews did was actually aimed and designed to impugn the entire party, and that's why when I see people jumping all over Trump for this, they'd better be very careful. Because if they don't understand what the purpose of that was, we're gonna end up being ensnared in it themselves. I'm sorry. You made me want to make that point; I apologize for interrupting you. But go ahead and finish your point now.
CALLER: Well, the point I was trying to make was just basically that -- and I think you were the one who broke it down, I think it was yesterday, just saying... If you're posing a hypothetical question to say, "If blank is maybe illegal and someone commits blank, should they be pushed?" and you say, "Well, yeah, I guess so. It should be pushed if it was something illegal." I'm still kind of scratching my head, wondering, "Okay, what's the problem with that?" I realize the way that they're spinning it, but I really do feel like if people just took a break and took a step back and actually listened to the tape --
RUSH: Well, let me tell you what's wrong with it. You're helping me make my point. What's wrong with it is that abortion isn't going to be become illegal, in this campaign or the next --
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: -- and the Republican Party does not have a policy that's designed to punish women and put 'em in jail for it! That, nevertheless, is what Chris Matthews and the Democrat Party and the media are trying to create with that whole line of hypothetical questioning. You can give your answer. A lot of people said, "Rush, what are you defending Trump for? If you really are pro-life and if the hypothetical is presented to you...? If you're pro-life, you're pro-life; you think it's wrong, then somebody ought to be punished for it. If it's a crime, right? You ought to have an answer for it."
The whole thing is set up because there's nobody out there actively campaigning to make it a crime. The pro-life movement is about changing minds and hearts. It's not about putting people in jail. Nobody is! I don't know anybody putting people in jail and asking this line of question is not designed to find out what Trump thinks about this. It's not what Matthews is trying to do. He's doing the same thing that Stephanopoulos was trying to do, and that is tar and feather the entire Republican Party as a bunch of people who want to put women in jail.
And who want to create dual societies where women are subordinate and barefoot pregnant in the kitchen, whatever it is. This bias and prejudice they think we have, or that they're trying to create, they're trying to continue it and grow it and expand it. That's why they asked it as a hypothetical. Can anybody tell me...? Do you know of anybody? Maybe I'm wrong. Is there anybody in the pro-life movement who wants to put women in jail, right now today, as part of reversing Roe v. Wade?
CALLER: I -- I -- I've never heard that. That was such a completely out-of-left-field question. I wish Trump would have been better prepared to answer that. But, like you said, it hasn't been an issue in this campaign. And why should...? I mean, it's like saying, "You should have a plan for the hypothetical zombie apocalypse just in case, because you're gonna be president; you should know this stuff." I don't think you can expect everybody to have an answer for any kind of a hypothetical that's something not even on the table.
RUSH: Wait. No, no. See, this one is fundamental. If the Republican Party does not -- and by Republican Party, I mean everybody: Conservatives, moderates, libertarians, whatever. This whole issue that has become known as the War on Women, there's still people on our side laughing at it, thinking, "This is so ridiculous. Nobody's gonna fall for this." I hate to tell you, but the people on the left have been so ill-educated and so infused with fear, they do believe it! That's why the question and the hypothetical was asked.
And it was an attempt to characterize and impugn the entire Republican Party and conservative movement. And everybody smugly out there smugly saying, "What a fool Trump made of himself! Why, he didn't have an answer for it." Well, neither does the Republican Party. You can sit there and laugh and get smug that Trump embarrassed himself and hurt himself, but if you don't understand that this is... They don't have anything but this and the race card to play.
Their policies are abject failures. And we don't have anybody out there talking about that, either! The Democrat Party, the leftist movement is an absolute disaster. Their policies have led to the messes that we are in. The only cards they've got to play are abortion and race -- and every time they play 'em after all these years, there still isn't an effective answer to nuke it and do away with it. And they tried it again this week.
RUSH: I'm just telling you, folks, two things. If you're gonna run for president of the United States, if you're going to seek the Republican Party presidential nomination, you had damn better study up on the way they go after you on abortion. You had better study up and figure out what you think about it, and you better be able to rattle it off. And you better be able to spot a phony premise right off the bat and refuse to answer it and totally change the subject or the direction of the question, 'cause I'm here to tell you, the question that Chris Matthews asked Trump, was not aimed at getting an answer.
The question was meant to shape. It was meant to accuse. It was meant to characterize. When you listen to these interviews, particularly things like Matthews, MSNBC, CNN, forget that there is a question mark at the end. There's no doubt in my mind Trump looked at Matthews as guy he can deal with, somebody you gotta do a deal with. He doesn't look at Matthews as somebody trying to destroy him. I don't know. Maybe Trump thinks he can't be destroyed anyway.
But it's clear if you're gonna make up your mind to go on MSNBC running for the Republican presidential nomination you have got to be prepared for what it's really about. It is aimed at destroying you. It is aimed at ruining your candidacy. It is designed to make you look like a fool. That's what they think we are anyway. It is designed to help Hillary Clinton. It is not designed to find out what Donald Trump or anybody else really thinks about abortion because they think they already know what you think about abortion and I think about it, and everybody else.
Journalists, I've gotten blue in the face explaining this. It took me a couple years to learn it. Whenever you do an interview, they're not really interested in what you think. And if you think you can change a journalist's mind, don't do the interview because that's not the agenda. The journalist is there, when you're a conservative and the journalist is a liberal, the journalist is there to embarrass you, to expose you, to destroy you, whatever, however they can do it. There's no real desire to find out what you think about something. You've got to be prepared for that. Anybody running for the presidency on the Republican side has to be prepared for this. It's amazing how few really are, even after all this time.
And the same thing goes for anything about race. There are ways to deal with it that our side hasn't figured out. The whole point of interviews like this is to establish, not answer, not elucidate, not learn. It is to establish. It's to pigeonhole. The topic doesn't matter. Whenever it's one of these defining issues where the left thinks they have the morally superior position, you're not gonna change their mind. You're not gonna suppliant them. You're not gonna open their minds. You're not gonna show 'em that you might be right. You're not gonna intrigue them. They're not there to be intrigued. They're not there to learn. They're not there to do anything other than expose you for the fraud that they believe you are.
They did it with Romney. They did it with George W. Bush. They did it with Ronald Reagan. They're doing it with Trump. They're gonna do it to Ted Cruz. They have been doing it to Ted Cruz. They did it to McCain, and they're gonna get around to doing it to Kasich if it's ever necessary. And, yeah, it may only be March when this happened, I know it's April today, it may only be March when this happened, but remember all of this is aimed at helping Hillary Clinton. It's all about winning in November, plain and simple.
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