RUSH: Today is Thursday. Last weekend was four days ago. Depending on which day of the weekend you go back to, it could be five days ago. And if you have wishful thinking about weekends it could be six days ago, all the way back to last Friday. What happened last weekend? Donald Trump supposedly took himself out of the presidential race with one sentence about John McCain. I mean, that’s what the conventional wisdom told us.
From the moment it was reported that Trump said he wasn’t impressed with McCain because he’s not impressed with people that get captured, the immediate media response, the immediate response, the knee-jerk response from the Washington establishment, both parties, was, “That’s it. It’s over. We’ve finally put a bag of excrement out there in front of Donald Trump, and he’s stepped in it. This is it. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” they said.
This is the moment they said they knew was going to happen, if they would just wait. Trump was going to say something beyond the pale that would offend and outrage everyone and force him out of the race, to which they then said will be great so that we can now get down to the serious business of the Republican nomination.
Well, here it is Thursday, and it hasn’t happened. Trump’s still there. Trump’s bigger than ever. Trump’s numbers continue to skyrocket. He’s on CNN last night telling Anderson Cooper why people don’t watch him. He’s on CNN last night trying to tell Anderson Cooper why people don’t trust him, why they don’t watch CNN, why they don’t trust CNN.
Donald Trump was supposed to be gone. This is the teachable moment to which I referred on Monday, which was misinterpreted by many as support for Trump, but it wasn’t. I was just being an objective observer pointing out that we have a circumstance here which we haven’t seen in a while. Trump made himself a target with his supposed reported comments about McCain, and that was supposed to be the end. And I said something’s happening here that we don’t normally see.
The target of this attempt is actually fighting back. The target not only is not apologizing, he’s not even getting close to apologizing so much so that he’s even doubled down on the original comment and tripled down on it to the point that an apology would not even look real. This is an interesting thing, folks, because we now see — and I think this is a lesson that every conservative and every Republican needs to learn. Of course it depends on the specifics of every instance here, but this is pretty traditional. Trump was supposed to not be able to survive this. All the experts told us, all of the wizards of smart, all the experts, all the consultants, all the know-it-alls smiled and rubbed their hands in glee and said, “That’s it.”
But Trump didn’t play by their rules. He didn’t apologize. He didn’t grovel. He didn’t ask for forgiveness. He didn’t ask for a chance to restate it. He didn’t ask for understanding. He said (imitating Trump), “Screw you. Not only did I mean it, try this.” And he’s still there. What’s the lesson? The lesson is — and I promise you this is gonna be maybe the third to fourth last time I’m gonna mention this, because I think it’s important. The lesson is that when outrage pops up over something supposedly controversial said by a conservative or a Republican, it does not mean that that outrage is shared by the American people or a majority thereof.
When the outrage machine gets going, as in outrage over what Trump said about McCain, the implied assumption is that the American people, the majority of the American people also are angry and demanding of an apology and want the perp gone. It’s not the case. So every conservative, every Republican, elected official, public figure, doesn’t matter, next time — and there will be a next time, and it’ll not be that long. Next time this happens, there’s a new rule that can be followed, there’s a new example that’s been set.
You do not have to slink away with your tail between your legs. You do not have to apologize. You do not have to assume that a majority of the American people agree with whatever the critics in the media are saying. These kinds of things, depending on a lot of factors, I mean, it’s not universal, but a lot of these factors can be survived, a lot of these instances can be survived. It’s not necessary to immediately capitulate, apologize, and split the scene. Seminal moment, folks. Seminal moment. I doubt that anybody else is making such big deal about this, but I’ve been through this is why this matters to me.
You know, things happen to you. You have personal experiences in things that happen to others. You have a bond of relatability, an ability to understand it a little bit more than people to whom it’s never happened. I’ve been through this I can’t tell you how many times, and I’m still here, triumphing as always. It can be done. It’s always irked me how quickly Republican targets slink away, give up, raise the white flag of surrender, thinking that they are being appreciated, thinking that they are lessening whatever anger there is at them.
It’s totally unnecessary. And depending, again, the circumstances are unique to each and each issue. I mean, there are certain things that someone could say that they couldn’t survive. I understand that. It’s not universal. But it’s also not universal on the other end, that everything controversial — and by the way, who gets to define what’s controversial? They do. The critics, the media, the left, the Democrats, they get to define what’s controversial.
So Trump was supposed to be gone, Trump was supposed to be finished. But have you noticed something? The more Donald Trump talks, the higher he goes in the polls. The more Donald Trump speaks, the more places he goes, the more places he appears, the greater his support, which is the exact opposite of Hillary Clinton.