RUSH: Well, the media world shocked yet again today, ladies and gentlemen, by the Trumpster. Donald Trump had jury duty yesterday. During his lunch break he went out and turned on this program. After jury duty, he tweeted that he had done just that, that he had turned on this program. I don’t have the tweet right in front of me but he said, “Great guy, great show, whatever, listening to Rush Limbaugh.” The media was beside themselves, even over at Fox. Here we have Fox & Friends, a discussion about Trump and jury duty yesterday. Number three.
BRIAN KILMEADE: What did he do during lunch? He went out and listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio, at which time he tweeted his appraise of Rush as a talk show host.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: He sure did. Right after he got lunch.
BRIAN KILMEADE: Why would he do that?
RUSH: Why would he do that? ‘Cause that’s what he did. Why would he do it? Trump tells people what he thinks and what he did. That’s why he did it. After Doocy plays a clip… They played a clip of what I said on the program yesterday. No, I don’t have time to get this in before the break. It’s a 53-second bite. By the way, the clip that I have coming up, it’s been all over Fox today with people analyzing and commenting on it. We’ll give you a taste of that from the Fox & Friends program.
But Bill Hemmer used it later in the day on Fox and so forth. But no, I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know that Trump had tweet. I don’t tweet, as you know, and nobody had tweeted to me. I didn’t know this happened ’til I got here this morning and somebody told me it happened on television. So I tracked down the tweet, and that’s how I learned that Trump had left jury duty lunch to go out and listen to this program yesterday and then had tweeted about what a pleasurable, enjoyable, and enlightening, entertaining experience it had been.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So Donald Trump goes out for lunch in the midst of jury duty yesterday in New York and at the end of lunch on the way back into jury duty he tweeted out: “Listening to @rushlimbaugh on way back to Jury Duty. Fantastic show, terrific guy!” And the media, “Why would he say that? Why would he do it?” Brian Kilmeade, “Why would he do that?”
Anyway, it was shocking throughout the media in some sectors, particularly the conservative media. It led, however, to discussions of another thing that I said on the program yesterday, and they played the sound bite for other guests on Fox and other people react to it. We’ll start with Fox & Friends, but it’s been used all morning long, just to keep you in the loop here what’s happening with your host. We start here with Steve Doocy, and this is all about immigration. Here’s how the segment went.
DOOCY: The whole country is talking about how Donald Trump has got a plan, and it is detailed, and Rush Limbaugh was actually talking about it on his show yesterday, even though it’s a radio show, there’s television pictures of it. Here he is.
RUSH ARCHIVE: The inside-the-Beltway people, when they hear that, they cringe. “Oh, my God, don’t say that’s what Republicans — oh, God.” Sixteen people running for the presidency, and 15 of them are perceived — I know they would argue with this — but 15 of them are perceived to have essentially the same policy on immigration. One of them is entirely different from the other 15, and he’s the one who’s leading. I don’t think these people have any idea just how angry, frightened, fearful a pretty big majority of the people of this country are that we are losing the country.
KILMEADE: You could almost hear Donald Trump tweeting his praise of Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH: Ah ha, so there they have it. They think Trump heard that and that’s why he tweeted out. It could be. You never know. It could be. So later on they have analysts coming in, they had people come in, experts, to explain to people what I meant, whether I was right or wrong. And here comes Judge Napolitano. Steve Doocy says, “What Trump has done, he worked with Senator Sessions from Alabama, they came up with this very comprehensive immigration plan. It’s a dream list for many who have wanted immigration reform for a long time, but it involves everything.”
NAPOLITANO: I fully agree with you, Steve, but some of them, the impediments, are extraordinary. Others, Rush Limbaugh is right. Donald Trump is the only one, I don’t agree with him on a lot of things, but he is the only one saying this with clarity, with purpose, and in a comprehensive nature. I suggest to you some of the other Republicans are gonna jump on that bandwagon.
RUSH: Nah, they’ll hold off on that for a little while. Up next is Karl Rove, and this is again on Fox & Friends. Steve Doocy said to Karl Rove, “The point Rush Limbaugh makes is that there’s a large crowd running on the Republican side. So many of them seem alike in Rush’s estimation. What do you make of that, Karl?”
ROVE: He’s right, with the emphasis on the word “perceived.” There are people who have thought out ideas that differ from other ideas that others are out postulating, but right now the attention is being put on Trump. I’m not certain that’s necessarily good for Trump. In July Gallup did a poll and 31% of Republicans had essentially what his position is: run them all out of the country, deport ’em all. Now, his is actually a little bit more extreme than that. His is deport ’em all, even if they’re children who are born in the United States. Fifty percent said they ought to be able to stay here after passing certain requirements, so this may not help him over the long haul.
RUSH: Let’s go to the polling data that was referred to there. It’s a CNN poll. You know what’s interesting about this poll? The poll is supposedly a Republican poll, a poll of Republican registered voters. Half of the sample is independents who lean Republican. I have never heard of this. I looked into this, I found out that CNN does this for Democrats, too. They go out and they do a poll exclusively of Republicans or Democrats, and then they call or they consider to be independents who are leaning — in this case Republican — to be registered Republicans, when they’re not.
You know, by definition, an independent can change his or her mind on a whim. Well, so can any registered voter, for that matter. If you’re gonna go out and do a poll of registered voters, why do you make half the sample of independents leaning Republican? Now, I know that the Drive-Bys and the inside-the-Beltway establishment are obsessed with independents, they always have been, but I just didn’t know this happened. I thought, I wonder if they do this for Democrats. So I looked into it, and they do. They do the same thing when they do polls exclusively for Democrats.
Now, what did the poll say? Well, this CNN poll says that Trump is pulling away from everybody, and like we mentioned to you the other day, yesterday, there’s these two academics, one from Berkeley, one from Stanford, who’ve done an exhaustive survey of the American people, and they’ve found that Trump’s immigration proposal is not as — I don’t want to use the word “radical,” but I guess I will just to make the point here.
Trump’s immigration proposal falls short of things a majority of Americans actually support. Let’s put it that way. So while Trump is perceived to be way out there, and Trump is perceived to be extreme on this, he doesn’t even — he gets close, but he is still not as intent on this issue as a majority of the American people. It’s what these two academics found out.
Now, this is pretty amazing stuff from CNN to have to report this, and I’m sure it choked them to write it, especially the stuff about how much the party, really the base, trusts Trump when it comes to the economy, immigration, and dealing with ISIS. What this poll indicates is that Trump’s support goes beyond his immigration positions, within the Republican Party, the base. This poll says that Republicans trust Trump on the economy. They trust Trump on immigration and dealing with ISIS. Here’s how they write it.
“Donald Trump has won his party’s trust on top issues more than any other Republican presidential candidate, and now stands as the clear leader in the race for the GOP nomination, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The survey finds Trump with the support of 24% of Republican registered voters.” It’s just down one point from the Fox poll yesterday that had Trump at 25%, so it’s consistent.
“The survey finds Trump with the support of 24% of Republican registered voters. His nearest competitor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, stands 11 points behind at 13%.” That’s 11 points behind. Now, in the Fox poll, Ben Carson’s in second place, followed by Cruz. Just behind Jeb Bush is Ben Carson in the CNN poll at 9%. Then Rubio and Scott Walker at 8%. Rand Paul at six, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich all are in at 5% in the CNN poll, with Mike Huckabee in the top 10 but down at 4%. CNN did not even include the name Chris Christie in their poll, even though he shows up with 3%.
“Trump is the biggest gainer in the poll, up 6 points since July according to the first nationwide CNN/ORC poll since the top candidates debated in Cleveland on Aug. 6. Carson gained 5 points and Fiorina 4 points.” All of that confirmed in the Fox poll the previous day. “Trump has also boosted his favorability numbers among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, 58% have a favorable view of Trump.” Fifty-eight percent, folks, of the Republican Party.
Now, again keep in mind, this sample is not of Republicans. It’s Republicans and independents leaning Republican. I don’t know, something about that just doesn’t jibe with me, but they do it for Democrats, too, so we’ll call it a wash and leave it there. I’m just curious about the methodology. If you’re gonna go out and do a poll of Republicans, why include independents leaning Republican? Unless your aim is to show the support for a candidate is broad-based, goes beyond the party, or doesn’t, depending on the results from candidate to candidate.
“On the economy and illegal immigration, Trump is far and away the top choice even among those Republicans who support someone else for the nomination (33% who say they will most likely vote for someone else say Trump is their most trusted on the economy, 29% say so on illegal immigration). Trump is also most trusted on social issues, 19% say he’s their top choice to handle that.” Second place is Jeb Bush at 15%. And you know what else? The cherry on top here, the piece de resistance? The CNN poll finds evidence of a gender gap in support for Trump? In other words, a majority of Republican women support Trump, more support him than do not.
Everything’s being stood on its head here. And in similar polls on the Democrat side, as good as it is for Trump, it is devastatingly bad for the Hillary. It’s gotten to the point for Hillary that her supporters, one of her big-time supporters has actually written a piece begging her to get out before her reputation is destroyed. Get out now, get out clean, get out with dignity, get out now before it ruins you. From one of her main big-time supporters. You haven’t heard of this person, but this person is a big intellectual. It’s in the UK Telegraph or the Daily Mail, one of those papers.