RUSH: Michael in Atlanta, I’m glad you waited. Appreciate your patience. How are you doing?

CALLER: I am doing excellent, Rush. Thank you for taking my call, sir. You know, you are known as the godfather of talk radio, the great messiah of truth.

RUSH: Well.

CALLER: I understand why you don’t do television shows. But have you ever considered hosting a debate?

RUSH: Well, no, I haven’t. Do you really want to know why, or do you just want me to be kind of jocular and funny here? Are you being serious?

CALLER: Oh, oh, I am being serious.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: I mean, with the way these debates have gone off lately, Monica Crowley jumping on the other side, the way they attack people, I’d like to actually hear —

RUSH: Monica Crowley jumping on the other side, what did I miss there? What do you mean Monica Crowley jumped on the other side?

CALLER: I think it was Crowley, the one with Mitt and Obama —

RUSH: Oh, that was Candy Crowley at CNN.

CALLER: Candy Crowley, there you go.

RUSH: Okay, why don’t I do TV? I explained a little bit of this last week when I had a guy call about my hearing.

CALLER: Hm-hm.

RUSH: The number one reason why I don’t do television, honestly now, I beg you to understand me, I don’t collaborate. I’ve never had a meeting to do this show. I do not have to tell one person at any time what I’m gonna do on this program. I do not have to decide. I don’t have to lay it all out before I do it. I can do it as it comes to me. I can do it improv. I can do it ad-lib. Nothing’s written down. There’s no time that I have to do this or do that. I don’t have to tell 15 people when I’m gonna do it.

No meetings. I did a TV show for four years, and every 22-minute show took three hours of meetings. It took me awhile to even get into it. But I just learned, I’m not a collaborator. I work alone. And a television show cannot be done the way I do a radio show, because you need a cameraman or two, and you need a floor director, and you need somebody back there inserting video clips, but they have to come in the order that you plan them. You can’t spontaneously do anything on a TV show. (interruption) Well, yeah, you have to wear makeup. You have to wear long pants. You have to choke yourself wearing a collar and a tie. I mean, I just… (interruption) No. He said, “Why don’t I do TV,” and then he said, “Have you ever thought about monitoring a debate?” (interruption) Wait a second. Michael, did you say that you understand why I don’t TV, or did you ask me why I don’t TV?

CALLER: No, I understand why you don’t.

RUSH: Well, I’m sorry. I just wasted all this time with an answer you already knew.

CALLER: The debates.

RUSH: Okay, the debate. I never have imagined I would ever be asked to moderate one. I don’t think it would ever happen. I’m not gonna tell you why it wouldn’t happen because I just don’t want to put that out there.

CALLER: So you feel you would have to be asked to moderate one, it’s not that you could actually seek out the nominees —

RUSH: Oh, so you’re suggesting why don’t I do a pay-per-view type program up on a cable or satellite channel and charge like 99 cents, and invite the candidates and do a debate that I sponsor on television, right?

CALLER: Exactly. Because I think that’s the only way real truth of what these candidates stand for would come out.

RUSH: Because you think I will get out of them what they really think? You think I will not let them get away with being politicians. Is that what you’re thinking?

CALLER: Well, and I also don’t think that you would be attacking them and try to smear them. You’d let them put their own foot in their mouth all by themselves just by the questions you pose. That’s my thought on it.

RUSH: (laughing)

CALLER: I mean, they can’t understand why Donald Trump’s not a conservative, but if Bush and McConnell and Boehner and Mitt Romney are the epitome of conservative, I can see why Donald Trump’s not a conservative.

RUSH: Isn’t that amazing? These guys who are not conservatives running around lecturing us on Trump not being a conservative.

CALLER: Well, you know, it’s the same thing about Donald Trump being a Democrat. Even if he was, after the last eight years of this administration, how could you call yourself a Democrat?

RUSH: Well, I can’t refute that. But I don’t think people care what Trump’s calling himself. I don’t think people care that he donated to Hillary or she went to his wedding or any of that. They trust what he’s saying.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: That’s why I hope he understands the hope and the trust people are putting in him, because they’re giving him a big pass on things. You know, “Why’d you donate to Hillary?” He says, “I had to! I live in New York. I gotta donate to Democrats. That’s how I do business here. It’s the way politics is, and one of the reasons I’m running. I want to blow all that up.” People believe that. It better be true. So I hope…

I have no way of knowing one way or the other. My instincts are that Trump knows exactly what’s happening here. And I hope he respects it. I hope he understands what people are investing in him is pretty special, ’cause they mean it. They’re dead serious about things that are happening, going wrong. In fact… (interruption) Also I don’t debate. (interruption) Oh, I know they’d all show up. That’s not it. I’m not worried that nobody would show up if I invited candidates to do a debate.

I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it to make money on it. I’m sure I could, too. If there were a profit here, it would be donated to charity. That’s not… I can’t answer this question honestly. People won’t understand it. Let me tell you something, folks. It’s real simple. If I moderate a debate, who do you think is gonna end up dominating it? Who do you think is…? (interruption) Well, no, I’m not. But I just… I can’t…

I’m sorry, I can’t answer this question honestly because it would disappoint so many of you if I were to answer this question honestly. (interruption) Anyway, it isn’t gonna… I’ll never be asked to moderate a debate or participate in one. It won’t happen. Frankly, I’ve never thought about doing one on my own. I haven’t. Now that it’s on the table, who knows? Anyway, Michael, thanks for stirring it up. I appreciate it, by the way. I’m not diminishing your request or taking it lightly.

I appreciate it. I really do.