RUSH: Trump is doing an informal press thing right now, and I see it on, and without even listening to it, just started laughing. He’s having such a good time, it’s infectious laughter. Turns out that what… I saw there was a chyron graphic, “No, I can’t criticize Cruz or Carson ’cause they’re being nice to me.” (laughing) He’s really continuing to go after Jeb Bush. He says he’s gonna forgo a third-party run. He told this to the Republican…
His lawyer… Actually Michael Cohen, the Trump top aide didn’t go so far as to confirm that Trump would take the step of forsaking a run as an independent, but he did tell the Huffing and Puffington Post that Trump never had any intention of campaigning as anything other than a Republican, and the story is he’s told the RNC Republican high command that he will forgo a third-party run.
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush… This is so hard. This is so… I mean, I don’t know a person who does not admire the Bush family. I clearly do. The Bush family has been so good to me and our family. But, man, that’s why it’s tough. Folks, it’s why it’s tough getting to know these people that you end up talking about. I try actually not to, for that reason. But Jeb Bush has come out and sided with Jorge Ramos over Donald Trump.
Jeb Bush says that Jorge Ramos or however he pronounces his name… You know, I shouldn’t mention this. I know it’s bad form to mention, but this guy is so tiny, I can’t… Every time I see the guy he get tinier and tinier. He’s dwarfed by everybody, which doesn’t mean anything. I mean, it’s just an observance. Sorry. At any rate, Jeb is out there, and he says that Jorge Ramos deserves a little more respect; that Donald Trump had no business treating Jorge Ramos that way.
And I’m sorry, that is exactly what is wrong. Jorge Ramos was out to destroy Donald Trump. That’s what he’s tried to, and he’ll try to destroy Jeb Bush at some point. No matter what Jeb thinks, if Jeb is the nominee, he’s gonna be destroyed by all these people that he’s urging us to be nice to. And I don’t know what it is. Is it the effort to differentiate himself from Trump? What it is it’s an illustration of how behind the times and out of it this entire Republican establishment is.
I mean, how obtuse do you have to be to believe that where we are right now in 2015, the route to Republican victory requires that we appease Democrats and the media? You think…? How in the world do you think you’re gonna attract a majority of voters? The only reason for that would be that you don’t want the base — and I know this is what Jeb’s trying. I know Jeb’s theory. I know what the strategy is. The Bush strategy is to get the nomination without the base, and the way they’re gonna do that is with money.
They’re gonna freeze everybody else out. You know, when you first heard that Jeb wanted… He was very publicly saying he wanted to get the nomination without the base. Everybody was scratched their heads. “How do you do that?” You do it by soaking up all the money and then you force all the other candidates out because you’re getting the money. You’re getting all the donors — the big donor money, the medium-size donor money — and then nobody else can compete, and you win it by default.
And that’s the strategy.
The problem is the money may be starting to dry up. The donors might be starting to get a little nervous because the donors weren’t told that they’re gonna be supporting somebody at five or 8% in the polls here, and so The Hill had a story last week. The headline: “Jeb Donors Not Nervous — Yet.” Really? Then why is the story running. But when you have a headline here that Jeb Bush sides with Jorge Ramos after what happened…
Jorge Ramos was rude.
Jorge Ramos was attempting to embarrass Trump and take him out, and Republican voters are sick and tired of this kind of behavior by the media, and one of the reasons Trump is being supported is because he’s one guy standing up and telling them to sit down and shut up and wait their turn. And the country is applauding like mad, and his poll numbers continue to skyrocket. This notion that the only way we can get anywhere is to be cooperative and bipartisan and polite because the independents…
“Oh, yes, don’t you know? The special independents, they don’t like confrontation. They don’t like criticism. They don’t like friction.” Really? How come they always end up going with the meanest SOBs in politics, and that’s the Democrats? I’ve never understood this. We’re told that independents don’t like any criticism. They want comity. They want politics and people getting along, working together, cooperating to mutual agreement with where we both sides compromise.
Really?
And then there’s the slightest bit of criticism of a Democrat or the media or Obama, and we’re told, “The independents, they don’t like that, and they’ll run right back to the Democrats!” Well, what are they gonna hear there? They’re gonna hear personal insult after lie after vicious attack after another lie, and it isn’t gonna bother them? And our side ends up believing this? So I don’t understand Jeb Bush. What does he think he’s gaining here by siding with Jorge Ramos?
I know he’s got his advisors out there. I know he’s got these consultants, and they expect Trump to step in it, expect Trump to blow up one of these days, and they expect that everybody’s gonna come to their senses one day and realize that they want cooperation and bipartisanship and soft-spoken competence and moderation in all things and whatever. And that Jeb is scoring points here for future reference by having it cataloged that he hasn’t lost his head.
He’s not insulting anybody. He’s not being mean. He’s not being attack-oriented. He’s just polite and reserved, and 16 months from now we’re supposed to remember all this. That’s the guy when we get serious that we want. I mean, that has to be what the thinking is. But it’s not the best advice he’s getting. Anyhoo. Oh, this just causes Trump to just turn around and just unload even more on Jeb, which he did after hearing about that.
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RUSH: No, I don’t think Jeb has seen what Jorge Ramos said to ABC. I’ve got the audio sound bites, if I could just get disciplined to use this stuff. I just have so much I want to say here, but we’ll get to these. But in these sound bites, Jorge Ramos told George Stephanopoulos, told ABC News that all journalists have to denounce what Trump is saying. And that’s why he went to that press conference. Now, maybe that’s why Jeb wants to praise Jorge, ’cause he thinks Trump needs to be denounced. But you bite the hand that feeds you, and it’s gonna come back and bite you. — or feed it. Whatever.
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RUSH: So the second question to Jorge Ramos on ABC today was, “How do you respond to critics who say you’re more advocate than journalist?” And Ramos said, “I think the best journalism happens when you take a stand, and when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public life, dictatorship or human rights, as journalists, we are not only required but we are forced to take a stand, and clearly when Mr. Trump is talking about immigration in an extreme way, we have to confront him, and I think that’s what I did yesterday.”
So there is your objective journalist, Jorge Ramos.
There’s nothing journalist about it. He’s an activist. He is pursuing an agenda. And, by the way, let me give you one other thought. For those of you who may think that is a little bit extreme, I’ll acknowledge there may be some, “Come on, Rush.” Okay, I’ll call him a shill. Where does he work? He works at Univision. What is Univision? It’s a Spanish-language television network. As such, what does he need? It’s an American network.
What does he need?
He needs an audience that speaks Spanish.
Where’s he gonna get that? He’s got to support massive invasions of Spanish-speaking people into this country in order to maintain a large Univision audience. So if you’re not comfortable calling the guy an activist, call him a shill. And if you don’t want to call him an activist because it makes you uncomfortable then say, “Okay, he’s a businessman, and he knows needs Spanish-speaking audience and he’s not gonna get that unless there is an ongoing invasion of Spanish-speaking people getting into the country.”
For me, I think he could be a little bit of both. I don’t think there’s any question of the fact that the guy’s an activist. The last thing he is is a journalist. And, by the way, what he just says there, he practically defines journalism today. Journalism is not objectivity in any way, shape, manner. It is “taking a stand.” Journalism has become activism. It’s activism for the Democrat Party agenda in this country or the leftist agenda if you’re in Venezuela or Cuba or wherever.
But journalism today, you are an adjunct of the ruling party. You are a willing accomplice. You are not independent anymore. Jorge Ramos made it clear that his purpose was to take Trump out, ’cause Trump threatens his existence. If Trump was able to stop the invasion, then Jorge’s audience is gonna stop growing. That’s undeniable. Unless he can convert this country’s official language from English to Spanish, he’s gonna require an invasion of Spanish-speaking people for the Univision audience to grow.
Am I right? Do I have a point, or do I not? Is it not brilliant or is it brilliant? It’s brilliant. Whoever thought about it besides me is also brilliant. I don’t think anybody else has, because nobody’s me. Now, we also have Jorge. He was on with Megyn Kelly last night, the Kelly File. We have a couple bites here. Her question to Jorge Ramos: “What he said was that you were looking for a confrontation, that you were rude to the other reporters in the room because you didn’t wait your turn.”
RAMOS: He was ready to listen to my question, and as soon as I started telling him that it was impossible — because it’s really his immigration plan is full of empty promises — that it is impossible to do what he’s saying that he’s gonna do, he didn’t like the question. And then he called on another reporter, trying to make sure that I would stop and he told me to sit down.
RUSH: But Jorge, your question wasn’t a question. Your question was a statement. It was a statement from either a shill or a statement from an activist. Now, the next answer from Jorge will tell you what you need to know here about him and journalists in general. Megyn Kelly said, “Can you understand Trump’s side of it, which is that this is not the outlet I want to take these questions from because their mind’s made up about me?”
RAMOS: The problem is that he’s not used to being questioned. He doesn’t like uncomfortable questions. It happened with you; it happened with your colleagues at Fox News. He hates it when, uh, he’s being confronted. And we have to ask these questions. I think as journalists, with all due respect, I think we have to take a stand when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public lies, dictatorships, and human rights. And when he’s speaking, when he’s expressing those really dangerous words, we have to confront them. That’s our job to ask tough questions even if he doesn’t like them.
RUSH: See, well, there you have it. He said the same thing on ABC, here you go. (impression) “I think as journalists, with all due respect, we have to take a stand when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public lies, dictatorships.” Jorge, 90% of the people that do what you do support those people. That’s the damn problem here! Ninety percent of the journalism people around the world support dictatorships and the statists, and the Big Government crowd.
That’s the problem with you people. That’s who you support. That’s who you give a wide berth to. That’s who you do not hold truth to power. You do not challenge these people. Trump is not any of that! That’s what’s so backwards about all this. This guy stands… He defends people who are what he says Trump must be stopped from doing. What he’s really afraid of is that somebody like Trump’s gonna come along and get rid of these statists and Big Government control freaks that Jorge happens to like.
Corruption?
Public lies?
What the hell are we talk about if not this administration, the Clinton administration before that, and whoever’s running Mexico, and of course Venezuela? And let’s not even talk about Cuba. So there’s your great model for modern journalism: Jorge Ramos. Now, moving on to CNN’s “New Day” today, Chris Cuomo interviewing Trump. “When you see them on the show together last night…” He’s talking about Jorge and Megyn Kelly. “When you saw them on the show together last night, did you think to yourself, ‘Why did I create these situations again? Why did I bring up the Megyn Kelly thing and go after her again? Why did I go after Jorge Ramos?’ Why did you do those things?”
TRUMP: I didn’t go after Jorge Ramos, first of all. I was at a news conference, and he stands up and starts screaming like a madman. And, you know, when they show the whole clip, everybody understands. He was very rude, he was very loud and obnoxious. This guy stands up and starts screaming. He wasn’t asking a question. He’s giving a speech. This was not a question he was asking. I know I did the right thing. And I did take control, unlike Bernie Sanders who lost his microphone with two women that got up and just took his microphone away —
CUOMO: Eh —
TRUMP — from him like he was a baby, I won’t let that happen.
CUOMO: Well —
TRUMP: That’s not what it’s about.
CUOMO: You —
TRUMP: And as far as Megyn Kelly, I have nothing against Megyn Kelly.
CUOMO: You certainly controlled —
TRUMP: She’s fine as far as I’m concerned. I don’t care.
RUSH: Right. He said he’s gonna stop the bimbo tweets, by the way. You hear that? Yeah. You can smile again, folks, Trump said he’s gonna stop tweeting that Megyn’s a bimbo. He’s got better things told now. He’s gonna move on from that. So that’s in the past. Everybody breathes a sigh of relief. (chuckling) But he’s right, here. I tell, the theme of the program yesterday — and I could make it the theme today, too — is how none of these people…
This is amazing, because it’s their business to know this! It is striking to me how it is that so many of these people in high executive positions in both parties — in the consultancy of both parties, in the media — do not understand the relationship that Trump and his audience, supporters, what have you, have with him. Either they are purposely ignoring it, being stubborn or they know it and don’t want to admit it because they’re jealous. But the idea that they don’t understand that Jorge Ramos…?
To everybody who watched that press conference, Jorge Ramos was the villain. Jorge Ramos was the bad guy, and Trump was the biggest hero that these people have seen in a long time because they have desired to see somebody stand up and fire back at a journalist who’s being unfair, on purpose — who has an ulterior motive, on purpose. And rather than stand there politely and deal with it, Trump tells the guy to get the hell out of the room, wait his turn, and come back.
And if they don’t understand that being applauded, if they don’t understand why people look at that and cheer, then they’ve got a long way to go before they’re gonna ever be able to put together a campaign for their candidates that’s gonna get them victory. This is the most amazing thing in the world. I’m serious. It’s amazing to me that so many people do not understand this. Where is it written that a candidate for high office has to sit there and take a daily dose of excrement from people just because they’re journalists?
Gobs and gobs and gobs of the American people are fed up with that arrangement, and they think it’s about time the excrement started flying the other way. And with Trump, it is. And I don’t mean this in a way that’s devoid of substance. Now, I know some people listening to me gonna be shocked. “Are you really, Mr. Limbaugh, suggesting that this kind of disrespect for the media should be applauded and supported?”
No. I think you’re missing the point that the media has not been showing Republicans and conservatives respect for our lifetimes, and we’re tired of it. This respect business goes both ways. We’re sick and tired of the first thing being asked, “Are you racist, are you sexist, are you bigoted? Do you want to apologize for saying this? Do you wish you hadn’t done that?” Every first question is based on somehow we have to justify why we’re even alive, or why we think the way we think.
Meanwhile, the people who are destroying the country are treated as heroes. We’re fed up with it. So it’s, for me, very easy to understand this linkage. It’s very easy for me to understand why Trump is engendering the support that he is. It’s based on much more than just the way he’s dealing with the media, by the way. But I’m talking specifically about people who think that Trump’s behavior with Jorge Ramos should cause him trouble.
It’s not gonna cause him trouble. It’s causing Jorge Ramos trouble. Jorge doesn’t know it, but it’s causing him trouble. Jorge is the one that didn’t look good. Hell’s bells, even the New York Times TV critic had to admit that. But it goes beyond this. It’s far deeper than just people wanting to have years and years of frustration being dealt with, because this ends up mattering. It matters because this type of arrangement is how we end up with despicable, destructive things like Obamacare and the horrible Iran deal and an economy that is an embarrassment for a country of this stature.
This kind of arrangement is why we have an entire Republican Party that appears ton afraid of its own shadow. So it goes much deeper than just the way journalists are treated. It has to do with what ends up resulting in policy because of this. And again, I think it really… You know what it comes down to? It comes down to the fact that there are people in both parties that obviously — especially in the Republican Party inside the Beltway — who simply do not understand the idea that people think the country’s in crisis.
They really think that’s a kook view.
“That’s Tea Party wackiness! The country endangered? Losing the country? What? Ah, that’s silly,” they say. And therefore they don’t take people seriously who think that, who are worried about it. Meanwhile, there have been two landslide elections in 2010 and 2014 of people showing up at the polls desperately asking the Republican Party to save this country by stopping the advance of the Democrat agenda, and they’re not doing it. And they then profess to not understand why somebody coming along telling them they will stop it gets supported?
That is senseless to me.
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RUSH: This was in Pensacola, Florida, yesterday, a town hall campaign event. This is Jeb talking about Trump.
JEB: This guy is now the front-runner. He should be held to account just like me. He should be asked, as he was yesterday, “How are you gonna pay for it? Why do you think this is not gonna be (pause) right? Why — why don’t you…? Prove to me it’s not practical! Explain how you’re gonna stop all the remittances without violating people’s civil liberties.” Go through these questions, and what you’ll find is this guy doesn’t have a plan. He’s appealing to people’s angst and their anger.
RUSH: Okay. This is, I think, a great illustration of what the Republican establishment view of Trump is and his supporters. Trump’s out there saying he’s gonna get rid of this, he’s gonna get rid of that, he’s gonna deport the illegals. Jeb said, “Oh, yeah? Yeah? How are you gonna pay for this? How are you gonna make up for the civil liberties that you’re violating? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I could go out and say that, too, but I can’t say it ’cause I’m responsible! I gotta tell people how I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna pay for it. Well, why don’t you ask Trump that? Because you can’t get an answer form Trump ’cause he doesn’t have an answer for it,” is Jeb’s point.
And after that event, it was at a press conference where Jeb said this…
JEB: I think people in the press ought to be treated with a little more respect and dignity. How about that?
RUSH: He was asked what he thought of the back-and-forth between Trump and Jorge Ramos, and that’s when he said, “I think people in the press ought to be treated with a little more respect and dignity. How about that?” So it’s clear what the Republican Party wants to be known for. They are, folks. They are committed to this. They are wedded to the idea that they have somehow got to disapprove what they think people think of them.
And the way they’re gonna disprove all that — meaning Republican branding as racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes, uncooperative, partisan — is they’ve gotta be uber-polite, soft-spoken, and promise to work with everybody. And they think that is gonna, A, solicited the base and it’s gonna attract independents. It’s clear as a bell.