RUSH: Here is Bruce in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Glad you waited, sir. Great to have you on the program. How are you doing?
CALLER: Good afternoon, Mr. Limbaugh. How are you doing today?
RUSH: Fine and dandy, sir. Thank you very much.
CALLER: The first thing I want to say, I’m not the poorly educated, so therefore I’m not a Trump supporter.
RUSH: (laughing) Here we go.
CALLER: I want to talk about convention rules real quick.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: For over 160 years you had to have a majority, 50-plus-one. According to Trump, if he goes in the convention, with plurality or most delegates, he should be the nominee. So let’s go back to the party of Lincoln, which Mr. Trump even says he’s not even as good as Lincoln, but he recognized the Republican Party as the party of Lincoln. In 1860 —
RUSH: Well, it’s like he recognizes The Art of the Deal is not the Bible, but —
CALLER: We’re gonna see how good The Art of the Deal is (unintelligible). But 1860 convention, according to, you know, Seward, after the first bout, had 74% of the delegates needed on the first ballot to become the nominee. Well, Honest Abe only had 42%. So, according to Trump, Lincoln should not have been nominated. These are the facts. It took three ballots. And if Trump is so good at Art of the Deal, he should be able to get 1,237 with no problem.
RUSH: I’m sure that that’s his plan.
CALLER: Well, his nickname should be Cryin’ Donald to begin with. If he doesn’t have 1,237, he’s not gonna get it after the first ballot. He knows it, everyone else knows it. He’s not gonna get it.
RUSH: I don’t think we know this yet. There’s too much unknown here. Now, look, I know what’s going on. I know what your point is here, that Trump’s saying, “Hey, I’m Trump, and if I’m close enough, give it to me. I’ve earned it. Everybody wants me. Everybody loves me. I’ve skunked everybody. I’ve won everywhere. Nobody can hold a candle. Lyin’ Ted’s not even close. Come on. Let’s get serious. I won this thing, okay?” That’s the theory. And he’s gonna challenge somebody to tell him where his wrong.
And so the retort’s gonna be, “Sorry. The rule says 1,237. Not 1,236, not 1,150, not 1,100. 1,237.” Your point is, we’ve never gone off of that. We’ve never given somebody the nomination for getting close, and you’re right. But what Trump is saying, “Come on. Whatever you have to do to get me to 1,237, get there ’cause we know I’m gonna get there because I’ve skunked everybody. There’s nobody even close. You don’t have anybody in this party that’s even halfway near as loved as I am, anybody drawing crowds like me? No.” I can hear it all now. I know exactly what he’s talking about.
He’s also trying, in his own ways, to either intimate, impress, influence or what have you, the powers that be, keep his crowd enthused and so forth. But I think you sell Trump short if you actually think that he believes the rules don’t apply to him. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think he wants to use whatever powers he thinks he has to get himself to what’s necessary, if necessary, by acclimation.
He’d be more than happen for the convention to say, “You know what, Trump? You got 1,150, and you’re great, and there’s nobody here that can stop you. We realize Lyin’ Ted can’t stop you, Kasich can’t stop you, and, Donald, you’re our guy. So let’s just go out and find enough people to make it 1,237 and make it happen.” And I think that he thinks something like that — do not misinterpret — now, does anybody think I’m suggesting he break the rules in any of this? Okay. I’m talking about the force of his personality. (interruption) No, he doesn’t think Lyin’ Ted’s gonna go home. He thinks that other people will choose him over Lyin’ Ted if he’s close enough anyway. It’s close but no cigar. It’s gonna be close and cigar, is the way he’s looking at this.
Now, we had this story, this guy Randy Evans. Randy Evans was on MSNBC today, he’s a Republican National Committee member, and he was on MSNBC, and he said that if Trump gets to Cleveland with 1,100 delegates or more, that he should have no trouble getting the nomination. So everybody said, “Whoa! Whoa! Is the party officially saying that if he gets there with 1,100 he wins?”
So people started scrambling. What did this guy mean? Because it got ballyhooed all over the place. “Wow, an RNC member just said on TV if Trump gets 1,100 by the time he gets to Cleveland, he’s in.” Well, it turns out that’s not what the guy meant. Because somebody called him and tweeted what he said on the call. And what he means is and what he meant was that if Trump gets to 1,100, goes to Cleveland with 1100, it’s not gonna be difficult at all to end up finding another 127 delegates before the convention starts, before the first ballot, to nail it down.
He was saying Trump will have the ability to go out and find, either from unbound delegates or from any number of, super, whatever delegates. His point was, if Trump shows up to Cleveland with 1,100, he’s not gonna have any problem persuading whatever necessary number he needs to join him. That’s what he meant. It was not an official change.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Susie in Pittsburgh, you’re next. It’s great to have you on the program.
CALLER: I’m so excited to talk to you, Rush, and I just want to tell you, I passed up going to a Trump rally here in Pittsburgh right now in order to stay on the line and talk to you without losing any signal. I wanted to also just say hi to my grandkids who are huge Rush fans and say, “Grammy knows everything, but Rush knows even more.”
RUSH: (laughing) I love it. I love it.
CALLER: That’s the line in our family. My question, Rush, is, do you think if Trump is the candidate, would he be smart enough to pick someone like Cruz. I know you’ve been asked about whether they can bury the hatchet — but whether he’d be a good choice, because he needs somebody with some political gravitas and foreign policy background, but someone who’s also been seen as an insurgent.
RUSH: Let me throw you some names out here, because there’s a story from The Daily Caller. Another rules committee member, Republican National Committee, has said — Randy Evans, the same guy who talked about how Trump could, if he gets to 1,100, he’s gonna win this. He said that a Trump-Kasich ticket or a Cruz-Rubio ticket could either or both happen at the convention, as both candidates try to nail down the nomination. I don’t know about Hillary and Elizabeth Warren. That’s two women. Anything’s possible.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Who are you for, Trump or Cruz?
CALLER: Well, I’ll be honest with you, I started out as a Carson/Santorum fan, and then I went to Rubio, and then I’ve slowly dwindled down to between Cruz and Trump. My husband is a Trump fan, and I like some things about Donald very much.
RUSH: Are you gonna vote for the nominee?
CALLER: I’m gonna vote for the nominee.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Definitely, because we just cannot have Hillary or Bernie.
RUSH: Well, there you go.
CALLER: And so I’ll work for whoever. I’ve actually thought about volunteering my services. I worked in a political office for Senator Santorum for 12 years, and I thought I would like to work for whoever it is for free just so we don’t get Hillary.
RUSH: Susie, that’s the right answer, the nominee. That’s gonna be crucial to beating Hillary, which is going to be the objective.