RUSH: So you think this was done on behalf of Rubio? You think they sent Romney out there on behalf of Rubio, and this is making you want Trump even more because you’re so ticked off at what they’re doing? That’s probably gonna be a pretty common reaction here. Trumpists out there are gonna feel like the establishment’s trying to manipulate ’em, sucker ’em, and they’re just gonna dig in deeper. That’s why I said when I opened the program, “I cannot believe they still do not get what’s happening out there.” By that I mean the establishment Republicans in Washington.

And maybe everybody, establishment Democrats, too.

Anyway, it’s great to have you back here, folks, Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network. Telephone number, 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. And, as I said, we’re gonna start with phones here. We’re gonna go to Kathy in Sun City, Arizona, ’cause people are lined up and loaded for bear on this. Kathy, I’m glad you called. It’s great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Well, thank you so much, and I’m really honored to be on your show.

RUSH: Well, I tell you, this is a special day, because we never take calls in the monologue section. So you people on the phones: You really, really rate today.

CALLER: Okay. Well, I’m probably gonna go on a roll, okay?

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I am absolutely livid by the Romney speech. He is condescending. He sounded like a fricking Democrat the whole time. And first off, I’m a Cruz supporter. I support Cruz. But if he does not get the nomination, I will support Trump. I am so sick and tired of being lied to. The establishment said, “We have to have the House in 2010 to fight Obama.” We gave it to ’em. “We have to have the Senate in 2014 to fight Obama.” We gave it to ’em. And what did they do? Absolutely nothing. They’ve done nothing but lie.

They support the Dems.

They support Obama.

Romney wouldn’t even fight Obama when he was debating him on the debates on Benghazi! For crying out loud, we’ve got people dying in Benghazi because of Obama and Hillary, and Romney didn’t do a damn thing about it. And then we’ve got Rubio and McCain with the Gang of Eight, betraying “we, the people.” Now Rubio is attacking the ICE and the Border Patrol agents as liars. Then you jump on the KKK, and he’s talking to Trump that he won’t denounce the KKK, which he has over and over and over. Why isn’t Romney talking about the Democrats formed the KKK?

Why doesn’t Romney and the establishment talk about Byrd and McGovern and all the policies of the Democrats where they’ve just decimated the black community? I’m just absolutely livid. I’m tired of being attacked; I’m tired of being lied to. They have absolutely no integrity at all. No honor, no integrity. They demand Trump sign the agreement not to run third party, and what are they doing? Now they’re threatening to possibly bring Romney up for a third party, if the rumor is true. And they slam Trump every five seconds. It’s like, if they don’t want their cake and they don’t want us to toe the line and put the… the… UGH! I’m just so upset. But anyhow —

RUSH: I know how you feel. They tried beating Trump. They tried it with Jeb and they tried it with Christie and they’ve tried it with others, and they haven’t found anybody. So now they’re out there making speeches, and the air and the attitude of the speech is, “Hey, you idiots! You may not know how dangerous this guy is. But I’m here — we of the establishment, we’re here — to tell you what a big mistake you’re about to make.” And you hear it that way and you feel condescended to.

CALLER: Well, also they’re lying to us about the unemployment. You know, Trump’s talking about bringing jobs and bringing the wages back up by getting the illegals out of this country. They’re the ones bringing the wages down. But all the establishment Republicans, they live in the cushy little houses back in Washington, DC. They don’t have to worry about any of this. My gosh, they don’t even work a 40-hour week! It’s just frustrating, and I’m just tired of it. And for Romney to come out, a loser — and then you’ve got McCain will come out, and he’s a loser.

You know, and they don’t push conservatism. They say they’re conservative. That’s what’s so frustrating, too. They run and say they’re conservative, and they do absolutely nothing. Look at the Paul Ryan budget. Oh, my gosh, they just crap… They don’t care. They… It’s all about themselves and their money and their money and their power. And then we’re supposed to work like slaves, get taxed to heck, and just come begging for the crumbs that they give us. Well, once you start accepting government handouts, you are now a slave to the government. Period.

RUSH: For those of you in the establishment listening to this, I want to remind you of one thing: Nobody had to tell her what she thinks. She thinks that, obviously, and feels what she feels on her own. This is not the product of listening to the radio. It’s not the product of propaganda that’s persuaded her. This is what Kathy thinks, independent of anybody else. Simply because of what she’s able to see, remember, observe, this what she thinks. It’s real, is my point.

CALLER: Right. And I’m 58 years old, and I love this country. And I’ve seen this country just fall, fall, fall, and it is so frustrating. And I worry about my children and my grandchildren. It really bothers me.

RUSH: Okay, I have to ask you. I have to ask you one question, Kathy. You mentioned in all of this that you are a Cruz supporter.

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Now, what if Romney’s speech would damage Trump. Would that not benefit you in your quest to have Cruz elected?

CALLER: Well, I would suppose yes. But like I said: If Cruz for some reason had to drop out before the Arizona primary March 22nd — which I don’t think he is — I would support Trump. I absolutely will not support Rubio, Kasich. Cruz and Trump are the only two. And the reason for Cruz is because he’s doing just what Trump is doing. Maybe not so boisterous, but he has fought the establishment. He has called Mitch McConnell out as a liar because he is. He called Boehner out as a liar because he is. And, yeah, I’ll call ’em liars because that’s what they are. They lie about everything. They tell Obama, “We’re not gonna fight you. We’re not gonna fight you!” So Obama does whatever he wants! I mean, the Constitution? He’s shredding it every day, and they’ve done nothing.

RUSH: Exactly.

CALLER: Nothing!

RUSH: They’ve done nothing to stop it and they come out and act like the problem is in their own party, but not them. It’s Trump on it’s Cruz or whatever. I hear what you’re saying. You’re a Cruz supporter, but your fallback is Trump, and you don’t want them succeeding in destroying the only two candidates you see with a legitimate chance to stop the direction we’re headed.

CALLER: Exactly! Because they’re the only ones who are gonna call Hillary out. Where is the Republican Party calling out Hillary Clinton? They’re responsible for the deaths of four Marines, four brave people in Benghazi. The crisis in Libya, the disaster of Syria, the ISIS, and then here in Arizona we’ve got McCain running ads, “I’ll protect you from ISIS.” Well, hello, McCain? ISIS is coming across the Arizona southern border and you’ve done absolutely nothing that you promised to do for six years to shut the border down. You’ve done nothing. In fact, you did the opposite and became Gang of Eight. It’s just frustrating, the lying, the lying, the lying. And we see it. And we’re awake. And “we, the people” have had it, and “we, the people” are going to fight and we’re going to take back our country.

RUSH: Kathy, you have done just a fabulous job of appearing as a caller in the monologue segment of the program. It’s not very many people who could carry that load, but you have done so, and you’ve done so phenomenally well. I would like to offer you — I don’t want to call it a “prize” — a gift, if you would like it. You don’t have to take it. If you don’t want one, don’t feel obligated, but I’ve got an iPad Pro here. If you don’t want it for yourself, you give it to somebody, if you know somebody who wants it. But I would love to give you something here because you’ve been so good. You didn’t stumble; you didn’t stutter. Obviously you’re speaking from your heart with profound passion, and it was great.

CALLER: Well, I really thank you, but I would rather you give… (chokes up) Since you support the military so much, and the fallen officers — ’cause my husband’s retired PD. I would rather have you give it to one of the families in need. You know, the Fisher House Foundation or one of the military families or something like that, because I really don’t need it, and I would rather you do something like that. Give it to something like that.

RUSH: That’s awesome. That is so, so touching, and you can be guaranteed that I will.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: And I’ll do it in your name, Kathy from Sun City, Arizona. I appreciate that. Thank you so much, Kathy. Well done. Superb.

Steve in Temecula, California, you’re up. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Pleasure to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: I just got a quick reaction. I heard part of Mitt’s speech on the way in to work this morning and it made me mad. Because I heard him say we understand your anger. And the implied message in that is we understand your anger, but you’re just gonna have to get over it. And I got a little message for Mitt. The Republican electorate is not a bunch of completely ignorant fools. We know who Donald Trump is, and we’re gonna use Donald Trump to either take over the GOP or blow it up. And we understand, Mitt, that might make you a little angry, but you’re just gonna have to get over it.

RUSH: You mean to say that you understand Trump’s flaws. You understand he’s not perfect. You understand the contradictions and maybe some of the hypocrisy, but so what, because it’s bigger than Trump. Is that what you’re saying?

CALLER: Exactly. Exactly. And what the establishment should understand is that when you set everything up so that you get everything and leave the bill for somebody else, finally you leave ’em with nothing to lose.

RUSH: Well, you realize there’s some Republicans out there, and I hope to hear from them, who think Romney’s speech was great. There’s some Republicans that think Trump is an absolute disaster, that we’re guaranteed to lose, and we’re gonna lose 25 years now. We’re gonna have the Supreme Court be total lib and everything. Not every Republican is of the frame of mind that you and our first caller, Kathy, are. Many of you are, but it’s still a fractured party.

CALLER: Well, it may be a fractured party, but the fracture is between the Republican electorate and the GOP establishment. And it was only within about the last year, after being a Republican for decades, that I finally realized — and, you know, I feel stupid for not figuring it out sooner — that these people don’t really want the same things I want.

RUSH: I know what you mean, not having figured it out sooner. You can’t be blamed. They’re Republicans, they campaign as though we’re all on the same team. They campaign using your language, they —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — get your support claiming that they’re going to actually implement your interests and represent you. It just doesn’t happen very much.

CALLER: Exactly. And if they were serious, if they were serious about wanting to stop Donald Trump, all they gotta do is go to Kasich and Rubio and tell ’em, “Hey, guys, pull out, we’re gonna unify behind Cruz.” But they won’t do that. You know why? Because then they would have to give up their agenda. You know, they understand you’re angry —

RUSH: Let me jump in. That is actually a profound point. If you look at the delegate count, we went through this a little bit today, but Cruz is, for all the talk of Trump having swept the field — and he has — Trump only leads Cruz by a hundred or so delegates. It’s 336 to 220, something like that. It is not an overwhelming lead. And I know Trumpists don’t like to hear this, but it’s still relevant. If you look at the vote in the Republican primaries that Trump is getting — and it’s large, 30, 35% — it still means that there are more Republicans voting for other candidates who are not Trump. And if you add them together, it’s a greater number than Trump supporters are.

Now, don’t think the establishment doesn’t see that, too. The establishment is out there telling themselves that there is more anti-Trump support in the Republican Party, they want it to coalesce. But what they forget to calculate is exactly what old Steve here pointed out. You cannot include the Cruz vote in the anti-Trump vote. Well, most Cruz people will tell you they don’t like Trump and they wouldn’t vote for him, but I think at the end of the day I think they will because there is a strain of commonality.

I guarantee you the Cruz people aren’t going Rubio and the Cruz people are not gonna go Kasich, and Carson has effectively pulled himself out. So the establishment and their hope to coalesce all the anti-Trump support has a lot of holes in it. And if they would try to coalesce behind Cruz instead of Rubio, they would have a much better chance of stopping Trump, but they won’t do it. And Steve is right, the reason they won’t do it, and we have stated it before on this program, they have maybe more fear of Cruz than they do Trump. They’re angrier at Trump, but they might fear Cruz a little bit more because he is a known quantity, and they know that they’re not going to be able to bully or muscle or finesse or any other tactic they might use to talk Cruz out of what he believes.

So they’re kind of caught. They’re kind of caught. They don’t want Trump, there is a way, but they don’t want that way, so now they are reduced to first it was supporting Jeb Bush, who never had more than five points in the polls. Now they’re trying to coalesce behind Rubio who hasn’t won but one state, Minnesota, which is kind of an oddity and is down by 20 in his own state of Florida. It looks hopeless for him. The evidence is all around them that the direction they want to go is nowhere near the majority of the party. And, see, they know this.

Folks, when you boil it all down, it’s the same thing the Democrats know. I state here that liberal Democrats are a minority in this country but yet we’re being governed by them. We’re being governed by a real minority, and the Republican establishment, the same thing. The Republican establishment way of thinking is actually a minority of thought within the party, and they don’t want to ever put that to a vote. They would end up losing the vote. That’s what this is really all about. That’s why they’re trying to thwart the vote per se ’cause they are in the minority, but they control all the levers just as Obama and the Democrats do.

And don’t think that your average Republican voter doesn’t instinctively know that. Your average Republican voter knows that he is in the majority of the way most people in this country think. They know, the average Republican voter knows that all of these political forces are arrayed against them by people who really represent a numerical minority. And that just adds to the frustration. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. This is a democracy, representative republic, what have you. So that just adds to the frustration as well.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Beth in Santa Ana, California, head back to the phones. Thank you for calling. Nice to have you here.

CALLER: Oh, it’s a blessing to be with you, Rush. It’s so wonderful to speak with you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: Kathy before you just articulated basically everything I wanted to say, except she’s mad and I’m just about on the verge of tears. I do not see any dignity or honor in any of these men. What on earth are they thinking that all we want to hear is them insult each other? I mean, it’s so childlike and ridiculous. I’m just so mad. This country is hanging by a thread, and it’s like P. T. Barnum’s circus.

RUSH: Let me tell you what you’re hearing. You are listening, in the case of Romney or anybody else that would go out, you are listening to abject personal fear.

CALLER: At our expense. What about this country?

RUSH: That’s what I mean. They’re worried about losing what they’ve got. They’re worried about losing their power or their positions or whatever else. You are focused on saving the country. They don’t think the country’s in crisis, Beth. They don’t think there’s a crisis. Obama’s just the latest Democrat in a long line of Democrats. There’s nothing specifically dangerous going on out there. We want to win ’cause it’s our turn to get back in power, but you people that think Obama is posing a great threat, come on, grow up, you’re a bunch of kooks. That’s what they think.

CALLER: Oh, that breaks my heart. It just breaks my heart in two.

RUSH: They don’t think it’s a crisis. This is the thing that has always — and there are many of these things that have amazed me, but that one, there’s nothing particularly different here, Obama, LBJ, JFK, Bill Clinton, it’s just another Democrat that we’ve gotta beat, and they don’t see any crisis at all here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Tony in Denver. You’re next. It’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hey. So if they succeed in destroying Trump, then they’re gonna turn right around and have to do the same thing to Cruz, right?

RUSH: Bingo! Bingo! You got it. Exactly. That would be the next phase. If they do… If they were able to do any damage to Trump they would then set their eye… They may set their eyes on Cruz, anyway. I would, in fact, tell you that they have already been targeting Cruz, subtly. They haven’t gone after Cruz yet the way they did Trump. But, no, you’re exactly right. Bottom line: You’re exactly right. Cruz would be the next target.

CALLER: So then my question is: What happens if Trump and/or Cruz survive and they try to hijack the convention? What do we do? It seems hopeless.

RUSH: Well, let’s walk through that. What would hijacking the convention mean? There’s only one way it could happen. Well, look, let’s pretend everybody plays by the rules. There’s only one way it could happen, and that would be neither Trump nor Cruz gets 1,237 delegates. The way the thing is structured, whoever wins the delegates, those delegates are… During the primaries, during these elections, those delegates are pledged to that candidate on the first ballot at the convention.

So if Trump gets 1,237, by convention and party rule, those delegates have to vote for Trump. Now, what you’re suggesting is, “Well, the establishment may say, ‘Screw that!’ They’ll get backroom meetings with some of these delegates and offer them who knows what or threaten them or blackmail them or whatever. Get ’em to abandon Trump.” In other words, break the rules. If anything like that is tried, you know what’ll happen, Tony?

CALLER: No.

RUSH: Trump will lead a walkout of all of his delegates, and let’s figure… Let’s just pretend here. (I’m not predicting. I’m constructing a hypothetical to answer his question.) Let’s say Trump shows up with 1,100 delegates in Cleveland. Let’s say whatever happens here, he doesn’t get the 1,237. And then they make a move here. After the first ballot, Tony, it’s wide open. Anybody can vote for anybody after that. The first ballot is the only ballot where they’re pledged to vote for whoever won their delegates in the state primaries.

Trump would lead a walkout if they attempt to deny his voters a chance to vote for him, his delegates. Can you imagine a thousand, 1,100 people walking out of there in protest? It would be… It would not work. The establishment wouldn’t win anything. They wouldn’t end up winning the White House with this. They would call Republicans to either go vote for Hillary or stay home or what have you. There’s no way a Republican establishment candidate will be elected president if they try this. Now, you’re probably gonna come back and say, “Well, they don’t care about that. They don’t want Trump to become president,” or they don’t want —

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: — Cruz to become president.

CALLER: That’s what I would say.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: They win either way.

RUSH: Well, yeah. So you’re worried that if they try these games, that we’re kind of stuck and have no recourse, if the people that run the convention decide to make their own rules as they go and deny what the voters expressed in the primaries, right?

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: I think if something like that happens, the sentiment, the will of the people — ’cause it will have spoken in volumes by then. Those would be very dicey times for the establishment. That would be more than just making sure that Cruz or Trump didn’t get the nomination. That could actually end up being the end them as well because it might be the end of the party. ‘Cause everybody’s gonna be reminding ’em, “Hey, you’re the guys…” And, folks, this is a salient point.

Now, remember, every four years when they nominate McCain, what do they tell us? “We must unify.” They come to us and they tell us it’s up to us to be good losers. Our guy didn’t win. “But we must — for the sake of party unity and for dealing with the Democrats — come together. We must unify! We must support the establishment candidate.” Notice now, when the situation might be reversed, there’s no talk of them biting the bullet and unifying around a candidate that’s not theirs. That ends up being a one-way street. And people are gonna remind ’em of that.

“Hey, you guys remember those last elections, McCain and then Romney, and we knew we didn’t have a prayer of winning? You told us we had to unify behind your candidate, and we did for the sake of party unity. Well, shoe’s on the other foot. Your turn.” That will be thrown at them. The media would love this, by the way. The media would love this kind of convention, disorder thrown in, too. That would be called brokered or backroom deals or what have you. But not being able to predict the future, I don’t know. I think everything is set to backfire on the establishment this year. So far, it has not. Time will tell. It’s interesting question.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: John, San Diego. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, Kathy, she set the bar pretty high. I hope I can achieve that.

RUSH: Oh, I’m sure you can.

CALLER: I’m a recently converted Trumpite. I said a few months back I’d vote for Hillary over Trump, but I changed my mind within the last week, and I’ll tell you why. It has to do with the ChiComs warning us American voters to get our minds right. And when I heard that, I thought to myself, “Oh, really?” It’s funny how within the week we got Romney coming out, we got McCain coming out, we got all these people come out of the woodwork attacking Trump and I’m thinking to myself, well, you know what? I’m gonna vote for Trump. I think what the establishment wants is Trump to go third party, you know, a la Ross Perot and that will split the vote, and Hillary gets in.

RUSH: Let me ask you something here, John. You said that you have become a Trumpist by abandoning Hillary?

CALLER: Trumpite. Yeah, I’m new to the cause. ‘Cause I said I’m gonna vote for Hillary over Trump, no way I’d vote for Trump. I’m a Cruz supporter, you know, deep down, but they want to do the Ross Perot deal where it splits the vote. Trump’s gonna go third party because the establishment is attacking him so —

RUSH: So you think that they are abandoning their pledge to support the nominee if it’s Trump and that —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — hopefully, then, would force Trump to go third party?

CALLER: Yeah. I thought it was written down on paper and they signed it. Maybe he could take ’em to court, Trump could take ’em to court for, you know, violating the contract —

RUSH: Trump takes people to court for drinking water the wrong way, so it doesn’t need to be written down.

CALLER: Yeah. So I think he could just, you know, the agreement’s null and void. I’m gonna go third party, take my delegates or do whatever, and that’s what they’re hoping for.

RUSH: I don’t think that’s what’s gonna happen. Trump, I think, is smart enough to know third party is not gonna win anything. I don’t think that’s what is going to motivate Trump now. Did you hear Trump at the press conference on Tuesday night? He was talking about Republican unity. He was talking about growing the party. That’s the last thing the party wants. And I think, given all this stuff going down today, I think the last thing Trump would do is go third party. I think he’s going to be totally, totally invested in taking over the Republican Party, after this. I wouldn’t be surprised.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is Tatum in Tampa. It’s great to have you, Tatum. How are you?

CALLER: I’m well. I show my age and say, “Dittos,” and I hope that the Ted Cruz people and the Rubio people are listening to your program today and take some advice from you.

RUSH: Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

CALLER: I have a problem with the personification of Trump supporters as being “angry,” and I think that they’re not angry. I think they’re afraid. I think that they’re afraid that this has gone so far, there’s no turning back, and he’s the only choice. And people would go to the bully and they’re afraid, and they’re really angry. And no one wants to say they’re afraid, so they’re gonna say, “Well, I’m angry.” When you’re angry, you take care of stuff yourself. You go out and do it. And I think Ted Cruz is the guy that’s gonna give us the environment to express our anger and do something about it. Where, if we go with bullies, we’re gonna continue to be afraid.

RUSH: This is actually a very, very good point. I’ve had a lot of people get a little bit irritated over being called “angry.” My answer to that is, “It’s justified.” I think… Anger by itself is not a shortcoming. It’s totally justified now. But I agree with you that there are a lot of people scared. People are out of work, worried if they’re gonna find a job. People who have a job are worried they’re gonna lose it. People who have a savings account are worried that it’s gonna be taxed away from ’em or some such thing. There is fear. People are scared out there left and right. You’re totally correct about that.

But it’s justified.

It doesn’t indicate any kind of a deficiency or shortcoming.

I appreciate that. I’m glad you made that point, Tatum.