RUSH: Another week of broadcast excellence off and running.

The Wisconsin primary is tomorrow and we are all over the place on polling data on Wisconsin. Wisconsin is notoriously tough to poll. Do you remember all of those Scott Walker recall elections that he ended up winning handily, and I don’t think my memory is such that he wasn’t leading in any of the pre-election polls except the last couple, you know, before each election. In those — what were there, two recalls, the standard calendar reelection for Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin. And every one of the polls showed him losing. And yet he ended up winning all those recalls and his own calendar gubernatorial reelection handily.

Wisconsin has, in terms of the conservative movement, it has just a kickass conservative movement in Wisconsin, even though it has notoriously been a blue state. The Republican Party contingent in Wisconsin is profoundly conservative, which would argue for a massive Ted Cruz win. Now, the latest polling data we have out of Wisconsin has Cruz up by five. There are a couple of polls that show Cruz up by 10, and then there’s a Public Policy Polling poll, the last one I saw has one of the two up by one in a margin of error poll.

But we’ve got all kinds of new things happening. Trump has backed down on a couple things. He has, for him, done a mea culpa on the Heidi Cruz photo retweet. Throughout all of this, interesting survey data as well from people who are not happy with these results. None of this has hurt Trump with his core supporters, none of this, according to pretty good research data. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

You know, I’ve said from the beginning when this all started that nobody can destroy Trump except Trump. Nobody’s gonna be able to separate Trump’s voters from Trump except Trump. And it looks like his core supporters are hanging in with him, and I think that’s largely about what his campaign represents to people, in addition to whatever personal connection Trump has with people. His campaign’s much bigger than him, in terms of the support that he’s getting and what people have invested in it, as you well know.

Meanwhile, it’s kind of — it doesn’t really blow my mind, but I think it’s worth pointing out. The Republican race is getting covered, and it should, understandably. There’s all kinds of excitement in the Republican race. There is all kinds of drama. You never know from hour to hour what’s gonna happen in the Republican race. And the media is collectively doing gangbusters ratings-wise covering anything and everything to do with the GOP. Normally that doesn’t happen. The Republican primary coverage is mostly limited to horse race characteristics, and it is dominated by the Drive-By Media doing their best to destroy whoever the front-runner is, unless the front-runner is who they want us to nominate, and then they end up supporting him. But this is unprecedented.

On the Democrat side is where it’s kind of interesting. The lack of coverage of Hillary Clinton and her problems and travails. You might be saying, “What do you mean, Rush? They’re talking about the e-mail.” No, no, no. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the fact nobody likes this woman. I’m talking about the fact that her numbers with women put her in the cemetery. Do you know that Trump does better with women than Hillary Clinton is doing with women? Damn straight, right here in the Stacks of Stuff coming up.

Not only that, Hillary Clinton has lost her last five primaries, and it looks like she’s down eight to Crazy Bernie in Wisconsin. She might lose again in Wisconsin. She’s being investigated by who knows how many FBI agents. We’re told that the director of the FBI, James Comey, is going to actually do the interview, slash, interrogation of Mrs. Clinton vis-a-vis whatever is going on with this e-mail business. Her approval rating has fallen to the basement. And as I say, it’s even lower among women than men.

She’s supposed to be cleaning up with women. Hillary Clinton is supposed to be a magnet for women. Women are supposed to be automatically drawn to Hillary because of all the things — feminism, Undeniable Truth of Life Number 24, I mean, any number of reasons, women are supposed to be flocking to her. And they aren’t. A National Review poll, in fact, has found that Hillary has a negative approval rating with practically every group except black women. Black women, she’s holding her own. But that’s probably because her husband was the first black president.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I know the fix is in as far as the Democrats are concerned. I know the media knows the fix is in. And the media realize she’s gonna be the nominee. No matter what happens here, no matter how many states Crazy Bernie wins, no matter what happens, Hillary’s gonna be the nominee, that’s what they think. They think it’s fixed, they think it’s rigged, they think it’s done, superdelegates, what have you. Crazy Bernie is just in there as a placeholder for whatever reason. And so it’s understandable, I guess, that there wouldn’t be a whole lot of coverage. Plus, what is there to say about her? I mean, every interview she does looks horrible.

Did you see this last interview she did on NBC? Not just what she said, but the way — it isn’t working. There’s a reason why there’s no excitement on the Democrat side. There’s a reason why there’s no eager anticipation. There’s a reason why there’s no momentum, at least that is rooted in Hillary. You could say there’s some of that stuff with Crazy Bernie, meaning the excitement that draws his crowds and so forth. But the Democrat primary writ large, it’s a funeral procession. So, in that sense, I can see the media ignoring it because they think Hillary is a done deal. But there’s another reason that they’re ignoring it is because it’s so bad, Hillary’s candidacy and her campaign.

I’m gonna tell you, folks: If it weren’t for the way the Electoral College falls out and the fact that she has a (D) next to her name on the ballot… I mean, that is her strength. That’s her primary strength, and that strength is no better than if the nominee were Biden or Crazy Bernie. It’s the (D) next to the name that shores up the nominee strength in the Electoral College. But it does show what the media can do when they want to either promote or protect a candidate, what they can do when they want to demean or destroy a candidate.

And we’re watching textbook examples of both processes unfolding right before our very eyes here on a daily basis. You go to the Republican side, these stories on all the horse trading going on with the delegates and how Cruz is outsmarting Trump? “Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing state to state in securing delegates.” All of that matters for the second ballot, which everybody is intent on producing, at least at the Republican establishment level.

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RUSH: We have a montage, changing gears now, the Drive-Bys, not just the Drive-Bys, hell, the establishment has been hoping, they have been praying — well, they don’t pray. But they’ve been hoping. They have been really hoping that Trump would implode. Right? They have been expecting it. They’ve been hoping that Trump would make a fool of himself and that’d be the end of it. So we’ve put together a montage from yesterday and this morning from people all over the media landscape — NBC, Fox News, Fox News, Weekly Standard, ABC, CBS, about Trump and the fact that he admitted he made a mistake and how they are overjoyed by it.

PETER ALEXANDER: Trump’s backing off the war over wives, admitting his retweet of this unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz was a mistake.

AINSLEY EARHARDT: He did admit that retweeting the unflattering image of Heidi Cruz was a mistake.

BILL HEMMER: Donald Trump admitting some missteps.

STEPHEN HAYES: This is Donald Trump with flashes of humility.

DEVIN DWYER: A possible turning point, Donald Trump expresses regret.

ANDREA GRYMES: A rare show of regret from Donald Trump.

MAJOR GARRETT: Donald Trump did the unthinkable and unusual: he expressed regret. A possible turning point.

RUSH: Okay, so what they are universally ecstatic over here is that Trump said, yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have done the retweet, that picture of Heidi Cruz. Here’s Trump admitting the mistake. It was it on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace said, “If you had purposely set out to turn off voters, especially women voters, over the last two weeks, I’m not sure you could have done a better job than retweeting that Heidi Cruz picture.”

TRUMP: Well, you know, all I can do is do what I do. Was this my best week? I guess not. I could have done without the retweet, et cetera, et cetera, but I think I’m doing okay.

RUSH: Doing okay. So from that they’re getting that it’s a new Trump day, it’s more humility, he’s finally admitted a mistake. Remember that one press conference George W. Bush, for 45 minutes they asked him to admit a mistake? Every reporter, “Is there not one mistake you’ve made?”

“No.”

“Come on, Mr. President, there has to be. Everybody makes mistakes. There’s not one thing you regret?”

“I don’t look at life that way.” For 45 minutes. There’s something about media and someone they cover admitting they made a mistake and they just run with it like it’s Christmas morning.

Speaking of Trump, here he is last night on the Fox News Channel, On the Record, Special Town Hall with Donald Trump. Greta Van Susteren was hostetting, and she said, “In 2015, you made the public announcement that you’re pro-life, and then this last week you’re all over the map on it. Can you tell me what you’re thinking about this?”

TRUMP: I’m pro-life. Ronald Reagan was pro-life, with the exceptions, okay? With the three exceptions. That was Ronald Reagan. And that’s been me. And it’s been me for quite a period of time. Then when they ask questions about, you know, different things or they ask theoretical questions in theory — in theory if he did this, and if he did that — and I took that answer, and I didn’t like it, because I think a lot of people didn’t understand it. Women go through a lot. They go through a tremendous punishment of themselves. And I didn’t like it because I wasn’t sure if people would understand it. So I clarified it. But it was just a clarification, and I think it was well accepted.

RUSH: Yeah, it was the best clarification anybody’s ever made. No better clarification ever happened in American politics than Trump’s clarification on his abortion statement with Chris Matthews. And everybody ate it up. Everybody loved it! It was the best clarification that’s ever, ever been made. Here’s Trump in West Allis, Wisconsin, yesterday speaking about Ted Cruz.

TRUMP: Lyin’ Ted Cruz! Ted Cruz, the biggest liar I’ve ever met! He comes in Bible high. “I’m Lyin’ Ted Cruz! I put the Bible down, and then I start to lie.” Remember what he did to Ben Carson? They should have disqualified Ted Cruz from Iowa.

FOLLOWERS: (applause)

TRUMP: He’s a cheater. He’s a cheater. He’s a dirty, rotten cheat! Remember that.

RUSH: (impression) “Lyin’ Ted! I talked to Tara.” Anyway… Of course, they conveniently leave out that Trump also referred to Carson as, what, a child molester? (interruption) Pedophile! That’s right. (laughing) He’s a pedophile. Trump referred to Ben Carson as a pedophile. But, of course, “Lyin’ Ted! He holds up the Bible and does what? That’s right, he’s Lyin’ Ted.” It’s all caricature.

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RUSH: Naples, Florida, back to the phones we go, and this is Mel. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hey. Good afternoon, Rush. It’s funny. You sound like you were reading my mind as you were talking about the Drive-By Media.

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: I just saw a couple things on there, as a matter of fact. In particular, I’m talking about CNN. I don’t know why the GOP continues to go on there and have the debate. Because CNN has done nothing but assassinate the GOP, the conservative brand in every which way. Particularly the two stories that I’m looking at —

RUSH: Ba, ba, ba, ba, ah, ah, ah, ah. Before you go into that, I have to tell you: There are a lot of people who think that CNN’s presidential debates have been a little bit and more substantive than the others that have been on Fox or MSNBC.

CALLER: Well, and those people… I don’t know. Are they people from CNN? Because the bottom line is when you deal with CNN and you look at CNN, they redefine terms. They take the liberal template in terms of defining a term, making everything a civil rights issue, and then they blame it on white Christian conservatives.

RUSH: Yeah, I… But, look, there’s nowhere to go. There’s nowhere to go to avoid that if you’re gonna have anybody from major media, other than… I mean, even the Fox people went there.

CALLER: But, you know what? They’re the way… You may not be able to avoid it, but you can set the tone. For example, I was really surprised during the Republican debate when the brought up the term “undocumented worker,” whatever the heck that is, and none of the GOP candidates corrected them. The problem with the GOP base under Reince Priebus is we have never controlled the terminology in a discussion, so people will think, “Oh, well, you hate women ’cause you hold this position,” or, “You hate minorities” because of whatever.

RUSH: Oh, that’s just because the GOP thinks that somehow it looks bad to defend yourself or to fight back. They believe that allegations like that are forgotten the next day. Look, they’re wrong. But what was the point you wanted to make about the two stories on CNN?

CALLER: The point I wanted to make was generally just how they redefine terms, where you have, in one case — I don’t know if you’re familiar — the man who killed his son for being gay. It was a CNN story about this man in California who killed his son allegedly for being gay. Now, the real point about the story is the guy was Muslim. So they wouldn’t bring up the fact the guy was Muslim on the headline. Now, they had another story —

RUSH: Now, wait. Wait, wait. Did CNN not mention that he was Muslim?

CALLER: CNN did not mention that he was Muslim in the headline. You had to actually… No, they didn’t say he was Muslim at all but the name is. You can probably decipher this from the name or he was from the Middle East.

RUSH: No, that’s just… You can’t do that. You cannot. That’s discriminatory and that’s bigoted. You can’t! You can’t assume somebody’s religion just because of their name.

CALLER: Oh, man. I’m sorry.

RUSH: Don’t you know that?

CALLER: Well, I’m not politically correct enough to know that. I’m sorry. But the second story was where you have CNN now. They say that Muslims were kicked off of a plane in DC, where if you read the story, it doesn’t say the fact that these people were Muslim was a factor in their being kicked off the plane. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that story as well.

RUSH: Look, it’s not just CNN. This kind of… I don’t doubt what you’re saying. This kind of bias is throughout our culture, not just the media. It permeates this administration. And, frankly, a lot of it was similar in the Bush administration. For some reason, there is an unwillingness to identify these people when they do what everybody knows they do.

CALLER: Well, Rush, I mean, the problem for me is, like, I just don’t get why the GOP hasn’t taken a step up. For example, CNN is not a news network. I know it has it in their acronym, but it’s not a news network. They were going to boycott Georgia because of the religious freedom deal. Well, whose network is in the position of telling or influencing political decisions?

RUSH: Because they’re afraid. They’re afraid of losing donors. They’re afraid of being criticized by the media. They’re afraid of offending voters. It’s a totally defensive, fearful posture.

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RUSH: No, no, no. I didn’t mean to downplay it. I didn’t have much time left for the caller, and this is another guy (muttering). It was a little bit better with him than the other guy. (muttering). But the point is, he was right, CNN did not report that the man who shot his son for being gay is Muslim, and that is rather important. I think it’s really crucially important.

CNN had a decision to make. Who do we want to indict more? Who do we want to be unfair to the most? Do we want to be unfair to homophobes, or do we want to have to tell the truth about Islam? And they decided to go with most American men are homophobes. We just had the story last week, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, which for lack of a better word, headquarters of the two primary mosques of Islam in Mecca, announced a new public policy of public execution for homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders It’s all there.

Now, some reports say that he’s not Muslim. CNN didn’t report it. Some people say he is. Some people say that he is not. Some say he’s a Seventh-day Adventist. The guy on the plane, the Muslim that was taken off the plane or whatever, they did not say he was Muslim, just used his name, is a different story. Now I’m being told the guy who shot his son is not a Muslim. Which is it? What other places? Where have you seen — CNN didn’t even mention it. Anyway, whichever is the case, I don’t think it’s a story that bothered CNN much, is the bottom line.

It fits a profile that they have established. When’s the last time you can ever remember anything like that happening? Whether the guy is Muslim or not, when’s the last time you can remember a father shooting a child because he was gay? CNN’s out there, they do want to make it look like, if it’s not a natural occurrence, that it’s something we need to be worried about because it might develop into something like this. There’s always this tone with stories like this.

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RUSH: Yeah, the Daily Mail is reporting that the dad who shot the kid is a Christian. That would make more sense for the Drive-By Media to report something like that than that he’s a Muslim. I would think if the dad is a Muslim who shot a gay kid, you’d have a hell of a time finding that. But the fact that he’s a Christian and shot his kid for being gay, I mean, that wouldn’t surprise me. The Drive-Bys would be all over that.