RUSH: This is Jeremy in Mayfield, Kentucky. Jeremy, great to have you. Appreciate your patience.
CALLER: Thank you. Good afternoon, Rush. I was wondering, what do you think the result would be in a general election, a face-off between the two true outsiders favored by the populace, the Donald Trump versus Bolshevik Bernie, Sanders versus Trump, how do you think that would turn out?
RUSH: The Donald versus Bolshevik Bernie. You know, there’s an interesting, if you want to look at New York last night, I’m gonna ask you, I’m gonna turn this around and ask you your thoughts on this because, as I ran the numbers last night, both Bernie and Hillary got more votes, popular votes in New York than Trump did. Both of them did. Now, the only reason I point this out is because many have speculated that Trump could actually turn the electoral system upside down by turning Democrat states, guaranteed Democrat states and putting them into play, like New York, like Illinois, Michigan.
And you would think that New York would be one of those prime states for him to do that, given that it’s his home state. Now, he is the only Republican to win his home state with 50%. Kasich didn’t get 50% in Ohio, Cruz did not get 50% in Texas. But Trump got 60% in New York, but his popular vote total was lower than both Hillary and Bernie. What do you think of that?
CALLER: Well, I think Trump beats Hillary by a landslide because I met a lot of Democrats here in our Kentucky caucus who swapped over just because they didn’t want to vote for Bernie or Hillary. But what surprised me about Bernie was the turnout of millennials. I think there would be a close race. You know, of course I’m a Trump supporter, but I think it would be a very close race between Sanders and Trump.
RUSH: What is the latest polling data? You know, there’s so much of this, and I get confused ’cause I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve seen polls that show Hillary and/or Bernie just trouncing Trump. I’ve seen polls that show Kasich as the only guy that beats them, which is irrelevant to me because Kasich isn’t gonna be the nominee, although the establishment would love to have him, but he’s not gonna be. I’ve seen some polls where Cruz does better than Trump against those two. And then I’ve seen polls where Trump beats one of the two of them, I forget which. You obviously don’t believe those polls, if you think Trump would trounce Hillary.
CALLER: Absolutely trounce. And I don’t consider —
RUSH: Why do you think — I mean, the polling data, I mean, it’s out there, people live and die by it. Why are you discounting the polling data? Why do you think Trump would clean her clock?
CALLER: Well, like I said, the individuals that I met for myself here in Kentucky are older, farmers, self-employed — I’m self-employed myself — they cringe at the thought of a twist, you know, between Bernie and Hillary. And especially Hillary. You know, they call her a criminal. I think Trump takes them because of the crossover, because if Sanders is denied the nomination, there are gonna be a lot of upset Sanders fans, and I think they’re gonna cross over to Trump.
RUSH: Well, I do think that’s a factor. I really do think the numbers of Democrats who say they will not vote if Bernie’s not the nominee is 25%. Now, I don’t expect that number to hold up all the way ’til November, but some of them might not. You also mentioned that Crazy Bernie’s strong suit’s millennials. That happens to be the demographic with the lowest turnout. It never fails. Every presidential election, everybody gets all hot and bothered and excited about what the Millennials are gonna do, what the youth vote’s gonna do, because it always polls very strong leftists.
Young people in polling data always indicate a preference for the most far-left Democrat available, and then after that, the remaining Democrat. But they also have the smallest turnout. They never ending showing up. So if that’s Bernie’s number one demographic, then I think he’d have problem. He’s not gonna be the nominee, Jeremy, so this would be a purely hypothetical, pretend game, Trump versus Bernie. I think Trump would win that easily.
Not denying, by the way, that there is quite a large number of challenged people who would vote for Bernie Sanders. And those people we really need to be alarmed about. We need to be scared of them, because they are a sizable number. They make up protesters, agitators. They’re the kind of people that don’t work. They just bully and join protest marches and try to get what they want that way. And there are a lot of them. But they’re not stable and we can’t turn the country over to ’em. And that’s what you’d be doing by electing Crazy Bernie.
I think it really comes down to: can Trump beat Hillary? And the answer to that question is all over the place. Some people believe exactly what the polling data says on that, and other people just throw it out. A lot of people look at the energy of the primaries, they see zero energy for her, uncontrollable energy and momentum for Trump, think it’d be a slam dunk.
You know, I’ll tell you this. There’s some RNC members who are intrigued at the potential of a Trump landslide. And then I can just as easily point you to other equally as informed, involved, concerned people who think that Trump would lose in one of the worst landslides in party history. So there isn’t a consensus on this. And it’s a little bit too early to make an informed prediction of how such a turnout, such a matchup would manifest itself. It would be much easier to predict this a couple months down the road. And I’m not skating on it. I’m just saying there’s not enough data here yet to make even an informed wild guess.
Fred in Indianapolis, which is where Trump is today, I think, by the way. Hello. Welcome to the program, sir.
CALLER: Yeah. Hi, Rush. Years ago you explained the political spectrum as a circle, and I think Donald Trump kind of is illustrated in that. The mainstream has a hard time (unintelligible) him on taxes. Smart enough to stay away from moral issues, debt, and foreign policy. Your idea of this was years ago. You said it was a circle and not a straight line, and I tend to agree with you.
RUSH: There been some political scientists just in the last three months who actually stole my idea and wrote a major dissertation on the whole concept that it is a circle and not a straight line. I’m flattered that you remember that.
CALLER: Oh, that’s years ago.
RUSH: That’s why I’m flattered you remember it.
CALLER: You know, here being the pizza shop state and the home of Carrier where they’re moving to Mexico, I think it would be important for Trump to come in here and maybe court Mitch Daniels or somebody that down the road would make a pretty attractive ticket.
RUSH: You mean Trump?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Let me ask, have you made a preference yet in terms of who you hope the Republican nominee is?
CALLER: Well, I’m more of a traditionalist. You know, I’m probably with Cruz on the political spectrum because I’m a conservative.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: But when you plot that circle over that political spectrum straight line, I find the fact that Trump is not a politician, and it’s really hard for the mainstream media and blue hat Chris Matthews to explain what he is.
RUSH: Well, you know, that’s a great point, because, in their world, everybody can be typed. In practically every instance of media that you can think of, every media person, they’ll typecast somebody ideologically or party reference, and they will plot them somewhere in the political spectrum. And your point is that Trump is not a politician, professionally. This is his first time running for office. Well, not his first time, but his first serious time. But he’s not a politician and so it’s hard to plot him on the political spectrum. Let me ask you a question here, Fred, before you go, since you mentioned Carrier. It’s not about Cruz; it’s Trump. When you hear Trump say that he’s going to stop Carrier from moving their factory and relocating to Mexico, do you think he can do that?
CALLER: No, I don’t think he can. You know, they’re a Fortune 500 company, and they have to make decisions, but obviously —
RUSH: His supporters think — (crosstalk)
CALLER: — labor doesn’t like that.
RUSH: His supporters think that he can. What happens —
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: — when he doesn’t? What happens when Carrier tells him to take a flier?
CALLER: Well, you know, the great unwashed obviously don’t understand that he can’t be like Obama and come in and be an emperor.
RUSH: Why not?
CALLER: They will understand. They — (crosstalk)
RUSH: Wait a minute. Why not?
CALLER: — on a political spectrum ’cause —
RUSH: If Obama’s shown that it can be done, if Obama has shown how you can participate in crony socialism or capitalism and get the insurance companies on his side on Obamacare and get even Walmart on his side on the minimum wage, what’s to stop Trump from making a deal with Carrier to keep the factory in Indiana in exchange for exemption, say, from federal taxes or whatever. Would you object if Trump kept that factory by making a deal with them they couldn’t get anywhere else with government?
CALLER: Well, obviously he’s got all these buildings, and he buys a lot of air-conditioning. He could illustrate to the public how as a big mover and shaker himself, we won’t buy from Carrier. And the guys sitting around at Carrier say, “They’re going somewhere else! It might cost us a little bit in labor outlays to stay in Indiana, but in the long run it’s a better PR move for us to stay.” That’s been the only thing —
RUSH: See, this is what people are afraid of. People that oppose Trump were afraid of this, that Obama has willfully engaged in all this cronyism by getting various corporations — by hook or by crook — on his political side to help him further his agenda in exchange for subsidies for tax breaks or whatever kind of benefit you can get with a close government relationship. And conservatives and free marketers are very much worried that since the die is cast and it’s been demonstrated by Obama how to do it and that nobody made a serious effort to stop any of it, that maybe Trump would do it, too.
So Trump, as part of his campaign, says he’s gonna stop Ford from relocating, he’s gonna stop Nabisco from making Oreos somewhere else, and now Carrier. Well, what if he goes out and — if he gets elected — makes deals with them to get them to stay? The free-market bunch will say, “Well, his supporters will love it, but that’s not good for US economics, ’cause it’s playing favorites. It’s picking winners and losers from the White House.” But Trump’s supporters would love it. They’d be running around saying, “He promised Carrier was gonna stay, and they’re staying.” And that’s what they would see. So, anyway, I have to take a break here. I really appreciate your calling, Fred. Thanks much.