RUSH: Abbey in Gainesville, Florida. It’s great to have you. You’re next. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. I’m a first-time voter and actually a college student, and I’m voting for Cruz. And my main reason why I’m not voting for Trump is because he encourages people to break the law, like encouraging violence at his rallies. I just… I think it’s very immature and kind of thuggish. So that’s my main thing against him, is that he’s encouraging people to be violent, and I don’t agree with that.
RUSH: Let me… I’m going to take the occasion of your call to say something here about both men. Because it’s not good for people on our side of the aisle to start harboring opinions of our two front-runners here that may not be entirely accurate. I understand the nature of competition. And the Cruz people want desperately to win, and the Trump people desperately want to win. And within the framework of this competition, obviously, critical things are going to be said. I know both these guys, and I know both of them very well.
Folks, I just want to tell you from the bottom of my heart. First off, for those of you Cruz people who think that Trump is some thug, he’s not. The “encouraging violence” thing is a little bit of an exaggeration of a couple of things that happened at some of the early Trump rallies that were largely symbolic. You have to understand this is one of the things that put Trump on the map. People on our side are fed up with having life dictated to us by public agitators and protesters who are not legitimate.
They come in for one purpose, and that’s to interrupt, disrupt. They don’t have a legitimate grievance. They’re faking it. They’re nothing but a bunch of bullies themselves, and Trump was not going to surrender his events to them. He simply wasn’t. In some faux sense of politeness or tolerance, he was not going to surrender his event to these people. Donald Trump is a… You would love him living in your neighborhood. You would love him if he were one of your friends. He is a nice guy, but he’s committed, and he’s driven, and he’s confident.
And many people assume, from that, that he is arrogant. Some people assume that people like that are intolerant, that they’re know-it-alls or what have you. But if you would spend any time around Trump, you would enjoy yourself. You’d be laughing, and you would have a good time. You might think some things are beyond the pale or what have you, but he’s not a bad guy. And, by the same token, on the other side, I really am uncomfortable with what some of the Trump people think of Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz is…
I don’t know how else to say it. He’s wholesome. He is solid. He is an excellent citizen. He’s possessed of incredible dignity and integrity. He’s not a cheater. And, by the same token, if Cruz lived in your neighborhood, it’d be a great neighborhood, and you’d be happy to have him in your neighborhood. You’d be happy to have Cruz as one of your friends. He may seem stiff to some people because of the way he appears on the campaign trail, but both of these people are okay people. They’re nice people. They’re nice guys.
They’re driven in their own ways, and both of them are profoundly preferable to Hillary Clinton. You want to talk about negative characteristics and personality traits? Gaming, cheating, this kind of thing? I mean, that is the name of the game for the entire Clinton machine. What they have is a political machine, and it takes no prisoners. And they are in it for the express purpose of maximizing as much personal gain as they can out of it while at the same time altering the status quo in this country in a negative way for the most people.
They are elitists, and they’re just not… You wouldn’t, I don’t think, fully trust them or their organization. But when it comes to Cruz, you have a deeply religious, committed family man. He believes in God; he lives his life accordingly. These are not bad guys. These are not bad people. And it’s kind of part and parcel of campaigns that you have these kind of negative attacks, critical things said about people. But you can rely on the fact that when all this is done, these are people that you would not mind being around at all.
You wouldn’t mind them having some role in your life, be it friendship, member of your church, or what have you. But they’re both in a pretty heated competition here for the most powerful job in the world. And there are certain things that you have to do, certain requirements that you have to do to achieve this job, to win. It’s what it takes to win this job, and it’s something most people wouldn’t even subject themselves to. Most people wouldn’t even enter this arena.
Most people wouldn’t be able to take one-tenth of the criticism that you get and remain smiling and have an upbeat and positive attitude. Most people wouldn’t want to get anywhere near it. And so you have to make — I don’t know — allowances for various things that might happen that seem to be extreme in the heat of a campaign. But you can, I think, rest assured that we’re not talking about bad people here. Not in my estimation, anyway.
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RUSH: Scott in Ohio, great to have you with us. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh, thank you for taking my call. It’s a privilege to talk to you. I had a question. I’m a little curious as to, it seems like your attitude towards Trump and his supporters has changed as of late. And a prime example yesterday to me was, you had callers calling in, you know, many of which are complaining about the whining of Trumpists, if you want to call ’em that, and Trump himself about delegates. And in the next breath, seemingly, you praise Trump for exposing what is a corrupt delegate system. So I sense a bit of —
RUSH: Wait, I don’t think that the delegate system is corrupt. My opinion of Trump and Trump voters has never changed. I like Donald Trump. I’m fascinated by his campaign. I have studied it. I think I’ve spent more time than anybody, seriously, that’s not a professional sociologist, trying to understand it. It fascinates me. I hope it’s huge. I wonder how big it is. I wonder how much bigger it can get.
There are a lot of things about the Trump campaign that intrigue me, and I’m sure they intrigue everybody else, and one of them is he’s not a professional politician, an outsider. This stuff’s not supposed to be possible. The insiders will tell you this is not supposed to be possible. The consultants, the professional consultants, both parties, they’re chewing their fingernails down to the quick over this, because this is not supposed to be possible.
This isn’t supposed to happen. Guy’s not supposed to be able to self-fund; you’re not supposed to be able to do this without donors; you’re not supposed to be able to do this without advisors and TV ads and consultants running the campaign and so forth. And Trump voters and what they represent, look, I think the future of this country rests with the people. And I have great faith in the people of this country. I still think a majority of the people in this country are appalled at so much of what is happening to our culture.
I think they’re fed up with it, but they have been not represented. And whenever they do speak up, they’re shouted down and they’re mocked and they’re made fun of and they’re ridiculed into silence. So somebody’s come along and speaks up for them who refuses to be silenced, that they applaud. I understand it all. But I don’t think the delegate selection process is corrupt. Not as it’s being used here.
Now, look, I’m not saying politics isn’t corrupt. I’m not saying there’s not vote fraud that takes place on Election Day. But what we’re talking about here in the way these delegates are being chosen, the way they’re selected and the way they’re assigned, there isn’t any corruption. There’s just a contest. And Trump has had his own way of going about getting these delegates. Cruz has had his.
Cruz is at a — look, you’re gonna misunderstand this. But I’m gonna say it — he’s at a disadvantage. He’s losing. He’s only got one option open to him. And that’s winning on a second or third ballot. That’s all he can do right now. And so he’s doing what’s necessary to win, should that eventuate. Trump wants to win it without ever there being a second ballot, and he’s trying to pull that off now. And he’s going about it in his own way.
They’re competing for the same thing, but not in the same way, because Trump can win it in ways that Cruz can’t. Trump can win it in both ways, but Cruz only has one way. That’s the best I can do to explain it.