RUSH:  Yesterday on this program, we had Mike Pence, the vice presidential running mate for Donald Trump.  And we talked to him about the fact that one of the points the Drive-Bys were making about his debate performance… Remember everybody raved about it. “It was great! Oh, it was so good. He was better than Trump. He made Trump mad,” they said.  Trump was said to be unhappy that Pence did so well ’cause it meant that Trump had to work harder and that he was outshined and so forth. 

And then they started speculating why Pence didn’t really fire back on some of the insults that Kaine was throwing out about Trump.  And they said… We had this media montage yesterday, all of these people. I’m sure this came from the Hillary campaign. They put out this word that everybody in the Drive-By was saying, “Yeah, well, Pence was setting himself up for his own presidential run in 2020.  That’s what Pence was doing! Pence knows that it’s a lost cause.  Pence knows that Trump’s already lost the thing. 

“Pence knows that Trump’s not gonna win this! He’s setting himself up for 2020!” They all were saying this, and so I said, “Where does this come from?  Did all of these Drive-By reporters just independently come up with that theory?”  No way.  I’m telling you, it came from the Hillary campaign.  The Hillary campaign issues talking points because the media is nothing more than the Hillary campaign.  The media is just a bunch of Democrat Party hacks disguised as journalists, for the most part.  So, the Hillary campaign puts out talking points:

“Hey, Pence is obviously setting himself up for 2020.”  We had a montage. At least 10 of these reporters said it.  Why would Hillary put it out?  Well, put it out there that Pence already knows this is over, that Hillary’s a lock for 2016, that he’s already looking for his own fortunes in the year 2020, and that’s what they did.  So on this program, we interviewed Pence. We laughed about it. We joked about it. You heard it if you were listening here.  In fact, grab sound bite number two.  We’ll play this first because this is the portion of the interview yesterday I conducted with Pence, and I want you to hear what they do with this.

So here is the relevant portion of the interview…

BEGIN AUDIO EXCERPT

RUSH: Here’s the third thing they’re saying.  The third thing they’re saying is you actually weren’t trying to help Trump last night.  You already know Hillary’s gonna win so you were doing everything you did for 2020, Governor.

PENCE: (laughing)

RUSH: Your 2020 campaign began last night. That’s what they’re saying in the Drive-By Media, Governor.

PENCE:  It is… You know, it’s what we’re used to.  I mean, look, I said in Virginia today at a rally, you know, most mornings I have to turn on the television with a stick.  You know, you just never know what’s gonna be there.

RUSH:  That’s right, with a stick.  (laughing)

PENCE:  It’s two on one every show with —

RUSH:  Wear latex gloves, exactly.

END AUDIO EXCERPT

RUSH:  So, as you clearly heard, I was joking with him about it. We were laughing about it. He refuted it. Neither one of us believes it or take it seriously.  But last night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 75, a portion of the CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s report about the vice presidential nominee, Governor Pence, and his strong debate performance.

ACOSTA:  Throughout the day, Anderson, we’ve been hearing from, uh, political pundits all the way up to Rush Limbaugh, uh, asking Mike Pence, uh, whether or not, uh, this performance last night was generating some buzz about Mike Pence’s 2020.  That is not the effect, uh, that the Trump campaign intended, uh, when Mike Pence was out there debating Tim Kaine last night.  So, uh, perhaps not exactly what they wanted, uh, in picking Mike Pence.  It’s never good to upstage the boss.

RUSH:  It didn’t happen!  It’s made up!  It’s entirely made up!  It is a made-up narrative by the Drive-By Media, and I damn well am certain they got it from the Hillary campaign.  You heard!  Pence and I are joking about it. I’m running it by him as, “Look at some of the other outrageous things they’re saying about you,” and then they report this — and it’s not wrong.  I mean, I did ask Pence about it, but they report it as though I think it, too, that I have all of a sudden decided throw Trump under the bus, that even Rush Limbaugh has concluded that Trump’s toast.

That’s what they tried to convey here.  “Throughout the day, Anderson, we’ve been hearing from political pundits all the way up,” putting me at the top of the poll, where I should be, “asking Pence whether or not…” (chuckling)  Now, if you’re one of these people that doesn’t know what to do when McDonald’s is out of McNuggets and you’re watching CNN, what are you gonna think?  You’re gonna think, “My God, even Limbaugh! Oh, jeez, it must be cool, then. It must be.”

(sigh) So all we can do is take this literal trash and garbage that they call the news every day and do our best to refute it.  I want to go back. I want… The montage that started all of this.  This was Tuesday night after the debate and Wednesday morning, played this for you yesterday.  This is a montage of all these pundits. How many? One… two… three… four… five… six…  There’s 10 of ’em here.  Ten Drive-Bys, and they all say the same thing.  Listen.

CHUCK TODD: Tim Kaine was running for Vice President in 2016; Mike Pence was running for president in 2020.

ANDREA MITCHELL: (background noise) Mike Pence defended his turf for 2020.

JOHN BERMAN: Mike Pence just won the first presidential debate for 2020.

WOMAN: (giggling)

PAUL BEGALA: Mike Pence, he’s running in 2020! He threw Trump under the bus!

MARK PRESTON: But Mike Pence certainly did himself well if he (chuckles) decides to run in 2020.

EZRA KLEIN: Mike Pence came in and made Mike Pence look good for 2020.

JACKIE KUCINICH: I think Mike Pence may have been looking a little bit at 2020.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Made himself probably the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2020.

RUSH:  How silly is that?  That’s Chris Matthews.  How silly is that anyway? The front-runner for 2020 and we haven’t had this election yet? But still, where did all of these people here, where did — do you think they independently concluded that Pence was sitting himself up for 2020?  There’s no way.  It had to come from the Clinton campaign or some Democrat organization somewhere and they ran with it.  So I asked Pence about it and then CNN reports, “Yeah, even Limbaugh!”

And then, of course, you’re the Trump campaign and you’re minding your own business and you hear CNN and think I’m now part of the crowd throwing you overboard.  So I got a send a flash note here to Hope Hicks and tell her what’s going on.  This is how they do it and how they try to do it and so forth.  Yeah, this puts more pressure on Trump. He didn’t really want to do this debate Sunday night. He didn’t really want to do it! Now Pence has forced him to actually do it now actually work hard doing it, which Trump didn’t want to.

I mean, the narratives they come up with! Trump doesn’t want to work hard.  Now there’s a story, by the way, in the Stack that I’m gonna be getting to. I’ll preview it here. Trump hired an Albanian immigrant to actually be the property manager for Trump Tower, the jewel in his empire.  Is Trump getting any credit for hiring an immigrant, an Albanian immigrant?  No way.  You know what the story is?  About how this immigrant property manager has been running side deals with all the vendors. 

In other words, they’re saying that he had to pay to play to get work at Trump Tower, that you had to give this guy a little bump if you wanted to get the contract to, say, put in a water pipe or vacuum or whatever the heck it is. So they’re trying to say Trump runs a dishonest operation and has this sleazeball immigrant from Albania in there doing it.  If Hillary hired an Albanian to do whatever — and I can’t imagine what, but — you can imagine the accolades and how it’d be really representative of her open-mindedness toward immigration.

I don’t think… As a property owner, I don’t think there’s a property manager alive that doesn’t bird dog it on the side.  It’s part of the cost of doing business.  (laughing)  It could get frustrating too.