RUSH: Newt Gingrich.  Audio sound bite number five.  Newt was on NPR today, Morning Edition.  By the way, I want to apologize to the staff.  This is like the third day in a row that we’ve had a sound bite from NPR, and that means somebody is — you turn on NPR and it’s the hardest thing in the world not to fall asleep.  And my staff even during the holidays performing yeoman duty.  I mean, they watch CNN.  They do screen MSNBC in case something that might survive the ban here, but now NPR.  Newt was there today.  Rachel Martin, cohost, Morning Edition, said, “What about Trump’s often-stated promise to drain the swamp in Washington, Newt?  What does that mean?  What’s he gonna do?”

GINGRICH:  I’m told he now disclaims that.  I’ve noticed on a couple of fronts, like people chanting “lock her up,” that he’s in a different role now, and maybe he feels that as president, you know, as the next president of the United States, that he should be marginally more dignified than talking about alligators and swamps.  I personally have, as a sense of humor, like the alligator-in-the-swamp language, and I think it vividly illustrates the problem because all the people in this city who are the alligators are gonna hate the swamp being drained and there’s gonna be constant fighting over it.  But, you know, he is my leader, and if he decides to drop the swamp and the alligator, I will drop the swamp and the alligator.

RUSH:  So Newt is gonna stop talking about draining the swamp because he’s heard that Trump is telling people he wants to disclaim it, he wants to stop using it.  I haven’t heard that.  Not that I would.  We will see.  You know, Trump is gonna continue doing rallies, I think wisely, and I’m just curious to see if he actually will cease using the phrase.  I’m also — you know when I hear something like this — and, look, don’t anybody call Newt and tell him I’m accusing him of anything here. 

But every prominent person has people surrounding him, and many of the people surrounding the prominent person think they’re smarter than the prominent person.  Many of them are protective.  Many of them are very loyal.  But some of them are deathly afraid that the prominent person’s gonna say something that constitutes stepping in it. 

I’ve had this happen to me, which is why, ladies and gentlemen, I offer the possibility that maybe Trump isn’t saying this at all. That there might be people in Trump’s circle who wish he would stop saying it, who then go out and will tell Newt or any or number of people, “Yeah, yeah, Trump says he’s not gonna use it anymore.  He doesn’t like the phrase.” 

Because, you know, in every prominent person’s circle there are people — and people are people — and some of them don’t like having to defend what the prominent person does or says, and some of them get nervous that they might be seen as defending something they wouldn’t ordinarily defend. And there might be somebody in Trump’s close circle that really doesn’t like this “drain the swamp” talk.  It might be somebody that has ties to the establishment, i.e., the swamp. 

And so it might be somebody out there putting words in Trump’s mouth and thus challenging Trump to stop using the term. If this is not Trump’s idea, if Trump has not disclaimed using the phrase but now Newt and others are out in the media, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, he’s not gonna use that phrase anymore,” what’s Trump gonna do?  Does he disown with a tweet his own people?  Probably so.  (laughing)  I wouldn’t put it past him. 

But look, prominent people, I don’t care how prominent, I don’t care how famous, I don’t care how achieved, there are still people that are constantly trying to manipulate ’em.  In fact, maybe even more so, there are people trying to manipulate them, trying to use them, telling other people how close they are when they really aren’t.  I mean, people like Trump who are riding the crest of a wave where all kinds of light and attention are being shined, there’s a lot of people that want to be in that light.

There’s a lot of people who want to be thought to be in the inner circle so that some of that attention might cast itself on them.  Any number of things could explain it. And it could also be that Trump has disclaimed it, too.  I’m just sharing with you the way I react to things like that.  It’s why I don’t want anybody calling Newt and telling Newt that I am not believing what he said.  That’s not my point here.