RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, did you see the final popular vote tally?  Donald Trump won the election by three million votes, if you throw out California and New York.  You throw out California, New York, Trump wins by three million votes.  If you include California and New York Hillary wins by, what was it, 2.5 or 2.2 million votes.  It’s a perfect illustration of why we have the Electoral College. 

Now, my question is a simple one.  Since Hillary won the popular vote, why are they complaining about the Russians hacking the election?  I mean, Hillary wins the popular vote, what more can a hacker do than get you the majority of the popular vote?  But yet they’re running around complaining about the hackers and they’re blaming the Russians for stealing the election.  And yet she won the majority of popular votes.  It seems to me you can’t have it both ways.  I know some of you people, “Well, Rush, what do you mean Trump won by 2.8?  You can’t throw out New York and California.”  Well, they are.  They are.  When they say the Russians hacked the election, which didn’t happen, by the way. 

Furthermore, there is no evidence, there is not a scintilla of evidence even at this moment, there is not a scintilla of evidence that the Russians even are responsible for the leak of all of those Podesta emails to WikiLeaks, not a scintilla.  Now, you may think that you’ve heard all these intelligence people running around saying that they have concluded that the Russians were trying to hack this and trying to hack that.  That use of the word “conclusion,” by the way, is kind of like the use of the word “claimed” by the Drive-By Media. 

As I pointed out yesterday, they throw the word “claimed” around as in “Limbaugh claims an audience of 20 million,” in order to disqualify, in order to question, in order to de-authorize, if you will, the information.  I don’t claim anything.  I report.  I report the size of our audience.  They report that I claim, meaning I’m making it up, meaning I’m just saying it. 

It’s the same thing here with this conclusion business.  You are supposed to think that when, like when a consensus of scientists has concluded and that that equals sciences.  Doesn’t mean anything.  It’s just a bunch of people banding together telling you what they think.  But there’s nothing official behind it.  The word “concluded” is a trick word.  It’s designed to attach authority and ontological certitude to whatever follows, when it’s just another way of stating what somebody thinks. 

All these little word tricks that the Drive-Bys play.  And that’s what I’m doing here, throw out New York and California, Trump wins the popular vote by nearly three million votes.  But you can’t throw out New York and California.  This is exactly why we have the Electoral College.  And again, one more time briefly.  Had there been no Electoral College and had the election be defined by the popular vote, I guarantee you that the two states where the candidates would have been all the time are New York and California. There would have been some time in Texas and they would have ignored the vast majority of people in the country. 

A vast majority of the geographical area of the country would have been ignored during the campaign, and so the results would have been different.  Who’s to say Trump would not have done better in California if he’d spent some time out there?  And who’s to say that Hillary would have done worse if she’d spent some time out there and actually had been seen by people in California like she was seen elsewhere as having questionable stamina. 

So they’re still playing word games with this and mind games, and it’s clear they’re having trouble coming to grips with it.  In fact, David “Rodham” Gergen — grab audio sound bite number two.  Last night CNN, Erin Burnett OutFront is speaking with the dean of conventional wisdom in the Beltway, David Gergen.  She said, “Calling Trump’s voters angry white men, is Bill Clinton making a mistake there?”

GERGEN:  On the surface it’s tit-for-tat sandbox behavior I don’t think is very meaningful.  It’s pretty trivial, actually.  But I do not think what it reveals underneath is the disdain that has grown in each man for the other.  It may be true that at one point they were closer, much closer, but neither one of them respects the other anymore. And I think it’s particularly raw coming the day after the Electoral College, and Bill Clinton, he’s taking this hard.  It’s been very hard to him.  He thought his wife was gonna win.  He believed she should have won.  I think he believes, basically, it was an unfair result.

RUSH:  Everybody thought that Hillary was gonna win.  That’s the problem.  Everybody thought, nobody was paying attention.  Even Mitch McConnell.  I don’t know what this guy’s doing.  He’s out talking about this as though he’s proud of it.  I wouldn’t be admitting this kind of stuff if I were Mitch.  “McConnell: I Expected Trump Would Lose And Republicans Would Lose Senate.” We have the audio sound bite on this if I could find it.  Grab number six.  This was Mitch McConnell. This was on Kentucky public TV’s, “One to One with Bill Goodman.”

MCCONNELL:  I honestly thought we wouldn’t hold the U.S. Senate.  I thought we’d come up short and I didn’t think President Trump had a chance of winning.  Given my expectations, doubly exciting because I thought we’d come up short on the Senate.  We had a lot of exposure.  That was really something.  But it never occurred to me that he might be able to win as well.

RUSH:  Never occurred that they might win.  Now, I, on the other hand, thought Trump could win this thing last summer, a year ago last summer, ’cause I’m paying attention.  These people inside the Beltway, they’re really walled off — I mean, even people on the Republican side.  So McConnell: “I expected Trump would lose.  I thought we would lose the Senate,” and then he went on; he further said he was kind of surprised that a rich guy like Trump could be elected! Yeah, it’s bad enough that the Democrats believe their own media, the Drive-By Media.

But there are too many Republicans that believe it, too.  And is it any wonder that they have acted on occasion like defeated, hopeless waifs?  I mean, they read and absorb everything the Drive-By Media says, and they believe it, too.  And of course the Drive-By Media is routinely making fun of them and talking how hopeless they are and what a distant minority they are — and to be shocked and stunned by this, you wonder if any lessons have been learned.  

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RUSH:  No, no.  Let me be clear.  I didn’t mention this McConnell business to take a hit on him.  That’s not what this is about.  Folks, I’m talking about the attitude of winning and the can-do spirit and how I think people inside the Beltway in both parties have retreated to their corners, and unfortunately in the Democrat side, their corner is they win by knockout every time, and our corner is people expect to lose and the idea is to limit the damage. 

And those attitudes… You see what the attitude’s doing to the Democrats.  They cannot accept that they have been rejected.  They can’t accept that they have lost.  They cannot accept that every — and, believe me, folks, everything they stand for here has been repudiated.  Now, I know some of you are saying, “Rush, how can you say this because of this popular vote?  Hillary did get 2.5 million more popular votes than Trump did.”  Well, true, but that’s not how the campaign happened, folks.  This is all about the campaign. 

There is a route to the presidency in this country, and it’s called the Electoral College, and both candidates base their campaigns on winning the Electoral College, not the popular vote.  And in that pursuit, Donald Trump won in a landslide or near landslide.  And in that pursuit, Barack Obama and his agenda was repudiated.  And not just this year.  In the 2010 midterms, the 2014 midterms, and this election.  You’re probably bored now hearing me cite how many seats the Democrats lost nationwide, national, state, local, in those three elections. 

It’s over 1500 seats. 

The writing was on the wall. 

Now, a lot of us missed that, I will grant that.  But the Democrats can’t come to grips with the fact that they have been not just defeated, they’ve been rejected, what they stand for and what they did. And their fingerprints alone with on these things:  Obamacare, that stimulus.  That’s why this is a very risky thing for Trump, this stimulus that he wants to do, but we’ll get into that just a second here.  And the executive orders.  Obama is doing it again with this ban that he thinks is in perpetuity on offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean and north of Alaska.

Now, about that, just a brief aside: It’s bad what Obama’s trying to do, and I know exactly what he is doing with this.  I’ll tell you that in a minute.  But the first thing is, the areas that Obama has, by executive order, declared off-limits are areas nobody wants to drill in anyway.  There are no plans to drill off the coast, the East Coast of the country out in the Atlantic, and there are no plans to drill north of Alaska in the Arctic Circle. 

What Obama wants to happen I’m sure is for Trump to try and reverse this and a number of other executive orders that he has yet to implement.  And he will do so on his way out the door here.  These executive orders… Well, this one that limits offshore drilling for oil and natural gas is all designed to save the planet from the evils and the deadly characteristics of fossil fuels.  And so Trump, it is hoped I’m sure by the Democrats and Obama… I’m sure they are hoping that Trump will make a move soon to rescind and repeal Obama’s orders.

Even though it is said they’re permanent and it can’t be done, it can, and then Obama will call the media and he’ll go on TV and he’ll immediately accuse Trump of poisoning the planet, not caring about poisoning the water and all this other stuff.  Don’t doubt me.  I know how this stuff works, and more of you each and every day who listen here religiously know as well as I what Obama is setting up here.  It is to portray Trump as some selfish heathen who only cares about his own profit and well-being and doesn’t care that the little guy might be a victim of more pollution and the climate might be changing more rapidly than ever.

And Trump will be responsible for all of this.  But the agenda that Obama had was personally repudiated.  Everything, including stuff like this, his executive orders — immigration — all of it has been repudiated.  They can’t imagine to grips with it.  But on our side, in our corner, where they don’t expect to win, how could you have missed what was happening in this country?  How could you have missed it?  Well, I know the answer to my question.  They didn’t want Trump to win in the first place. 

He’s an outsider. He’s not part of the clique.  I know the answer to all these questions, but I’m asking them for a reason.  The Republicans didn’t win this time because of the Republicans, and conservatives didn’t win this time because of the conservatives.  The Democrats got beat this time because of Trump.  That is what has happened.  And there are a lot of us who are deliriously happy about it and want to build on it as best we can.  

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RUSH: Here’s Steve in Baldwinsville, New York.  It’s great to have you on the EIB Network, sir.  Hello.

CALLER:  Hey, Rush.  How you doing?

RUSH:  Just fine, sir.  Thank you.

CALLER:  Hey, you were talking earlier about getting rid of New York and California?

RUSH:  Yeah.

CALLER:  It’s not New York and California.  It’s New York City and LA County.  Those two by themselves gave her more than her margin of victory.  If you take those two out, she loses by almost 500,000 votes.

RUSH:  Isn’t that right?  I haven’t seen that anywhere.

CALLER:  There’s a guy named David Leip, L-e-i-p. He has an atlas of all the elections, a great resource. So go in and add them up.

RUSH:  So if you take New York City, eight million — take those people out and the people in LA County out — and then Trump wins the nationwide popular vote by 500,000?

CALLER:  Almost 500,000.

RUSH:  So what…? In your mind, what is the value in knowing that and pointing it out?

CALLER:  That’s the exact reason they put in the Electoral College in the first place, is to prevent high-population areas from dominating the country, and that’s what that is doing. That’s what it’s there for, to prevent that from happening, the popular vote from electing the president.

RUSH:  If you know this, you have probably seen all the different maps that are out.

CALLER:  Mmm-hmm.

RUSH:  I saw a map. Somebody sent it to me, and unfortunately I don’t have the Web address in front of me to tell you what it is. But, some guy’s actually not a red-and-blue map, but has actually has taken a topographical map of the United States, and in all the areas where Hillary won. He has darkened it. Not by county, not by state, but by actual area.  And it is stunning when you look at the small — like you’re pointing out, the small — pockets of this country that voted for Hillary Clinton. They’re population centers, but it is even more profound than the county by county red vs. blue map that everybody is familiar with.  And what makes it, you know, really abundantly clear is that the Democrat Party literally has no support of any significance or consequence except for a small couple of areas on both coasts and in Chicago.

CALLER:  Correct.

RUSH:  It is really stunning.  Meaning, they are totally out of touch with the way people in that part of the country live.

CALLER:  Exactly so, and if you… Even… You know, he won by 20% of the states, and I suspect — I haven’t been able to count up all the counties, haven’t tried to count them all up yet — but I expect he won 90% of the counties.

RUSH:  Oh, easy.  Yeah, probably more than that, which, again, I ask, you know, why aren’t the Democrats thanking the Russians?  The Russian hack got Hillary a popular vote victory.  I mean, what are they doing here?  Anyway, before you go, I need to ask you here, you’re gonna get a subscription to Rush 24/7 — a great, great website. It’s an encyclopedia at your disposal.

CALLER:  Excellent.  I had one when I was back in the Navy, a guy bought it for me, through your program you had back then within 2005, I think.

RUSH:  Well, we’re gonna re-subscribe you here complimentary basis for one year.  What kind of iPhone do you want, a 7 or 7 Plus?

CALLER:  I’ll take the Plus.

RUSH:  Yeah, I figured.

CALLER:  It’s perfect because mine’s about to die.  I got an old 5, and it’s starting to have issues.

RUSH:  You have an iPhone.  What’s your carrier?

CALLER:  AT&T.

RUSH:  AT&T.  Cool.  So you have a color preference?

CALLER:  Black or silver, whichever one’s good.  The matte black or silver, whichever one works better for you is good for me.

RUSH:  Well, we’ll go back there and look.  I’ve got both, so take your pick.

CALLER:  I’ll take the silver one, then.

RUSH:  Good call.  You know, one of mine is silver, and you’ll love it. You really will.  Now, you’ll be able to take that AT&T SIM card from your iPhone 5 and just put it in this one.

CALLER:  Oh, perfect.

RUSH:  And you’re up and running.  Now, you’ll have to get with somebody who knows how to migrate your current data on your current phone to the new one, how to do that, but you don’t need to go to the AT&T store.  Hang on just a second here so we get your address and have all of this sent to you. 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Hey, folks, Koko up at RushLimbaugh.com is gonna link to that map I was just talking about.  I don’t think you’ve seen it.  It’s not a red-blue map.  It’s not a county by county map at all.  I’m not even gonna attempt to describe it.  Just let you see it.  Give us about five minutes, maybe 10 at the outside.  Just keep clicking at RushLimbaugh.com, and Koko make it prominent up there at the top and we’ll have a link to it that you can see. 

The way this works out, Donald Trump won 2,623 counties; Hillary won 489 counties.  But it really is even more dramatic than that.  This is just a mathematical exercise.  This is not a what-if.  If you take out New York City and LA County, because what they’re trying to say is Hillary won the popular vote, three million people ra ra ra.  They’re trying to make you think that because of that the country’s still a leftist oriented country. We’re still getting rid of conservatism and the right wing and Obama’s agenda is still carrying the day, and of course it isn’t.  It was defeated.  It was on the ballot. 

The Obama agenda was on the ballot, and he put it there!  He campaigned on it.  He even went so far as to personalize it. (imitating Obama) “If you want my legacy to continue, then you’ll vote for her.”  He put it all out there.  He made it sound like he has this deep connection with voters.  He doesn’t have a connection.  Trump does. 

Trump has a unique connection with his voters.  There aren’t that many people personally invested in Obama.  The people invested in Obama are invested in an idea that it’s about time white America took it on the chin. That it’s about time the people that founded this country found out what it’s like to not be in a majority. 

That’s the kind of people Obama has a connection to. 

But Trump’s connection is personal.  It’s rooted in personal desire, personal loyalty for him to succeed.  Obama doesn’t have that.  Never did.  But don’t try to tell Obama that.  Obama believes that he has the exact kind of connection with voters that Trump has.  And I’m telling you there hasn’t been anybody in a long time that — Reagan did.  But there hasn’t been a president since then.  Clinton with certain Democrats, yeah, you could say that Clinton had it with certain Democrats with a personal investment, live or die no matter what Clinton did or said, they weren’t gonna abandon him. 

Well, obviously it’s not the case here with Obama.  I mean, people abandoned the Obama agenda the first chance.  When they had a chance to vote without him on the ballot, they told us everything they think about the Obama agenda.  Him being on the ballot changed everything because of race.  So Obama’s out there campaigning on all this, and it was repudiated.  His agenda was repudiated:  Obamacare, immigration, everything he stands for was repudiated in three different elections. 

But yet they’re out claiming, “Well, Hillary won the popular vote.  Why, that means.”  It doesn’t mean anything, because the campaign was oriented toward the Electoral College.  The campaign was oriented toward the way we elect the presidency, Electoral College, not the popular vote.  The popular vote doesn’t matter.  This is not a direct democracy.  We have a representative republic, and the popular vote doesn’t matter and it never has, by design.  So all these are just exercises in mathematics.

Hillary winning the popular vote by three million doesn’t mean anything.  Obama’s agenda was on the ballot and it was repudiated.  Then if you take it down even deeper, it’s been said that if you take out New York and Los Angeles County, then Trump wins the popular vote by 2.8 million.  It’s even better.  If you just take out New York City and Los Angeles County.  Just New York City.  Not New York state and California, but New York City and LA County, Trump wins by a half million votes. 

Now, Trump didn’t campaign in New York City, and Hillary didn’t, either, and Trump didn’t campaign in LA, nor the rest of California.  But in the county by county area, it’s a smoke job.  Trump wins, again, what’s the number, 2,623 counties and Hillary with 489.  You know how many counties independents won?  Zero.  Just like they always have.  Not one county.  Independents did not win one county.  The exception to that, 1992 when Perot won 15.  The independents don’t win anything.  That’s why I’ve always — the precious independents and the moderates and so forth.  So much bohunk out there. 

Look, this was a clear repudiation of liberalism because that’s what Obama is, people don’t want any more of it.  The left can’t come to grips with that, and they’re trying to hang on to this illusion that they’re still the majority, the illusion that the American people still prefer their way of doing things.  None of it’s true.