RUSH: Ben Shapiro at The Daily Wire: “Red wave? Poll Shows Republicans Could Pick Up 9 Senate Seats.” Wait, what, what? Wait, what about the blue wave? The blue wave, Republicans are gonna lose the House and Democrats are gonna take the House, Democrats gonna do impeachment, they’re gonna get rid of Trump. Wait a minute. What is this?
“According to new Morning Consult polls, Democrats are in serious trouble in Senate races across the country. Republicans have serious leads in West Virginia, where incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin trails by 14 points; North Dakota, where incumbent Democrat Heidi Heitkamp trails by eight; Indiana, where incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly trails by five; Missouri, where incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill trails by five.” And there is polling data out of Missouri that essentially says Missourians think she’s old news, it’s time for a change.
In fact, in San Francisco, a local CBS affiliate, a TV station, made mention of the fact that Nancy Pelosi is less popular than, I think was it Trump — nah, it’s not Trump. I forget who. But the point is that Pelosi is not even ruling the roost in her own home district in San Francisco. And yet we hear about this blue wave that’s coming. And the only evidence of that is, of course, polling data from back in December and January.
In Montana, Jon Tester trails by five. By the way, there’s news on that. There’s a position for Mike Pence. Name is Pena. I forget her first name. What’s her name? Name is Jennifer Pena. She’s apparently the one that dropped the dime on Ronny Jackson, and she did it by going directly to the Senate, which means Jon Tester. So she goes over there and she tells Tester all this horrible stuff about Ronny Jackson. Tester runs with it, of course.
It turns out to have been untrue! Pence’s official doctor dropped the dime on Trump’s! Well, she has resigned. Gee whiz. “VP Physician Who Targeted Ronny Jackson Resigns.” Now the Morning Consult poll: Republicans could pick up nine Senate seats. Now, I have to weigh in on this.
Forget the blue wave stuff. Let’s go back to shortly after the 2016 election, shortly after Trump won, when Washington was turned upside down. Nobody could believe what just happened. And even at that early stage, people began looking at the midterms, House and Senate. And back then, it was a foregone conclusion. You remember James Carville running around talking about how the Democrats had never had less power since the 1920s? That the Democrats were now in the wilderness, that there was no way the Democrats were ever gonna be able to come back? Carville was so down in the dumps, whether he looked up he saw the gutter.
And back then, the story was how the Democrats had so many seats to defend in 2018, something like — I forget the exact number — 18 to 20 Democrats were up for reelection, and many of them in states where Trump had done very well. And so the early conventional wisdom was that the Democrats were headed for even more trouble. The Republicans only have to defend nine seats in the Senate in the midterms. The Democrats, 18 or 20, something like that.
Well, this story from Morning Consult is doing nothing more than confirming what was conventional wisdom after the election. It shows that Republicans could pick up nine seats, which is about what people were saying in December of 2016, January of 2017. So what has happened in the ensuing year and a half hasn’t changed this at all. We just think it has. We think that there’s a big blue wave. We think the Democrats are gonna sweep everything, because Trump is hated.
Well, Trump isn’t hated! People in America living and working where Trump is having an impact are doing quite well. Even Apple announced one of the largest share buybacks in American corporate history, and they’re going to use the money from the Trump tax cut to do it! A share buyback is simply giving money to shareholders. They are returning money to shareholders. The people that own Apple stock are making out like bandits.
All because of Trump’s tax cuts. People are experiencing more disposable income. They have bonuses. As such, the unemployment number, 3.9%, Trump’s approval number, 51%, manufacturing jobs are way up. None of this makes any sense if you measure it against what you see in the Drive-By Media every day. Trump ought to be hated and despised. If you pay attention to the media and you believe what you see there, why, you would think Trump’s on the verge of being thrown out of office tomorrow. That’s how hated he is. That’s how opposed he is. That’s how much people regret voting for him.
And yet the reality is the Democrats, as of now — and you know what I think about these early polls, but we’re gonna use it since they do. Democrats are losing in nine seats in the Senate where Republicans could pick up gains. Republicans gain nine seats? Now, we don’t know how many they’re gonna lose. But they’ve got far fewer to defend. The point is there isn’t any blue wave happening here! And the blue wave that was said to happen in the House, it looks like, if it ever was real, that it is evaporating at the same time.
There’s this story from Matthew Continetti at the Free Beacon. “The Media Is Killing the Democratic Party — The Democratic message has been reduced to Russia and Stormy Daniels.” The Democrats have not had a message since the election. They didn’t have a message during the election. Their message during the election was that Trump is unfit and that Hillary is the greatest candidate for president there’s ever been or that Hillary is entitled or that Hillary’s owed or Hillary is due.
The Democrats haven’t had a message. Obama’s economic message was, “Hey, the best days are behind us. Get used to the decline. America has no exceptionalism about it. America never was that great.” That was the American message during Obama. Is it any wonder the Democrats were sent packing? What has happened to rebound for the Democrats? What’s happened to make them look good to people?
What’s happened in the last year and a half to make people think the Democrats are where we would rather be, rather have leading the country? It doesn’t make any sense! It makes literally no sense at all. Yet the narratives and the forecasts of the Drive-By Media are just that, that the American people regret, the American people have buyer’s remorse, the American people desperately want the Democrats back, Hillary or Bernie, it doesn’t matter, Elizabeth Warren, but they want the Democrats back. Well, there’s no evidence of that. It’s one gigantic illusion, one gigantic lie after lie after lie, indirect and direct.
Back to the phones. Greg, Atlanta. Great to have you, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking the call. You were talking last hour about how Lindsey Graham and company 20 years ago or more pursued the impeachment of President Clinton, and yet the Senate wasn’t invested, the American people weren’t invested as evidenced by President Clinton’s approval rating. And it was ultimately proven in the ’98 midterms when the Republicans lost enough seats sufficient that Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, felt compelled to resign at that point. I started to get excited when you were talking about that because it sounds like we’re looking at the exact same kind of circumstances possibly shaping up for the midterm this year, where the global left is going after Trump and yet his popularity is increasing. Is it possible that we could really be surprised, pleasantly surprised this November?
RUSH: You know, the way to answer is that I would not be surprised if we’re surprised. I wouldn’t be surprised. I will not be, but some people will be, and I won’t be surprised if they are. Look, don’t forget this. The latest of the Democrats begging candidates to stop talking about impeachment is no less than Pencil Neck. Adam Schiff, the Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is out desperately today begging Democrats to shut up about impeachment.
Now, ask yourself… He’s not alone. Pelosi has said the same thing, and they’ve both asked Maxine Waters, “Would you please stop talking about it.” Why? I mean, look, if the country hates Trump, and if the country realizes it made a mistake in electing Trump, and if they wish they could do it over again, and if they’ve got buyer’s remorse — and if Trump is despised and hated, as you would think by listening and watching the media — then in the world would talking about getting rid of him hurt?
Why don’t they want this front and center? If they have all of a sudden become so popular with the American people — if the Democrats are all of a sudden loved and adored and respected and desired again after a year and a half of this guy — then why aren’t the Democrats pushing it? Well, the answer is obvious. Schiff and Pelosi and the rest of these people know full well that basing a campaign around the premise of getting rid of a duly elected president because they don’t like him is a death wish.
It doesn’t mean they’re not gonna do it if they win. It just means they know they won’t win if that is the reason they tell people to vote for them. And if that won’t work in getting votes, then what does it ultimately actually mean? It means there isn’t public sentiment for getting rid of Trump, and it means the media — despite 90% of their coverage on Trump every day being totally negative — has failed, and the Democrats have failed, to drive his approval numbers down to the twenties or thirties.
Which would make impeachment or impeachment proceedings work, succeed, and therefore be something they could use in the campaign agenda. But they haven’t been able to do that. And now they’ve set themselves up to run against the greatest employment in 18, 20 years, to run against this massive increase in manufacturing jobs, to run against a very popular — and gaining popularity every week — tax cut.
Look at what they’re running against, and then turn on the media again and tell me what you see of the Democrat agenda. What is there in the media every day that would inspire anybody or motivate anybody to vote for the Democrats? The answer is nothing, except hatred for Donald Trump. Sorry, that’s not gonna do it — and they know it, otherwise they wouldn’t try to rein people in on all this impeachment chatter.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, as far as the midterms are concerned, let’s remember something else. Donald Trump has not begun the campaign yet. Maybe the appearance in Washington Township, Michigan, you could say was the beginning of a campaign. He dumped all over Debbie Stabenow. (impression) He said, “Look, you keep putting these people back into office and you keep complaining about what they do. It’s time to stop putting them in office.”
But the point is Trump hasn’t even started to campaign. When Trump starts to campaign, when he goes to these states, when he goes to these districts and starts campaigning against these Democrats, they’re not gonna know what hit them. They’re all living the illusion that Trump’s hated and despised by everybody, ’cause they pay attention to their media — which misled them on Hillary winning the White House, don’t forget.
I’m telling you, the mainstream media does the Democrat Party more harm than anybody would ever acknowledge. The Democrat Party believes the tripe and the crap that they put out every day. They thought Hillary was gonna win in a landslide. They think Trump is hated and despised now. Well, Trump hasn’t even begun to campaign; the Democrats are. That’s all the Democrats are doing. Everything they’re doing is part of the campaign for the midterms.
Getting rid of Trump, Mueller, Comey, they’re all part of the Democrat campaign.