RUSH: Now, let’s go to the audio sound bites. Let’s return. Gonna pick up here with David Axelrod. We’re at audio sound bite No. 6. This is this morning on CNN. Trump had a magical appearance last night in Elkhart, Indiana. It was Trump to perfection. It was Donald Trump as he is, Donald Trump who he is. Donald Trump had an overflowing place with people eating out of the palm of his hand.
He was talking about American greatness. He was talking about how great the people in the hall are, how important they are to the country. He continued to explain his agenda that is all about loving America and making it great. So here’s Axelrod now on with Alisyn Camerota at CNN, and she asks him, “What is it like for you?” I mean, you have to sit here and you have to watch Trump dismantle the Obama legacy. “What is it like for you,” Mr. Axelrod, to have to watch this happen?
AXELROD: I’m wondering how many of those things could the president of the United States sit here and talk to you for more than three minutes about in detail? I suspect he doesn’t know. The barometer that he uses is not, “Is this in the national interest?” It’s, uh, “Did Obama support it? Did he sponsor it?” He’s about the business of trying to arouse his base. It’s not about the policy! We’ve never seen anything like this before, where one president spends all his time trying to malign a — a — a former president. I think he resents the fact that Obama left as — as — a respected president with high approval ratings, that the elites, uhh, liked Obama, and, uhhh, so he — he really wants to tear down the Obama legacy.
RUSH: Well, I’ll tell you, he is tearing it down, and it’s driving these people nuts. So I guess they’re telling themselves that Trump is this rotten, dastardly guy who’s simply tearing down Obama’s legacy because he’s jealous of Obama, that Obama was liked by these egghead, phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time elitists, and Trump isn’t. So since Trump is jealous, he’s gonna get even with Obama! He’s gonna tear every Obama legacy item apart.
The truth of the matter is, Obama’s legacy was built on balsa wood. Trump could not get rid of Obama’s legacy if it was real. If Obama’s legacy really were attached to public opinion — meaning if the American people really, really liked what Obama had done — Trump would not be able to tear this apart. Trump would not have been able to get elected. Trump is only doing what he said he was gonna do on the campaign trail. He’s only fulfilling promises.
Now, they can gripe at the motivation all they want. I think they tell themselves, “This guy is an idiot! He couldn’t talk for three minutes on the Iran deal. He couldn’t talk for three minutes on the North Korean nukes. He’s such an idiot, he doesn’t even know what he’s doing. He’s motivated solely by taking Obama’s legacy apart.” I think these people are fumingly jealous. They cannot believe that somebody outside has come in and so effectively dismantled whatever it was The Great Obama did.
The only reason Trump is able to dismantle it, as I said yesterday, is because it really isn’t rooted — Obama’s legacy is not rooted — in America. About the only thing that is is Obamacare. Obamacare was passed via legislation, so Trump can’t just come in and eliminate it with executive actions or executive orders. But aside from Obamacare, pretty much everything Obama did was via executive action or executive order.
He didn’t do it with consensus, with Congress. There was no legislation. There were no roots. Meaning, the Obama legacy did not have enough popularity to actually become law and therefore have roots and be representative of public opinion. If Obama’s legacy was so popular, then Hillary Clinton would have won. Trump wouldn’t have gotten to first base. Trump wouldn’t have had anywhere near the success he did if Obama’s legacy were that popular.
I think these people just can’t come to grips with the fact that everybody else rejected Obama. The elites loved Obama for all these silly reasons like the sharp crease in his slacks or because he had mastered intellectual speaking mannerisms and so forth. And they’re just beside themselves that somebody they view as an abject idiot can come in and undo it. When the truth of the matter is, Donald Trump is proving that he can do what all these elites can do.
They can’t do what he has done in his life.
David Axelrod couldn’t any more get anywhere near what Donald Trump has done in his life than John Brennan could, than Hillary Clinton could, than Bill Clinton could, that Barack Obama could. But Trump has come in and shown he can do everything they do and do it smarter. He can come in; he can outsmart them. He can beat them on their field at what they do. That’s gotta burn ’em! It’s gotta smoke ’em! It’s got a infuriate ’em! It’s gotta intimidate ’em.
They couldn’t play on Donald Trump’s field if they wanted to. But he has shown he can come in and beat them every day. The only thing they’ve got to try to stop Trump is a phony investigation that hasn’t found anything reporting to explain Trump in terms of illegality. Let’s go Trump. Let’s listen to a little bit of Trump in Elkhart, Indiana, last night. This is… How many bites do we have here? I think we’ve got… We have three, and here’s the first.
THE PRESIDENT: Obama, President Obama —
SUPPORTERS: (boos)
THE PRESIDENT: — paid $1.8 billion for hostages!
SUPPORTERS: (boos)
THE PRESIDENT: Kim Jong-un… Kim Jong-un did a great service to himself, to his country by doing this. But those hostages came out with respect. We didn’t pay for them! —
SUPPORTERS: (cheers)
THE PRESIDENT: — We’re going to set the table. We’re gonna make a great deal for the world, for North Korea, for South Korea, for Japan, for China! —
SUPPORTERS: (wild cheering)
RUSH: This crowd is going nuts!
CROWD: (wild cheering)
RUSH: Now, let me explain something here. Let’s go back to Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright. Then we have George W. Bush and whoever his national security people were and secretaries of state. And then we had Barack Hussein O and all the brilliant people here. And not a one of them was able to alter behavior of Kim Jong-un an iota. In fact, it could be argued that under H. W. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush and Obama, Kim Jong-un and his dad, Kim Jong-il, and has dad Kim Jong before that, were able to get stronger.
In fact it was the Clinton administration that tried to buy them off. “Hey, we’ll give you some equipment here to help you build up your nuclear grid. Just don’t turn it into weapons.” Kim Jong-il said, “Sure! Fine! You want to give us nukes? We’ll promise you we won’t do nukes.” Madeleine Albright said, “Fine.” They made the deal; he starts developing nukes and missiles. The Clinton administration enabled him.
Previous administrations did the same or were unable to deter Kim Jong-un’s practices, North Korea’s practices at all. Here comes Donald Trump, is not even a year and a half into his presidency, and some things that have never been accomplished with North Korea have already been accomplished. And the road, it looks like, is gonna continue to improve! And here’s David Axelrod talking about how Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing and how Trump couldn’t hold a conversation for three minutes on any of these things.
“He’s just trying to dismantle what Obama did!” I’m telling you, these people are seething, folks. They just can’t stand this! And remember, there’s not a one of them that could even get in the field on Donald Trump’s league. He is on the field in their league and beating them. It’s not supposed to happen, and it makes perfect sense that they’re infuriated, angry, discombobulated, and unhinged.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let’s head back to the phones, Open Line Friday. We actually have somebody from Elkhart, Indiana, here. Kevin, glad you called, sir. How you doing?
CALLER: How you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Fine and dandy. Thank you.
CALLER: Yeah. I attended the rally last night with my 16-year-old daughter, and it was phenomenal. Trump, he knows how to work a crowd, I tell you what.
RUSH: How many people were in there last night?
CALLER: Well, I’ll say 7,000 to 7500, depending on what the fire marshal allowed to be in, but around 7,000.
RUSH: Okay. That was the capacity of the place. So it was filled?
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Yeah, okay.
CALLER: Yeah. There were a ton of people outside still, so, yeah. It was loud. People were great. And his message were great. I follow Trump in all of his rallies. You know, I watch him on TV and I know his schtick and one thing that stuck out to me was he mentioned something about America will not be defeated from outside forces. The only way America’s going to be defeated is within. That was something new I heard last night, and that really stuck with me.
RUSH: Had you not heard that before?
CALLER: No. I haven’t seen it in any of his rallies or anything.
RUSH: No, I mean, not from just Trump, but from anybody. You’ve not heard anybody espouse the belief that our greatest threat is internal and domestic?
CALLER: Oh, yes, I’ve heard that before.
RUSH: Okay. This is the first time you’ve heard Trump say it?
CALLER: Yeah, that’s the first time I’ve heard it —
RUSH: So this kind of defeated from what you called Trump’s schtick, so how did you interpret it?
CALLER: Well, it struck a chord with me. I was like, “Whoa. That’s something new I’ve never heard,” and it’s true.
RUSH: It’s not just… It’s happening. It has been happening.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: It’s been happening for decades. I mean, the —
CALLER: I’m just wondering why he took so long to say something like that.
RUSH: Who knows? I mean, I can’t say for sure that he’s never said it before. I don’t know that it’s the first time he’s ever said it believing it. But it’s not an uncommon thing for people to believe. Simply look at the education system in this country. It’s under assault, admittedly, by the Soviet Union since the forties and fifties. And it’s ongoing to this day. It’s not just the Soviets, the Russians, the ChiComs. There’s every kind of attempt to undermine this country domestically. He’s right about that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Richard in Raleigh, North Carolina. Glad you waited, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s a pleasure to speak with you. Thanks so much to you and Snerdley for taking my call.
RUSH: Wait a minute, now. This is the second person that has thanked me and Snerdley for taking the call. This is the first day… Since when does Snerdley get thanked for taking the call?
CALLER: Snerdley is your right-hand man —
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: — and his job is to make you look good and make you successful, and if he let’s (crosstalk) calelrs —
RUSH: I understand that, but the second one? It’s fine and dandy. I’m just curious. I detect… I notice patterns. There’s no one more observant than I, nobody more situationally aware than I, and you are the second guy saying, “Thanks to you and Snerdley for taking my call.” So I’m just wondering if it’s a whole energetic of people out there planning to greet me this way. It’s no big deal. Anyway, what was it that you wanted to talk about?
CALLER: Yes, sir. This ties into what your last caller mentioned about how the only way America will be destroyed is by forces acting within, and I believe Abraham Lincoln said that back during the Civil War. But there was a meeting in Atlanta, and the Washington Free Beacon had an article about this from April 19th. It was a Democracy Alliance spring conference, and it was a private, kind of under-the-rows type meeting in Atlanta and it’s one of their main donor groups.
In this meeting, there were two prime examples of things you have always warned us about the left. One is their politics of personal destruction. The second, the left must always hide its true agenda. I’ll take the politics of personal destruction first. There’s an alliance called the Solidar alliance and Solidar Action Fund. Basically a lot of wealthy left-wing donors have put together a pool of money, and their job is to attack and silence voices on the right. It looks like perhaps through — this is my supposition — “lawfare,” hiring people, like Stormy Daniels. I mean, who is paying for her attorney and so on and so forth basically to destroy people on the right?
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Basically they’re continuing it here.
RUSH: Let me step in here because this isn’t anything new. This just happened to be the latest meeting. But this is very common. This is just the left getting together and they’re organizing in secret with their donors, but it’s not really secret ’cause everybody’s knows. I mean, you found out about it, and the Washington Free Beacon reported on it. And this is where they get together, and they organize the actions they’re donors gonna take; it’s where the make their plans how their money is gonna be spent, how their agenda is gonna be advanced.
One thing that’s different is they’re starting to get a little bit more outgoing about their agenda. They’re not doing quite as much to hide it. But the politics of personal destruction is something that’s been common with them. They just had… We just learned a former aide to Dianne Feinstein had been organizing 10 wealthy Democrat people from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to come up with $50 million to pay Christopher Steele to keep investigating Trump, to keep adding to the dossier, Because they’re dissatisfied with what Mueller has failed to produce.
But, no, you’re right. I mean, they’re out there. they’re stability arranging these — and the Republicans do it too. I mean, there’s really nothing nefarious about this. Both parties do it. Both have their agendas. Both have their objectives. In light of this, grab sound bite No. 24. I want to go back to Tuesday. This is Maxine Waters. We’re gonna go to the floor of the House of Representatives. Maxine has had it with this whole idea of “Make America Great Again.” There was a bill being debated, the auto-financing rule, and Maxine had some things to say.
WATERS: I am more offended as an African-American woman than you will ever be! And this business about making America great again? It is your president that’s dividing this country! And don’t talk to me about the fact that we don’t understand what happens on the automobile…
MIKE KELLY: Will the gentlelady yield?
WATERS: No, I will not yield!
MIKE KELLY: Will the gentlelady yield?
WATERS: No, I will not yield!
MIKE KELLY: Okay. That’s what I expected.
CHAIR: (gaveling)
WATERS: Don’t tell me that we don’t understand.
CHAIR: (gaveling)
WATERS: That’s the attitude that’s been given toward women time and time again!
CHAIR: The gentlelady will suspend. The chair wishes to remind all members that they are to address their remarks to the chair.
WATERS: He’s down here making a speech for this dishonorable president of the United States of America. Having said that, I reserve the balance of my time.
MIKE KELLY: Will the gentlelady yield?
WATERS: I do not yield, not one second to you! Not one second!
Mike Kelly: Totally what I expected. Thank you, ma’am!
WATERS: Not one second to you!
RUSH: What’s she mad about? She’s mad about “Make America Great Again.” It just sends them off the rails. What is it that makes her mad about that? She claims it’s racist. She claims it’s divisive. Making America great again somehow is code language that leaves minority groups out of the whole process. Yeah, on one hand it’s really dangerous to try to treat these people rationally and react to them rationally because they’re not.
One of the reasons they’re upset is there’s yet another generic poll showing the Democrats have lost their 16-point advantage. Going back to December, the Democrats had a 16-point lead in the generic ballot. This is just a poll where they ask people, “Are you gonna vote Republican or Democrat in the November midterms?” No names, no candidates, just party ID. Democrats had a 16-point lead. So CNN and, I think, Monmouth both have shown that lead down to one or two.
Reuters is the third polling group now finding that the Democrat advantage is down to one point. That is within the margin of error. Grab sound bite No. 11. Tom Bevan, cofounder of Real Clear Politics. He was on Tucker last night. Question: “A new poll over at CNN shows the Democrats have only a three-point advantage on the generic ballot. Is this real? What does it mean?”
BEVAN: I think it’s real. You go back and look. In mid-December, the Democratic lead in the generic ballot — that’s the question, “If the election were held today, would you vote for the Republican or Democrat?” — Democrats had a 13-point lead. As of today, it’s down to six in our Real Clear Politics average. The CNN poll went from 16-point lead for Democrats two months ago down to three. Another poll showing it, uh, down to one point. So this is real. It is. Just as a point of reference in 2006 when Democrats won 30 seats, they won with a 7.9 percentage lead in the generic ballot. I think they’re in that — that range where it’s making them very, very nervous.
RUSH: Next question: “The Stormy Daniels story has dominated the coverage for the past three or four weeks, months.” What’s the effect of the Stormy Daniels story, Mr. Bevan, on all of this polling data?
BEVAN: It’s just the opposite. Not only has it not hurt his numbers, his numbers have been ticking upward the entire time. And again, that’s something that — and you see Democrats now; you talk to them, they’re somewhat annoyed by this. Talk to Nancy Pelosi and others, they say look this is distracting from our message. They don’t want to try and get back to reaching voters and voters have actually do you understand that out now and are paying attention to the other stuff which Trump has had a pretty good few weeks.
RUSH: Okay. So two things here that the Democrats have invested in that are blowing up on ’em. One’s impeachment ’cause now you’ve even got Pencil Neck Schiff running around talking about we need to stop talking about impeachment — and Pelosi — we need to stop talking about impeachment. Now, now they’re adding Stormy Dan, we need to stop talking Stormy, ’cause this guy “Avenutti,” this guy has been… Somebody’s run the numbers.
This guy has gotten the equivalent… If he’s a lawyer, which we kind of doubt. But if he’s a lawyer, he has been given the equivalent of $150 million worth of airtime with these combined interviews that he’s had on MSNBC and CNN. If he had to go buy the time that he’s had to sell the virtues, quote-unquote, of his client, it will find cost him $150 million, minimum. That’s how much free airtime this guy’s gotten, and who is he? And what is he?
And how many people do you know…? This Newsweek story from January where Stormy Daniels wanted to run for the Senate in 2009 on something like “screwing the American people honestly” or some such thing? How come that news has not been part of this whole sordid tale? I am not why is it that all anybody thinks of Stormy Daniels is that she’s a porn star that might or might not have had some kind of fling with Trump about whom $130,000 was paid and she can’t legally talk about it? Who knew that she once thought about running for the Senate?
Meaning, this woman is every bit as attuned to the American political system as anybody else. She’s not this victim. “A struggling woman working against the odds trying to make a living for her and her family and she’s had to resort to pornography to do it! She’s so bedraggled — such a poor, innocent waif — and now she’s been dragged into the Trump world.” She wasn’t dragged into anything. If anybody’s dragging anybody, it’s Stormy dragging a whole bunch of people along with her.
But how does that aspect, how does her interest in seeking the Senate back in 2009, how does it never make this story? And how is it that we don’t know how she found “Avenutti” and who’s paying him? ‘Cause she doesn’t have the money to pay him. Is he being paid? Or is all of this some kind of giant, conceived strategy that’s just part of the Democrat-media complex agenda? Probably the latter. But there has to be money involved somewhere. He’s not gonna do this just gratis. There has to be a payoff somehow, somewhere.