RUSH: Now, let’s get to the debate last night. We got audio sound bites from the debate and a lot of reaction from the Drive-By Media. The Drive-By reaction to this debate last night is predictable. By the way, I don’t mean to sound cynical, and I don’t mean to sound bored by it. I’m never bored by any of this, so don’t misunderstand any tone in my voice.

It’s just it’s so easy now to predict how the media is going to cover or not cover an event or a story. It’s so easy to predict how they’re going to be disappointed and when. I don’t know what their expectations were. Well, I do know. Their expectations for this debate last night that somebody, somebody was gonna rise up from this cream of the crop and demonstrate they have the ability to take out Donald Trump. And what happened is that it became obvious to anybody that none of them have the ability to take out Donald Trump. Trump can take himself out, and that’s a long shot, but these people can’t.

Now, you have to imagine yourself… This is what I try to do: Imagine… Do you know what I did last night? I’ll tell you what I did. I haven’t done this in years. We’re on the plane coming home when the debate started. The debate started, and that meant what? (chuckles) That meant watching PMSNBC, and I haven’t had PMSNBC on a TV that I’ve had control of in years. But I committed to it. I committed to watching, ’cause, if you watch a debate, you gotta watch PMSNBC, and then you gotta watch the aftermath of the debate.

It is a different world. I know it’s a different world. But to see it? It’s an alternative universe. Folks, these people have nothing in common with you and me. Nothing whatsoever. I’ll give an example here in just the most recent news story out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in just a second. So I watched this last night, and I watched it trying to watch it as a Democrat. Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how hard it is to imagine yourself a Democrat watching these people?

I did it because I really wanted to see if I could immerse myself in this enough to try to imagine how your average leftist watching this would react to it. I don’t know that I was able to do that because my reaction to this debate was that there literally is nobody on that stage or anywhere in the Democrat Party right now that can even occupy a stage with Donald Trump and survive it. There isn’t anybody on that stage last night that has the street smarts, the political smarts, the skills, the unstated talents and abilities to stay even with Donald Trump.

No matter what the subject matter. No matter what the debate topic. Even Trump tweeted he watched the debate last night, and he said — and he knew it was gonna happen. He says it was the worst debate he had ever seen (chuckling) which is classic. It’s the worst debate he’s ever seen, and Bloomberg was the worst debater he’s ever seen. “Mini Mike Bloomberg’s debate performance tonight was perhaps the worst in the history of debates, and there have been some really bad ones. He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent.

“If this doesn’t knock him out of the race, nothing will,” and then here is the tag line: “Not so easy to do what I did!” And there it is, in a nutshell. Donald J. Trump: “Not so easy to do what I did!” You know, the great make what they do look easy. They make anybody think they can do it. Even athletes. They’re so natural at it that you think you can do it. You want to go try — until you do, and then you find out: If you’re not naturally talented in whatever you’re trying to do, you have no prayer.

These people think that because Trump got elected anybody can. Because he’s outside of politics, that means anybody outside of politics can? This is classic. Bloomberg looks at Trump ever since Trump got elected, and he is seething with jealousy — and this is what is really propelling and motivating Bloomberg, ’cause Bloomberg thinks he’s the smartest guy in New York City, obviously.

He thinks Trump’s one of the stupidest and dumbest, and if Trump can do it, he can do it. Last night, Bloomberg demonstrated that he doesn’t have the foggiest idea what he is doing. Let me give you an example. So Fauxcahontas hits him on the NDAs. Were you watching? By the way, I need to ask: Were you watching the issue I’m talking about? (interrupting) Okay.

If you weren’t, let me check the audio sound bite roster real quick here and see if we’ve got Fauxcahontas beating up on Bloomberg on the NDAs. Hang on. (muttering) The pages are sticking together. (sigh) Yeah, grab sound bite number 12 and number 13. This… This would have been so easy! This would have been so easy to nuke! Even I, not a professional politician, could have done it. So here we go: Sound bite number 12.

This is Fauxcahontas going Megyn Kelly on Bloomberg.

WARREN: I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: A billionaire who calls women “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians,” and no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.

CROWD: (Wooooo!)

WARREN: Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like red lining and stop and frisk. Look, I’ll support whoever the Democratic nominee is, but understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.

RUSH: Well, here’s the thing about this. Bloomberg is staring like deer-in-the-headlight eyes. I watched Bloomberg, and I said, “Everybody thinks this guy’s brilliant,” and you know I’m on record as telling you I don’t think he is. I’m not one of these people that’s dazzled by wealth, because I myself am. I’m not in Bloomberg’s league, don’t misunderstand. But I’m not dazzled by it. I know so many people who think people who have a lot of money are brilliant, and people suck up to them.

I don’t know why. Maybe they think they’re gonna give them some of their wealth. It never makes sense to me. But, yeah, maybe Bloomberg had to become expert at something to succeed at what he did. But when you get down to common sense and just plain old IQ, it isn’t there, and last night… How do you not show up prepared for this? Well, I’ll tell you how you show up not prepared for it.

You think nobody can touch you! Because you’re arrogant and you’re condescending and you’re conceded, and you think nobody can touch you. You think nobody’s gonna be able to damage you on this, because you can buy your way out of it. You can buy your way out of it the media. You can buy your way out of it in campaign ads. And he didn’t have an answer for it. There’s one more bite here from Fauxcahontas, ’cause this is where Bloomberg responded to her.

WARREN: So, Mr. Mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story?

CROWD: (cheers and applause)

BLOOMBERG: We have a very few nondisclosure agreements.

WARREN: Uh, how many is that?

BLOOMBERG: Let me finish.

WARREN: How many is that?

BLOOMBERG: None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told, and let me just point —

CROWD: (boos and jeers)

BLOOMBERG: — and let me point —

CROWD: (boos and jeers)

BLOOMBERG: There’s agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet and that’s up to them. They signed those agreements and we’ll live with it.

(crosstalk)

BIDEN: Come on.

RUSH: Yeah, they… Well, they were forced to sign the agreement. Look, my take on this is different than what you’re thinking. They had to know this was coming. People can survive this. In American politics in 2020, people can survive this if they know how to do it. This is my point. Trump doesn’t have any competition. Trump’s line on this was, “Yeah, I was just talking about Rosie O’Donnell, nobody else,” and the place erupts with laughter, and he dulls the knife that Megyn Kelly threw at him.

But Bloomberg? “Well… (muttering),” staring with deer-in-the-headlight eyes, “I had very few nondisclosure agreements.” “Well, how many?” “Well, I…” All he would have had to say… You know what it is? All he would have to say is something like, “I’ll release all these women as soon as every member of Congress releases all of their NDA women.” Do you know how many members of Congress have NDAs because of sexual abuse? It probably dwarfs… Bloomberg probably can’t even dream of that number, and he could have blunted the criticism.

But there wasn’t any preparation for this.

There wasn’t any! It’s like he thought he would be untouchable, and you could probably think of other retorts to this that Bloomberg could have had. Look, I don’t think — I have never thought — that Bloomberg is gonna be the Democrat nominee, and so I didn’t go into this expecting him to dazzle anybody. But the Drive-Bys did. The Drive-Bys expected him to dazzle and wow because they’re just the looking for anybody that can wipe out Trump and they’re looking for anybody who can bury Crazy Bernie — and Crazy Bernie emerged as the big winner last night.

Oh, yeah. Not even close, folks. Don’t doubt me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, the debate last night. It was comical. It was funny. It was predictable. And in terms of Bloomberg, he let an Indian squaw beat the tar out of him, as you just heard. And I’m telling you, she’s taller than he is, and it’s a factor, and don’t doubt me. How many ways, how many ways… (interruption) What? What do you think? What are you looking at me that way for?

An Indian squaw beat the tar out of Bloomberg. Absolutely. Fauxcahontas. She said it, not me. For crying out loud, I just listen to what these people say about themselves and I go with it. She says she’s one-2,000th Indian, okay. She’s a mom, she’s a squaw.

At any rate, how many ways could he have punched back at her? But he hasn’t the slightest idea how to. Why doesn’t he have the slightest idea how to? Because he doesn’t have to, and he fires anybody and everybody who gets in his way, who disagrees with him. That’s the way he does business. Fine and dandy. But that’s not how this works.

He could have thrown so much at her on policy. He could have thrown the Indian stuff at her. This guy did the impossible last night. He made Biden look good. And do you know how it’s over for Biden? ‘Cause none of ’em cared a whit last night about Biden. Buttigieg going after Klobuchar. Klobuchar going after Buttigieg. Biden trying desperately to get noticed. Crazy Bernie trying to defend himself against whatever’s going on with the Culinary Union in Las Vegas.

I’ve seen somewhere on the internet today that some say Bloomberg should have hired somebody to coach him. He did. He had coaches. He did rehearse. He has been asked about these NDAs on television and radio interviews before. But I’ll tell you what happens. The people he hires to coach him, if they hit him too hard, he gets rid of them too. It’s his modus operandi.

He knows everything, folks. He’s one of these people, he knows it all, he’s not gonna hire some lesser person to teach him how to do anything. There isn’t anybody that can teach him how to do anything. That’s his problem. He doesn’t think there’s a political consultant out there or a debate stage manager that can teach him anything.

But he lacks more than stature. It was obvious, his mind is not quick. He didn’t even look to be in the moment. He had no humor whatsoever. The only thing he said last night that resonated was Crazy Bernie and his conversation about socialism, communism versus capitalism is probably the best conversation in the world to get Donald Trump reelected. He was right about that.

But he can’t laugh at himself. There’s nothing self-deprecating about the guy. And whether you know it or not, Trump makes jokes about himself all the time. Trump is self-deprecating. You may have to know how to spot it, but he is. But when I looked at Bloomberg – understand I’ve never met him. I’ve been two holes behind him on the golf course I can’t tell you how many times, and you need a telescope to see him.

Never met him. He just doesn’t seem to have, at least in that setting last night, any discernible personality. If you’re in this business, whatever you are has to jump out of people’s TV screens at them. If you don’t have that — and that’s an “it” factor — if you don’t have that in any area of media, be it television, movies, Drive-By Media news, if you don’t, just by your very existence, capture people’s attention simply when their eyeballs are on you, then you’re missing something very important.

And Bloomberg to me comes off as a little crabby, looked like he really thought it was beneath him to even have to be there last night. But aside from that, where a lot of people looked at it last night and thought it was funny or thought it was great because the gloves came off and finally it was a real debate, there’s a part of it, folks, and I would not be honest with you if I didn’t share this. There’s a lot of this thing last night that scared the hell out of me because these people believe this crap that they were saying. They believe every word of it.

We look at it, even today — I’ve been laughing at these people for 30 years, thinking nobody’s ever gonna believe whatever it is they’re saying. And now look. There’s 30 to 35% of this country that’s signed on to full-fledged socialism, communism. One lie after another. They have bought it. Some of the most inane, crazy, insane things people now believe, you and I laughed at them for all of these years.

And people were laughing at ’em last night. And, to me, there was a lot of it that is really scary, if these people ever get presidential power — and someday, you know, the law of averages, you can’t allow how silly and funny and comical they appear to make you relax.

And even though it looks like there’s not a one of them that could come close to beating Trump, you can’t let that cause you to develop a sense of passivity and say, “I don’t need to vote. The turnout’s gonna be so high. These Democrats don’t have a chance.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Adam in Orange, Connecticut. You’re first, and it’s great to have you. I’m glad you waited. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Thank you very much. To get to the point — I’m sorry — I just wanted to edify the last segment that what I saw on stage last night was just complete hatred and disdain. Bernie’s face, Warren’s face, and, you know, I edify this because the left-wing liberals, the liberal side, all they have to thrive on is people needing them. And what Trump has inevitably created here in the environment for the past four years is people don’t need them, and they have nothing to run on but negativity and hatred. And that rallies the soldiers on their side. And that’s why I think, ultimately, they’re gonna lose; they’re gonna lose big.

RUSH: I think that’s exactly right. You know, folks, what Adam said here is so well stated, and it’s so basic. There isn’t anything uplifting on positive coming out of any of these people. Theirs is a politics of grievance. Everybody in America is a victim of something. Life in America is torturous, unfair, disadvantaged. Fauxcahontas saying, “When I’m in the White House, I’ll fight for your family.” It’s not your job to fight for people’s families. It’s the head of the family’s job to fight for the family. It’s not your job to fight for the family.

But they want everybody to be dependent. They want everybody to feel victimized. They want everybody to feel aggrieved. And, as such, there isn’t anything positive. Contrast that to Trump. Trump is a can-do — Make America Great Again — and he has done it. So well, in fact, that Obama had to come out and endorse the Trump economy by claiming credit for it. So that really is a good observation. There isn’t anything uplifting. That’s not how you build a winning movement.

You can build a significantly sized revolution of grievance and anger and upset. You know, I’ve said this I don’t know how many times. You go back to 1960, we’re in the post-World War II boom, and Eisenhower’s terms have expired. So it’s Nixon-Kennedy, 1960, and what did JFK campaign on? He said, “Hey, you know what? Things are good, and we can do even better,” and then he started talking about how it’s time to let the young people take over and make it even better than it is.

These Democrats today can’t even bring themselves to acknowledge when things are good for people, and they then can’t even bring themselves to try to make things better, because in their worldview, things cannot be better, especially when a Republican’s in the White House. So there really isn’t anything infectious about them on the positive side. Quickly before the break I got an email, “What do you mean, Trump is self-deprecating? I have never heard Trump make fun of himself!” Okay, let me give you an example.

He does this as numerous rallies. He talks about bringing back the old-fashioned lightbulb. Remember we had to get rid of the old-fashioned incandescent lightbulbs and get whatever these newfangled things are — and I was always opposed to getting rid of the incandescents ’cause they were great. They are. Trump says these new lightbulbs that have been mandated, they’re too expensive and they make you look orange.

And then he laughs and says, “I don’t like that.” Now, that’s self-deprecating because one of the criticisms of Trump is that his makeup makes him look orange — and he does his own makeup, by the way. So don’t think that Trump doesn’t laugh at himself. He does. Does Bernie Sanders? No way. Fauxcahontas? No way. (Snort!) Bloomberg? There’s no way. And that just means, folks, that there’s a segment of humanity that’s not readily present and seeable in these people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Megan in Baltimore. Great to have you. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you so much for taking my call. It’s a privilege to speak to you. In your opening monologue you said that you don’t think so anybody on the Democratic side can go toe-to-toe with Trump. And I agree with you. I just feel like every time I see or read anything about Tulsi Gabbard, I think it’s a shame that — for the Democrats, that they don’t — that they hate her so much, ’cause she has qualities, I think, that make her appealing in the same way that Trump has qualities that make him appealing. She has no problem standing up to —

RUSH: Now, what are these qualities about Tulsi Gabbard that you’ve — how would you characterize them? Because you’re right, they want no part of her. Hillary Clinton’s come out, called her a Russian agent. She’s well spoken. She’s obviously liberal Democrat. What is it about her that you think they don’t like?

CALLER: I think it’s the fact that she has no problem calling them out when they’re being ridiculous and standing up — like not jumping on the bandwagon ’cause that’s what everybody else is doing. And I also think that she is appealing in that she’s not bitter and joyless like the rest of them. And I think she could actually get a lot of Democrats behind her because she just doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid like the rest of them.

RUSH: Well, she hasn’t. You could think she could, but she hasn’t. She entered the primaries. She was in all the CNN town halls. I mean, she had early exposure. I agree, she’s very likable. And unlike most Democrats, she’s attractive, which may be a problem for her. But she still didn’t amass a lot of support.

CALLER: I think it has — personally, I mean, yes, she didn’t amass a lot of support. I think that the Democratic establishment did what they could to squash her in the beginning. And I think that’s unfortunate for her and for them. And they wanted to push Biden, and they wanted to push Warren or whoever else they wanted to push, and it’s just kind of backfired on them really bad.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And I think a lot of the Democrats are angry, especially the Bernie supporters who feel like the establishment is telling them, you know, this is what —

RUSH: Oh. They’re all angry, and Tulsa’s not. One thing about Tulsa, she doesn’t come across as angry. The rest of them do. For example, do you know what Mayor Pete just did? Mayor Pete just demanded that Bloomberg pull out of the race because of his debate performance last night. Mayor Pete, who Bloomberg accurately characterizes as a mayor of some town – (interruption) You didn’t hear that?

Oh, yeah, Bloomberg says Mayor Pete, just a mayor of a town. He doesn’t even think about the guy. (imitating Bloomberg) “He’s mayor of some town somewhere. I was mayor of the biggest city in the country.” Not in the debate, he didn’t say in the debate last night. This is beforehand. But Mayor Pete: Bloomberg has a duty to get out of the race.