RUSH: Snerdley’s reminding me I gotta give out the new Twitter handle. @RealRLimbaugh. Snerdley says, “You start your new web page here, you don’t tell people about it enough.” I know. I know. That’s just me. But we’ve got a brand-new Twitter page. We consolidated all of the old ones that we had into one. There is one official Rush Twitter page, and the handle is @RealRLimbaugh. There’s a tweet from a guy says, “Rush, you have mastered Twitter in two weeks.” There’s a really, really nice collection of tweets that people have posted there, with some retweets as well.
Look at this headline. “Commission Will Mute Microphones During Final Debate Between Trump and Biden.” Who do these people think they are? Debate commission will mute the mics? Can you imagine if they’d told Abraham Lincoln we’re gonna mute the microphone if you don’t shut up, sir? Abe Lincoln would say, why do you think people are gonna be there? To watch you hit the mute button? Who do these people think they are?
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RUSH: “Commission Will Mute Mics During Final Debate Between Trump and Biden.” Wrong. Wrong way to go into this debate.
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RUSH: You know, if I didn’t know better, I would swear that the debate commission is trying to get Trump to pull out of this. I think they’re goading Trump. I think they’re trying to provoke him into pulling out of this thing by announcing they’re going to mute microphones. Look, I understand when these people — and these are tiny people compared to Donald Trump, folks.
Whoever’s on this debate commission, they are tiny people. Now, they think that they are the country’s elite — and, hell, they may be. I mean, given the definition of elite and who these people that think they run the country are. But they are tiny people compared to the giant that is Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is a giant of achievement, a giant of personality, a giant of appetite, a giant of energy. There isn’t a single person in American politics that can hold a candle to Donald Trump. There’s not a person that can keep up with him energy-wise. There isn’t a person with his drive. There isn’t anybody close to his ambition at his age.
He’s 74! He has the ambition of the 20-year-old. He wants to put all of this to work for us. He wants to bring back to life the America of greatness in the past — not to benefit him. He can’t benefit much more than he already has. He wants to do it because he loves this country, understands how special it is, and loves the American people — and here are a bunch of gnats.
You know, a bunch of little bugs, a bunch of little insects (sniveling), “We’re gonna mute your microphone, you mean Orange Man! If you don’t… If you don’t follow our rules, we’re gonna mute your mic.” These little, tiny gnats are gonna get off on their little moment of power over this giant of a human being by muting his microphone. These people…
I swear, folks, they cannot hold a candle. You can talk about Trump’s personality all you want. These people don’t dare talk about Donald Trump’s accomplishments nor his achievements, nor his ambition. They don’t talk about his energy level and his selflessness when it comes to working for everybody else. No! All they can think about is (sniveling), “This guy, he…
“He… He’s really got bad manners, and he’s so… He’s so ogre-ish. You know? (sputtering) He’s such a — just — just — just offends us. He’s just — just — just ew!” That’s who they are. So they come along and they threaten to mute his microphone. I don’t think these people want Biden taking a risk of looking like a deer in the headlights when confronted with his treason.
The treason that involves these deals between his son Hunter and Hunter’s buddies and Biden’s family members that resulted in the massive enrichment of the Biden family. Donald Trump, however he has earned his money, he has not done it via corruption of the United States government. Donald Trump has not enriched himself by sticking his hand into the U.S. Treasury like all of these other government players do.
I want… If there’s a mute button, you know, the mute button ought to be on the moderator. This moderator is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat activist masquerading as a journalist for NBC. That’s who needs to have their microphone muted. I guarantee you, this debate, it’s gonna get hot and heavy, and it’s gonna get impassioned. It’s gonna be much different than the first one — and they’re gonna want to stop it.
They’re gonna want to make sure that Trump doesn’t do any damage. They will be muting his microphone on the pretext he’s violated some rule here or there. I think it’s just so typical of these people that, compared to Donald Trump, they haven’t done diddly-squat. But in their minds, oh, they are the creme de la creme, the smartest of the smart, the elitist of the elite, the well-mannered of the mannered!
You name it, they’re just it, and it is offensive as it can be. And I think a lot of us have about had it with this presumption that Donald Trump equals bad, Donald Trump equals embarrassment, Donald Trump equals this or that, when there isn’t a person in the Biden camp who could come anywhere near achieving and accomplishing what Donald Trump has accomplished and achieved for the people of this country.
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RUSH: So here is a Fox News story: “Trump to Press Biden on Hunter Biden Email Stories if Debate Moderator Doesn’t.”
“Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller said on Monday that in this week’s debate the president will bring up allegations that … Joe Biden met with a Ukrainian business associate of his son, Hunter, as reported by the New York Post… ‘if the moderator doesn’t bring it up.'” The moderator isn’t gonna bring it up, because the moderator has released the topics, and this is gonna be the third straight confab here where they’re gonna be talking about climate change.
If Trump does this — and I don’t… You know, if Jason Miller says he’s gonna do it, then I have to believe that. But I really hope… I don’t want anybody to misunderstand this. Please, please do understand misunderstand me here. I hope Trump can avoid taking any bait at this debate. Burisma with Hunter and China with Hunter can end up being rat holes unless he’s prepared to take the time to fully tell the story.
One of the things that I have noted about President Trump is that he assumes that everybody knows what he’s talking about when he just mentions a topic. So if the topic of mail-in voting comes up, he assumes everybody knows his opinion about it. He assumes that everybody knows what he knows about it. So he will talk about it in terms of millions and millions of ballots.
“You’ve seen ’em! Millions and millions of ballots,” and most people don’t know what that is. Most people don’t know what he means. “‘Millions and millions of ballots’ where? ‘Millions and millions of ballots’ what? Fraudulent ballots? Ballots in a ditch? What are they?” Trump has really got to understand that he’s got to explain what he’s talking about.
He can’t just assume that people understand it, because he doesn’t, therefore, tell the story in a way that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. So in the case of the Hunter Biden emails and the Hunter Biden laptop, it would be a mistake to assume that everybody watching the debate knows what this story is about, because they’re not gonna know what it’s about because it hasn’t been covered outside of the New York Post and so-called conservative media.
It literally hasn’t, folks.
CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, New York Times, they have not covered the story. People that get their news from those outlets do not know a thing about this. So the president is going to have to start at square one if he’s gonna bring this up. Otherwise, people are just going to be confused, and then here’s gonna come the moderator at some point shutting him down because he’s violating the debate rules, and they’re gonna mute the microphone and so forth.
He just can’t go down those rabbit holes because, folks, anybody would appear to be — what? — unorganized in thought or maybe a little manic. It’s a very, very tricky thing to do. Now, he’s totally capable of doing what I’m saying, don’t misunderstand. But it’s gotta be done in a very, very simple, make-the-complex-understandable kind of way.
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RUSH: Here’s Trent in Buckley, Washington. Great to have you, sir.
CALLER: Rush, only heaven will reveal the impact your life has had on the preservation of a free America. I have one question.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: Why does the president think that he needs to do this debate?
RUSH: Probably — I’m just wild guessing here — probably because he’s been convinced the first one was a disaster. You obviously don’t think he needs to do it.
CALLER: No, because he’s the only man — I’m 35 years old. He’s the only man in my lifetime, only candidate who has proven he can win without debates. He’s walked away from more than one of them now. I remember hearing that Ronald Reagan walked away from a debate. But this system we have now is so stacked, I can only imagine it’s far worse than what Reagan ever faced back when they used to debate topic against topic and issue against issue. Now all this is, is a rigged system to trap a man.
RUSH: Yeah. The debate today, the debate Thursday, “Mr. Trump, what right do you have to breathe? Mr. Trump, on what basis do you think you even should be alive today? You’re such a hateful figure, and you’re so mean-spirited. Why do you think God’s let you live?” I mean, that’s the kind of stuff, that’s the attitude that will prevail in a debate like this. You’re right, it’s worse today than it ever was for Reagan. He’s immediately a suspect, and the purpose of the debate is going to be gotcha. It’s gonna be to eliminate him as a candidate. It’s gonna be to destroy him.
CALLER: Well, he’s already winning. His momentum is tremendous. I think he’s revealed and exposed what the last one was gonna be, and he’s very good at doing that. I think he’d be well served to just go do something else and draw attention to something else.
RUSH: All right. Well, let me think about that, ’cause I think the left is trying to goad him into withdrawing from the debate. I think all this talk about muting the candidate’s microphone, that’s designed to make him mad, “To hell with you people. Who do you think you are telling me you’re gonna mute my microphone? I don’t need your debate. I don’t need any of this.” And cancel it. Or cancel it because they’ve chosen a moderator that is a full-fledged, 1,000 percent Democrat activist disguised as a journalist. But you think that there would be no negative price to pay for Trump announcing that he’s not gonna go?
CALLER: It’s not gonna be as negative as they make it seem should he go through the debate. They’re gonna try to crucify him in the debate, and they’re gonna make it look like it’s the worst disaster that ever happened. Him walking away, we already know what that price is gonna be. And it may not even be a price at all.
RUSH: Well, I think his advisers are of a completely different opinion. I think they’re looking at this as an upside. I think they’re looking at this as an opportunity to put Biden away once and for all, if everything pans out. I know what you’re saying, there’s no way it can. The moderator is gonna make sure that doesn’t happen. I know people think that this is a rigged game that Trump ought to avoid. We’ll wait and see. But I don’t think he’s gonna pan out.
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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, there’s another thing that I need to mention to you on this debate business. I am convinced that in the first debate Trump was already sick. I think Trump was already feeling the effects of COVID-19. That first debate did not make any sense. That was not a Donald Trump I know or am familiar with. I mean, looking at Biden and saying, “Joe, there’s one thing, there’s one thing that’s never gonna be confused with you, and that’s smart.” Trump doesn’t talk to people that way.
Now, I know that Trump believes that a lot of his base loves the fact that he’s a fighter. And I know that he can sometimes go overboard in believing that that’s what’s gonna set him apart and keep the base locked to him. But he wasn’t right. That whole debate something just wasn’t right. And when I heard late Thursday night — see, I had advance notice of this COVID-19 diagnosis. I got a heads-up at 12:15 Friday morning, Thursday night of the week that Trump announced that he and Melania had tested positive, which happened at 12:54. That’s when they announced it. At 12:54 a.m. on Friday, whatever the week was.
And when I heard that, “This makes perfect sense.” ‘Cause that debate… now, this debate Trump isn’t gonna be sick. This debate Trump isn’t gonna have COVID-19. This debate Trump just has to be quiet. Let Biden take his time. Let Biden take the time he’s given to answer whatever questions he’s asked, however softball they are. And Trump can just stand there and look amused. You know, I wouldn’t even roll my eyes. I wouldn’t do much of that. I would stare in disbelief, but I wouldn’t roll the eyes. I wouldn’t act in a way that, “Oh, man, do you believe this guy? Oh.” It’s not gonna take much to convey that Trump thinks the guy is an idiot, not all there.
Discipline. Discipline’s what’s necessary. Just let Biden have his time to answer the questions. And don’t bail him out. If Biden starts having trouble. If Biden is in the midst of an answer and all of a sudden — and we’ve seen this in the Democrat debates, folks, — he will announce, “Oh, my time is up” when he loses his thought, loses his train of thought. “Oh, I see my time is up.” Or he’ll just stop and ask the moderator, “Anything else? Have any other questions?” Trump’s gotta be disciplined. Let that stuff happen. And when it does, let it stand by itself. Because it will.