RUSH: In the Trump news which is coming up shortly where he’s shown to be surging now in early primary states, there is some polling data that has shocked the Drive-Bys and it has shocked the Republican establishment. In fact, it’s shocked the Republican establishment even more than it shocked the Drive-Bys. In fact, the Republican establishment is about to go insane by this. Trump was supposed to have been gone or on the way out by now. He was supposed to have been exposed as a phony, as a pretender, as somebody unserious.
And Jeb and the establishment candidates were by this time supposed to have been showing increases in the polling data, growing, massing support. Isn’t happening. And in this latest polling data, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is doing even better with respondents in the polls on the economy than he is on immigration. I’ll have the numbers for you in due course, but what it really means is that the people in the polls are suggesting that Trump is far better than anybody on the Republican side to deal with the economy.
And it’s not even close, and the numbers that Trump scores on best suited to deal with the economy dwarf his numbers on best suited to deal with immigration. And so a lot of Drive-Bys and a lot of Republican establishment people are really scratching their heads today. They’re depressed; they’re getting angry. Their frustration is mounting, because none of this computes. None of this makes any sense. In the first place, remember what I told you yesterday.
All kinds of establishment people, Republicans inside Washington’s Beltway (and including in our media) really, really do believe that it is a negative to fight back, to oppose Obama, to even criticize Obama, to try to stand in the way of Obama legislative successes and initiatives. Because they believe to stand in opposition or to criticize will anger the independents and forever ruin presidential prospects in 2016. I’m beyond my ability to express my incredulity over this. But they really, really, really still believe this.
So over here is Trump, who does what?
He does nothing but criticize them, and he does it in politically incorrect ways, and he is soaring, and still the establishment does not learn. Now, the subject matter: The economy and immigration, illegal immigration. The two issues, I would like to assist those in the Republican establishment who are confused in trying to understand something that makes no sense to them. The two issues are inexorably linked. It must be really hard… And I mean this. And I’m not trying to be flippant or cynical or funny.
It must be really hard for people who live and work in Washington and have for a while to put themselves in the shoes of people in this country, in flyover country or wherever. I don’t think they still have a grasp of the fear of the future people have. Even people who are employed fear losing their jobs. People who have money, fear losing it. There is fear, there is unsettledness, and it’s all because of what’s happening in Washington. And the economy and immigration are linked in the minds of people. That’s why Trump is scoring so high on both of them. But the lack of ability inside the Beltway to understand this is really shocking to me.
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RUSH: The Trump polling data is from CNN, just so you know. You remember, ladies and gentlemen, last week and the week before me telling you how the Drive-Bys — Politico, ABC News — all reported that Trump was peaking, that Trump had peaked? They had talked with Republican establishment types, and they agreed that Trump had peaked. He had leveled off; he wasn’t gaining any ground. This when Ben Carson and Fiorina were edging closer to Trump.
Trump wasn’t losing any ground, but he had stopped gaining ground, and they were all applauding. “It’s over! It’s over! Trump has peaked and that’s it. There’s nowhere else for Trump to go,” they thought. Their original theory for Trump was that his name recognition is already 100%, so everybody that knows anything about Trump already has an opinion on him. And if they hate him, they hate him. They can’t change that. If they love him, they love him, and that isn’t gonna change.
The theory was the other candidates who don’t have anywhere near 100%name recognition have only one way to go, and that’s growth, and that’s up. And this is what they told themselves when seeking to make themselves believe that Trump was finished or soon would be. And no matter what they tell themselves, no matter what theory they evolve or ways to, they’re wrong. They continue to be wrong.
In the latest CNN poll, Trump leads by 16 points in Nevada, and by 18 points in South Carolina. Trump is at 38% in Nevada, Ben Carson second with 22%. In South Carolina, Trump doubles the support Ben Carson has, 36% to 18%. No other candidate comes close to those top two, in either state, Nevada or South Carolina. The third place candidate in each case has less than 10%. And his approval on is best to handle numbers on the economy are through the roof.
They’re even higher than the numbers he has on illegal immigration, and illegal immigration is the reason that he’s at the top. Illegal immigration is the issue that dominates all others, and it is linked to the economy in the minds of the American people. Now, before giving you down-and-dirty cross tab details here this poll (because they’re fascinating), I want to try to explain this again because I still remain totally incredulous at the stubbornness — and if it isn’t stubbornness, it’s blindness — that the Republican establishment has not just about Trump, but about the people in this country.
How can you not know, if you are in politics and your business is getting elected, and to get elected you must appeal to people, people who vote for you? I know. I know. The Republicans and the Democrats do. They’re totally loyal to the donors. I get that. But the donors don’t vote. You still have to appeal to people. You have to at least be able to make the case that you understand them. You have to be able to go out and campaign on the basis that you get it, that you understand. But they don’t.
They don’t understand the public attitude on immigration. They denigrate the public attitude on it. They don’t understand the public attitude on the economy. They don’t think it’s particularly bad. I mean, it’s bad, but it’s not all that bad in their view. And look where they live. Where they live, the economy’s humming along. The unemployment rate’s at 3%. Everybody’s doing wonderfully well. This is what puzzles me, this inability to understand what’s going on all over the country, outside of the place that you live.
The thing that — and I think this is true not just of Republicans; I think it’s true of everybody in the Beltway. And I’m including in this the media and many of the think tanks and everybody that’s just been absorbed in that culture. They think, for example, on illegal immigration, what’s driving it is hatred and racism and bigotry and anger. They haven’t the slightest idea that what’s driving it’s fear. People are scared. People are worried about the future of this country because they know things are not right.
People who are working and are doing okay, worry they’re gonna get fired. They see layoffs happening all over the country. They see companies downsizing to part time and removing health care benefits. They see all this. People see this. They worry about it happening to them, if it hasn’t happened already. Then they turn on TV and all they hear is politicians talking about more giveaways to the illegals and more giveaways to people not working. People who have savings worry that it’s gonna vanish or it’s gonna be made worthless.
There is a genuine fear out there, and it’s a legitimate fear because things are not right in this country. Barack Obama is not a president who believes in this country. He does not speak positively about it, does not talk about growth and expansion. It’s the exact opposite, in fact. We’re told, “Well, those good times in the past? We really didn’t deserve those. We were living on borrowed time and borrowed credit cards. Let’s not pay the bill now. We’ve gotta manage the decline.”
People don’t want that. The United States of America, we don’t manage the decline. We stop the decline and we start growing. You plug Trump into all this and Trump’s success makes perfect sense when you plug him into these circumstances that people inside the Beltway don’t see. The Republican establishment is still… I’m at a loss. They are still obsessed with, “Oh, my God, we can’t get blamed for government shutdown! Oh, jeez, no. We can’t criticize Obama! No, no. We can’t do the nuclear option!
“No, no. We can’t do budget reconciliation. No, no, we can’t. No, we can’t stop the Iranian deal. No, no, we can’t, because the independents and the moderates, we’ll lose ’em!” It’s really the political thought that’s governing them. To criticize Obama and the Democrats — to stop Obama, to oppose Obama — is to engender and risk the Republicans winning the presidency in 2016. Do not doubt me. This is what’s driving them. And so they think… They look at Trump and they think Trump is guaranteeing a Democrat victory ’cause Trump’s doing everything they think shouldn’t be done.
Trump’s out criticizing Democrats. He’s speaking positively about America. He’s opposing everything that’s happening right now. He wants to fix it overnight and be done with it and move on and “Make America Great Again.” And inside the Beltway, they’re scared to death over that kind of talk. Imagine that. How disconnected must you be to think that that kind of talk is going to lose you an election. The thinking that the Republican establishment’s engaging in now, “We can’t criticize Obama! We can’t oppose Obama.
“We can’t come up with legislation that he won’t be sign. We can’t do any of that, because we’ll lose the White House 2016.” Well, okay, let’s say you win the White House in 2016. Does that also mean you can’t advance your agenda after you win ’cause that’s gonna anger the independents? Even after you’ve won, are you gonna be defensive about who you are and what you believe in so as not to tick people off? This is incomprehensible to me. Meanwhile, out in the rest of the country where people know things are not right, it just doesn’t make sense that an organization like Planned Parenthood can chop up fetuses and sell the body parts and nobody does anything to stop it.
It’s not right. It just isn’t right that 340 cities are sanctuary cities and illegal aliens can come here from anywhere in the world and have safe haven and be exempt from American law. That’s not right. That should not be happening. There’s no way that should happen. That the Democrat Party and the Republican establishment together are expanding welfare and food stamp benefits for illegal aliens and not closing the border and welcoming even more? It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t compute.
It’s not right, and so people, even if they’re not able to explain it in an A, B, C, D way, they get it, they understand this isn’t right. Something’s out of kilter, and all these institutions, traditions, all of these things that used to be reliable as backstops, reliable as uncorrupted, they all seem to be falling one after another. This creates a fear and a worry over a lack of confidence about the future of this country, and there’s no confidence in current leadership. We have a president who will not even properly identify terrorists as who they are and what they’re doing and doesn’t seem to be interested in stopping them.
The same president seems totally focused on taking guns away from the law-abiding in this country. The same president and his party seems to believe that the problems in the world are caused by people he calls bitter clingers. In this kind of climate people are terrified in some sectors, scared in others, worried in others. So you throw Donald Trump into all this, and it makes perfect sense that he would be scoring as well as he is and doing as well as he is. And it’s not just ’cause he’s an outsider. All of this is rooted in substance.
It’s all rooted in substance, and this is another thing that they don’t get inside the Beltway. The elites, the ruling class, the establishment, whatever you wish to call ’em, they’re chalking this stuff up to show biz, entertainment, reality TV, what have you. They are in utter denial about what’s happening and why it’s happening. In Nevada, in this CNN poll, illegal immigration ranks third in this poll, behind the economy and terrorism in voters’ concerns. Both of these states are important early states, by the way. Nevada, South Carolina, they’re big in the early-on process. In South Carolina, immigration is in fifth place in terms much voter concerns, behind the economy, foreign policy, terrorism, health care, then immigration.
But you see, I believe that all these things are inexorably linked, whether immigration’s one, three, or still in the top five, it’s all part of the mix of things that just aren’t right. It just doesn’t make sense the way things are happening and the way people are doing things in this country right now. And that explains why people like Trump and Carson are circling the top of the tier.
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RUSH: Well, yeah, here’s the number. Overall, 67% think Trump is best able to handle the economy. Closest is Carly Fiorina at seven. I’m not kidding you. Sixty-seven percent, this the CNN poll October 3rd through the 10th, 67% think Trump best suited to deal with the economy. Next, Fiorina, 7%. And it goes down from there. Bush 6, Carson 6, Rubio 4, Cruz 2, Paul 3. In South Carolina, 59% think Trump is best suited to deal with the economy. Closest to him, Jeb, at 7%. And as I mentioned in Nevada when Republicans are asked what matters most to them, number one, the economy, 39%. Terrorism number two at 22%, illegal immigration third, 14%.
But look at, all these are linked. Illegal immigration is a huge factor in the economy, and terrorism is part of illegal immigration in terms of people’s fears. These things, in my mind, they’re really difficult to separate. South Carolina, as I mentioned, the economy, most important, 41%. Foreign policy next, 16%. Terrorism, 16%. Health care, 9%. Illegal immigration, 8%. South Carolina. So the establishment, their heads are spinning. “What, the economy, you’re telling us that Trump is kicking everybody’s rear end on the economy, too?” This is the last thing that they thought would be the case.
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RUSH: The internal polling data on the economy finds that Trump is just killing everybody: 67% among Republican voters say he’s best equipped to deal with the economy. You know, there’s another factor in this that I think the Republican establishment… I ought not just single them out. The Democrats are part of this mix too. The Washington establishment is actually made up of both parties, but we’re talking about Republicans; that’s why I specify. But there’s something else that’s driving the Trump candidacy or Trump success.
I don’t know if they’re in denial about this at the RNC and within the party, or if they’re just stubbornly saying, “We don’t care,” but the fact that Trump isn’t owned? The Chamber of Commerce can’t tell him what to do. Not a single donor can tell him what to do. Republican voters know full well that it makes no sense that the Republican Party is for illegal immigration. It makes no sense at all, until they hear that that’s what Republican donors want it, and then they hear that Republican donors want that so they can have cheap labor.
What does the Republican establishment expect to happen? They think Republican voters are just gonna embrace candidates who seem to be running to implement the agenda of donors who have interests that are in direct contradiction to that of the people? I mean, this is not hard to understand. They’re making it look like it’s unreal. It’s not serious. Trump will burn out. He’s not gonna really stay in it for the get go. We’re the professionals! At the end of the day when it comes time to vote, people are gonna pull that lever for a seasoned political professional.
All the evidence so far is that the seasoned political professional is the least desired candidate in this cycle on the Republican side. But my point is, in addition to everything else that Trump is doing and saying, the fact that he is not beholden to anybody, that there’s no cronyism going on with Trump — I mean, none that anybody knows, anyway. The Chamber of Commerce is not for him. Big donors that demand this or that are not for him, and in that sense he comes across as independent.
But I was gonna say in addition to the economic numbers and the immigration numbers, in Nevada and South Carolina Trump enjoys 36% and 38% support, just in the horse race section of the poll in these two states. And they’re important states, and they’re early, and Nevada particularly is seen as a big Democrat state ’cause in many ways it’s a union capital. And it’s rocking the boat in any number of ways.
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Here’s Cuen in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi there. Just so, so thrilled to be able to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I am a registered nurse and a mother living in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and the point that I wanted to make or the comment that I wanted to make today is directly related to some of the points you just made regarding the disparity between the political class and the working class. And I think that’s something that needs to be recognized, is that our country at the time it was founded and our Constitution was created as a government for the people, by the people, and that’s because at that time those people were the people, and they weren’t far removed from what it was like to live in their shoes. But our —
RUSH: Ah, ah, ah, wait, wait, wait, wait. That’s not entirely true. It’s what makes them even more remarkable. They were the elites of their day, intellectually, and a lot of them were very wealthy. That’s what makes it remarkable what they did, even more so. They were an elite group, but they were of and by and for the people nevertheless. They did not think themselves better and that’s your point.
CALLER: Exactly. Exactly. Right. And so my point is that where we sit now, there are so many people sitting in our political establishment who maybe have never even experienced what it’s like to be working paycheck to paycheck or to choose which bill this month you can’t afford to pay, or those kinds of things that the every day American voters experience, and this discrepancy that exists between what the people are actually experiencing and what the political imagines that they’re experiencing or perceives that they’re experiencing is very evident. And I think that that includes the Republican establishment as well. And then we have the factor that we know, as you’ve said many, many times, that we have a very powerful media that is powerfully influential of what the people believe in that they can even convince a group of people who are living in a current situation that the situation isn’t as it is. And they’re so very powerful to convince people of what to believe and what to feel and how things are going and what other people are feeling. And that really is influential in how it propagates, how the —
RUSH: Yeah, well, you want me to tell you what’s remarkable about that? That’s exactly right. And those same people have been trying to convince people, the media, they’re trying to convince people that Trump ought not be supported, ought to go, and it’s not working. They’re not listening to the media. They’re supporting Trump anyway. And that’s an interesting point.