RUSH: I’ve got four sound bites that are interesting. They are sound bites that go to the human side of both Trump and Cruz. One of them is Alan Dershowitz who taught law to Ted Cruz at Harvard. And Dershowitz has always said that Cruz was the smartest student he ever had, the most challenging student he ever had, bar none. Dershowitz has made it plain that nobody has ever come close in intelligence, brains, all of that, to Ted Cruz, anybody he’s taught at Harvard.
On the other side, CNN last night sat down with the Trump family, and the Trumpster was there. And it showed the Trump family interacting and the women of the Trump family were just totally enthralled and respectful and in love with Donald. And a number of people said, “You know what, this is great. We’re seeing a side of this guy that we’ve never seen before. This is great. This is great.”
I think this is healthy and helpful, to have the opportunity to illustrate the — you know, I hate the term “the human side,” ’cause they’re not Mongoloid. They’re humans. You know, in the common vernacular here, when people talk about the humanity of somebody, usually they talk about their liberalism. And of course that’s not what I’m talking about. You just get ’em out of the daily grind of what they’re doing in which every candidate adopts a persona, a stage presence. The good ones do. So let’s get started with Dershowitz. This was on Fox News last night. Megyn Kelly interviewing Alan Dershowitz. Two sound bites. She said, “You taught Ted Cruz when he was a young whippersnapper. What is your impression of him?”
DERSHOWITZ: Everything I said, he challenged me. He was one of the best students I ever had because a teacher loves to be challenged. I use the Socratic method. Everything I said he disagreed with. I was against the death penalty. He’s in favor. I was in favor of the exclusionary rule, he’s against it. And he made such brilliant arguments that I never had to play the devil’s advocate.
KELLY: Even as a law student he was there, he had that sort of thinking?
DERSHOWITZ: He had been a champion debater at Princeton and he and his Princeton roommate sat next to each other, and he was an African-American, a black kid from Jamaica, two of the most brilliant guys at Harvard Law school. And they were inseparable. And they had a team tag match. One guy finished, the other guy would raise his hand.
RUSH: Whoa! Whoa. It’s a double whammy here. First we got Dershowitz, who is a well-known leftist, a proud card-carrying leftist admitting that the most brilliant law student he has ever come across was Ted Cruz. And then the bonus, that Cruz’s best buddy was a black guy, who was just as smart as Cruz, and that they were a tag-team here in the debate, and one of them would finish, the next guy raised his hand and they would keep on as a team and they just slammed anybody that got in their way. There was no defeating these guys. And Kelly said, “Did you know what Ted Cruz’s politics were at the time?”
DERSHOWITZ: His politics were clear, principled, unwavering, and very intelligently presented.
KELLY: You said he was one of the smartest students you ever had. Is that true or is that hyperbole?
DERSHOWITZ: No, it’s true, and in fact I got a lot of criticism from my friends on the left saying, “Why are you saying that?” I’m a professor. I have to tell the truth about my students even if I disagree with their views. Even if I’m not gonna vote for him, I’m not gonna change history.
RUSH: His politics were clear. We’re talking about an early twenties student. You want to talk about consistency, this goes to here’s who the guy is. He is who he says he is. He is who he appears to be. His principles are his principles. They have been for his whole life. He doesn’t make anything up here. He’s not manufacturing it as he goes. This is who he is. Clear, principled, unwavering, intelligently presented. A lot of his leftist buddies are ripping him for saying these things about Cruz, but he says, “Hey, I’m a professor. I can’t lie about my students.”
Okay. So that’s Dershowitz and Cruz. And you’d have to admit, it’s effective testimony, but it’s validation, confirmation from somebody that doesn’t agree with Cruz in any way, shape, manner, or form. And it debunks all the caricatures that are out there of Cruz from the left, somebody who many leftist Democrats, Dershowitz, they admire to the hilt.
Now to the Trump side of this. There was a show last night on CNN called “a Trump family town hall.” They had Trump and Melania and some of the kids, who are now adults. They even had Tiffany Trump there. I think the only Trump that wasn’t there was Baron, the youngest. I’m not sure. But it’s fascinating.
So on CNN today they’re reviewing it, what happened last night. The host Michaela Pereira spoke with two people who attended last night’s family town hall, Joseph Kovac and Arlene Tieng. And during the discussion about their experience at the event web the hostette here, Michaela Pereira, said, “I understand that this is the first time you’ve had the opportunity to do this sort of thing, show up at an event like this, and Joe, Joe Kovac, I understand you actually found that your vote has been swayed by what you saw last night?”
KOVAC: It has. Last night I saw Donald Trump in a different light. I saw how he interacted with his children. I saw that interaction. Being a Republican and tending to be more conservative and being from Staten Island, I agree with a lot of the positions that Donald has taken. I also feel that tone is very important.
RUSH: I assume he was not supporting Trump, and now he is because of the interaction that he saw with his children last night. You know, let’s go play the second bite, and I’ll share with you an observation. This next one is Michaela Pereira saying to Arlene Ting, “Arlene, this idea of tone, was it something that bothered you going into the event and you wanted to find out where Trump’s head was?” And Chris Cuomo, you’ll also hear him trying to swivel into this sound bite here.
TING: You always wonder if someone with this type of personality can kind of turn off at times. And it was reassuring to me that he had said that he was nicer to his family rather than what we’ve seen at the debates despite, you know, all of the incendiary remarks that he has made. I was thinking maybe he would comment that he was a disciplinarian or very critical towards them. But for him to admit that he was nicer towards them was actually reassuring ’cause he’s a father, he’s a husband, he’s a grandfather as well.
CUOMO: That’s one of the confusing things —
TING: I still feel that I’m undecided. It kind of gives a different perspective when you see them talk amongst their family.
RUSH: This always amazes me. I’m always trying to understand how people think, how they react to things they see on TV. It’s always gonna be a learning exercise. Plus, I know Trump personally. And Trump is not — well, in business he can be. But it amazes me people who watch Trump interacting with his family and say, “Wow, I’m shocked.” What do you do expect? His family is out there all the time. His family loves him.
Why does it surprise people that Trump’s family doesn’t think that he’s a fire breathing Satanic figure? Why is it a surprise when people get together with their family on TV and everybody seems to love and respect each other? Why is that a surprise? No, no, no, no, no. I understand that some people’s family experience is not the best and so forth. I mean, these guys are on television a lot. Is it really that hard to figure out who these people are? Especially Trump. Trump’s been on TV all over the place. Can people not spot what the shtick is, what the act is, and where the real guy is?
It always amazes me how people can’t — look, myself, too. It never fails. Even after 27 years I find myself in a public situation and talking with people. Well, I’ll give you an example. I went to dinner three weeks ago with a couple of friends in New York, and they were visiting. They were being hosted by a resident here I’ve never met. And they told me their host was hesitant to come because she was afraid that I would be walking into the restaurant looking at liberals and pointing to ’em and saying “get out.” She was afraid that I was a bull in a china shop kind of guy. She didn’t say a word the first 10 minutes.
After the first 10 minutes she said, just stunned, “I can’t believe you you you you, why, you’re one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, you’re one of the most engaging.” And I’m sitting there, what do you say to that? “Of course”? But it’s the power. I know what it is. It’s the power of public image, presentation and so forth. But it seems that there is seldom any assumption or benefit of the doubt. The same thing works with Cruz. You have Cruz, who appears to be an automaton when it comes to his campaign. He’s focused, he is never off message, never off point. And people routinely say when they meet him how shocked they were that he’s actually a normal person.
Why is it a surprise when public figures are seen as normal? Anyway, it’s an ongoing learning exercise for me. I’m not being critical of it. It’s a fascinating thing, and I think these two sound bites illustrate it. Here’s Dershowitz saying things about Cruz that nobody else, there’s not a single Republican out there talking this way about Cruz. Maybe his wife, but I mean, you don’t have anybody that knows Cruz on the Republican side, everything about Cruz, he’s hated, he’s despised, the Senate doesn’t like Cruz. Go talk to his law professor, “Smartest guy ever.” Same thing with Trump. This interests me.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We have a Heidi Cruz bite. This should have been part of the four-part little sound bite expose we just did. Heidi Cruz last night was on The Kelly File as well with Megyn Kelly, who said, “Donald Trump sent out an unkind retweet about you, comparing your appearance unfavorably to that of his wife, Melania, who is a retired model. Everybody thought that was just horrible, Heidi, just despicable, and it was crass. How did you first learn about that?”
HEIDI: I don’t tweet, so I had an ability to completely ignore it, and I think we have a pattern of behavior here that when Donald Trump is falling behind —
KELLY: Yeah, but that’s a dodge. Like who told you about it and how it made you feel?
HEIDI: You and Carly, my dear friend Carly and myself have been the object of some of Donald’s criticisms, but I will tell you, I know why we’re running this race, and it’s not for Donald Trump. It’s for the voters of this country. And when you have a husband who’s standing by you that is so strong and so unflappable, it really gives me a lot of strength. And so I really have to honestly say, it didn’t impact me in the least.
RUSH: That’s fascinating. I gotta find something real quick. Grab sound bite 21. Did you hear what she just said here? She said, “When you have a husband that’s standing by you that’s so strong and so unflappable, it really gives me a lot of strength.” That is cool. I want you to compare, listen, this is Michelle (My Belle) Obama, PBS special, Monday night series, Jackie Robinson during a segment showing off how hard it was for Robinson to handle being the first African-American in the major leagues. Obama and Michelle talked about — listen to this.
MICHELLE: There’s nothing more important in family than a real partnership, which is probably what made him such a great man, because he had the judgment to find a partner that — well, I think that’s —
OBAMA: Absolutely.
MICHELLE: — true. I think that’s a sign of his character, that he chose a woman that was his equal. I don’t think he would have had Jackie Robinson without Rachel.
RUSH: Okay. So what is the message there? You got Obama sitting right there, and Michelle said Jackie Robinson, we wouldn’t have had him without Rachel. That’s Michelle Obama saying to Barack, “Hey, he-he-he, you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me, pal.” Contrast that to Heidi Cruz and the way she talked about her husband.