RUSH: What a day and night yesterday was, and what a night last night was, in so many different respects. And, my friends, you may think that you know what all happened last night, but you don’t until you hear me explain it to you, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to get to this. And here we are, Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network. And the telephone number, 800-282-2882, and the email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.

All day yesterday the Drive-By Media, both print and broadcast, was filled with news stories indicating that they had gotten wind of the word that Trump was going to seriously moderate last night, that Trump was going to suggest amnesty for DREAMers last night on immigration. That Trump was going to not just say that he was open to the idea of compromise, but was going to get specific on it. They said that they had had lunch with Trump. Trump hosted a bunch of TV news anchors and print people for lunch at the White House yesterday, which is somewhat common, it’s been done before on the day of big speeches to bring in the fake news people.

You know, a little aside, you know what was funny about that? Wolf Blitzer wrote about it and refused to admit that he had been with Trump. He referred to Trump as a senior administration official on the CNN website and story that Wolf Blitzer filed about having lunch with Trump. Now, all of the people that had lunch with Trump came out of there saying this might be a little bit of a sandbag, because all afternoon yesterday the Drive-Bys were saying it was gonna be a different Trump, he is gonna be compromising and more open to things.

Look, the impression that was given by the Drive-Bys, and I don’t know where it came from, but I’m telling you it’s real because I was getting panicked emails from people last night before the speech, convinced that Trump was going to sell out on immigration by going along with amnesty, that Trump was gonna sell out because this was the picture that was created all afternoon yesterday by the Drive-By Media.

And I got the same impression, so I was not surprised when I started receiving panicked emails I guess about five o’clock in the afternoon, I mean from friends. And then some people that I’m pretty close to who follow this stuff like nothing else were really down in the dumps, really thinking that nothing was actually gonna happen, that Trump was finally going to cave on a bunch of things. I don’t know where this came from, but it was all over the place.

So I began ruminating on all this. Where’s this coming from? Look, I saw the same thing, and I can understand people having the impression that they got and the Drive-By anchors that had had lunch with Trump, they were all over television on their own networks yesterday before the speech, and they were talking about, “Yeah, we didn’t see the usual Trump. We didn’t see the bombast. We didn’t see the braggadocio. We saw a different guy.”

And then the speculators began, the people that write blogs and posts and websites began speculating on what all of this meant and started making predictions about what Trump was gonna do. And I’m telling you, the vast majority of it was pessimistic and negative. And when it came from Never Trumpers, it even contained a bit of snark. “Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah, told you so, Trump’s phony, Trump realizes now he can’t be who he is in Washington and have it work. He’s got to sidle up to the establishment.” I’m seeing all this stuff.

So now I’m getting curious. I have not taken — ’cause the Drive-Bys do not determine my mood. The Drive-Bys do not — well, they can make me mad. But the Drive-Bys will never be able to tell me that what I know about Donald Trump isn’t true. The Donald Trump that I know, the Drive-Bys are never gonna be able to make me change my mind about, but they’re not gonna quit trying and they’re continuing to do it even today.

So, anyway, the speech began, and some of these people who had been emailing me for the previous two hours were ecstatic. They were sending me emails like, “He’s really taking it to ’em! I’m so relieved. My God, he’s jumping right down their throats. This is just awesome, right on, right on, right on.” Just overwhelming relief and happiness that what they had heard was not happening.

And in fact it was the exact opposite of what they had heard. Yeah, Trump alluded to it’s time to compromise. The real line of the night to me — and it’s hard to pick just one. But when he looked at these Democrats sitting on their hands and told them that these trivial, trivial disagreements… It’s time to move past this and start thinking big. By the way, as an aside, I have to tell you, folks, as I was watching the speech last night — and I really mean this.

The first realization of this happened when Trump mentioned a deal he had made with the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, that involved improving circumstances for female business owners and entrepreneurs. The camera cut to Fauxcahontas, Elizabeth Warren, who was sitting next to Kirsten Gillibrand, and they looked at each other, like, “What? Wuh wuh wuh wuh what did he just say? What?” And they started consulting notes and chattering at each other. And a thought hit me.

I think one of the things that happened last night — and not just in that chamber, but I think in many parts of the country… I really believe this. I think the Democrats in that chamber may for the first time actually have heard Donald Trump say what he thinks and believes. I think they are so devoted to their media, I don’t think they spent much time actually watching Trump rallies, I don’t think they spent much time listening to what Trump was saying at his rallies, because if they had, there would not be this degree of anger and shock and disbelief.

But we know how cocooned these people are. We know how removed they are. They live in their own bubble, and they live in a bubble that has very thick boundaries to protect them from anything they disagree with. They don’t expose themselves to things they don’t agree with; they just characterize it based on their own bigotry and their own prejudice. And as the Democrats were shown on TV last night in these sporadic moments when the camera cut to ’em, yes, I noticed them sitting on their hands, and I noticed them looking really childish.

I mean, how can you not applaud proposals to enrich American life? How can you not applaud proposals to create jobs? How can you not applaud proposals to help people earn more money? But they didn’t applaud anything. Well, maybe a couple things. I forget. Chuck Schumer, two things. But they are a party that is disintegrating before our eyes — and, yes, the response that they provided to this is the kicker, is the piece de resistance which we’ll get to in due course.

They had to go find a retired governor who was beaten by a Republican in the state of Kentucky who told everybody… He was at a diner. He told everybody he was a Republican. I mean that’s the proof that they’ve got no bench, that they have no up-and-coming stars. Now, maybe they chose the guy as a throwaway because they know that the response to the State of the Union, nobody watches or pays much attention to it, and maybe they didn’t want to put one of their big stars up and have ’em basically speak into obscurity.

But I don’t think so. I don’t think they have anybody. I really… When I looked at these people, the Democrats, as Trump was making the speech, more than once I was asking myself, “Are they hearing this for the first time? They’re looking surprised. They’re looking shell-shocked.” Now, the reason that I mention this, folks, was that much of this I’ve experienced myself. It’s one of the reasons why I have unabashedly said, “I don’t think there’s anybody in the media betters equipped to deconstruct Donald Trump — and tell you who he is, how he’s doing what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and why his people love him — than me.”

In this instance, I have gone… For 30 years of this program, you’ve heard people call here who say they only discovered me in the last year, two years ago, and they were shocked and stunned. They listened. They never listened before’ they only knew what was said about me in the media and my liberal critics, and they finally listened, and they were shocked that they didn’t hear any of the stuff that they thought I was. And I think there was some of that going on in the House chamber last night. Now, you may think this is ridiculous, and you may think it’s not possible that the highest ranking elected Democrats have never taken the time to actually listen to Donald Trump.

I’m telling you, do not reject that. It is entirely possible that they’ll watch a Trump rally and they’ll listen to what knee-jerks them and that’s all they hear and they move on, and they don’t study it — and instead of being interested in why all those people are there, they just sit there and mock them and impugn them and laugh at them, make fun of them, and tune out. The Democrat reality is not reality. I am the mayor of Realville. They are not in it. They concoct an alternative reality. Remember, reality to Democrats as a construct. They don’t think there is a reality.

And, folks, I’m not exaggerating here in explaining these people politically and psychologically. They think reality is something created by a majority of people to leave them out, and so they reject what you and I and everybody else consider reality, and they create their own. And it’s in that reality that everybody is a victim of this mean-spirited, wacko country. It’s in that reality that there is rampant racism and bigotry and homophobia and sexism and hatred and all of this anti-immigrant stuff and anti-Muslim stuff.

And it’s this country and that’s what they think it is because that’s the reality they tell themselves. Now, who knows what reality they have constructed to explain Trump. But remember: Trump didn’t win because of who he is. Trump won because of the Russians! Trump won because Russians and Trump worked together to rig the election, to hack it, and take it away from Hillary. They believe that. That’s why they want Trump’s tax returns, by the way. They think Trump’s tax returns are going to show business dealings with Russian oligarchs.

And that’s why they think Trump won’t release them. They think Trump’s gonna have taken false deductions and lied about things. That’s why they keep harping on these tax stuff — or tax returns. So I’m watching this, and I’m becoming more convinced that many of them are hearing this, much of it, for the first time — really hearing it from Trump’s mouth for the first time. I think they are that sequestered, they are that secluded, but they seclude themselves in an air of superiority. Trump’s way down there on the food chain.

Trump’s an idiot. Trump’s this. They don’t need to take the time to understand Trump. They already know Trump: Racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. Remember, these are small-minded, narrow-minded people. And as this went on, the looks on the faces of so many of these Democrats… The expressions were at one time blank, they were shocked, they were surprised. And there are countless examples. If I wanted to search the deep, dark crevices of my fertile mind, I could give you examples where the Democrats actually have not heard or seen things exactly as you and I have — and when they do, they’re shocked and stunned.

I’ll tell you what else was going through their minds last night because of this. What they knew, what scared the heck out of them last night was that Trump — in their faces, in their presence, on national TV… Here’s another thing. There were many Americans watching that speech last night who themselves saw Trump for who he is for the first time. There were a lot of people in this country that only watch the Drive-By Media, and all they know of Trump is that he worked with the Russians to rig the election, or that he hates women, or that he’s a bombastic narcissist or whatever.

The daily criticisms. That’s what they know because that’s what’s in the media. Then they watch this last night, and it doesn’t compute with what they’ve heard. I’ve been there, folks, I know exactly how this happens. And the Democrats were witnessing it. And what they were realizing was that Donald Trump had just destroyed their efforts past five weeks to many of you define him. He went right over their heads. He went right over the heads of the fake news and the Drive-By Media and reached people who, in many cases — not all — were seeing the real Trump for the first time since the campaign began.

Not since he was elected, but since the campaign began. He just crushed the Drive-Bys last night. He just crushed them. He just blew up every narrative they’ve established on the guy. They don’t know that. They’re continuing with these narratives today. But here’s something that I know all of you Trump supporters are gonna agree with me on. The Drive-Bys today and everybody says, “Wow, what a different guy! Holy smokes! This guy, he became president last night.” How many times have you heard people say that? Chris Wallace was the first to say it.

We’ve got a montage of people, must be ten or 12 them in the Drive-Bys. “Donald Trump became president last night.” Now, what they mean is, “Donald Trump grew up. Donald Trump actually sounded like presidential. Donald Trump actually it looked like he belonged in that office. Donald blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Here’s what they don’t get. To people who’ve been supporting Donald Trump… Dawn, you tell me if I’m right about. Dawn’s the greatest example of a Trump supporter here in our office.

She’s been with him since before day one, and not one thing has ever made her falter in her support. Not one. The Access Hollywood video, nothing. And this is the big reveal. All of these Drive-Bys and all of these analysts — even the conservative Washington media think they’ve got this down pat — who think they saw a never-before Donald Trump last night, who think they saw a new Donald Trump? The people who supported Donald Trump, the people who elected Donald Trump, that Donald Trump last night was the Donald Trump they saw on week one, week two.

There was no new Donald Trump that night. This was why he got elected. If there was anything last night, it was not a recognition, “Wow! Wow! That’s a different guy.” It was a relief that all the gobbledygook during the day about how Trump was gonna compromise and give it all up and so forth wasn’t true. If there was anything last night, it was an appreciation that Trump was focused, because everything he talked about last night he’s mentioned countless times.

None of this was new last night. Well, they say, “The tone, the compassion.” No. The tone, the compassion’s been at every one of his rallies. I’ve been trying to tell people this. The humility has been at every one of these rallies. The honoring of the military was at every one of his rallies. It’s why I think the Democrats in that room and so many other places really saw him for the first time last night. I’m not exaggerating.