RUSH: Now, I want to zero in on one more thing because I got a note from a friend of mine pointing out that, once again, I was right in ways that I didn’t even imagine I was right. In characterizing Trump and his comments about the Mexican immigrants, the idea that Trump was trying to denigrate an entire population or ethnicity… I don’t know. I didn’t take it that way. Primarily when Trump says, “They’re not sending us their best and brightest,” he is saying they have a best and brightest.
So how can he be denigrating an entire ethnicity if he acknowledges that there is a best and brightest in Mexico? That’s number one. Number two, where is the presumption of intelligence here? Who in their right mind would say that an entire country is nothing but a giant criminal gang? (interruption) Don’t look at me that way, Snerdley. (laughing) “When you put it that way, Rush, it sounds believable.” (interrupting)
No, not all of Russia. The oligarchy, not all of Russia, that is my whole point. (interrupting) You think maybe the power structure? The note that my friend sent me said, “Rush, look at the Mariel boatlift, back in 1980 from Cuba. What did Castro do? Castro took advantage of a sap president, Jimmy Carter, and released his prison population. He called them freedom fighters, whatever, put them in rag-tag boats and said, “Leave! You’re free. You’re out of here.”
That’s the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Jimmy Carter was president.
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RUSH: The Mariel boatlift. No one who complained about this was saying that all Cubans were bad people. What they were saying was the regime had basically emptied the jails and sent us the dregs of Cuban society who promptly committed crimes. A huge crime wave began in Florida when the Mariel boatlift landed. Now if we say that today… Go back to 1980. The Cubans admitted to letting their prison population out of jail, putting them on boats and sending them to America.
If we simply called that for what it was we would all be called racists, even though it is well known that’s exactly what Castro did. That’s even in the Wikipedia entry! “The exodus was organized by Cuban-Americans with the agreement of Cuban president Fidel Castro. The exodus started to have negative political implications for US president Jimmy Carter when it was discovered that a number of the exiles had been released from Cuban jails and mental health facilities.”
You know what a Cuban mental health facility is. It’s the gutter. They don’t have any mental health facilities. Well, they might. The Gulag. “The Mariel boatlift was ended by mutual agreement between the two governments involved in October 1980. By that point, as many as 125,000 Cubans had made the journey to Florida.” Back then, nobody was saying that the whole Cuban population was a bunch of ragtag misfits and Trump was not saying that the whole Mexican population was.
Here, by the way, just to back it up. Grab sound bite 26. This is Donald Trump with Greta Van Susteren on Fox. I mentioned now he’s… Oh, I need to make one clarification. I checked the e-mail during the break. Now, just like I make great efforts, go to great pains not to mischaracterize what people say, please do not do that to me. I did not say that every Democrat is now demanding sanctuary cities be ended.
I did not say that every Democrat is joining Trump. I didn’t say that. I said he has shifted the debate to the issue away from himself. That is undeniable. People are now debating whether or not sanctuary cities are any good or should they be legal, should we have them. Some Democrats are now speaking out against them. Trump is the one who did that. Yesterday, Trump was the issue. The day before thar, Trump was the issue. Today the issue is the issue.
Even to the point now that these California Attorney General, a woman named Kamala Harris, who, by the way, Obama thinks is hot. He went all Clinton on her. Uh, I mean, verbally, when he saw her. Like Clinton did when he saw that mummy. Clinton said he would have asked that mummy out if he had been alive whatever thousands of numbers of years ago the mummy lived. And remember when that basketball team, female basketball team showed up at the White House, and there was this 6’3″ whatever pretty good looking female babe?
He went Cosby on her. He could not take his eyes off.
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RUSH: Here’s what Trump said, because he’s brought Common Core into this now. This is what Trump said. This was last night on Greta Van Susteren.
TRUMP: I watched Jeb Bush. I think it’s pathetic what’s going on, his stance on Common Core. He’s in favor of Washington educating your children. His weak stance on immigration. He said it’s an act of love. I mean, what kind of stuff is that? That’s baby stuff.
RUSH: My only point is that Trump is shifting all these things he’s talking about. Up to now he’s been the issue of, “Can you believe he’s saying that? Donald Trump, idiot. Donald Trump, extremist. Donald Trump, racist.” Now people are talking about what Trump is talking about. They’re debating the issue. That’s not what the left wants, by the way.
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RUSH: Fred, Burlington, New Jersey. Great to have you. Glad you waited. Hello, sir.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. Great to speak to you, Maha Rushie.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: The reason I called, I was watching Hannity last night. He had Rick Perry on and Hannity pressed him pretty hard. He kept playing Trump’s comments and asking him what exactly is it that you object to and he kind of hemmed and hawed and just said, well, it’s just, you know, making outrageous comments. But it didn’t really get specific. And my question for you is, I’m wondering, with all these candidates condemning Trump, is there a coordinated effort, like did Reince Priebus send out a memo saying we don’t want Trump in this race. The last candidates all condemn him. And if you think it is a coordinated effort why do they not want to address immigration, what’s the reason behind it?
RUSH: Well, I don’t think it’s a coordinated effort, because it doesn’t have to be coordinated. They’re all seeking the same office so they’re all going to be opposed to Trump anyway. Rick Perry. Jeb Bush. Scott Walker. They’re all going to oppose each other. Now, as to the specifics of the way they’re dealing with immigration, it’s an interesting question because there’s the potential here for something momentous to happen, and it is exactly as you ask. Will what is happening, because of Trump’s stick-to-itiveness, will it change the Republican Party’s approach on this?
Right now the Republican Party approach on immigration is predicated on what they think they need to win the presidency. And you know it as well as I do, they think they need an increase in Hispanic support. They think they need an increase in African-American support. They don’t think they need to turn out the conservative base. They’re cock-eyed on this.
And the way they think to get 30 percent additional support from the Hispanic community is to pander to them. And they think that the Hispanic community would probably be in favor of whatever Hispanic people are doing. And right now Hispanic people are trying to get into America. So the Republicans want to associate with that. Their donors also want that immigration to work for cheap labor. But here comes Trump and he has changed the whole focus of this debate. It’s a golden opportunity and I’m going to be interested to see what happens.
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RUSH: Look, the Republican Party and immigration. I think most of the Republican Party establishment believes and hopes (but they believe) that Trump is not in this to be president. I think that Trump is doing something else, whatever it is, and that what they have to do is weather the storm. I think they’re hoping that Trump comes and goes, probably the sooner the better that he gets out. I would think they would probably hope he would be out by this fall, certainly by the end of the year.
If that indeed is their attitude, then they are going to ignore whatever Trump is going to do. The fact of the matter is that the Republican Party is locked — by virtue of donations and donors — into supporting amnesty. This is the frustrating thing. Money in politics talks. The Republican Party is not… Look, we have won two landslides. We’ve given the Republican Party control of Congress. What do we have to show for it? We’ve given them, in 2010 and 2014, majorities. We gave them Congress.
They’ve got the House and Senate now.
They don’t have 60 votes in the Senate, but they run both places now. The American people have done what they think they can do. Most Americans feel impotent other than their ability to vote. And they have let it be known every which way they can what they think, what they favor and what they oppose. The Republican Party appears to not be listening. So here comes Trump enduring all of these attacks, losing whatever he’s losing in his businesses, having all these efforts made to slam him, impugn him, to ruin him, whatever.
He perseveres, and he has changed the subject of the debate from being about him to about illegal immigration and amnesty. Many of us think it’s a golden opportunity for the Republican Party to pivot on the basis of massive public support for what is happening. They could say they have been dragged kicking and screaming to this. Clearly there hasn’t been any leadership in the Republican Party on the direction that Trump is going. My take, my wild guess (that’s all it is) is that given they think Trump is a short-timer in this campaign, they are not going to follow anything Trump does.
That would be my wild guess.
I wish it were something else.
We keep hearing that what we’re absent leadership, what we’re missing is leadership, but we’re seeing some here. This is what leadership is. I mean, this is the guy taking the arrows. Pioneers take the arrows, you’ve heard the old phrase. I can’t make too much of that either. The fact that Trump is a billionaire? Fine. You think, “He’s got the money; he can lose it.” Don’t look at it that way. How many people…? This is the way to look at it. How many people do what Trump is doing in the face of an onslaught like this?
Can you name somebody else? Off the top of your head, can you name somebody who just perseveres despite all of this? Look, Univision is canceling Donald Trump. “This is terrible! Donald Trump is terrible.” It’s not just they’re canceling him. It’s what they’re saying about him when they do it. NBC, a partner of his in that TV show, The Apprentice. And then the Miss USA Pageant and so forth, Miss World. All it, “Bye-bye! See you later.” Univision, ditto.
Macy’s! Gutless wonders, all of them. You might say, “Well, he’s got a billion dollars; he can afford it.” Not the way to look at it. The effort is being made to ruin him, folks. This is what… I don’t care that he’s got billions or millions or tens of thousands. The effort is being made to ruin him, and he is not buckling. Don’t doubt me that the effort underway is to ruin him. It is to ruin him and make sure he never tries anything like this again, and to also to send a message to anybody who might be thinking of joining him.
“You want this treatment? Just come on in! The water’s warm. You want to be destroyed? We’ll equally and with just as much fun have at you, too.” That’s the implied message here, and I don’t see anybody else getting in the water. Not in electoral politics. Now, given that the moneyed interests and the Republican Party support amnesty and want all of this immigration for their own specific reason (cheap labor, we’re told), and the Democrats want it for the potential voter registration drive it is.
I think the Republicans want their slam or shot at it, too. The only people that do not want this happen to be the voters, and they seem to be wielding the least amount of power here. So we’ll have to see. But I’ll be surprised. I mean, how many Republican candidates have even spoken up for Trump. The only one I can think of is Ted Cruz, and Cruz has not endorsed the specifics of what Trump has said. He has simply applauded Trump for not cowering and leaving the issue under assault.
But then again, you wouldn’t expect these other candidates to join Trump. They want to be president, too. That’s why they’re in the race. So if you think that there ought to be candidate unity behind Trump, that’s never going to happen, simply because of the competitive nature of things. It just isn’t going to happen. But don’t think anything of that. Just because Rick Perry or Jeb or Scott Walker — or any of them. Take your pick.
Just because they don’t join Trump doesn’t mean anything. If they do, people are going to say, “Well, then we don’t need you if Trump’s carrying your banner.” But the answer to this lies in they think Trump is temporary; they don’t think he’s serious. They don’t think he’s going to be around for a long time. This is a storm they think they can withstand. Not much more to it than that.