RUSH: Well, Donald Trump just got off of his Boeing 757 in Laredo, Texas, and is now meeting the media swarmed on the other side of the fence, and is explaining whatever to them.

Greetings, and welcome back. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

By the way, his cap says “Making America Great Again.” And I’ll tell you what’s funny. I think it’s CNN. I got both monitors on here and I’m just reading the closed-captioning. I’m not listening to it. They had some political analyst on CNN. Trump gets off the plane and he’s wearing khakis, a white shirt, open collar, and a navy sport coat. He’s got this white cap on. And the CNN analyst said, “And no doubt it’s promoting one of his properties, one of his golf courses, or something to do with Trump.”

So everybody I’m sure started seeing what the cap said, and it took a while for people to get close enough, and the cap says, “Making America Great Again.” It does not have anything to do with a Trump property. So whoever said it and whatever network it was got it all wrong, as usual, again.

Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

The Hill, Capitol Hill newspaper is reporting that a local union representing Border Patrol agents has opted out of providing assistance to Donald Trump and his traveling party on his visit to the border with Mexico today in Laredo, Texas. Quote, “After careful consideration of all the factors involved in this event and communicating with members of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) at the National level, it has been decided by Local 2455 to pull out of all events involving Donald Trump.” This from the local union president, Hector Garza.

Garza said, “Make no mistake, our border with Mexico is not secure and thereÂ’s no doubt that we need to have an honest discussion about that with the American people.” But we’re not gonna be here with Trump as he attempts to have that conversation with the American people. “Garza said the local group intended to provide on-the-ground perspective to Trump and media in attendance, but that it ‘never discussed’ endorsing Trump or any other presidential candidate.

Despite the great danger Mr. Trump is traveling to Laredo, Texas, to proceed with the visit to the border. Trump’s campaign said in a statement: “It is unfortunate the local union of border patrol agents received pressure at a national level not to participate and ultimately pulled out of today’s event. They are being silenced, and are very unhappy about it, as told directly to Mr. Trump. It can only be assumed that there are things the politicians in Washington do not want Americans to see or discuss.”

You know, these people are gonna have to learn — and I doubt that they will — that they can’t deal with Trump the way they deal with every standard, ordinary, everyday politician, because he’s not one. He’s a businessman, and if they don’t start looking at him that way and a winning businessman, a competitive business, if they look at him and they continue to try to react to Trump and shape coverage of Trump based on politics, they’re gonna miss this. So whoever’s behind this, they think they’re gonna embarrass Trump, and they think they’re gonna harm Trump by having the Border Patrol union pull out. They’re gonna be with him. They’re not gonna provide assistance, security, whatever.

So whoever made this call thinks they’re gonna embarrass Trump and they’re gonna make Trump look bad, and they’re gonna make it look like everybody involved here wants nothing to do with Trump. So what does Trump do? He comes out and says it’s very dangerous where I’m going, but I’m still going, and it’s very unfortunate that somebody in Washington pulled these courageous Border Patrol agents away. It’s obvious the people in Washington have things they don’t want me to see and tell the American people.

They’re never gonna get the last word with him, and until they stop trying, they’re not gonna figure this out. They’re never gonna get the last word. As long as there are cameras, microphones, and ink next to where Donald Trump is, he’s gonna get the last word. They’re never gonna win this contest. They’re never gonna be able to.

I opened the program today with a very salient point, I’m gonna remind you again. This is Thursday. It is depending on when you start counting five or six days from when Trump made this supposedly end-of-career statement about John McCain. He was to be gone by now. Remember? He was not gonna be able to survive this. Why, he had stepped in it so bad, he had stepped in it so big, every expert on the Republican and Democrat side, every media expert, every analyst chuckling, laughing, applauding, saying that Trump had finally done what they all knew Trump was gonna do. He was gonna step in it so bad that he couldn’t get out of it, and it’s bye-bye Trump.

The Washington Post had that, the New York Times, everybody had it. Bye-bye Trump. It was nice knowing you, too bad it didn’t last longer. Well, it’s Thursday, and it’s evidenced now that he’s not been hurt by it. I don’t know if it helped him. I think it probably did. But it has not hurt him. The wizards of smart got it all wrong, because they do not know, they haven’t figured out just what they’re dealing with here.

They actually have an invader. They have their business. It’s called politics. He’s not one of them. He is not a politician. He is barnstorming into their territory, and, believe me, that is something they resent like you can’t believe. And I say that from personal experience, too. He’s an interloper. He’s coming from where he’s an expert and a success, but he’s not wanted in politics. And he’s not permitted. They’re not gonna let him in the club just cause he wants in. They’re not gonna embrace him.

He’s out there talking (imitating Trump), “I’m gonna go third party. The Republican Party isn’t showing me any respect. The Republican Party isn’t looking like they might help me if I get the nomination. Well, if that’s true, I’m just gonna go third party. They’re not showing me any respect.” And they’re not. They don’t know what they’re dealing with here. They’re never gonna get the last word. They cannot apply standard, ordinary, everyday formulas in politics to him, as this demonstrates.

I guarantee you, with any other Republican, take your pick, I don’t care, any Republican that has entered the primaries here and is seeking the presidential nomination, anybody else that said that about McCain, you know damn well what would have happened. After the first three hours they’d be on TV on their hands and knees begging to be forgiven, and they would be saying they’re sorry, and they would have called McCain personally. They would have gone to visit McCain, there’d been cameras, and they’d get down on one knee, “Please, Senator, I don’t know what happened. It was not me.”

(imitating McCain) “That’s all right. It’s okay, Son. It’s okay. It’s okay. These are high-pressure situations. I know that.” And then that guy would have been gone. The party would have seen to it that he’s never gonna be heard from again because he’s such an embarrassment. That’s the formula. Trump doesn’t play by those rules, and here he is triumphing. His numbers are going up. The more he talks the more popular he becomes. So let’s go to Trump audio sound bites. This is last night, Anderson Cooper 360, interviewing Trump and they’re talking about his campaign and this is the first bite we have.

COOPER: Let’s talk polls, first of all. Washington Post poll on Monday, great news for you. A huge lead in the Republican field. Quinnipiac poll came out today, though, not so good news for you. In the general election, voters Colorado, Iowa, Virginia, you have the worst favorability ratings of anyone, Republican or Democrat, negative favorability ratings almost two to one. Hillary Clinton also did badly.

TRUMP: I haven’t seen it. I really don’t know.

COOPER: Talking yesterday, Jeb Bush said, “If we embrace this language of decisiveness and ugliness, we’ll never win.”

TRUMP: I get called all these horrible names by Lindsey Graham. I couldn’t care less about Lindsey Graham. He’s registered at I think zero in the polls. I guess it was Lindsey Graham who called me a jackass. So am I supposed say, “Oh, it’s okay”? I’m called a jackass. You have to fight back. The country has to fight back.

RUSH: Right. Trump says that he’s fighting to save the country. That’s exactly what needs to be happen. Everybody else needs to be fighting to save the country, and if he wins he will change his tone.

TRUMP: Oh, I think so. I think I’d feel very differently.

COOPER: Do you have the temperament to be president? That’s the question that Jeb Bush was really raising about the divisiveness, about the language. I mean, the kind — I mean like you take — you have a no-prisoners approach. Somebody attacks you —

TRUMP: No, I don’t have that. I’m very different than you would think. Right now I’m fighting because I’m number one in the polls, by far, and I’m being attacked on all sides. In my opinion, when attacked, you have to, you know, defend and attack back, okay?

RUSH: That makes common sense, does it not? I mean, I’m not trying to inject myself into all this, but that’s what I do here every day, and I get called an attacker! You and I, we all do this. We get up, we look at the news — or maybe it happens night before — and we see somebody or something that we hold dear under assault. We see an institution, we see a tradition, we see a personality, we see a person under assault, being attacked, usually for being conservative or whatever.

I’m saying we come here every day and I defend those people or the institution or the tradition, whatever it is. Marriage, you name it. I defend it. For this, I’m called an extremist, an attacker. That’s all Trump is saying. (paraphrased) “I’m minding my own business and all of a sudden they call me a jackass and they call me crazy? I’m not gonna sit there and just ignore it.” So the next question from Anderson Cooper was, “Well, look that Quinnipiac poll in Iowa, back to that poll, among general voters.”

TRUMP: You only want to talk about negative.

COOPER: (snickers)

TRUMP: Why didn’t you bring up the positive polls?

COOPER: I — I — I did!

TRUMP: Excuse me.

COOPER: I started off with the Washington Post poll.

TRUMP: You started off… You started off the interview with a poll that I didn’t even know existed.

COOPER: I started off —

TRUMP: I think very unfair. You talk to me a poll I never even saw. All I know is, I have a very big group of support, and I think one of the reasons is —

COOPER: At the moment with Republicans, you’re way out in front.

TRUMP: Let me tell you, the people don’t trust you and the people don’t trust the media.

COOPER: Right.

TRUMP: And I understand —

COOPER: And politicians.

TRUMP: You know, I’ve always been covered fairly accurately ’cause it was usually a financial press and, you know, numbers are numbers, okay? And my numbers happen to be great.

COOPER: Right.

TRUMP: So I was always sort of treated, like, fair. But I find that 60, 70% of the political media is really, really dishonest.

RUSH: All right. Now, I want you to ask yourself… No, before I phrase that, make that point, let me remind you that we all have said for years (and we’ve said it very often) that it’s not just Democrats and liberals who are our opponents. It’s the media. We have to overcome the media. The media is not a referee anymore. The media is on the other team, and we constantly talk about how we have to overcome them, too.

And whenever this is said, the usual criticism is, “Come on, grow up! You know, it just doesn’t sound good to start blaming the media, crying about the media, crying about the umpires. It never got anybody anywhere.” Some Republicans dutifully obey. They just, slog on. They do what they can. The media is allowed to totally exhibit their bias, their prejudice and so forth. When is the last time you heard or can remember a Republican challenging somebody in the media for how they are doing their job?

I can remember one. Maybe you can remember others. (interruption) Well, Newt at the debates is one, when he was talking about education and a number of things. But for the big example — and there’s really not many of these. You have to go back to, what was it? Was it 1988? Dan Rather interviewing George H. W. Bush, and Rather is asking Bush where he was during some seminal event. The implication was that Bush had cut-and-run, wasn’t somewhere.

George Bush said (paraphrased), “Hey, Dan, you know, things happen. I remember when you walked off the set when Wimbledon coverage went long. You walked off the set because you were mad the news wasn’t on.” And Rather lost it! (muttering Rather impression), “This isn’t about me, Mr. Vice President. This interview is not about me.” “Well, you’re making it about you, Dan! I mean, look, things happen to people. I remember you walked off the set; you didn’t do your job one day. You want to come down on me? Let me tell you what really happened, Dan.”

And he answered the question.

That’s the last big example, and Rather never forget it. Never forgot it. I mean, I’m convinced that that incident was one of the many things that led to his fake story on George W. Bush and the National Guard and all that. So, anyway, these are the kind of things that Trump’s doing that Republican voters have longed for and have expected to people they’re donating to and voting for to do at the same time. Because, to them, to Republican voters, the enemy’s obvious, and the way the enemy’s working is obvious.

And they’re not being challenged.

And Trump is… He’s not taking it, is the point, and that’s why I knew from the get-go that he was gonna resonate with people.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s now official, according to TheHill.com: “Donald Trump Takes Top Spot in Poll Conducted After John McCain Remarks.” So I’m gonna reach around and pat myself on the back, ’cause I predicted it. And I was telling anybody who would listen, “Do not fall for this standard operating procedure that he’s gone. It ain’t gonna work this time ’cause he’s not playing by the rules. He didn’t apologize. He doubled down.” Anyway, he’s leading in a poll referenced by TheHill.com after the McCain comments.

Now, the George H. W. Bush thing, it was 1988. What happened was Bush had agreed to be interviewed by Rather for a general profile, and all Rather wanted to talk about was the Iran-Contra Scandal, and there was something in the Iran-Contra Scandal where George H. W. Bush, as vice president, had not been around. Rather kept talking about, “And you weren’t there.” Finally Bush got so exasperated and said, “You know, I came here to talk about why I want to be president.”

Bush said, “It’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by the seven minutes you walked off the set in New York?” And that… Rather walked off the set ’cause he was mad that Wimbledon or some tennis tournament — it might have been the US Open — ran over and was gonna take minutes out of the CBS Evening News, and he was ticked to be relegated to backup status to a sporting event.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A couple of quick sound bites here. First, let’s go back. We’ve got this contentious interview between George H. W. Bush and Dan Rather. It was January 25th, 1988, and it was during the interview, and as I say, it was just supposed to be a campaign profile, which Rather turned into a prosecution on Iran-Contra.

RATHER: I don’t want to be argumentative, Mr. Vice President —

H. W. BUSH: Dan, this is not a great night, ’cause I want to talk about why I want to be president, why those 41% of the people are supporting me.

RATHER: And Mr. Vice President, these questions are — (crosstalk)

H. W. BUSH: — not fair to judge a whole career, it’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?

RUSH: Now, the interview ends there because Rather was rendered speechless for — in television time — a long time, and then he started mumbling and stumbling, “Mr. Vice President… Mr. Vice President… (grumbling) This interview is not about me! I’m the journalist. We don’t talk about me in the interview.” “Well, you brought it up, Dan, old buddy! I mean, you walked off the set there in New York.” That interview, by the way, launched Bush. You know, up until that time people like George Will were calling him a lapdog.

I am very fortunate that I’m blessed with a good memory. I remember this stuff like it was yesterday. Bush was being creamed! He was being accused of lying about being a conservative. He was just pretending to be Reagan’s third term but he really wasn’t a conservative. Conservative media back then (as much as there really was conservative media back) were calling Bush a lapdog. I mean, George Bush was put himself on the map with that comment.

He was generally considered Milquetoast. This happened, and it changed everything overnight. It took Dan Rather a long time to get over it. I don’t think he ever did, really. The reason he didn’t is because self-consciousness. Dan didn’t get over it because he thought everybody remembered him because of that. Wherever he went, that’s what he thought people thought of when they saw him, because it was an embarrassing moment in his career, and he thought that’s what everybody would associate with him.

So when you have that kind of self-consciousness about things… Even now, some network — what is it, HBO? I don’t know who. Somebody’s putting a movie together over Rather being fired at CBS, and who is it playing Rather? Robert Redford, I think, is playing Rather. Yeah, Robert Redford’s playing Rather, and this whole movie is based on the fact that Rather got railroaded, and he was right in this phony story!

This is how the left does things.

Like HBO is doing this movie on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings. Well, that happened a long time ago, back in 1990. But, you see, there’s a whole generation of Millennials who never saw it. They’ve been taught it. They’ve been taught what a bad guy Clarence Thomas is and what a heroine Anita Hill is, but they haven’t seen it. So it’s time to make a movie. The left doesn’t let their big things get forgotten from generation to generation, and somebody has decided to do a movie exonerating Dan Rather on that National Guard story, too.

So that’s next.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, Cate Blanchett is playing Mary Mapes in that movie, and the movie’s being produced by some outfit called Mythology Entertainment. I kid you not, that’s the name of the movie company. And it’s based on Mary Mapes’ book, Truth and Duty. So is obviously gonna be bogus.