RUSH: I’ll tell you, this is classic. You just don’t see this. I don’t recall ever having seen anything like this. I’m sure I have; I just don’t recall it, it’s that unique. It’s that rare, what Donald Trump did when he found out he was losing in Iowa.

Greetings, my friends, welcome back. Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

Big Republican debate tonight. And this is in Colorado, right? Boulder, Colorado. CNBC has the debate tonight. Trump, incidentally — by the way, this is not what I was referring to. But he’s already predicting CNBC is gonna be unfair to him. I think it’s smart. You know what I’ve found? I shouldn’t give this away. Well, what does it matter? I don’t do these interviews anyway. I have always found — took me awhile to learn this — the media never want you to be able to predict what they’re gonna do.

What Trump is doing (paraphrasing), “I know they’re gonna be unfair to me. I know they’re gonna be unfair. Everybody knows it. You know it and I know it. Here I am leading everywhere and they’re using fake polls, rigged polls and everything, and they’re not gonna give me a fair shake ’cause they don’t want me to be the guy.” It’s a brilliant thing to do. Since Trump has called them out, what I have found is when you call ’em out that way, they will go in a different direction just to make sure Trump is not perceived as having been right about them.

But there’s something else that Trump did that you just don’t see. And, by the way, a lot of people who hate Trump cannot believe he did it. When he found out that he was losing in Iowa, he went to Iowa and said, “You can’t let me down like this. I have to win here. I promise you I’ll do a good job. What do you mean, you can’t abandon me like this. We’re on a roll here.” Most candidates wouldn’t get anywhere near acknowledging that they were losing all of a sudden anywhere, particularly in Iowa. They’d go up, they’d talk, and they would pretend they don’t even know what the polling data is, they’re so far above it and so far removed, and it’s so inconsequential, they wouldn’t even mention it.

But Trump goes up there and reaches out to Iowans personally and says, “Come on, you gotta get me over the finish line here. I’ll do the best job anybody would ever do for you.” I guarantee you that a lot of media people who hate Trump who think he’s this wealthy buffoon that’s distant and removed are gonna look at that, probably have looked, and say, “Whoa, this is incredibly personal.” And you know what it also is? In many people’s view — I don’t think in Trump’s case it is, but they will say, “Why, look at Trump. He’s exposing his vulnerabilities to people. That takes real courage. That’s not the Donald Trump that we know.”

Let’s go to the audio sound bites, and I’ll show you that which I am talking about and that which I mean. First, in Sioux City, Iowa, last night Trump spoke. This is just a quick 14-second starter piece.

TRUMP: You remember the heat I took with illegal immigration. Remember that heat? For two weeks Rush Limbaugh said, “He has received more incoming than any human being I’ve ever seen. And then he doubled down.” He thought it was pretty good. And he’s good. Really good.

RUSH: There you go. So Trump goes to Iowa, down in the polls, says (paraphrasing), “You know, I need to do some things to get back my popularity here.” So that was his starter. I think is, if it’s not a first, it’s really rare and unique, and you don’t hear politicians, which is key, do this. He went to Iowa, he went to the Sioux City, and he scolded them at first for abandoning him, and after scolding them, he asked, “What are you doing? There’s nobody better than I am. I’ll do a great job. I promise you.” Listen to this. See what you think.

TRUMP: Would you get the numbers up, Iowa, please? This is ridiculous. I am second. It’s not like terrible, but I don’t like being second. In most polls I’m number one. Now, until Iowa came along, I said “every poll,” and then Iowa, what the hell are you people doing to me? I refuse to say, “Get your asses in gear.” I will not say that. So will you please do me a favor and work with my people and go out on February 1st and vote and give us a victory? (cheers and applause) When I heard the poll today, I said, “What are you gonna do?” I said, “I’m gonna work harder in Iowa. I’m not leaving Iowa.” Now, if I lose Iowa, I will never speak to you people again.

RUSH: I guarantee you they ate it up, and not in our bite was when he said, “I promise I’ll do a great job for you. I’m the best you’ve got. I’m the best running. I’m gonna make the country great again. I’ll work for you. I’ll really do the best I can for you.” And remember, over here, there is speculation — and you’re gonna have this with every poll, so I don’t want to give too much weight to it, but there are some raised eyebrows about the polling data that shows Trump — I mean, he’s down big, 14 points to Ben Carson. “That’s just not that — maybe five, what is this 14 points?” When it’s the only place, the only place Trump’s down 14, and others, well, yeah, because, look, Carson is a big, devout Seventh-day Adventist, he’s advertising his Christianity. Hawkeye Cauci goers on the Republican side are traditionally conservative and religious people. And Trump has said some things that are impolitic on religion. Like he didn’t think he’d ever done anything that he needed to ask for God’s forgiveness. That was early on. I knew that that had the potential to come back and bite him.

Anyway, the Drive-Bys, since they don’t see this kind of thing, the Drive-Bys think that Trump is begging for votes. They interpret the sound bite you just heard as victory for them. “Yeah, we did it. We took Trump out. He’s out and he knows he’s out. He’s losing. He’s peaked, and now he’s been reduced to begging for votes.” We have a montage. They think they’ve done Trump in, and they love it.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Donald Trump falling behind in the polls and proving he’s not too proud to beg for votes.

CAROL COSTELLO: Trump is begging for voter support.

SUNLEN SERFATY: Donald Trump, he really has been begging for Iowa voters.

JOHN ROBERTS: He was all but begging Iowa voters to put him back on top.

MICHAELA PEREIRA: Trump, essentially begging voters to come out and support him.

MAEVE RESTON: Donald Trump is actually begging the folks in Iowa to get his poll numbers back up.

ROBIN ROBERTS: The billionaire is now begging for votes.

ALISYN CAMEROTA: Trump is trying a new political tactic and I believe the technical term is begging.

JOY BEHAR: I don’t like to see a grown man beg. He’s been begging — Trump is begging the Iowans to vote.

RUSH: So they’ve got it all. There’s another one of these media montages where the fax, obviously, or e-mail went out. And the meme of the day is Trump is begging. I’m telling you, they think they did this. See, I need to reiterate something. Democrat Party Drive-By Media, to a man and woman, think that you — and this is true of you in Iowa, all of you out there. You do not make up your minds on things independently. Whatever you think issue to issue and however you vote issue to issue is the result of somebody influencing you. And if it’s talk radio influencing you, then you are a mind-numbed idiot robot. If it’s the Democrats influencing you, then you are open-minded and bright and well-reasoned and a well-bred thinker. If the Republicans are influencing you, you’re a racist, bigot, sexist, homophobe. And that’s how they go through each and every day, because they have a contempt for average, ordinary people.

The contempt is that you are unable to think on your own. You’re unable to process things on your own. You’re too dumb and stupid. You hear what Algore is saying? And he must have said this while looking in the mirror. He said global warming is making people dumber. And he said it’s science. There’s a scientific consensus on this now, that all of this CO2 out there is actually reducing people’s intelligence. I’m not making it up. Now, that’s desperation. If anybody’s out there begging for your support, it’s these global warming climate change nerds and geeks. They are the ones begging. They are the ones that are abandoning all reason and begging you trying to emotionally tug you to agree.

But, remember, you have not the ability to make up your own mind about things. If talk radio influences you, you’re a mind-numbed robot. You’re stupid. If the Republican Party influences you, you’re racist or sexist or bigot or homophobe or you hate women. But if you’re a Democrat voter, oh, man you’re a great critical thinker, you’re open-minded, you’re not racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, you’re perfect. Now Trump is begging for votes — this will mean for a while that Iowa voters, caucus-goers, are very, very smart people, the media will say.

Here’s F. Chuck Todd last night on the NBC Nightly News. Lester Holt is the anchor there now. He said, “Hey, F. Chuck, a lot of pundits have been predicting a Trump flameout. Might this be it? And how do you see Trump responding in the Republican debate now that he’s not number one in Iowa?”

TODD: This was always the moment we were waiting for, to see how Donald Trump would handle the first time he sort of faced adversity. And for him adversity is falling in the polls. If this becomes self-fulfilling for him, if he doesn’t sort of show that he can accept adversity, if this is how he reacts, then I think it could actually snowball and speed up his downfall if he’s not careful.

RUSH: Let me ask you a question. Have the media been right yet about Trump? They have not. And F. Chuck gave it up. This was always the moment we were waiting for. The media. The guys that sit around and report the news, supposedly. The people that sit around and record what happens and tell people who weren’t there so that the people that weren’t there can also know what happened. That’s what F. Chuck does. No, they don’t do that. That’s the point. That’s the image. That’s the joke. They don’t do that. They have been trying to take Trump out. And now they think they have. And my point to you is, they are so out of touch, they do not understand basic human relationships. They do not.

They are going to totally misinterpret the way Iowans are gonna react to Trump going to Sioux City, saying, “Hey, why are you letting me down? You can’t let me down. You gotta get in gear. You gotta get in gear. I’ll work hard for you, I promise. Number two, I’ve never been number two.” They’re not gonna understand the effectiveness of that. They’re not gonna understand how it’s gonna be received. They think it’s begging.