RUSH: This is Donna in Gilbert, Arizona, as we head back. Great to have you, Donna. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. Good to be with you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: This is something I’m really passionate about, so I’ll try and calm myself down.

RUSH: No, no, no. Let ‘er rip.

CALLER: Ha-ha. Megyn Kelly. I have been watching her since she first came on the air at Fox News, okay? And I’m a Fox News junkie, and so I’m not an expert, but it’s been a long time of viewing that I’ve been doing this. So first let me say that I think she is as brilliant as she is beautiful. I praise her to all my friends. I love watching her — and why do I like watching her? Because she has a controlled edge, fearlessness, professionalism, and I’m hooked on her. Therefore, the night of the debate that we were all just watching because Trump has just stirred this whole campaign up, this whole campaign process.

So we’re all watching, first thing out of the gate comes her question, and the minute she started talking, I’m going to myself, “Wait a minute, Megyn. Where are you going with this? Why are you using that tone? Where’s my controlled-edge person that I’m so used to?” She crossed a line, to me, and she became someone that I hadn’t seen in all the years that you’ve been watching her. She went outside of herself. Her voice tone, her inflection. It was like an attack. And then after that, you know, whatever. Donald smoothed it over as best he could, and the whole rest of the debate I’m going, “Why, Megyn? Why? What did that accomplish? Why did you make that about yourself?”

RUSH: Well, how did you answer your own question?

CALLER: In all the perfection that she is, ’cause she is pretty spot on all the time, all the time. She’s human. And I honestly believe that — I don’t think she hates Donald Trump, but I think everything that you were touching on, which you have done brilliantly today, I was just glued to my car radio, is that Trump is outside of what everyone is used to. He’s a threat. I think to her she thought, you know, you’re a threat to these other gentlemen that have been in politics for a long time. And I think she wanted — and I don’t want to say “gotcha,” because then that really makes her bad. But that’s what she did. You know, it’s actions speak louder than words. It was unprofessional. It was not Megyn-like. It made me sad for her. It ruined the whole debate for me because it put this dark, negative cloud —

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: — over the whole thing. And let me just say one more thing.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: There was a small window of time after that debate that — and it’s like when you have an argument with a friend or a spouse or something, there was a small window of time where she still could have saved face by saying, “You know, I don’t regret my question because it was the truth, or what is documented, but I regret saying it the way I did, and I regret not taking into the fact that Donald Trump has not been in politics his whole life. He’s a businessman.” You know, I don’t know how she could have done it, but I wish they hadn’t have thrown the gauntlet down and said we’re standing behind Megyn —

RUSH: There’s an old axiom out there, Donna, and that is, you never apologize. You never admit, and you never apologize. I mean for something like this. I mean, there are exceptions to that. But it’s an interesting take. Let’s not forget, folks, I need to remind you again. We’re talking about the August 6th debate. And before that debate, I can go back to the archives, I can find all the stories that were circulating. They were rumors that orders had been given from on high somewhere at the RNC, from the donors class or whatever: “Take Trump out.”

Remember, one of the rumors, in fact, one of the rumors going around was that Fox News was going to take Trump out, for the sake of preserving the established order in the Republican Party. Trump had heard those rumors. I mean, everybody had. It was the thing everybody was buzzing about. And I don’t think there was any doubt that back then, hey, look, this is exactly what does happen. Here’s this giant outsider coming in here and all of a sudden owning the game? That’s not gonna last. And so the powers that be said, “We’re gonna marshal our forces. This guy doesn’t know what he’s up against. This guy’s never played our game. This guy, we’re gonna take him out. We’re gonna get rid of this right now. We’re gonna nip this in the bud.” A lot of people believed the rumors. And no doubt Trump heard them as well. Anyway, I appreciate, Donna, the call. I appreciate it.

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RUSH: To the phones we go to East Jordan, Michigan. Lynwood. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Hey, this is a great, great show today. You’ve answered questions far and above what I’d anticipated. The point that I wanted to make was when I got up this morning and listened to the early news and realized what was happening, it hit me like a ton of bricks that this election is really coming down to what our Founding Fathers put forth in personal liberty, a free market economy, and our Judeo-Christian values. That was the formula for the success of this country, and this election is about those values versus government. It’s as simple as that. And —

RUSH: What was it in the news today, Lynwood, that brought that into focus for you? What hit you?

CALLER: Well, seeing the way that Fox News and earlier in your show the way that you addressed that was right on. And the lady that called with the reaction, you know, to Megyn Kelly back in August at the debate? I had a similar reaction to that. And, you know, when you take Trump, Carly, and Ben Carson out of the equation, everybody represents government, and everybody in government therefore… It’s as you said: “That’s the way the game is played.”

It’s government telling us what to do. We are governed by consent of the governed, and that’s what Washington has forgotten, which, by the way, your Rush Revere series is really great. And if I might add, your arguments are so compelling when you allow your Judeo-Christian values — your faith — to come forth to make those points, and I applaud you for that. I love you for it. I pray for you, you and your wife, and just really appreciate being able to listen to your comments.

RUSH: Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. You’re very insightful, and I’m flattered. I would include Ted Cruz in your list of people, Fiorina and Ben Carson and Trump. But let me veer into something here. I touched on this. If you missed it, you might want to check the transcript or listen the first half hour of the program today at RushLimbaugh.com. I want to go back to Megyn Kelly because she’s under assault here from a lot of places today, including on this program. There have been some callers. She’s had her supporters who’ve said they were disappointed.

There have been others who have been critical, in the sense that these reporters are just getting too big and have become the story. Not just a part of the story, but “the” story, and they’re not the story, and they’re overshadowing things and so forth. And I have this two-pronged thing here. I’ve got this little story from Mediaite from August 25th of this past year. This is after, of course, the September 6th debate, or the August 6th debate when all this blew up in the first place. Donald Trump has been criticizing Megyn Kelly all over the place, asking him tough questions at the GOP debate. But he was singing a far different tune four years ago.

Back in late 2011 Trump sat down with Kelly and talked about hosting a Republican debate. Yeah, for those of you who don’t remember, back in 2011 Trump floated the idea of him moderating a NewsMax Republican debate because, quote, “I know the issues better than most.” The debate did not happen. Trump said that there are a lot of debate moderators who don’t know anything about the big issues America faces. And Megyn Kelly said, “Do you really think you’re a better moderator than I am?”

And Trump said, “No way, Megyn. No, I could never beat you. That wouldn’t even be close. That would be no contest. You have done a great job, by the way, and I mean it.” So that was Trump back in 2011. Obviously things have transpired and they’re different. Things have changed here. But let me… I mentioned at the beginning of the program, I know Megyn Kelly. I’m not in her circle of close friends, but she’s been to my home. We’ve been out a couple of times. She was at my wedding. I just want to stick up for her in one regard here.

She is extremely professional. She prides herself in being professional. She takes what she does very seriously. She has long-term ambition. She is ambitious; nothing wrong with being ambitious whatsoever. She is someone that takes very seriously what she does, and she can take the heat as well as anybody else can. But I don’t think Megyn Kelly is anybody’s weapon. She’s self-contained, and she’s who she is. She has the same kind of professional aspirations that anyone else in the business does, and she’s very, very grateful and gratified for the success that she’s had and the people who’ve helped her along the way.

She’s not a bad person.

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RUSH: Here’s Connie in Hartford, Connecticut, as we head back to the phones. Hi, Connie. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I feel kind of bad dissing Megyn after you gave her such praise, but I’m not in agreement about her professionalism. And I’ll tell you why.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: She had on the mother of one of the victims of Benghazi. And this poor woman was obviously suffering still three years later. She made a statement and the mother said, “Bull feathers,” and she went, “Oh, Betty, I know, but they’re saying there’s nothing that they could do.” It’s like she poured salt into the wounds of this poor lady.

RUSH: Hmm. I didn’t see that.

CALLER: If you could dial it back up, look at it, it was just like — I almost blamed Fox a little bit, too —

RUSH: Wait a minute. Now, what actually happened? She had a Benghazi mother on, and she did what?

CALLER: The mother was grieving —

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: — and it was after Hillary did 11 hours of testimony —

RUSH: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

CALLER: — and then she brought the mother up, and the mother was so upset, I felt so bad for that poor lady, and —

RUSH: Was the mother critical of Hillary? Was the mother saying Hillary lied, Hillary —

CALLER: Hm-hm, yes.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: Yep. And, you know, she came out and said, “Oh, bull feathers.” And the woman was —

RUSH: What did Megyn do?

CALLER: And Megyn said, “Oh, Betty, I know, but they say there’s nothing that they can do.” And I was like, “Are you kidding me?” It was almost like Fox should have taken her off the air.

RUSH: Are you sure it wasn’t that Megyn was commiserating —

CALLER: I wanted to believe that, but just something was wrong at that time. I’m not a fan of hers.

RUSH: Okay. Well, I understand that. But, look, not to make this personal, but this is one of the reasons that I’m not crazy about TV. I can’t tell you the number of times I was misunderstood, I can’t tell you the number of times. I had my own TV show for one. I thought I had a great show and I’d go home and I’d start listening to feedback. People were complaining about my tie or some extraneous stuff or that I should have said something other than what I said.

I said, “You know, this never happens after a radio show.” And I concluded that people watch and pay attention to TV in an entirely different way than they do radio. And I know why. I have figured it out. Radio, I think, is the most powerful, influential medium out there in the hands of somebody who knows how to do it because there’s only one sense of perception you’re using, and that’s hearing. And everything else, it’s up to a talented host using your imagination to provide the pictures. The TV provides the pictures, which is a distraction from what you’re hearing.

But, boy, that’s why I’ve always believed that radio, there’s nothing more intimate, done right, done well. And because of this intimacy that can be achieved — now, don’t misunderstand; people are excellent on TV, and like Oprah, she can build the same kind of bond. Trump’s great on TV. But they enjoy it and so forth. I mean, I don’t have an active dislike for it; it’s just I prefer this. There’s a bunch of other reasons. TV is a giant collaboration, even when you’re a guest. I’ve never had a meeting before this show, never. I’ve never had a meeting. I just come here and do it.

And television, for every hour, there’s probably two and a half hours of meetings, if not more, to go into it. And you have to collaborate. And I’m not a collaborator. I am a solo flier. So I have varied and different reasons. But I’ve also learned that people perceive things entirely differently when they’re watching TV, as opposed to listening to radio or talking to people in person. Anyway, Connie, I appreciate the call. Thanks much.

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RUSH: And one other thing here. Megyn Kelly doesn’t need to be defended, and I’m not trying to embarrass her by doing so. Just, again, if you go back to the first half hour of the program, and if you missed it, it will be at RushLimbaugh.com. It’s probably up there now, the transcript and the audio. But she’s a professional and she’s ambitious and she’s trying to be the best she can be, and not everybody is the same in the way they happen to conduct themselves in the media and so forth. She’s breathing some pretty rarefied air there.

I mean, there are very few people who have reached her level, and the best I’ve been able to determine is that she is doing her best to not let it get away from her ego-wise. She takes the job very seriously. She doesn’t assume anything. It’s something that she thinks she’s gotta get up and work hard at and prove every day. So I know there have been a lot of people criticizing her here today and so forth. She doesn’t need me to defend her.

I’m just sharing some things about her I know to keep all this in some kind of perspective. She may have been trying to embarrass Trump. She may have been trying to put Trump through the wringer. This is what journalists do with candidates. That’s what I meant earlier about the game and rules, and Trump just doesn’t want to play. He’s not gonna put up with it. He doesn’t think he should have to.

Why subject himself to un-friendlies when it isn’t necessary? Everybody else says, “Ah, it’s what I gotta do. This is the game. These are the rules. The media shows up for a debate, you put up with whatever they do.” Trump says, “The hell with putting up with what they do! The hell with that. I’m running this show. I’m not gonna put up with them insulting me. To hell with that!”