RUSH: We’re gonna start with Jimmy in Toms River, New Jersey, and as always, I really appreciate your patience in waiting. How are you?
CALLER: You must be kidding with the patience part. I gotta tell you, your call screener told me to keep the butt kissing at a minimum, but I have to tell you, it’s a true honor to speak to you. You’re an inspiration to me through a lot of hard times and —
RUSH: Keep the butt kissing — (crosstalk)
CALLER: — that life. And I really do mean that, Rush. It’s not just the obligatory mega dittos.
RUSH: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I really do. (laughing)
CALLER: I got a couple of quick points. First about the Iowa polls, which will lead into my main point. You know, when you look at and analyze these polls, Cruz’s number was about where most the polls shows he was gonna be, anywhere between 24 to 25 to 26, he ended up with 27. Where they were off was obviously Trump’s number, but that leads me into this. Rubio, the massive turnout, really, if you look at it, went to Rubio. There was a massive turnout. Whether it was a true just absolute “I have to vote for Rubio” or another reason, which I think it was another reason, that I’m gonna get to now.
I’ve been a Trump guy from the beginning, Rush. I’m one of those angry people. I grew up in abject poverty with abusive parents, and Ronald Reagan told me I can be different, that where I came from is not where I can end up. And this country has afforded me things and lets me do things that I can only imagine. I’ve also supported the Republican Party, and they slapped me in my face. Two landslide Senate victories that did nothing but get them to capitulate to Obama —
RUSH: I’m getting off the road here. You were a Trump supporter?
CALLER: Yes, I was.
RUSH: Okay. And —
CALLER: Because I’m one of those angry males.
RUSH: Right, so you were an angry guy and you wanted everybody to know how mad you were, that things were going wrong and you think there’s all kinds of stuff, and you like the fact that Trump was a vessel for your anger. Is that right?
CALLER: Exactly, and I was willing to overlook the fact that really any honest person has to say he is not a raving conservative or a traditional conservative.
RUSH: Okay. So are you — (crosstalk)
CALLER: — looked at.
RUSH: Okay. But you’re in New Jersey, so you didn’t vote in the Iowa caucus but you want to talk about Rubio and where his numbers came from?
CALLER: Well, what my overall point is, I think what happened is this. The anger can only last so long, okay? I’m angry about the things that I mentioned and, you know, I’m angry about the fact that I was laid off eight months ago and I’m weeks away from being homeless after raising two kids since I was 16 and coming from nothing. But the anger can only last so long, and hearing him constantly talk about the Canada thing even after he lost, which anybody of any type of conscience has to look at why you lost and humble you a bit and lead you to a different direction. He still harps on the Canada thing.
RUSH: Now, wait a minute. I just want to make sure I understand. Trump has lost you because he won’t get off this Canada thing?
CALLER: I’m done. I’m done. I’m done. It’s not the Canada thing overall. It’s starting to seem like his anger is disingenuous and he’s angry for anger’s sake, not just angry for principles. He’s angry because it sells something. I don’t want to be sold anything anymore. I was sold something by the mainstream Republican Party that obviously was proven to be a lie over and over again. I don’t want to sold anymore. I’m starting to think that this whole anger with him is not for the reasons that he tends to let out. It’s more for “this is what they’re going to buy.”
RUSH: Let me jump in here. Jimmy, time is dwindling, and I apologize our phone system is such we can’t actually have a conversation, that’s why I have to sound like I’m interrupting you. But are you saying that Trump’s anger while you think is legitimate, he doesn’t understand why you’re mad, and therefore you don’t think that he really gets it, and he’s just being angry now because he think that’s what’s attracting people to him?
CALLER: A hundred percent. Like I said, again, I worked hard all my life, okay? I was laid off eight months ago. I don’t want anybody to give me nothing. But I searched out opportunities for days and days. My savings is gone, everything is gone. There’s no opportunities anymore.
RUSH: Right, right, right.
CALLER: (crosstalk) — a chance for me to start working and get somewhere anymore.
RUSH: Okay. I have to run. I’m out of time. I’m frustratedly out of time.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, as to our last caller, it depends. Folks, the phone system here is weird, and it happens most of the time when people are on a cell phone. You ever used a speakerphone where you can’t talk to who you’re talking to until you shut up, and while you’re speaking they can be shouting and you will not hear them? That’s the way the phone system is here for some reason on cell phones. I was unable to talk to the guy. I had to just keep shouting at him until he stopped talking and took a breath is when he can hear me.
But what I was able to get out of it, what I was able to put together was he was originally a Trump supporter, because he thought Trump’s anger was exactly what’s needed. He was detailing his lot in life, how he started out and lost everything, became a Reaganite and so forth, believes in America, and he’s angry at all of the destruction that’s taken place and is taking place in the country. And he thought Trump was just ideal. And he’s out of the Trump support window now. He has abandoned Trump. Those are my words, not his, but he said he’s over it. And the reason is he doesn’t think that Trump’s anger is genuine.
That’s when he was talking about he thinks Trump’s anger is a sales technique. And what convinced him of this, he doesn’t understand why after the election, after it’s all over in Iowa, why he’s still continuing to go after Cruz and the Canada angle. To him — this is what he was saying — as a Trump supporter, it doesn’t make any sense. To him, nobody would really be mad about that. It doesn’t make sense to be that mad about whether somebody might be Canadian or not. So that was his point. That’s what he was aiming at and we were able to dissect it for you during the break.
Now back to the phones. Joel in Coconut Creek, Florida. It’s great to have you with us, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it’s an honor to be with you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Who, Rubio or Cruz is going after — or Trump is going after everybody?
CALLER: Trump.
RUSH: Trump.
CALLER: Trump. And now it’s basically exclusively Cruz. My question for you, I wanted to know what you thought about this, is I was thinking about it, and I don’t remember a time that Trump ever has gone after Rubio about really anything, and specifically on immigration. You would think, if that’s his number one issue and he garnered a lot of support that way, why hasn’t he gone after Rubio one time on immigration?
RUSH: Well, Rubio has never been the front-runner, but don’t forget that for a long period of time, practically all of December and much of January, I’d say the first half of January, Trump and Cruz had what looked like a mutual admiration society going. Cruz was pointedly not criticizing Trump. The theory when that was happening was — this is when everybody was still of the belief — well, not everybody — the consultant class, the donor class, the establishment, all thought or hoped or were praying that Trump would implode.
Cruz was behaving and covering his bases in the event that did happen. He wanted to get Trump’s voters. And Trump’s voters are a very passionate lot, and they’re intolerant of any criticism of Trump. And they’re not very tolerant of people that doesn’t energetically support Trump. So Cruz said not a word about Trump, and Trump, by the same token, wasn’t saying much about Cruz. Cruz was not the front-runner while all this was going on. Trump was. Then when Cruz all of a sudden began to move and then ended up being tied and ahead of Trump, then here came Trump going after Cruz, starting out on Canada.
Now, I think, if I’m right, you’re gonna see everybody in this race going after Rubio this week. Everybody. Christie, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul would have if he would have stayed in, Kasich, they are gonna dump on Rubio like Rubio has not been dumped on before. And I think Trump is going to do so as well, but Trump is also gonna focus on Cruz, because Cruz won Iowa. And in Trump’s world, that’s illegitimate, that wasn’t supposed to happen, particularly the last poll going into Iowa said Trump was gonna win by four points. This is a matter of honor. And so Trump is always gonna focus on Cruz, or whoever happens to win a primary or be leading the pack in the polls should something like that happen.
Now, just to reiterate, the first poll taken in New Hampshire, TV station poll, since the Iowa caucus, has Trump up plus 24, which is pretty much consistent with where he was before Iowa. This is again, folks, depending on where you go in the media, you can find people — probably already have — speculating that — well, I’ll tell you what you’re gonna see, because I’ve seen it now. There’s stories out there already asking, “Has Trump’s support never really been as high as the polls say it is?”
This question’s being asked because of the Iowa result. It’s being asked by people who work at networks that put out these polls. You have expert analysts at blogs, network websites, wherever, that are now asking the question, “Maybe these polls have always been overstating Trump’s support. Could that possibly be?” You’ve got other stories that, “Well, this loss changes everything. Now this takes the momentum away from Trump. He’s not the winner that he –” I’m sure you’ve heard this if you’ve been watching TV. In fact, I bet you’ve seen, every network has people that just, I mean, the schadenfreude is incredible. They’re so happy Trump lost, and they’re snarky about it. They’re out there saying, “Yeah, Trump, yeah, Trump, winner, winner, winner, never lose, right? Gonna win, win, win. Well, you lost, Trump, you lost!”
You can just feel the anger dripping off the TV screen when these people get going, because they have been so frustrated, they couldn’t explain it, they didn’t understand it, and they’re so gleeful, and they hope this means that none of these Trump numbers are real. Except here comes a New Hampshire TV station today basically confirming that he’s plus 24 after Iowa.
So he’s gonna continue to go after Cruz ’cause Cruz is the front-runner. Cruz has committed a crime: He won. Nobody’s supposed to do that when Trump’s involved. If somebody does that, there has to be some illegitimate explanation, like he’s from Canada, or he cheated with Dr. Carson or what have you. And as our previous caller said, he’s losing me on this. I don’t understand anger at Canada. I don’t understand. The anger ought to be at what’s happening to the country. It’s kind of a variation of what I said.
Ted Cruz is nobody’s enemy right now. The enemy, everybody’s enemy ought to be Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and anybody in the Democrat Party. They are responsible for this, and those in the Republican Party who’ve made no serious effort to stop it. But Ted Cruz is not one of those. I’m dead serious about this. But I know these campaigns. This is a primary, and technically not about the Democrats. I think it should be. I think it’s a winning strategic to go after the Democrats.
The Democrats are the reason we’re in this mess. The Democrats are the reason why the Republican primary is shaping up the way it is. But the short answer to your question, I think Trump is gonna be hitting on Rubio at some point. Christie has already started. I think Rubio… You know what Rubio should do? Change his name to “Bush,” or change his name to “Obama,” and Christie would love him. Go in there, get a name change right now and just change his name to “Marco Obama,” and Christie might want a photo-op! You never know.
I’m being facetious, ladies and gentlemen. But I think Trump’s gonna be hitting everybody that’s close. Rubio’s got the momentum now, as defined by the media. Rubio’s where all the interest is right now. It always happens. You have this winner, and the winner was a surprise because Trump was supposed to be the winner. But Rubio was thought maybe, if lucky, to barely finish in third place. But he wasn’t supposed to end up within a thousand votes of the Trumpster.
You stay right here, folks, and we will sort all of this stuff out for you happily, minute by minute and day by day.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Sticking with the phones, this is Bob in Waldorf, Maryland. Hey, Bob, great to have you, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. How you hitting ’em?
RUSH: Very well. Very well, sir. Well, actually I finished with three birds and a net bird Saturday last four holes. It was a fabulous round.
CALLER: Oh, stop it, man. You’re killing me. It’s snowing up here!
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: Look, I wanted to talk to you about Trump. I’ve heard him talk about Iowa, giving every reason and making every excuse he could possibly make for why he lost. But I haven’t heard him say anything about the comment I heard him make about how he was gonna make deals with Pelosi and Reid and, you know, get along with the Democrats. I mean, we already have enough liberal Republicans making deals with the Democrats. I sure do think and hope that that hurt him. I mean, to me the more he talks the more he exposes himself as a liberal Republican.
RUSH: Who are you for now?
CALLER: Oh, I’m for Cruz.
RUSH: Okay. And you’ve been for Cruz from the outset?
CALLER: Meh. Yeah, pretty — pretty much. I’ve enjoyed watching Trump poke him in the eye and give him the business and everything. But, I mean, he’s not saying anything. Your first caller, I think, pretty much nailed it. He reminds me of a used car salesman.
RUSH: Wow, that’s… This is a different tone that we’re hearing here.
CALLER: Well, it just… When he said that… I mean, the problem, from what I see, you know, is Republicans making deals with Democrats. You know, they’re selling out the American worker, Rush. They’re killing us out here.
RUSH: Well, I… Look, let me tell you, when he said that, I thought it was a problem, and I mentioned it again yesterday, you know, figuring out what happened to Trump. He was leading by four in a respected poll in Iowa, and you can’t find a poll where he wasn’t finishing first. There were two or three, maybe, showing Cruz winning in Iowa during the month of January, but it’s been Trump’s race. And everybody said, “No, no, Rush! The debate. Not showing up at the debate, that’s what did it.” And I said, “Well, everybody thinks that, but I don’t.”
I think it was his health care statement that he made on TV Sunday which might have confused people, and I remember that was part of his criticism of Cruz. I think you chalk it up to what I call “ideological awareness.” He’s out making the point that he’s great at negotiating deals. He wins. “America is gonna win. We’ve got idiots doing our deals now, idiots doing deals with the ChiComs, idiots doing deals with the Iranians. I’m gonna do great deals, ’cause that’s what I do. Nobody does deals better than me.” So he has that as a foundation.
Then it’s time to criticize Cruz, and what does he know about Cruz? He knows that the Senate hates Cruz because Cruz is not cooperative with the leadership. Cruz has made a name for himself by calling out his own leadership! So in Trump’s world doing deals, winning negotiations, stomping people, that’s the measure of success. He’s going after Cruz as unable to do that, and he happens to glom on to the fact, “Look, Cruz could never make a deal with those guys! They hate him, they despise him in the Senate.”
And it is I think the ideological lack of awareness that doesn’t inform Trump that that criticism of Ted Cruz, that he won’t do deals with the Democrats? His supporters do not want deals done with Democrats! His supporters are with him because they are tired of doing deals with Democrats! Trump’s supporters want the Democrats and everybody else responsible for this mess defeated, not negotiated with. But he thought in saying that he was ripping Cruz, because that was the objective, to discredit Cruz — particularly in an area where he, Trump, thinks there’s nobody better.
And if he were more aware of why the Republican base is ticked off at its own party, then he would probably not have talked about how accomplished and successful he would be with Schumer and Pelosi and so forth.
That’s my take.
Take it or leave it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Greg in Easton, Pennsylvania. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush, from Easton, Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
RUSH: It’s entirely possible. The way the caucus works — in fact, you need to read John Fund, Byron York, there’s a couple of them out there, people that actually went to the caucuses, and Greg, you would particularly find this fascinating, the old argument that in Iowa you’ve got to have a ground game, you’ve gotta have a staff that’s been in the state getting people familiar with you, gotta get them at the caucus, you have to get people standing up for your guy and speaking for your guy at the caucus, every candidate has to have an advocate.
And I’ve read two or three different stories of reporters, one of them was John Fund, another was Byron York. They went to caucuses and they report on two or three. Nobody spoke up for Trump at any of them. There wasn’t anybody at two or three, don’t know how big, how small, don’t know where, but the point is Trump did not have such a ground game. He was like Romney in 2012. Remember all those big crowds Romney was getting in the last week, everybody thought, man, oh, man, we got really something happening. But Romney did not have a get-out-the-vote organization for conservatives per se. He was relying on all establishment stuff.
So your question, yeah. Two things could have happened. Trump could have not had any advocates, and other candidates’ advocates could have been ripping Trump left and right. That’s what happens in caucuses. There are miniature debates at these things, many of them. You don’t just show up and vote. There is nothing private about it. There are conversations. Some of them don’t take very long, depending on their size, but, yeah, late deciders could clearly have been influenced by the specifics of what happened at the caucus.
Now, that’s not gonna be as big a factor in New Hampshire, ’cause Trump already has a game there, ground game there, a little bit more. He didn’t put a whole lot into Iowa because he’s telling the truth. It was a place none of his experts told him he could win. So that’s not jive. But that won’t be as big a factor in New Hampshire. But if you’re wondering about Iowa, yeah, it could have been extremely relevant, and it’s a good point. I appreciate your call.
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