RUSH: To the phones we return. Lee in Queens. It’s great to have you with us. Greetings. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, thank you for taking the call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: Marco Rubio will absolutely ensure Obama’s agenda will continue, directly because of his support for amnesty. And amnesty is the one single umbrella issue under which the left will get whatever it wants because they have the votes.
RUSH: Well, and if Obamacare isn’t fully repealed, yeah. Obamacare, health care, socialized medicine, single payer, whatever, and amnesty, those two things happen and it’s success for Obama’s transformation.
CALLER: It’s over. That’s what it is.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: So what you’re seeing, what I think, is you’re seeing in Rubio is the Limbaugh Theorem on display. He’s gonna claim to be against all of this stuff, but the moment he is for amnesty, that’s it. Because he knows that the left are gonna get the votes.
RUSH: Well, he’s got a problem here, I mean, there’s no question. He was part of the Gang of Eight, and he’s got to explain that to the satisfaction of primary voters to whom it is everything.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: That’s part of his history he cannot erase.
CALLER: It’s true.
RUSH: So you believe that whatever he’s saying now is not true, that he secretly harbors amnesty, it’s something he agrees with, and if elected president, will make it happen?
CALLER: His history says so. I mean, he’s extremely well spoken. Obama’s extremely well spoken. But once you support amnesty, you’re supporting the left. You’re giving them the votes. And then after he supports amnesty, after he supports the agenda of the left, he can turn around and claim to be against these issues, he can even claim to fight them like the feeders that we’ve seen all these years, but it’s not gonna mean anything because he gave ’em the votes.
RUSH: Okay. So, I just want to make sure I understand you. You think that whatever he’s saying about his role in the Gang of Eight right now to erase it is not true, that if he is nominated and if he is elected president, that he is going to make sure that all of the illegals in the country are granted amnesty. You think that that’s what Rubio wants to do?
CALLER: If I believe his actions over his words, yes. He supported the Gang of Eight, period.
RUSH: So Rubio is out for you. There’s nothing —
CALLER: One million percent, a hundred percent.
RUSH: Who are you supporting?
CALLER: I’m supporting Trump. Trump is the only guy that came out against immigration. We’re talking about immigration —
RUSH: All right, look, I’m not trying to light any explosions here, but have you heard what Trump has said that he plans to do?
CALLER: What I heard is he’s gonna build a wall and it’s gonna have a door, and he’s gonna stop the Muslims coming in from the countries who support our terrorists.
RUSH: Yeah, but he’s said that the people he deports can get back in, if they come in —
CALLER: If they do it legally, then it’s controlled.
RUSH: Okay, all right, I’m just passing along things that I’ve heard.
CALLER: I’ve heard of that, too. He hasn’t said he was going to close the border. He said he was going to control the border.
RUSH: Right. No, nobody said he’s gonna close. Gonna have Mexico build a wall.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Well, we don’t want them to build — they’re gonna pay for it.
CALLER: Yeah. I’ve heard that, too, through his trade agreements —
RUSH: It’ll have Trump watchtowers on it that you can probably rent as luxury suites overnight for a week or whatever and see right over the wall, see right into Mexico and see that there aren’t any more illegals getting through. You can pay $10,000 a night to stay in a Trump suite high atop the Trump wall. Hey, don’t laugh. And I’m not offering it as a criticism. I appreciate the call, Lee.
Who’s next? Joanne in Pennsylvania. Great to have you on the program. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. Thank you, Rush, for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: My comment goes to the definition of conservatism topic during the debate. I thought the debate was great. I’d vote for lots of them, but my comment is about John Kasich. He really believes and he’s promoting himself as a conservative with exceptions. And the exceptions that he’s pointing out is that he’s a conservative but he’s a nice guy conservative who’s running a positive campaign. Rush, I was yelling at my TV because none of the candidates disagreed with his premise, that conservatism is synonymous with negative, mean, nasty people, which is just perpetuating the liberal narrative of conservatism.
RUSH: Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait. I’m not sure what your point is. I’m gonna guess that she does not like Kasich? That’s what I thought. And you’re upset that nobody was exposing Kasich as being — that’s because they all agree with him, Joanne. What he said about conservatism, it needs modifiers, it needs nice people, it needs compassion. They all agree with him in the Republican establishment on that. That’s why.
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RUSH: It’s Jill in Alexandria, Virginia. By the way, Jill is one of my all-time top ten favorite female names. It’s great to have you here. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, thank you so much. And I am a first-time caller. I’m very excited to get through, my first try. My comment is I wanted to agree with you that the base, the conservative base, doesn’t really care about Rubio’s so-called, you know, poor performance on Saturday night because we know what he was trying to say. You know, we believe what he was saying.
And maybe he should have said it a little differently or maybe he could say it differently going forward, but it’s not so much about experience. It’s about what you believe. Look what Obama believes in, and he is using the power of the presidency to act on those beliefs. And so I think that’s what he was trying to say. I mean, I knew it instantly. Felt it. I am not the least bit convinced that, you know, Rubio is not gonna work out as president. I’m not necessarily for him —
RUSH: See, this is my point, Jill. I’m glad you said it the way you did, because what I’ve been trying to say is she’s a committed Rubio supporter so whatever happened Saturday night is not gonna make her question her support. She’s committed. It’s no different than let’s say you’re a fan of Carolina Panthers. You’re not gonna abandon ’em next year because of what happened yesterday. You know that that’s a one off, or you hope or think it is, they’re a better team than that.
Now, I’m not trying to equate the importance of supporting a football team to a candidate. I’m simply saying the analysis of all this and the way voters make up their minds does not track with the way the professional class analyzes these things.
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RUSH: Here’s George in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Great to have you, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: There is a Trump voter that drives me nuts, and that is the guy that says I’m for Trump because he’s not under the influence of politicians; he doesn’t have anything to gain by going into this. Wait a second. If Genghis Khan had all of Asia, did he stop there or did he want to conquer Europe? If he had nothing to gain, why would he write hundred thousand-dollar checks to Democrats, the same Democrats that are advancing the garbage policies that have gotten us into this hole? Why was Trump writing checks to them?
RUSH: Here we go. Here… If you’re a Rubio supporter, you got people telling you, “You’re making a mistake! The guy’s for amnesty!” If you’re a Trump supporter, “You better be careful! The guy’s given money to the Clintons. The Clintons were in his wedding. He’s given money to Schumer. He’s given…” He says he doesn’t need money, doesn’t want donations. He’s got enough money. Your theory is, Genghis Khan had enough money, had a whole continent; didn’t stop him from wanting all kinds of power. So you distrust Trump. So any number of people coming at you are trying to make you question your support for any of these people based on the fact that one or all of them is lying to you.
What are you to do? What do you do in that circumstance?
The answer is easy.
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RUSH: You know, find out about Genghis Khan… “Jen-jiss,”sorry. Genghis Khan. You have to go ask John Kerry. The haughty John Kerry seems to be the expert in “Jen-jiss,” Genghis, whatever Khan, and Jeb has worked with Obama on Common Core. I forgot that.
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RUSH: This is David, I guess, in battleground, Washington? Is that right?
CALLER: That’s correct, Rush. I’m a longtime listener, 30 plus years since I was a —
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: — refugee prisoner of the University of California, Davis, the People’s Republic of Davis.
RUSH: Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve been on that campus. I barely got out of there.
CALLER: Absolutely. Hey, great points on Rubio. I’m a Cruz guy but I could easily pull the trigger for Rubio. I think the one thing he should have done, one thing he should have done in his debate with Christie is just to elaborate on the fact that Rubio and Cruz understand that Obama is nefarious and it’s not an issue of management. It’s an issue of scope, of the scope and the reach and the breadth and the role of the federal government. And Rubio should have elaborated on that as opposed to just, you know, reverting to those talking points.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, we could all make some suggestions in that regard. Like, “had it been me…” I hate doing that because when people do —
CALLER: Oh, no, it’s so difficult.
RUSH: Well, no, no. I mean —
CALLER: I just think it would have been a good differentiator if Rubio would have pointed out, “Hey, you guys think it’s a management problem. No, I think it’s a scope problem. That is, you know, that Obama thinks that the government should control everything, but we think that we should have limited government.” Rubio did a great job of explaining, you know, what conservatism really is, I think.
RUSH: Yeah, well, you’re jumping my gun a little bit there, but he did have a great definition. He and Cruz, once again, had the best definitions of conservatism. I’m not sure Cruz even got the question. Cruz did not get the question, but of the people that got it was hands down, Rubio, I mean, thousand percent best definition. But he could have also gone back at Christie and said, “Chris, the reason you don’t think Obama’s doing it on purpose is because you’ve been working with him.” He just did not have the presence of mind to do it. You know, going back in hindsight, people did that to me on TV. “You know what you should have said…” Screw it, I’m quitting TV, to hell with this.
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RUSH: Here’s Carla in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hi, Carla. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Hi, Rush. I hope I don’t have a brain freeze ’cause this is the first time I’m getting through. And it’s because any other time I’ve tried to get through, you always say exactly what I’m thinking. So I really want to know what you think about this. You asked at the beginning of the show, why the establishment all of a sudden is going after Rubio and why is that. It’s not because of his repeating the same line.
I think it has something to do with abortion. I think because he’s unapologetically pro-life with no exception, because George Stephanopoulos was going after him on Sunday about that, and Jeb Bush put out a comment that he doesn’t support any exceptions other than the life of the mother. So I wondered what you thought about that. And also I was yelling at the TV when he kept saying the same thing over again. He could have said it differently. He could have said, “This is what Rush meant when he said, ‘I hope he fails.'”
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: Had he failed, he wouldn’t have been competent.
RUSH: See, this is the point. This is the point. Look, she’s a Rubio fan. She’s not abandoning the guy. She was frustrated for him. She wanted him to do better. She was upset that he — whatever — was having a brain freeze or whatever it was, but she’s not abandoning the guy. Now, if you’re just tuning in, I asked a question at the top of the program. Up until yesterday, the establishment seemingly had turned to Rubio. And in fact, this was alarming a lot of people, and the establishment’s all-in for Jeb, but it just wasn’t working.
All the donors and all this and Jeb just couldn’t seem to rise above five, six, or seven points. They don’t want Cruz; too conservative. They don’t want Trump, obviously. They were gonna go with Trump, but then Trump skipped and they did make a swerve toward Rubio. And then the news came out anyway that they were abandoning Rubio and looking for somewhere else to go — donors, lobbyists, the Republican establishment. I asked why. Her answer on this call is because of his stand on abortion.
The establishment cannot support Rubio because of that. And I have to tell you, when it came to the definition of conservatism and Rubio stated position on life on Saturday night, they were both flawless. If you happen to be a mainstream Republican primary voter, both those answers were. I mean… And her point is, there’s no way the establishment could support Rubio because there’s no exceptions. And she may be right. That’s not what I was thinking, but she may have a point. Time will tell. We’re getting closer.