RUSH: We have Mike Pence, vice presidential candidate, running mate for Donald Trump joining us on the phone.  Governor Pence, welcome back to the program, sir.

PENCE:  It’s great to be back on, Rush, and great to be back in Arizona today.

RUSH:  Let me ask you something specifically because we’re now getting down to nitty-gritty time —

PENCE:  Yeah.

RUSH:  — and, as you know, we have bifurcated media.  If you look at “friendly media,” say, on our side, you’ll see evidence that the gap is closing. You’ll see evidence in polling data that some preconceived notions are not true, that Mr. Trump and you are doing better with women and Hillary is not doing as well with the African-American vote and turnout as projected. Then you go to their media and find out you guys don’t have “a route” to 270.

PENCE: (chuckling)

RUSH: Despite all this other news over here, that you just don’t have a pathway to 270.  What is your assessment of where you are right now?

PENCE: (chuckles) Well, I… You know, I only believe what I see and what I know. And what I can tell you is campaigning across this country with Donald Trump — we were together yesterday — telling the truth about Obamacare, telling the truth about how a President Donald Trump with a newly elected majority in Congress is gonna repeal Obamacare and replace it with free-market solutions.  We were in Philadelphia.  But I gotta tell you: The enthusiasm out there, Rush, is like nothing I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. 

I mean, I really do think Donald Trump has given voice to the frustrations and aspirations of millions of Republicans, independents, and many Democrats across this country like no one since Ronald Reagan, and we see it every day. We got a big rally waiting for us here, then we’re headed to New Mexico, then we are headed to Colorado, and Donald Trump is crisscrossing Florida today, and just the sheer enthusiasm on the ground…  People know we can be stronger. They know we can be more prosperous, they know we can uphold our highest constitutional ideals in appointments to the Supreme Court, and I think that’s why I truly do believe Donald Trump is gonna be the next president of the United States.

RUSH:  Well, from the first moment I talked to you after you were chosen, you expressed how you were proud, that you were excited to be on the ticket, and you have been telling anybody who would listen that Trump is much more than what the public image or criticism of him has been.  I have to tell you, you were right. 

PENCE:  Yeah.

RUSH:  He’s in Miami now. I’m watching him on television. He’s on message. He’s talking about Obamacare, just like you said. He’s not being distracted by extraneous events.  Even Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post has a piece today on how damn good Trump’s speeches are now.

PENCE:  (laughing) Well, I… (chuckling) We’re glad for the accolades wherever they come from, but, frankly, you know, I’ve been watching him since the Republican National Convention.  He’s been traveling across the country giving meaningful, substantive speeches on everything from ending radical Islamic terrorism as a threat to our country, about ending illegal immigration, about reviving our economy through tax cuts and repealing Obamacare and having smarter and tougher trade deals. 

And his commitment to appoint men and women to not only the Supreme Court, but all of our federal judiciary who will uphold the Constitution in the tradition of the late and great Justice Antonin Scalia.  He’s been talking about this for months, and I truly do believe that whatever you’re seeing (chuckling) in the mainstream national media, Rush, you get it.  The American people want to be stronger, they want to be more prosperous, and I truly do believe that we’re just six days away from a great victory for the American people and really a new beginning, a new beginning in our nation’s capital.

RUSH:  Well, in the mainstream media — as I’ve reviewed today in prepping the show, Governor — there’s some panic in certain places there. Real, real panic.  For example, Mrs. Clinton yesterday reintroducing Alicia Machado. Three weeks after that story was buried, she’s out there claiming that the only reason to vote for her is to keep Donald Trump — because women don’t like him — out of office.  That campaign to me seems they’ve run out of gas, that they’ve run out of things to say.  You guys seem invigorated and really encouraged and upbeat and positive and committed.  It’s a totally different picture of the two campaigns.  What do you think you have to do here in the next six days to keep this momentum that it appears you have?  What do you have to do to keep that going?

PENCE:  Well, I can tell you what Donald Trump told me again this morning (chuckling), what he tells me every time we talk.  “We just gotta go earn it,” you know? (chuckling) We gotta go out there and take our case directly to the American people.  I mean, this election is not gonna be decided by the pollsters and the pundits and the political elites.  It’s really in the hands of the American people.  Early voting’s been underway for some time in many states, and this election is really, I think most Americans have come to conclude, not just a choice between two people. 

It’s a choice between two futures. And I really do believe that Donald Trump’s message of a stronger America, rebuilding our military, standing tall in the world again, reviving our economy the way Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s through tax relief, regulatory reform, repealing Obamacare and appointments to the Supreme Court, and passing an ethics package in the first hundred days that will really drain the swamp in Washington, DC.  We’ve got a… You know, the years, the 30 years — and no one… No one’s covered the Clintons as thoroughly (chuckling) as you have over the course of your career. 

Thirty years of pay-to-play politics and literally the politics of personal enrichment flowing out of the Clintons’ careers, the American people have had enough, and they don’t want to see that continue.  That’s the kind of politics that we’re gonna reform with ethics laws in Washington, and start a new day in our nation’s capital, and it’s all gonna come to an end the day that Donald Trump becomes president of the United States.

RUSH:  You know, our economy has not been worth talking about for eight years.  We haven’t… Governor, we haven’t had a quarter since Obama’s been president — we have not had one quarter — of at least 3% economic growth.  But one of the things that has been fascinating to me as an observer is that Obama and his party have never been held accountable for it.

PENCE: Yeah.

RUSH: George W. Bush in 2012 still got blamed for the economy, the near financial crisis in 2008.  Obama has managed to escape any accountability.  But I think… Would you agree when I say that you and Mr. Trump have begun to change that dynamic and you’re tying this putrid economy to Hillary Clinton and Obama?

PENCE:  Well, I think the American people are tying it to their policies, not just the last seven-and-a-half years —

RUSH:  Well, I hope so.  That has to happen.

PENCE:  Yeah.  Hillary Clinton wants — I always tell people on the stump, Rush, she doesn’t want the same policies.  She wants more of the same.  She wants to increase taxes by a trillion dollars.  She wants to add single-payer socialized medicine as an element of Obamacare.  You know, she expressed her ideal at a speech in Brazil as being open borders when it comes to dealing with the issue of illegal immigration.  More regulation, more taxes, more Obamacare, and clearly more of the same kind of bad trade deals that ship jobs overseas. 

I’m in Arizona today.  We’ve actually been able to document almost 13,000 jobs specifically lost in Arizona that specifically went south of the border to Mexico since NAFTA was signed into law.  I mean, we saw the same heartbreaking news in the state of Indiana when Carrier announced they’re pulling up stakes, taking a couple of thousand jobs to Mexico.  Hillary Clinton’s really doubled down on it. 

I think the American people know, they know that we can put time-honored, conservative, commonsense principles into practice and revive the economy, not based on government stimulus, government spending, and government picking winners and losers.  We could revive this economy by letting the American people keep more of what they earn, cutting business taxes, repealing Obamacare, rolling back regulation. It worked in the 1980s.  Frankly, it worked when John F. Kennedy did it in the 1960s.  It’s gonna work again when a president Donald Trump steps into the Oval Office.

RUSH:  The only thing that gets bigger with Obama policies is government.  Not private individuals, not private wealth.  Quick question, I know you gotta go.  One question.

PENCE:  Yeah.

RUSH:  What is your reaction to Governor Kasich writing in the name of John McCain and publicly saying that’s who he’s voting for?

PENCE:  Look, John Kasich is a colleague, is a governor, and I’ve known him for many years.  But obviously we’re disappointed to not have his support going into this election.  But candidly the support we’re getting all across the state of Ohio I know is deeply meaningful to Donald Trump and me.  I was actually at, just the other day I was at a pumpkin show in a little small town called Circleville, Ohio. There must have been 20,000 people in the street. The folks insisted that I take to the microphone at the middle of a four-way intersection. I stood up and said I was gonna be campaigning in Cleveland later that night with the next president of the United States, and in all four directions the crowd just erupted in applause. 

And I just have to tell you, Rush, the support we’re getting all across the Buckeye State I think is emblematic of the fact that Donald Trump has articulated an agenda for a stronger and more prosperous America. It’s resonating with Republicans, with independents, with Democrats. You know, we’ll let political leaders make their own decisions and announce those decisions, but I think people across the political spectrum are responding to Donald Trump’s leadership, especially in the state of Ohio.  We’re grateful for that as we are in every state. 

But the other thing I’d say to you, Rush, something before I go is, you know, everywhere I go I tell people that, you know, it really is encouraging to see independents supporting Donald Trump, it’s encouraging to see Democrats supporting Donald Trump, but, you know, my message to my fellow Republicans and conservatives is that we need to say with one voice to our fellow conservatives, Republicans out there that it’s time to come home.

It’s time to come home to elect Donald Trump as the next president. It’s time to come home to reelect strong Republican majorities in the House and Senate to partner with our new president, and it’s time to come home to make sure that Hillary Clinton is never elected president in the United States.

RUSH:  Well, I agree.  The people on our side who are proudly, publicly admitting that they will take action that, if they succeed will elect her, is beyond my comprehension. I literally don’t understand it.  But I do.  I mean, I actually do when you get down to the weeds with ’em, I understand it —

PENCE:  Yeah.

RUSH:  — but common-sensically and —

PENCE:  Yeah.  I’ll tell you, though, Rush, honestly, what’s most encouraging to me, you’re seeing this in some polls, Republicans are coming home.  They know the stakes in this election.  They see the vision Donald Trump is casting.  They see the choice in this election.  So that’s a great message for your tens of millions of listeners all across America, to reach out to neighbors and friends and Republicans who haven’t yet made their decision.

RUSH:  I got anecdotal — I can tell you a woman was in line to vote for Hillary and was listening to the program —

PENCE:  Yeah.

RUSH:  — last Friday and changed her mind.  She was gonna vote for Hillary, never had voted Democrat in her life, sent me an email today, said she was in line to early vote for Hillary, and the line was so long she left. She’s listening to my program, heard me announce that the FBI had reopened the email investigation, and she’s now voting for you.  So we have little anecdotal stories like that all over.  I think you’re right.  I think there’s momentum that you have here, and I hope you’re able to hold it for the next six days.

PENCE:  Well, we’re gonna work our hearts out, and obviously we just appreciate your voice and your principled leadership and consistent conservative stand for so many years, Rush, but —

RUSH:  I appreciate that.

PENCE:  — this is really a moment where we can choose a stronger America. We can choose a more prosperous America. We can choose an America that stands without apology on our highest constitutional ideals. And to do that we need to make sure that we elect Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, reelect strong Republican partners in the House and in the Senate, and I promise you Donald Trump and I and our families are just gonna work our hearts out to go earn the right to serve the American people come Election Day.

RUSH:  Governor Pence, thank you for the call.  Appreciate your time.

PENCE:  Okay.  Thanks, Rush, God bless.

RUSH:  Mike Pence is in Arizona preparing for another full day of campaigning.  These people are indefatigable out there.  Talk about how hard they are gonna work.  They are working hard now, six, seven appearances a day combined.