RUSH: So Snerdley walks in today, and he’s bringing me the stuff that he has found on the internet that he thinks I should be interested in. And he’s fuming. He’s literally fuming. Something McCain said or did just had him — I mean, smoke was coming out of the ears. So I calmed him down out there, and I said, “What is it?” And he explained it to me. And I said, “You know, it kind of goes with two or three other things I have here.”

First, is this. Let’s unpack this and, look, none of this is gonna be a surprise. It’s exactly what you think it is. I mean, there’s no way McCain wants the Trump administration to succeed, in policy or anything. McCain, I mean, this is purely personal now, and it’s obvious. McCain can run around all day and say I hope he fails and nobody cares, but let it be said about Obama, of course, and the world has a conniption fit.

There are more polls out today. Let’s start with this. There are more polls out this morning that show that if the election were held today, that Trump would still win. There’s another analysis of the vote in Virginia, that the Trump vote held, that it was there, the same number of people who voted for Trump in 2016 showed up and voted for Ed Gillespie on Tuesday. So there wasn’t any deterioration to speak of. I mean, if there was, it was minuscule.

The Trump vote showed up. The Trump vote has not been dispirited. Now, I call it the Trump vote. Let’s call it the Republican vote for now because I’m sure there are some Trump voters, Republicans in Virginia who didn’t show up and vote for Gillespie. In case you missed it, we had a guy call yesterday, and I’ll tell you, if Trump voters are this sophisticated across the board, it’s fascinating.

This guy said — and he used the pronoun “we” to describe the Trump voters. He wasn’t just talking about himself. He said (paraphrasing), “Look. We made a calculation out here. And there’s no way, there’s simply no way that we are gonna vote for an establishment Republican. There’s no way. Because if we do and the establishment Republican wins because of us, then the establishment Republicans are not gonna learn any lessons and they’re gonna think they can screw us and continue to ignore us and in the end we’ll still vote for him.”

So this guy was saying that there’s a bunch, doesn’t know how many of course, he doesn’t know. But was clearly indicating that Trump voters, hell or high water, they are not gonna help the establishment. And yet the Republican vote was there. The Republican vote in Virginia, which I’m calling the Trump vote, didn’t lose anything, the deterioration wasn’t there. What happened was that it’s a blue state, and there are a lot of Democrats that showed up.

Don’t forget, this state has been welcoming illegal aliens in for years as an electoral philosophy, and the governor there, McAuliffe, legalized felon voting, which affected 200,000 potential felons and their potential votes. I mean, that’s tough to compete with. I don’t think we have that many felons among Republican voters. The Democrats have no problem rounding ’em up at all. You ever stop to think of that? Democrats need a couple hundred thousand votes from felons, it’s easy.

They know them intimately. Send out some kind of smoke signal and they show up. No, no. Take that back. Take that back. I didn’t mean to — no, no. I’m just thinking of various secret communique techniques the Democrats might use. I did not need mean Native Americans. You think we ought to bleep this? You know, I nearly stepped in it there. The snowflakes out there are just waiting for stuff like that. I did not mean — it was just the first thing that came to my mind in terms of secret communications.

Anyway, it’s tough to compete against that. How many felons do you know, Snerdley? How many Republican felons do you know? How many people do you know that have died or have been murdered or have murdered somebody else? You know one person personally. You’re not talking about someone we all know, you know one person that was murdered. Do you realize when the Clintons answer that question it’s in the thirties or forties? (laughing) Stop and think of that. I don’t know any… I mean, if I do I could count ’em on one hand, but the Democrats have no problem rounding them up. Plus the things that they did to enable migrants, illegal immigrants, refugees and all that.

Make no mistake. I mean, that’s one of the things that the McAuliffe machine did. So if the election were held today, Trump would still win nationwide. And I just deviated from that to point out the Virginia results. In fact, according to a political Morning Consult poll, 82% of those who say they supported Trump last year would vote for him again if they had to do it over. That is more than those who say they would vote for Hillary. That number is 78%.

So if the election were held today, people that voted for Trump, 82% would do it again. Only 78% for Hillary, and this is why all of the polls show that Trump would win if the election were held today. But what these two numbers mean in the fictional or fictitious, the hypothetical election that would happen today, Trump would win by a wider margin nationwide if the election were held today.

This matters, and I’m pointing this out to you because it flies in the face of the new media narrative, which is the Republicans are finished, that the Virginia vote means everybody’s tired of Trump, fed up with Trump, embarrassed by Trump, and it’s over. And it doesn’t mean that at all. It doesn’t mean anything. When you get right down to it, all it means is what happened in Virginia does not translate to other states. It does not travel, if you will, to other states. And yet the Drive-Bys, all they can talk about is the wave of resistance against Trump that swept so many Democrats into office yesterday. A virtual tsunami.

Now, there’s another narrative out there that I need you to know about in case you don’t. The media has been pushing that yesterday’s elections show the Republicans desperately need to expand their base, that the Republicans as currently constituted no longer ever again have a prayer, despite their own polling data showing Trump would beat Hillary by a wider margin today if the election was held again today.

Despite all that, the Republicans are toast, because the Democrats’ base is broad and it’s expanding and the Republican base is narrow and it’s a bunch of bigots and racists and so forth. They say the Republicans are gonna have to learn how to appeal to a wider audience. Now, if you look at some of these other… There may be something to this. I don’t know. Look at some of these other headlines from yesterday. First from TheHill.com: “First Openly Transgender State Legislator Elected in Virginia.”

A Breitbart headline: “First Openly Transgender-Black Woman Elected to Public Office in the U.S.” My favorite… This is from The Advocate, and I’m just gonna read what the headline says, okay? I’m gonna be inoculated from this ’cause I’m gonna read what The Advocate’s headline says. In the interests of accuracy, I’m just gonna read what their headline is: “With Election of Trans, Bi Women, Palm Springs City Council Now Entirely Queer.” That’s the headline in The Advocate story, and they’re very proud of this.

Now, we, in polite society would say “gay,” but even that would offend many. The word is “homosexual.” But that’s the news: “With Election of Trans, Bi Women, Palm Springs City Council Now Entirely [Homosexual]”, and that’s how the Democrats fuel their base. (interruption) No, I’m just saying here that the Drive-Bys are saying that we need to expand our base, the Republicans need to, and if you look at these headlines on who’s winning in Democrat race, you got transgender here — transgender, African-American, gay, lesbian, and so forth.

In Palm Springs, California, the entire city council is homosexual. Don’t… There’s no way. I mean, I’m not advocating. I’m trying to make a facetious point here. But, I mean, if you leave it to… I guarantee you there will be some people in the Republican establishment who will now think, “Yeah, we need to do this. We need to provide a home. We need to provide a comforting atmosphere for the tranny community and the gay community.” But those people are voting Democrat anyway.

Sticking with the same theme, new headline: “Senate GOP Plan Would Delay Corporate Tax Cut Until 2019.” So what’s happening now is the House tax cut’s moving over to the Senate, and there are enough people in the Senate that hate Trump like McCain and like Corker. You heard what the…? Have you heard this? The Republicans have shut down the investigation into Fusion GPS and the dossier, and the Democrats are starting their own independent investigation of it. I told you they’re not gonna let it go.

They’re not gonna let it go if Trump is ever impeached. They’re not gonna let it go no matter what. You’re gonna be hearing this for 10 years no matter what happens in future elections. They glom onto something and they do not let it go. Now, the alternate headline for this story: “Senate GOP Plan Would Delay Corporate Tax Cut Until 2019.” What that means is: “Senate GOP Plan Would Delay Corporate Tax Cut [and Destroy the GOP in 2018].” If this thing doesn’t happen — if these tax cuts don’t happen, if this bill doesn’t get passed and sent up to the White House for signature — I don’t know what these Republicans are thinking.

If they’re thinking that the only guy that’s gonna be hurt by this is Trump, they’ve got it backwards. If they don’t do this — if there is an effort to sabotage this, and it doesn’t make it to Trump’s desk for signature — it’s not going to be Trump who suffers the most from this. But we always fall back to the question: Do they care? You know, I will never forget prior to the election there were several establishment Republican types who very proudly said that they would be happy to lose the White House.

They’d be happy to lose some elections even for the next four or five or 10 years if it meant keeping Trump out of anything. And if these people are not careful, they might get their wish. So here the tax cut plan is up there. It’s been proposed. And here comes the first cold shower on it, which, I don’t care what the specifics are. Maybe these people are thinking, “Hey, what you know we can gain some public favor if we trash the corporate tax cut.” Because, remember, the media has so affected Republicans inside the Beltway that they believe whatever the media says.

And when the media says that the American people think X, Republicans inside the Beltway tend to believe it. So if the media is out saying that Americans are livid over the Republican tax cut reducing the corporate rate, then Republicans inside the Beltway are going to believe it and so they might think, “You know what? We can gain favor! We can reach out. We can relate. We can show we care by criticizing and delaying the imposition of the corporate tax rate.” I don’t know. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on that.

But what this is ultimately gonna do is crush the expectations of voters and anger them. And once you do that, then you’ve crushed the party. You know, as much as the Washington Republican establishment would like to think all of this is about Trump. It isn’t. It’s about voters. It’s become obvious to me that the Republican establishment is not tuned to voters. They’re tuned to other things. The Democrats we know aren’t. The Democrats (and, I think, a large share of Republicans) are really attuned to donors and lobbyists, K Street special interests and so forth.

As such, none of this is really about Trump; it’s about voters, but not as far as the Republicans are thinking. It just so happens that Trump is in sync with Republican voters and independent, even some Democrat voters, which is… I’ve always thought that’s what the Republicans claimed to want. That’s why they supported amnesty, ’cause they knew they had to broad their base, so they went out and they support Democrat things to show they’re not racists or bigots. You know the drill.

But when it comes to applying that same kind of thinking with this tax cut reform bill, you can’t find them behaving this way. I mean, it doesn’t matter if Trump might sign off on a delay in the timing of the corporate tax rate. It would kill voter turnout. Trump’s not on the ballot in 2018, just like Trump wasn’t on the ballot in Virginia yesterday. But I know what they’re thinking. I know they’re thinking that Americans hate corporations because that’s what the media says. The media says Americans hate corporations.

The media says the Democrats hate corporations, and the media says everybody agrees with the Democrats. So whatever the Democrats think that he need the American people think. And that’s what the Drive-By Republicans probably think as well. So they think they can score some points here by delaying the implementation of the corporate tax rate. Here is a story from The Politico by Alex Isenstadt: “Republicans Face Wrenching Call: Running With or Away From Trump.” Another headline at TheHill.com: “Republican Anxiety Rises over [2018] Midterms.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: “Republican Anxiety Rises over ’18 Midterms — Distressed Republicans say Democratic victories across the country on Tuesday night show their congressional majorities are at risk in next year’s midterm elections. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he ‘predicted’ the rough election night and said the party needs to make changes quickly before the midterms arrive. ‘Unless we get our act together, we’re going to lose heavily,’ he said.” (impression) We’re gonna lose heavily! See? “Unless we get our act together, we are going to lose heavily.”

These guys aren’t winning diddly other than local elections. They’re not winning diddly. These guys are not even tackling the opposition. They’re not even facing the opposition. To these guys worried about what he was gonna happen to the Republican Party in the midterms, their enemy is Trump. Their enemy is their own party. “The results of the elections on Tuesday,” this is according to TheHill.com, “offered fresh evidence of a political backlash against President Trump, which several Republicans said, in combination with a failure to win legislative victories, could cost the party the House majority.

“‘The best way to get run over by this train is to stand still,’ said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK)…” You remember after the election, after the presidential election…? I just want to take you back one year to show you how quickly things change and how they are so unpredictable. After the presidential election last year, the narrative (this was true even in the Drive-By Media) was the Democrats are in heap big trouble. They weren’t expected to lose this election, and they lost it, and Hillary lost it big, and the Democrats lost seats left and right all down the ballot.

Everybody was talking about how the Republicans might actually end up with 60 seats in the Senate because the Republicans have fewer seats to defend in 2018. The Democrats have many seats to defend, and many of them, it was said, are in Trump districts are Trump won big. One year ago, folks, the media narrative was that the Democrat Party’s toast — and now look! Because of one election… You can’t even count New Jersey in this. This is all because of what happened in Virginia.

Because of the results in Virginia, all of that’s now out the window and now it’s the Republicans are gonna lose everything. Now the Republicans are gonna lose the majority. Now the Republicans are resigning left and right. Now Republicans have nothing to defend. Now all of the infighting and discord is on the Republican side — and the Democrats? “They’re back to being a well-oiled machine, and they’re on the way! They’re gonna win back control the House. They might win back the Senate. They might impeach Trump!”

Look in just one year. Now, is any of this real?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, no, no, no, no. What I’m telling you is that this anti-Trump wave supposedly created by Virginia is a lie. There is no anti-Trump wave right now is what I’m trying to tell you. Let me go through this rapidly again. One year after Trump wins and Hillary loses, when Hillary was expected to win this huge landed and Trump was supposed to be vanquished to some alligator-infested golf course somewhere — after that reversal happened — remember what the Drive-Bys were forced to look at.

They were forced to look at all the Democrat losses preceding Hillary’s, and they are legion. The Democrats had lost over a thousand — actually 1,200 to 1,400 seats — since 2010. In the Senate, the Democrats in 2018 had 25 seats to defend and the media was wringing its hands, and they were worried profusely that the Republicans might actually end up with 60 seats ’cause they were gob smacked. They could not believe what had happened, and they slowly came around to realizing how popular Trump was — and that ticked them off, and so the “resistance” kicked up as an official movement began.

But there was absolutely no upbeat, positive anything. There wasn’t any, “Hang in there, gang. We’re gonna get the House back in ’18 and we’re gonna get the Senate back in ’20 and we’re gonna get the White House back as soon as we can impeach Trump.” Nope. They were talking about how they were going to be consigned to the wilderness for a generation. Yes, they were. They were talking about. They were worried about it. Because they were so shaken. There have been special elections all year, this year, leading up to Virginia yesterday.

And in every instance, the Republican won, after the media had told everybody the Democrats were gonna win, after every one of those special elections was cast or portrayed or promoted as a referendum on Trump. When Trump wins them, when the Republican wins them, of course that explanation is dropped. The narrative that it’s a referendum on Trump is dropped and the excuses are made for how unfair it was for the Democrat here or this or whatever. So one election that the Democrats win in the last 12 months that the nation focused on.

The special elections this year and this Virginia governor’s race. I mean, you know they’re not talking about New Jersey, right? Because that was never gonna be in play for the Republicans. There’s no way. New Jersey, New York, California right now are lost. Whatever happens there, the Democrats winning is not news — and it’s not even anything that they can use to put a feather in their cap. It’s simply what’s expected. But they were worried about Virginia. They were really worried about Virginia.

They were worried that somebody in the Gillespie campaign might figure out what they have to do to win. That didn’t happen. But they were worried about it. So now they’re thinking, “See, this is it! This is the push-back! This is the nation… The nation is now saying they’ve had it with Trump. The nation via the voters of Virginia have finally risen up!” But there’s no data to back this up. This is all media-manufactured narrative — and like all media manufactured narratives, it’s designed to dispirit you.

It’s designed to quiet you down and depress you and hopefully to get you to not care anymore and just stand aside and realize there’s nothing you can do. Even when Trump wins, you still are not gonna win anything. The left, the media, they still run everything. And that’s the purpose of these narratives. And so now we have this gigantic anti-Trump wave, right? Except that we don’t. This anti-Trump wave is a fabricated media lie. I’m gonna tell you this. The closer you get to the Washington Beltway, the closer you get to Washington, D.C., the less you will hear this sentiment.

The closer you get to Washington, the greater the fear there that there is an anti-Trump wave. Republicans who live — conservatives/Republicans who live and work — in Washington, in or surrounded by the establishment, are always affected by it, and they have always been rendered pessimistic. It’d be hard not to be. You’re a guaranteed minority. If you’re Republican/conservative in Washington, you’re a guaranteed minority. Even if they let you into the establishment, your position there is to lose. Your purpose is to stay second tier.

The further away from Washington you get, the less this idea of an anti-Trump wave seems real. Let’s go back through some numbers. In the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump won 84.3% of America’s counties. The number is 2,623. Hillary Clinton won 15.7% of America’s counties, or a total of 487. Donald Trump won 30 states. Hillary Clinton won 20. One of Donald Trump’s 30 states was not Virginia. He did not win Virginia. So no change in Virginia. He didn’t win California, and he didn’t win New Jersey, and he didn’t win the mayorship of New York City.

So on Tuesday, nothing really changed! There is no way, just because of the election results in New Jersey and New York you can say that there’s this massive anti-Trump wave going on. Nevertheless, they are using it. They are promoting it. They are trying to sell it. Here are the Democrat losses under Obama. They lost 12 governorships. They lost 62 House seats. They lost nine Senate seats. They lost 958 state legislatures. I’m sorry, but not one of those numbers changed on Tuesday. The Democrats did not lose the governorship of Virginia when Trump won.

McAuliffe was the governor. He’s a Democrat. So nothing has changed, folks. Don’t let this all-of-a-sudden invention of an anti-Trump wave overtake you. There is no evidence that it exists, and you certainly can’t take the election results from Virginia and claim that there is a nationwide anti-Trump narrative. Again I’m gonna remind you what they were all saying one year ago. One year ago after Trump wins, I mean, they were the ones that were depressed. They were the ones despondent.

They were the ones that had become detached. They were worried the Senate was lost, that the Republicans might even pick up 60 seats — or have a total of 60 after 2018. The Democrat losses under Obama: Over 1,200 seats, 12 governors, 62 House seats, nine senators, 958 state legislators. None of that changed Tuesday — and all the polling data says that in Virginia, the people who voted for Trump in 2016 would vote for him again today. The Trump vote held, it just wasn’t enough to win Virginia, which Trump didn’t, either.

And so the next story in our little Stack here comes from The Politico: “Republicans Face Wrenching Call: Running With or Away From Trump.” Somebody needs to explain something to me. How is it that Democrats winning a state they already own in terms of the governor’s mansion, how is it the Democrats holding on to the governor’s mansion and holding onto power in New Jersey and holding power in New York, how does that force the Republicans into a gut-wrenching anything?

Why is the question running with or away from Trump? Trump, much to these people’s chagrin, was not on the ballot on Tuesday. The Republican that ran did not embrace Trump. How in the world can you say that Trump lost on Tuesday, and thus how can you say that the Republicans face a gut-wrenching call? They don’t. This is all manufactured. Just like the narrative before every special election was manufactured.

The Ossoff race in Georgia, remember? When he won that, that was gonna be the beginning of the refutation of Donald Trump, except Ossoff lost, as did every other Democrat in the special election. They’ve had the narrative ready to go. Well, law of averages. They keep the governor’s mansion in Virginia and all of a sudden that means an uprising against Donald Trump nationwide? You don’t believe these people day in and day out, so don’t start believing the media now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: And I have to say something else. Look, anybody that thought the Republicans are gonna win New Jersey, I mean, it might have been a pipe dream at one point, but if you saw the most recent polling data on Governor Christie, I think he’s approval number, what was it, 18, is that what you saw? Well, I guess that means the Springsteen vote didn’t come through. Why would you count on that anyway on the Republican side? They just didn’t shut enough bridge lanes down on Election Day, and if you don’t do that, if you don’t keep the Democrats away from the polls in New Jersey, you don’t have a prayer.

Okay. We’re gonna start on the phones in Earlysville, Virginia. This is Jackie. Great to have you here on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. And thank you so much for taking my call today.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I’m kind of a political junkie, and I love —

RUSH: Can I ask you a question about being a political junkie?

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: There’s no wrong answer. I’m just genuinely curious. Do you ever wear out? As a political junkie I would think you don’t, but do you ever just, not tire of your party, but do you ever say, “The heck with this. I’ve lost my energy for it”?

CALLER: No, I don’t.

RUSH: You don’t. And that’s why you’re a junkie, then. Okay. Cool.

CALLER: Yeah. So I just want to let you know about what I think happened here in Virginia.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: First of all, over the years — and we’ve lived here in Virginia since 1971 — it was a red, red state back then. You couldn’t find a speck of blue. And then it began to get a little bit more blue and you could find blue around the Charlottesville area where Earlysville is located near Charlottesville.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Then up in northern Virginia, of course, because of the government employee influx, they all kind of gravitated toward Fairfax County and a couple other counties up there.

RUSH: Wait a minute. You said that was red, too, at some point. What happened to those people?

CALLER: It turned. It turned blue. Over the years it turned blue.

RUSH: Was it because people moved in it who were blue, or was it the people who were there turned blue?

CALLER: I think it’s because it was people who moved in. And the same thing here.

RUSH: Yep.

CALLER: More and more and more people are from the north.

RUSH: Exactly right. They’re escaping high taxes. They’re escaping bad weather —

CALLER: Yep.

RUSH: — and they’re bringing their liberalism and their destruction with them.

CALLER: That’s exactly right. That’s what I believe is happening. And the turnout for the Northam campaign was nearly 48%, from 43% in 2013. So the turnout was a lot greater this time around. When we went to the polls it was packed. We couldn’t believe the traffic in and out of there, and it was a lot of young people. The older people that we used to see, I don’t know where they went, retirement communities or something. They may still be here in Virginia but they’re not —

RUSH: Are you telling me that when you saw the young people you saw a bunch of Democrat votes? Is that what you mean?

CALLER: Yes, exactly.

RUSH: Millennials.

CALLER: Because we’re near the University of Virginia.

RUSH: Yes. They’ve been taught the beauty and the loving nature of communism, and they’ve actually said that they admire Mao Tse-tung.

CALLER: They’ve bought into this, completely.

RUSH: Totally.

CALLER: And then there’s the thing with the bad candidate. I think Gillespie was a terrible candidate. He was boring. He looked like he was establishment.

RUSH: Now, wait a minute.

CALLER: (laughing).

RUSH: Wait a minute. That’s exactly what the Republicans say they need. They need somebody who’s polite, who has good manners, who knows how to speak without offending people. This is what the Republicans say is the ticket. This is why the nation hates Donald Trump, ’cause they don’t like the way he talks, don’t like his attitude, they don’t like his brusque nature, and so the answer would seem to be boring, milquetoast dryballs who are polite to people.

CALLER: Oh, he was terrible. I think he was a bad candidate like Hillary was a bad candidate. It was poison. We didn’t have a Dave Brat up here —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — in our area, and I think somebody like a Dave Brat is what this state needs.

RUSH: What you’re basing basically saying is you need warriors, and the establishment, by definition, are not warriors. They send other people to be the warriors while they sit back with the port and the cigars and relive the war stories that they are told, but they don’t actually engage in them. I’m glad you called, Jackie. That’s well stated and well done.

Where are we going next? We have time for one more before the break so Lynchburg, Virginia, next. This is Nathan. Great that you called, sir. How are you?

CALLER: Good. How are you doing, Rush?

RUSH: Very fine, sir. Thank you.

CALLER: Hey, I wanted to talk about the media and their referendum that Virginia was a referendum on Trump’s decline in popularity. That couldn’t be more false. I’ll tell you where the referendum lies, it’s with the Republican establishment candidate that they chose, Ed Gillespie. The people that I know that voted that are Republicans did it very hesitantly and really didn’t want to, but because out of a civic duty that they feel obliged to partake of.

There’s a political revolution going on now where people are actually considering not voting if the Republican Party doesn’t put forth what Trumpists and Trump supporters want. Trump is the leader of this movement. Trump has got to get with the Republicans and either change their ways because 2018’s coming quick or start a new party, because it can’t continue on like this. Voters are starting to get wise to the tricks of the trade.

RUSH: Well, this is an excellent point, folks. Let me take Nathan’s call here and translate it into my own analysis. What Nathan’s essentially saying is, is that there are Republicans who consider the Republican establishment’s betrayal to be worthy of more anger than the left. In other words, these people will not vote for a Republican to keep the left out of power.

They will stay home and let the left win, rather than vote for a Republican establishment they think has betrayed them. And, believe me, it’s a conundrum, because the left has to be defeated. We can’t continue with them winning elections. That trend cannot reestablish itself. We have to beat them. But I understand why these people think this way.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Idaho. Mike. Greetings. Welcome to the program. How you doing?

CALLER: I’m doing well. Mucho mega dittos, El Rushbo.

RUSH: Thank you very much.

CALLER: I appreciate your time.

RUSH: I appreciate that.

CALLER: My thing was, after watching the news last night and this morning, that the key emphasis was that everyone was very hot to trot that they stopped Trump’s agenda because they shellacked the Republicans in the governor races. But with the other four races that were held earlier this year to — like, what are they called, “special elections”? — fill the seats vacated by cabinet members, those were won. So that would be of the six races, by my calculations, Republicans are four out of six. So they’re batting .667 almost. I wish the Dodgers would have done that well. I don’t understand what these Democrats are saying.

RUSH: Oh, sure you now. Sure you do. They’re trying to make this look like this is the nation finally realizing they made a mistake voting for Trump and they’re taking every opportunity they can to say so at the ballot box. It’s exactly what’s going on. My whole first hour was devoted to this. There isn’t a single thing that has changed because of the Virginia governor’s election. The Democrats had the seat; they were expected to win it. Hillary won the state in 2016. Trump did not.

There wasn’t a single thing that has changed. All the seats the Democrats have lost since are left, they have still lost. This win did not give them a pickup. They didn’t pick up a governorship. They’ve lost 12 governorships since 2010. They didn’t pick up any. This is one they held. All of this is a manufactured media narrative. This is a totally manufactured narrative against Trump, and it has no basis in fact. They’re trying to create an attitude. They’re trying to create the way people are thinking and feeling about this.

They want people dispirited, depressed. They want Trump voters thinking that it’s over, that it’s run its course, not gonna go anywhere. That’s all this is. This election doesn’t tell us anything. In fact, Trump held his vote! The percentage of Republicans that showed up to vote for Trump in 2016 is pretty similar to the Republicans that showed up to vote for Gillespie. Now, it may not be the same voters, but the point is that the percentage — the number of Republicans, the percentage — that showed up to vote in the presidential race is very close to the number that showed up to vote this week in the governor’s race.

So it’d be really, really hard to say that there’s dispiritedness among Republican voters and that they’re abandoning Trump. None of this happened. And, of course, these previous special elections you talk about where the Democrats were supposed to win every one of them — and every one of those elections was gonna be presented as American realizing its mistake, America standing up and demanding that Trump go away! Well, it didn’t happen because they didn’t win any of them. So now they’ve been forgotten. And this one is… They’re trying to make something of it that it simply isn’t.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A couple of stories here from Reuters. This is amazing. I should have mentioned this earlier. “Trump’s Low Approval Rating Masks His Support Among Likely Voters.” This is a Reuters story in a Reuters poll, and it’s unbelievable that they’re this honest about it. And here’s the bottom line. This is why I say this Virginia race didn’t change anything.

“President Donald Trump is more popular with likely voters than he is with the general public, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that underscores why Republican lawmakers have largely stuck with the polarizing president –” They never referred to Obama, by the way, as polarizing, and he was just as polarizing as Trump. Do not doubt me, if not more so. The media just didn’t report on the polarization that Obama inspired.

The poll was released yesterday. “It shows he polls better among people who voted in the 2016 presidential election than with the overall U.S. adult population.” Well, that’s what matters. A poll of likely voters versus the whole country? The whole country poll is irrelevant! Why you gonna ask people that don’t vote? If you want to paint a picture other than what is the truth, you can do that. But among likely voters, Trump hasn’t lost his approval number, he hasn’t lost their support. I keep telling you. I can’t believe Reuters published this.

Then there is an opinion piece by David Harsanyi here at The Federalist. Headline: “GOP’s Virginia Loss Tells Us Little About The State Of American Politics.” And this has some really good stuff in it too. It’s exactly right. Virginia didn’t change anything, folks. The Democrats held the seat before the election, and they didn’t lose it. They didn’t pick up a governorship. They didn’t take anything away from the Republicans. They held on to what they had.

There are two types of people who want us to think that there was a sea change among the Republicans over the last year: Liberals who want to paint all Republicans as a bunch of white supremacists and Trump populists, and then there are those trying to convince everyone that conservatism is dead. And neither of these things are true. Neither of them. Especially this old idea that conservatism is dead. The media is doing their best to convince people that, but it isn’t.

And of course the Republicans are not a bunch of white supremacists. The number of white supremacists wouldn’t even fill a decent phone booth or what have you.