RUSH: Here is Sean in Philadelphia. Great to have you, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. I’m a big fan of yours.

RUSH: Thank you. I appreciate that.

CALLER: I’ll get right to the point. I have one comment and one question, and the comment is… It’s going around this talking point that, you know, since this Kavanaugh victory, that the president is teaching the Republicans how to fight. I actually think he’s teaching the Democrats what it’s like to lose, and I don’t think anybody’s picking up on that, ’cause they’re not used to losing like this. They’re used to the Republicans just giving in.

The question I had was, “What do you think would happen…?” ’cause I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I actually think this blue wave talk is not true from what I’m seeing out here. “What do you think would happen to the Democrats and the media if instead of a blue wave, if there was a red wave?” I mean, what do you think actually would happen? Do you think they’d self-destruct? I mean, what would the day after look like?

RUSH: I have been… I think it’s a good question, because I myself have been thinking about that in terms of survival and safety, because I think if the Democrats do not win the House… If you listen to the scuttlebutt, it sounds like everybody’s preparing for the Republicans to hold the Senate, maybe even expand their hold there. But the conventional wisdom is that the Democrats are gonna retake the House in numbers we haven’t seen in who knows how long, since 1994.

I’ve been wondering, “What if all of this is just a bunch of caca, media and polling unit manufactured, just like it was in 2016?” There were not very many polls in 2016 that got even close to being right. Rasmussen was one — and by the way, Rasmussen has Trump at 51% approval. The CNN approval number for Trump is 41%. The polling data the Drive-Bys just — shows them even now, after the Kavanaugh hearing — expanding the blue wave.

I mean, do you know that the Republican candidate…? Just as an aside here. Do you know the Republican candidate for governor of California is only six or seven points back? The Republican. I got a note from Newt Gingrich about this overnight, that the Republican… I’ll have to find it. But the Republican candidate for governor of California running against Gavin Newsom is closer than anybody would ever have believed possible.

If the Democrats do not retake the House, I think Washington may be uninhabitable for a while. I think we haven’t seen the meltdown that is going to happen among many elected Democrats, the charges of a rigged election, of Russian interference, that Trump did it again, anything they can come up with. They are so, so certain they’re gonna win this. They’ve already banked on the win. They’re already planning to impeach Kavanaugh and Trump, and if that doesn’t happen, I really think they may lose it all and very quickly.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So our last caller, Sean from Philadelphia, asked, “What’s gonna happen, Rush? They’re all expecting a blue wave. What happens if they lose it?” Well, let me share with you a headline from Politico, just today. Politico story. Ready for this? “Politico Race Ratings: The GOP House Is Crumbling.” Here is the subheadline, Mr. Snerdley:

“There are now 209 seats either firmly or leaning in the Democratic column — only nine shy of the 218 needed to win control.” That’s what you were telling me; right? You’ve got Republicans telling you that they think this is true? Some. I’m not asking for names, but you’ve got some elected Republicans where people in their offices are telling you they believe this? (interruption) Okay. So Politico says, “The GOP House Is Crumbling.” It’s falling apart.

There are 209 firmly or leaning Democrat. I guess this is according to polling data, and 218 is the number of seats you need for the majority in the House. There are 435 total numbers there; 218 is the majority. So 209 seats are firmly or leaning Democrat. I mean, if the Democrats win 209 seats? This is a wipeout. The Republican Party would have to be, for this to happen, a party of Adolf Hitlers — and yet they believe it. Now, folks, I don’t have any inside information on this. I don’t know anybody with internal polling data.

I don’t know beans. I don’t really pay attention to that; I never have. But the people in Washington live and die by this stuff. I’m telling you, it is their blood and water and food, polling data. It’s how they get through the day, every day, polling anything. And if the Democrats are publishing stories to each other that 209 seats are leaning their way and if there is no blue wave, I don’t think there’s gonna be an ounce of sanity anywhere to be found on the Democrat side of the aisle or in the media.

So 209 seats firmly or leaning in the Democrat column. Let me ask you a question. What could be causing this? Let’s assume for a moment… Just as a hypothetical exercise, let’s assume this is true. Can you tell me what it is — anything, one thing, a series of things — that has American voters so, so ticked off at Republicans that they cannot wait to go out and vote Democrat so that the Democrats run the House? What is it? What have the Republicans done or not done that would warrant this kind of nationwide disgust with the party?

Now, the left will tell you the answer to that question is Trump, that the people of this country despise Donald Trump, that the people in this country have been poised to send Trump packing ever since election night 2016. They can’t wait to get out there and show their disgust for Trump. And the only way they can do it is to vote against Republicans. All right. Well, as I say, we’re hypothetically pretending this is true. What has Trump done to generate that kind of disgust? Other than be alive and be president, what has he done? (interruption)

No, no. I’m being serious. You want to take…? (interruption) Oh, Snerdley said, “He separated families at the border.” I’m glad you reminded me of that. It’s getting harder and harder to watch television shows. What was I watching this last week was premier week for all of the new network prime-time shows. I think it was Law & Order (yeah, Law & Order in Your SUV or something) and the show started out focusing on a bad guy who had little kids in his basement in a cage.

The SVU cops are running around trying to prove this guy is a reprobate of the first order. “Oh, no, no, officer! No. Our government is separating these children from their parents at our border, and I am saving them!” and the cops rethought everything. “Oh, wow. We don’t have a pervert here. We have a hero! This guy…” I watched and said, “Well, that’s it for this show.” The level of idiocy and stupidity and ignorance that just permeates places in this country where it ought not be. There are people ought to be more educated, more informed, and smarter.

But that’s gone. We have replaced informed people, educated people, learned people with absolute blockhead idiots. We’re not separating — and Trump never did separate — families at the border. That is actually Democrat Party policy. It’s related to families crossing the border illegally seeking asylum. Trump, in fact, wrote an executive order to end it, which was beaten back on the basis that it was unconstitutional, that the statute in America today says families will be separated — and it’s to protect the kids.

The reason for it, the reason for the separation is the parents are shuffled off into holding cells while their cases are adjudicated. So I’m watching this stupid show, and I see a guy who in any other normal season would be a pervert with a bunch of kids in cages in his basement converted to seem to be quasi-hero because he is rounding up kids that Trump is separating from their parents and saving them. So I went to the DVR and I canceled Law & Order in Your SUV.

Got rid of that. It’s been out there long enough, 20-some-odd years. They’re all dropping like flies. They all feature stuff like this in it. So you really think that 209 Republican House seats could be up for grabs because people all over this country are fed up with Trump and the Republicans separating families? (interruption) Well, yeah, it wouldn’t explain 209. Snerdley says, “It’s a lot of Republican retirements.”

Well, yeah, committee chairmen are retiring ’cause they’re term limited! Forty-three members are retiring — some are committee chairmen — and the reason they’re quitting is because they don’t want to go back to being average, ordinary members. When you’re a committee chairman, you get perks, you get attention, you get TV time. You know, you matter. But when you’re term limited out of your chairmanship, then you quit and you parlay your time there into big bucks in the private sector.

You know, there are some Republican retirements, but there aren’t 209 of ’em. But my only point is for there to be this kind of blue wave, 44, 47 retirements does not explain it. Not when the Democrats think they’ve got 209 seats leaning in their favor. (interruption) Oh, you don’t think it’s policy? There would…? If this is all true, there has to be something or a series of things that the American public is just fit to be tied over and want to take it all out on Republicans.

Again, the media, the Democrats will tell you, “It’s Trump! The people of this country hate Trump. They’re embarrassed of Trump.” But that’s what they think. The evidence that the country hates Trump? It isn’t there in any poll. Even if you look at the leftist opinion polls, he’s at 41% approval. That’s not in the twenties where George W. Bush was. They drove him down in the sixth year.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, no, no! I don’t mean the Democrats are on line to pick up 209 seats, but that’s how the story’s written. That’s how that headline of the story’s written. No. There are 209 seats leaning Democrat already out of 435. That’s just nine short of the majority. But it’s written to make it look like they’re gonna pick up that many. It’s not what it says, though.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me just clarify again here. I got a panicked email. “Mr. Limbaugh, I am very confused. You don’t mean the Democrats are projected to pick up 209 seats? Just 15 seats are projected to be picked up by the polls.” No, no. Fifteen seats is not enough. They need to pick up… For there to be a blue wave, they gotta pick up 26 to 30. They need 26 to gain control or 27. I mean, it depends on how you do the math on control. Now this piece in Politico, the headline is written in such a way… 209 seats leaning Democrat, leaning or locked Democrat.

An average, ordinary person is supposed to conclude from that that the Democrats are gonna pick up 209 seats. The magic number for the House in control is 218, and so they go on to say that, (imitation) “This means the Democrats are only nine seats short of the majority!” So they want you to believe the Democrats have zero seats but they’re gonna pick up 209. That’s how much hatred for Republicans there is. The blue wave polls out there say that Republicans are gonna lose anywhere from 26 to 50, maybe up to 60 seats.

I mean, those are the hard numbers that the Drive-Bys are throwing around. But this Politico headline and the subhead that went with it are specifically designed to make it appear that the Democrats are leaning toward picking up 209 seats, and the reason that’s written that way is to convey hopelessness. Politico knows that this story is gonna be regurgitated all over things like the AP and the Yahoo News, Apple News, any other number of aggregator places that recycle news by way of link.

So you get that headline is the link: “209 seats leaning Democrat, according to latest blue wave poll.” But, no, not picking up 209 seats. They need 26 for control, and they need 30 to 35 to 50 for their blue wave.