RUSH: I will tell you, there’s something fascinating going on. I don’t know if you saw over the weekend. Trump… Folks, this man is more brilliant than anybody is ever gonna give him credit for or realize. Do you know what the Drive-By Media spent the weekend doing? Hyping the economy! We’ve got the audio sound bites coming up to prove they are hyping the economy. The Democrat Party, the media is hyping the economy!
It’s a twofer.
It’s brilliant.
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RUSH: Now, I mentioned some amazing things that were happening on the Sunday shows. The Drive-By Media… Let me set this up by pointing out the economy is roaring. The economy is doing so well. African-American approval for President Trump is like 40%.
I mean, if that’s accurate, and if African-Americans are gonna vote for people associated with Trump on that basis, then, I mean, that’s a real problem for the Democrats. We know that African-American unemployment is at a record low as well, at around I think was 4.4%. So the economy is going great. Wages have gone up by 3.1%. That hasn’t happened in a long time. Unemployment, we have more job openings than there are people to fill them! So you couple that rising employment, rising wages, productivity is off the charts, jobs that Barack Obama said were never coming back have come back.
Manufacturing jobs because of policies implemented by Donald Trump. And it’s these policies the Democrats want to erase. The Democrats want to erase the tax cut. They want Medicare for all. They want to grow government. They want to establish as the premise that government is the focal point of everybody’s life, that government is where you go if you need anything. Government’s where you go if you want anything, including your enemies punished. And the economy’s doing really, really good.
So good that the Drive-Bys have been ignoring it, because in their world, in the world of the Washington establishment, back-pocket issues have been the sole determinant in who wins elections, especially in presidential election years, which this one is not. But if the economy is kicking butt and if it’s going great gangbusters, the party out of power has traditionally had something practically impossible to overcome what’s fascinating is that the Drive-Bys have been ignoring the economy.
They’ve been downplaying it. They have been acting like it’s not really that good, it’s… Kamala Harris, who’s one of the supposed dream presidential candidates for the Democrats went out to Iowa last week, and she said, “Don’t be fooled by any of this. The economy’s not that great. The only reason things look this good is ’cause everybody’s having to work two jobs.” Which is not true! That’s what’s not necessary anymore. A lot of people still are; don’t misunderstand. But it isn’t necessary. That’s the whole point of this.
And yet she’s downplaying it. No big deal. The Drive-Bys have been trying to downplay it because they think it’s such an important factor. They think it would be such a boon to Trump and the Republicans that the economy’s doing well. They would look at it as a huge obstacle for their buddies, the Democrats, to overcome. So they have been ignoring it. Until this past weekend. Mike, I’m gonna switch up on you here. I need to find a sound bite here.
What happened was that Tom Perez started talking about how, “It’s no big deal this economy. This economy you…” Jake Tapper took him to task on it. Let me see if I do have it here. Jake Tapper… (interruption) What was that? (interruption) No we don’t have it. Jake Tapper started laying into Perez. “You can’t… You…” He didn’t let him get away with it. He didn’t let him get away with running down the economy.
I said, “Whoa. Something’s up here,” and something indeed was up. The Drive-Bys have all of a sudden decided to start praising the economy. Here we have a montage. We’re starting here with audio sound bite No. 4. And we have here a series of bites where the Drive-Bys in the media are praising the economy and asking why Trump isn’t focusing on it.
JONATHAN KARL: With a president presiding over an economy as good as this one, you would expect there to be almost a morning in America message, stay the course, the economy’s booming, let’s keep with this.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it wise to be focusing on this when you’ve got an economy going gangbusters?
CHRIS WALLACE: Why aren’t Republicans driving home the message on the economy?
JUAN WILLIAMS: The economy is doing fairly well, why wouldn’t Republicans be running on it?
CHUCK TODD: Why he doesn’t talk about the economy.
KASIE HUNT: They wanted to talk about jobs and the economy. And every Republican candidate I talked to.
JAKE TAPPER: The economy is booming. Unemployment is at a 49-year low. Annual wage growth topped 3% for the first time since 2009. But — and you knew there was a but — the president’s closing message is not on that.
JOHN DICKERSON: If we focus on the James Carville maxim, “It’s the economy, stupid,” the economy is strong. Why should people want to change course?
RUSH: I cannot tell you, I cannot overemphasize how incredible this is. They have been avoiding talk like this for a year! They have been making it a point to not talk about the economy this way. In fact, they’ve done their best to downplay the economy roaring along. And these people — by the way, this was media-wide. This was ABC, Fox News, NBC, CNN, and CBS. There was a coordinated effort all throughout the Sunday shows to start touting the economy while asking why Trump isn’t.
Why isn’t Trump touting the economy? Do you realize what genius this may well be? Trump has been touting the economy. If you listen to his rallies, which apparently these people don’t. At every Trump rally, he extols imprecise improvements of the economy. And he explains why, not just that his administration deserves credit; he gives the policy reasons for unemployment falling, wages increasing, new jobs coming back, businesses expanding.
He gives you the things his administration has done policy-wise that have made all this happen. And yet here they are all over the Sunday shows yesterday complaining Trump isn’t talking about it. In the process, they are. Can you imagine if you’re a steady viewer of the Drive-By Media and for a year you haven’t heard one virtue from them about the U.S. economy. If anything, you’ve heard it sort of ignored or maybe talked down.
And then all of a sudden the Sunday before the election the Drive-By Media is singing the praises of the economy like nobody has been. How about Jake Tapper here? Unemployment 49-year low, annual wage growth topped 3% the first time since 2009. The president isn’t talking about it! (But he is.) What’s the real point here? Well, I’ll tell you here in just a minute. Here’s the next bite. This is Tom Brokaw. He’s worried the economy is humming. (interruption) Yeah, recue that. He’s worry the economy is humming and you can’t discount that. He’s very, very worried about this.
RUSH: What changed here? Why hasn’t the media been talking about this for the past year? Why haven’t they even been worried about it? They haven’t been worried about it because of his they haven’t been telling people about it. And in their world, if they don’t tell anybody about it, then nobody will know it even if they’re living it. The Drive-Bys think, unless they tout anything, nobody will actually know it or think that it’s happening.
But now all of a sudden here’s Brokaw and the rest of these guys worried to death that the economy is going… And then they have to add Trump isn’t talking about it, even though he is. He may not be running ads about it per se, but he’s talking about it. Now one more. Skip forward to number 7. This is last night in Chicago, Obama at a rally for Jay Pritzker runing for governor there.
By the way, this was another meager crowd. I mean, they said it was 9,600 people. They said that’s what this place held. It was not full. Obama, the Clintons, they just can’t… They can’t do it. They cannot do what Trump does. They cannot draw crowds. They cannot create excitement. They’re trying. They want in on the action, but they’re not pulling it off. But here’s Obama. And he has to get something in about the economy.
OBAMA: Democrats had to come in and I had to grab a broom and we had to get a mop and we had to clean up their mess. And it was hard, and it was slow, but we got the economy growing again. And we covered another 20 million folks with health care. And we made sure the wealthiest paid their fair share of taxes. And by the time I left office, wages were rising —
RUSH: No.
OBAMA: — unemployment had fallen —
RUSH: No.
OBAMA: — the uninsured rate was falling.
RUSH: No!
OBAMA: The economy created more jobs over my latest 21 months than it did the 20 months since I’ve left office.
RUSH: No way!
OBAMA: So when you hear the Republicans bragging about how good the economy is right now, where do you think that started?
RUSH: What a pathetic… What a small-time, small-minded, pathetic attempt! This guy was telling everybody get used to a flatline economy, get used to the new economy. America’s best days were behind us. We hadn’t deserved all those great economies of the past because the Republican tax cuts. We had to pay the bill and all that. He told people jobs were not coming back in Indiana. He said get used to it. Our job here is to manage this new decline.
He was doing everything he can to dissuade people from thinking there was gonna be a great economy because with his policies there could not be Democrat leftists policies do not, cannot create a growing economy as evidenced by their first priority if they win they’re gonna cancel a tax cut. You can wave good-bye to any of this recovery once they do that. And yet here he is trying to take credit for it. Now, he, I think, is a separate case.
Obama is beside himself. Remember, he was the messiah, he was the one we’ve all been… And this country is so much better off after his eight years, and he sees it, he’s got to try to claim some credit for it, it’s just… It’s almost pathetic. But there’s a reason why, ladies and gentlemen, Drive-Bys are now touting the economy and trying to goad Trump into doing so too. That’s the real point. They want Trump to stop talking about what he is talking about, and they want him to start touting the economy, and I will explain why in a moment.
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RUSH: By the way, Obama says that we fixed health care, 20 million folks. 20 million people had health care. Nope. It’s only eight million. Eight million people. That’s how many are enrolled in Obamacare. I mean, you can lie and say you brought health care to 20 million people, but it didn’t happen. Obama claims the rest of the number, 12 million are on Medicaid, but Medicaid isn’t health insurance. It’s welfare. And we’re not supposed to brag about putting more people on welfare.
They’re desperate to get Trump to stop talking about it. They want Trump to start talking about the economy. They actually think they can bait him. This is what’s amazing. They literally think… This is what they think they are. They think they have the kind of power, they say they want you to start talking about X, that you will think, “Ooh. Wow. The media thinks I should be talking about this. Maybe I better.”
The media want him to drop all talk of immigration because it’s death for the Democrats. Do you know what issue moves…? This is according to polling data and election data. Do you know what issue moves suburban women from Democrat to Republican? It’s immigration. The economy’s roaring. People know it. Trump can claim credit for it. The Democrats can’t. There’s not a single Democrat that voted for Trump’s tax cut.
There’s nothing the Democrats can get their fingerprints on and say we helped. That’s what’s comical about Obama trying to. They’re desperate. The caravan’s falling apart. And one of the reasons that’s happening is because many in the caravan simply don’t think that… It doesn’t look like it… It doesn’t look like things were gonna look when they started this thing, like they were gonna be welcomed.
Democrats were gonna win and everything was gonna be hunky-dory. Immigration talk, shoring up the border, when you have things like the caravan happening, they are a big, big win for Republicans and Trump. Some Republicans don’t like it, either. You know, the RINOs, the Republicans, some of the leadership, they don’t want the issue discussed either. Everybody net establishment would love Trump to leave it alone ’cause that’s a big factor.
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RUSH: So President Trump just boarded Air Force One. He’s off to Ohio for the first of three rallies today, and he did his usual little press gaggle before climbing the steps to board Air Force One. And, you know, the Drive-Bys are shouting questions at him, and (chuckling) he’s talking about the caravan and he’s talking about immigration. By the way, do you think maybe if you’re in the caravan and you hear that 15,000 American troops are coming and you’re not getting in, do you think it might make you change your mind?
Meanwhile, people in the caravan hear that 15,000 troops may be on the way and a big, giant tent city is gonna get built for ’em on the Mexico side of things, and they say, “You know what? No mas. No mas,” the Roberto Duran line. Maybe stop and turn around. Meanwhile the media says, “He’s lying! He’s lying! We called the Pentagon and the Pentagon said they never heard anything about 15,000 troops!” Doesn’t matter. Starter. He’s the playing them like a Stradivarius. You know, the guy has indefatigable energy.
For those of you in Rio Linda, that means he never gets tired. He never wears out. There isn’t a soul that be keep up with him — and he’s, what, 71 or 72? Nobody can keep up with him. And it just… (laughing) It’s fascinating to watch this stuff. “He’s lying! He lying! He can’t say that! He’s sending 15,000 troops? (sputtering) There’s no… It’s not even the Guard. You can’t do it! You can’t do that,” and they start talking to themselves. “How irresponsible it is! How dangerous.” Meanwhile, it works.
Now, look, I’ll reiterate something too. Because, folks, I’m telling you, this is really strange, these sound bites I just played for you, all of the media people from the Sunday shows doing a great job of selling the great U.S. economy. (chuckling) It’s incredible! The people who have been ignoring it for a year are now the biggest promoters of this great Trump economy, while wringing their hands that he doesn’t talk about it. Yet for those of you that have attended his rallies and those of you that watch them, you know that he talks about the economy all the time and is out there claiming credit for every aspect of it.
So how is it that he’s not talking about it? What are they talking about? I think it’s probably very true that they watch these rallies, for two reasons. The rallies scare the hell out of ’em. For all these people that tell you in politics, “Hey, crowd size doesn’t matter. That doesn’t tell you anything about the way people are gonna vote! It never has. You can’t judge anything by that.” They said that all during 2016 and they’re saying it now. But I’m here to tell you it is rubbing them so raw.
That’s why Bill and Hillary Clinton have announced their stadium tour, and it’s why Obama is out there. They’re all trying to prove they can do it too. But they can’t. Obama’s performance, folks? There’s something wrong there, something very, very wrong. I mean, all this widely gesticulation, losing the voice, starting to sweat profusely at the end of this. Something’s not right out there. But, anyway, that’s just an observation. I don’t know anything. I’m just sharing with you my thoughts.
The idea that Trump’s not talking about the economy? He talks about the economy probably a lot — maybe for a majority — of the speeches in his rallies. He talks about health care, veterans’ health care. He talks about preexisting conditions, makes it clear the Republicans are being impugned on that whole concept that somehow Republicans are opposed to taking care of people with preexisting conditions. He talks about foreign policy. At every rally during the campaign, it was incredibly disciplined, even though it was all ad-lib.
He talked about issue after issue after issue, and it was consistent, and it was disciplined, and there was no mistaking. Anybody watching those rallies knew exactly what Trump’s policies were when it came to trade deals, when it came to government regulations, when it came to the economy, when it came to rebuilding America, the whole concept of making America great. He talks about the wall. He talks about immigration. He talks about the caravan. He talks about local candidates.
There’s nothing he leaves out.
Yet there they were all over television yesterday “worried,” quote-unquote, that Trump’s not talking enough about the economy and asking why. “Why isn’t he talking about this?” In their world, if they don’t see a TV commercial on it, I guess, then they don’t think a candidate is talking about it. He tweets. Every time there are new government stats, he tweets about it. So something happened. I mean, they all got a memo from a somebody. Somebody decided that the media, et. al., on Sunday needed to chide Trump for not touting the economy. I know it’s to try to get him to stop talking about immigration, which that won’t work.
He won’t do it.
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