RUSH: Do you see what I mean, folks? This just gets so tiresome. So the news is out that the president is going to disavow the “send her back” chants at the rally last night. Everybody had a great time at that rally. I’ve been to Trump rallies. People have a great time. I mean, they look great on TV, but there’s a different energy when you’re there and in the venue. And Trump is hilarious. He’s a funny guy. That’s one aspect of him the left… They don’t get my sense of humor. They have none. They literally have no sense of humor, particularly when they are the butt of the jokes.
I mean, they’re so thin-skinned, they can’t even take it. Anyway, Trump’s gonna come out and disavow. So I see Chuck You Schumer. Chuck You Schumer says (summarized), “The president should disavow this! These are the kinds of chants that we see in Third World dictatorships.” Come on, Chuck. See, this is exactly what I’m talking about. Here’s the Senate minority leader. You had a bunch of Trump supporters at a rally last night supporting the president, supporting his policies, having a great time, and this guy is calling them a Third World country.
He’s essentially calling them the kind of people that live in a dictatorship. People that live in dictatorships are not permitted to do what people at Trump rallies are allowed to do. Dictators don’t do rallies unless they’re preprogrammed and scripted and planned and so forth. But they don’t have to do them. They’re for show only. It’s this kind of insulting comparison that the left makes constantly. You know, disavowing this is probably a wise thing to do because the fact of the matter is we don’t want to send her home. We don’t want Ilhan Omar going home.
This country can survive Ilhan Omar, as long as Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib and Pressley and all that, The Squad… As long as it’s such that they’re perfectly informed on, as long as everybody knows who they are, as long as everybody knows what they support, what they believe, we’re not afraid of them. I don’t… As I said at the beginning of the program, I don’t want to send Ilhan Omar back anywhere. I want her here! I want her continuing to spew the hate that she stands for. I want her here informing and educating the American people about who the Democrat Party is today.
Many of us know what’s going on here.
The left has numerous special interest groups who have a desire to infiltrate the governing bodies and systems of this country either to overthrow it or, prior to that, to have a lot of powerful influence in the way our government’s run. And, by the way, they’re free to try. They are free to campaign. They are free to run for election. They’re free to win — and after they win, they’re free to be sworn in. It’s our system. If somebody who hates America wants to run for office and gets elected, then somebody that hates America has been elected.
They have gotta be dealt with. Now, there are a bunch of caveats to this, obviously. Most of the people running on the hate-America agenda do not really tell everybody how extensive their hate it, and they rarely are honest about their real agenda. Their real agenda is transforming the country away from what it was founded to be, but they don’t say that. They talk about loving America and wanting it to be even better. Loving America and wanting it to be perfected. Loving America but taking care to fix all of the flaws that existed from our founding.
(sobbing) “All we’re trying to do is make America better,” which is not what they’re trying to do at all. So anything that can happen that exposes them? Fine with me. Let’s put it up for a vote. If the American people want to elect a bunch of people that think the United States and Israel pose the greatest threat to the people in the world, let ’em give it a shot. I’d just as soon it happened and have these people be resoundingly defeated, which they will be if they are properly reported on and informed on.
Now, not everybody in the crowd last night was shouting “send her back.” And I was… There was a part of me watching it last night, saying, “I hope Trump disavows this. I hope he does something that quells this or at least distances himself from it.” But… (interruption) What? (interruption) No, it did not make me uncomfortable hearing it. How could you ask me that after the hour and a half so far of this program? I understand it.
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RUSH: So Trump is stepping back from the “send her back,” “send her back.” Here’s how it happened. We have a little press availability, White House today. Jon Karl of ABC said, “Mr. President, if I may, when your supporters last night were chanting ‘send her back,’ why didn’t you ask them to stop saying that?”
THE PRESIDENT: Number one, I – I think I did. I started speaking very quickly. It – it really was a loud — I disagree with it, by the way. But it was quite a chant, and I felt a little bit badly about it. But I will say this, I did — and I started speaking very quickly. But it started up rather fast, as you probably noticed.
KARL: So you’ll tell your supporters never to say…
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would say that I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But again, I didn’t say – I didn’t say that. They did. But I disagree with it.
RUSH: All right. So somebody got to him, said you better get out there, you better disavow this. So now here’s the headline on Drudge Report: “Trump Turns on MAGA, Disavows, ‘Send Her Back’ Chant at Rally.”
So Trump has turned his back on his audience now. He’s disavowed them. He’s publicly humiliated. They were having a great time. Okay. If you don’t like “send her back”, how about, “Get the hell out! Get the hell out!” instead of “Send her back”? “Send her back” might cause people to fear tyranny. Dictator. I think that’s a bogus charge, but some guy who’s the president talking about — he didn’t say it, but his crowd is saying “send her back,” “send her back.” I can understand if somebody survived a tyranny to get here, but I think this is all so much ado about nothing.
This is all that’s been in the news all day, this is it! And they got what they wanted. Now they’re able to report Trump has turned his back on his supporters. They’ve been trying to draw a wedge or drive a wedge between Trump and his supporters since he entered the 2016 campaign.
And now they’ve got their headline: Trump disavows fans, Trump disavows supporters, Trump criticizes supporters, Trump tells supporters to shut up in future. Trump tells supporters he doesn’t support supporters, whatever they do with it. Here’s an infobabe at CNN reacting — this is Brianna Keilar — right after Trump said what you just heard him say, here is her reaction.
KEILAR: All right. The president there is lying about how he responded to this “send her back” chant in North Carolina last night. He said that he spoke quickly after it began. Actually, he waited several seconds. We have the tape.
RUSH: So CNN said there you have the president lying about how he responded. So they goad Trump, somebody goads Trump into disavowing it, and now he doesn’t even really mean it! Trump is turned on MAGA. He has disavowed his own supporters. He’s turned on them, he’s thrown them overboard. I can see the various headlines that are going to come.
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RUSH: Okay. This is the statement. Drudge has now headlined, “Trump Turns on MAGA,” Trump has turned on his base. Trump has turned on Make America Great Again. He has disavowed their chant. Oh, and where…? The New York Times: “Trump Disavows ‘Send Her Back’ Chant as GOP Frets Over Ugly Phrase.” Here we go again! Here we go again. These people on the left can do and say anything, and we never get a headline on it. There’s never any reference to the Democrats being worried about the “ugly” behavior of Antifa, or restaurant owners who forcefully kick Republicans out, or Black Lives Matter tearing up whole towns.
We never hear any of this, “Democrats Fretting Over Ugly Actions.” Even now with… You know what we get? We get nameless Democrats calling Jake Tapper. “Gee, you know, I think Trump’s won this. He kind of outsmarted us. He’s made these women look like they’re the face of the party.” There isn’t any criticism of them. There isn’t any criticism of Cortez or Omar.” All there is, is a fretting lament over the fact that Trump has outsmarted them, but they’re not upset about what they’re saying.
Folks, for once… For me, I’m tired of the two-way street, and I don’t think there was anything wrong with the chant. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people having a good time. This is being blown up into so much more than it is, so much more than it was meant to be. And now it’s become this gigantic news story where they can say that Trump is turned on his audience. Let’s listen to what he actually said again when Jon Karl asked him, “Mr. President, if I may, when your supporters last night were chanting ‘send her back,’ why didn’t you ask him to stop saying that?”
THE PRESIDENT: Number one, I – I think I did. I started speaking very quickly. It – it really was a loud — I disagree with it, by the way. But it was quite a chant, and I felt a little bit badly about it. But I will say this, I did — and I started speaking very quickly. But it started up rather fast, as you probably noticed.
KARL: So you’ll tell your supporters never to say…
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would say that I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But again, I didn’t say – I didn’t say that. They did. But I disagree with it.
RUSH: Does it sound like he’s disavowing his supporters and throwing them…? No. They’re making a mountain out of a molehill, predictably, ’cause this is all they’ve got. So why all the attention? I mentioned moments ago that this story, like every other potential opportunity for the left to humiliate and embarrass Republicans… Whenever there’s a similar kind of story involving questionable misbehavior or a mass shooting or whatever it is, “Stop the presses! Figure out a way to blame Republicans for it.”
I’ll tell you one of the reasons that this is all going today is, like I pointed out, there isn’t a single Democrat candidate for president that can get noticed. Not a single one of the Democrat candidates for president is in the news hardly at all this entire week. The other news is bad for the Democrats out there.
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RUSH: All right, here’s President Trump. It’s audio sound bite number 28. Jonathan Karl again at ABC News: “What would your message be with regard to your fans and supporters making that chant?”
THE PRESIDENT: These are people that love our country. I want them to keep loving our country — and I think the congresswomen, by the way, should be more positive than they are. The congresswomen have a lot of problems. I’m not happy about when I hear a chant like that, and I’ve said that, and I’ve said it very strongly. But I will tell you, the congressmen and women also have a big obligation in this country — and in every country, frankly. But they have a big obligation, and the obligation is to love your country. There’s such hatred! They have such hatred. I’ve seen statements that they made with such hatred toward our country. And I don’t think that’s a good thing. They should embrace our country. They should love our country.
RUSH: All right. Fine. I want to try to explain what it is about this that bothers me, and it’s not specific to this. This is just the latest example, and my attempt at explaining this starts last night. I was not watching the rally. (Shh! Don’t tell anybody. Don’t let anybody tell the White House I wasn’t watching.) So I start getting flash texts and emails. “Oh, no! Oh, no! The crowd’s chanting, ‘Send her back! Send her back!'” The people sending me the chats — devout Trump supporters — are in sheer panic. (sigh) Which, I have to confess, the panic is getting tiresome, but why does the panic exist?
This is where it’s gonna get tough for me to explain this. It’s not hard. It’s tough to explain. There are existing premises, narratives, beliefs out there. Among them are that conservatives are racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes. Conservatives are mean-spirited. We know that isn’t true, but we act like it is. That’s what bugs me. We know it’s BS, but we act like it’s true. We start getting all defensive when somebody on our team does something, like says something like this.
You know, the left can go out and literally destroy property, can literally inflict physical harm on people and there’s no defensiveness on their party. They don’t try to cover it up or hide it. They make heroes of the people that do it. We have some people at a rally chanting, “Send her back! Send her back,” and I get panicked email. “Oh, my God. Rush! Oh, my God!” Why the panic because even though we know that this is a bogus charge we think everybody believes it. So we can’t afford to have anything said or done that might remind people that the lies about us are true.
Do you realize how many shackles that puts us in? Do you realize if we’re gonna start losing our cookies over the fact of some people in a political rally say, “Send her home”…? There’s no crime here. There’s no crime! There’s no social justice crime. There’s no insult. There’s no nothing here. It’s a bunch of people having a good time who are probably a little frustrated at the same time. But so here it comes now what’s everybody’s gotta do? Everybody’s gonna run around and disavow the chant, lest everybody think that we are racists, sexists, bigots, homophobes — or mean or discriminating against minorities.
I’m fed up with it! I’m frustrated beyond my ability to deal with it. I hate the defensiveness. We’re never gonna get… If a rally happens and the chant breaks out “Send her back, send her back,” and if panic ensues, the panic ensues because the people panicking obviously believe that means it can be proven that we’re racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes. So we wish they would shut up. So knowing we can’t make ’em shut up, we try to distance ourselves. (impression) “Well, I certainly don’t agree with that chant. I think that chant…
“I think that’s very unfortunate — uh, really, really sad. Uh, we don’t need language like that in our, uh, politics.” What a crock! It’s ultimately harmless. So much of who we are is harmless and good-natured and in good fun, and it gets tarred and feathered as racism, sexism, bigotry, and all of this. And now we have to end up being defensive and make sure that we say (impression), “I don’t support it. I’m not an advocate of that. I’m very sad that it happened,” blah, blah, blah. “Well, Rush, you know it’s true! A chant like that, the media’s gonna do this.” I know the media’s gonna do it. Why do we have to play planning on and act like we’re guilty?
“Oh, man, I wish they hadn’t said it.” To me, it just helps them make their case, which is a bogus case to begin with. “But, Rush, we have to be sensitive to these things. You must understand that they have successfully rebranded us as racists, sexists, so we must make sure that we don’t give them any ammunition.”
Okay. So we’re gonna have to make sure that at every rally, every appearance, that everybody’s cautioned, “Don’t say anything the media could distort. Don’t say anything the media could lie about.” What position are we in then? No-win. We’re in a no-win. And in the process of turning defensive and acting ashamed and wanting to distance ourselves from it, we essentially help them prove their bogus claims.
It really bugs me. It bugs me because I’ve been a target of so much of this stuff. It is why I spent so much time yesterday on this program talking about the real definition of conservatism is love. We love everybody. We want everybody to do well. We just expect you to love the country as well. We expect you not to want to destroy this thing that’s so special.
That’s all it is. You want to destroy this thing so special, and by God over our dead bodies you’re gonna have to do it. And if you can’t handle a few little comical, joking chants — no different than “lock her up.” Why didn’t they go ape over that?
Well, they tried to. But that one they couldn’t go ape over too much because there was no way to suppress that. And note that that did not cause Trump to lose anything. It didn’t cause him to lose the election. There weren’t a lot of people, mass population holding it against Trump, his supporters out there saying “lock her up.” ‘Cause half of them realized that she should have been.
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RUSH: We never learn this. Trump, somebody, whoever got to him, “Mr. President, you need to go out there, disavow.” No, because it’s never enough. Now Joe Biden’s out saying Trump didn’t go far enough. He needs to now denounce the KKK, he needs to denounce the white supremacists in his audience, in his voter base. (imitating Biden) “Mr. President, condemn, outright condemn those folks who came out of those fields, outright condemn the Ku Klux Klan, condemn the white supremacists, let me hear you say ‘I condemn them.’” It’s never enough!
Besides that, you know how unnecessary this all was. I don’t see how Trump hurt himself! It’s The Squad people who are polling, like we told you, Ilhan Omar, 8% support among swing voters, independents. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28% support among swing voters. Donald Trump is not perceived as the problem here. Donald Trump’s supporters are not perceived as the problem here.
They’re the ones making racist statements about their own party members! Trump didn’t say anything. When was the last time a Democrat politician was forced to disavow something anybody in their audience ever said or somebody in their voter base? Never! So now Biden’s out there saying (imitating Biden), “Mr. President, you need to go further. You need to denounce the KKK coming out of those closets and those forests to support you.” Which is a reference to Charlottesville and so forth.
Folks, I’m sorry. This stuff just ticks me off like you cannot believe. I hate, literally hate the defensive. I hate getting tweets like I got last night, “Oh, my God. The audience just said ‘send her back.’” I just hate the fear. I hate the scaredy cat.
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RUSH: Look. This is such a worn-out topic. You remember this happening to McCain during the Obama-McCain campaign of 2008? People go to the McCain rallies, start making chants about Obama, and McCain (imitating McCain), “That’s it. Stop everything. Stop it. We’ll not have disrespect for a great citizen, Barack Obama.” The media would jump all over McCain supporters, think Obama’s a terrorist, think Obama’s gonna blow up the White House, blah, blah. It’s the same thing. It never ends. And you can’t mollify ’em. You can’t give them enough.
Now Biden’s saying that Trump needs to disavow, go all the way, disavow the KKK, while they are on the ropes! They’re the ones on the ropes here. They’re the ones engaging in racism and bigotry. The Squad and the people enabling them.