Special to WorldTribune.com

May 05, 2016

CALLER: First time. Hey, I was supporting Ted Cruz.

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: But he lost. So I’m gonna vote for Donald Trump. But I’ve got friends — conservative friends — who refuse to vote for Donald Trump. They’d rather stay home and let the loony left ruin our country for four more years. I mean, so I don’t know how to convince these people. I don’t know how to argue with them, how to persuade them. …

RUSH: Okay. Do they agree with you and me that our nation is in a structural crisis, that we’re really right here on the precipice, and another four years of the last 7-1/2 that we’ve had could be utterly devastating culturally and economically? Do they agree with you on that or are they not of that opinion?

CALLER: I think so. I think they agree that this has been horrible and they don’t want see any more of it, but they’re not using… It’s like they’re not using logic. They’re not using reason.

RUSH: Well, right now they’re not. This… Look, there’s a lot of people that are depressed and despondent and they were really… You know, there were a lot of people that are really looking forward to a contested convention. I mean, the Cruz campaign was made up of a lot of people that thought, “If he can just, win Indiana, man, that would be it,” and they could go to contested convention. Second, third, fourth ballot, who knows? There’s a lot of people right now really deflated and let down. … So, Larry, your friends really believe that we’re here at a crossroads, or the precipice, that if we have another four years of this, that it’s dicey. I mean, do they agree we’re in the middle of a Democrat-led transformation of America that is uprooting the culture, uprooting the capitalist system and turning it socialist? Are they aware of all this? Do they agree with you about that?

CALLER: Yes. But here’s the problem. We got, like, really conservative Christians —

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: — who think that Donald Trump is a jerk, and this is bizarre that we’ve got Christians enthusiastically supporting Trump and Christians enthusiastically saying, “No, I’m not gonna vote for him.” It’s just really bizarre.

RUSH: Well, now, if this is religious, I don’t even want to wade into that, because that’s… (interruption) No, I’m not a theologian and I don’t deliver sermons here, but what I was gonna say is, “You’ve got a lot of people still disappointed that thought Cruz was gonna win. They were ardent supporters of Cruz. They’re disappointed and they’re sad.” I’m sure that is, in itself, a depressing, “Oh, my God.” There’s so much tied up in this. I mean, here Cruz was it for so many. He was the classic conservative that we have been waiting for that could go in and actually nobody would have to worry about the guy being genuine or not. He was the real deal.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: I know there are some people that are gonna promise to do that because it’s a matter of principle and a matter of matter of honor and so forth. … But we’re on the verge of losing the country as founded. The whole notion, the whole concept of individual liberty is gone. The whole concept of limited government is gone. The whole concept of the Bill of Rights, the whole concept that the purpose of the Constitution is to limit the government, not limit the people! If you’re on the verge of thinking we’re losing that, then to me, that’s it. That’s ballgame. That’s nutshell. And anything that you do — either voting for Hillary or staying home or voting third party — that ends up benefiting that is an unwise thing to do, and that’s — if I were you — what I would tell ’em. But I’d give it a week or two, ’cause you’ve got six months here. Is it six? Ah, you got four months. You got time here. But you’re gonna have a tough time talking to ’em right now. They’re still in an emotional state, as you said, over the outcome of the primaries. You watch. Give it a couple of weeks. Ignore it for now, go back in a couple of weeks, and you’ll see that they’ve had to soften on some of it (the passage of time takes care of some things) and have another go at it. …

RUSH: Robert in Athens, Georgia. You’re next. Great to have you with us, sir.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, can you hear me?

RUSH: Yeah. Why wouldn’t I? You’re shouting. Yeah, I hear you fine.

CALLER: Bitter clinger dittos to you. Yeah, in my family, we’re really, really down because Cruz is out of it. I mean, for the first time in my marriage we’ve given money to a political campaign. My kids — my 18-year-old daughter, my 15-year-old son — both worked in the Cruz campaign. And, you know, I’m looking at Trump, and I’m just… I just don’t trust the guy. And, you know, there’s things that you were mentioning earlier on the show today. They sound really great if he’s really gonna do that. But, you know, then we’re hearing that maybe he’s not gonna build the wall. And I don’t think people have listened carefully to what he said he’s gonna do with the people he’s gonna send back, because apparently he wants to fast track ’em back to this country. So what are people like me supposed to do? I know you’re saying… Listen, I’d never… I don’t want Hillary at all. That’s obvious. But how do I know Trump’s gonna be any better?

RUSH: Well, that’s what I meant a moment ago by “the lesser of two evils,” and that I don’t look at it that way. This is my point: Trump is not Hillary. There’s no way. Trump is not Obama. Trump is not these guys. Now, understand: There are all kinds of people — even my friends, even some on my side — who disagree with me about this, who think that that I’m just wrong, that I’m that I’m too accepting, too open-minded, and that I’m ignoring what my instincts ought to be telling me. But let me ask you this. I just read this New York Times story about what Trump told them his first 100 days are gonna be. Can you give me a reason why — and, by the way, just because he wants to do it, doesn’t mean it’s all gonna happen. People have got to understand here that the only reason Obama has gotten away with what he’s gotten away is the separation of powers hasn’t mattered the last seven years, because our party hasn’t stopped him. Our party has bent over and let Obama do whatever he wanted to do for all the reasons we’ve been through. But the Democrats are not gonna do that! If Trump tries everything he mentions as his agenda in this New York Times story — his 100-day agenda, in his first 100 days…

If he tries it, the Democrats are gonna be standing up and trying to stop him at every turn. It’s not axiomatic that it’s all gonna happen. He’s gonna try. But if he doesn’t — if he’s lying through his teeth through all this — you tell me: What does he have to gain? What’s the point? But… About the only thing you could tell me is that he’s not really who he says he is, that it’s all been a giant subterfuge and that Trump is actually a Democrat, and he is running for one of two reasons: Either to make sure Hillary Clinton gets elected, or to get elected himself and finally — finally — totally destroy the Republican Party.

CALLER: Well, I really think there’s a third option.

RUSH: What is it?

CALLER: The third option is he’s like Bill Clinton, and he’ll do whatever is expedient to keep power, whether it’s reaching out to the left or the right.

RUSH: Well, so then what you’re saying is — what you have to be saying — is that whatever Trump says that he cares about, whatever he claims is an important item in his agenda really isn’t. He’s just saying all this to gin up support. But if it doesn’t work out, “Well, okay. No big deal! I tried. I’ll try to do something else.” You’re essentially saying he really doesn’t believe all this. He’s just trying to make people think he does.

CALLER: I have no idea. I don’t know the man. But I will tell you, I just don’t trust him. I mean, he just seems to waffle too much. And I know there are people who… I mean, I have friends — Christian friends — who are rock-solid Trump supporters. I never could quite understand that, but they think he’s gonna do great things. I’m concerned that he’s not. And, by the way, the gentleman that called earlier as far as the Christians and the Christians voting for Trump and all that, that’s an easy one. Most Christians don’t want to do smash-mouth politics. So they’re hiring a bully to do it for ’em. And that’s exactly… I mean, that’s my perception of him. …

RUSH: Now, I’ll tell you something else here on this “lesser of two evils” business. There’s one thing: Donald Trump does not face four federal investigations. Donald Trump is not accused of trafficking in state secrets on an illegal server that has been hacked by foreign government hackers. Donald Trump, as far as I know, hasn’t killed anybody. As far as I know, Donald Trump hasn’t raped anybody. As far as I know, Donald Trump’s not been charged with sexual harassment, doesn’t have a bunch of women popping up left and right accusing him of things like Hillary’s husband does.

I don’t think Trump has helped sell United States uranium supply to the Russians via a conduit in Canada. I don’t think four people are dead because of Trump’s incompetence regarding military operations (i.e., in Benghazi). I don’t think Trump has helped United States overthrow two US allies and thrown the Middle East in an into an absolute disaster. ….

Do you remember Trump — way back before he ran for president, before his campaign started — was hot on the trail of Obama not being born in America, and he was really pressing that? In the middle of all that, I took pains to remind people that the Republicans didn’t start this birther movement business; that Hillary Clinton did. In the 2008 primaries it was the Clinton campaign and her agents — her consultants on the Democrat side — that tried to use the issue of Obama’s birth.

Well, on CNN yesterday, Trump reminded Wolf Blitzer of that. Wolf had never heard it. Predictably. This is all news to Wolf. He had the slightest idea. He thought that was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. He said, “This week Secretary Clinton said this about you: ‘Leading Republican contender is the man who led this insidious birther movement to discredit the president’s citizenship. We cannot let Barack Obama’s legacy fall into Donald Trump’s hands.’ What do you say to that, Mr. Trump?”

TRUMP: Do you know who started the birther movement?

WOLF: (silence)

TRUMP: Do you know who started it?

WOLF: (silence)

TRUMP: Do you know who questioned his birth certificate, one of the first? Hillary Clinton. She’s the one that started it. She brought it up years before it was brought up by me.

RUSH: A taped interview. As soon as the tape interview ended, CNN cut… They played the interview, Wolf doing that. When the interview was over, they then cut back to Wolf Blitzer live, who said this…

BLITZER: Just to be clear on the Donald Trump birther claim, Hillary Clinton never said that Barack Obama was born outside the United States.

RUSH: As soon as it was over, they cut back to Wolf, but Trump was right. The birther movement birthed in the 2008 Democrat primary on the Hillary Clinton side. I don’t know whether she personally ever used it, but her campaign did. That’s one of the reasons why you have campaigns spokesman and people out there representing you. They say things a candidate can’t but wants to say. They threw the kitchen sink at Obama at first, and it wasn’t working. People have forgotten. That was supposed to be a coronation.

That was her coronation. She was be Queen Hillary. This was when everything the Democrats owed her for everything was paid off. And then, here came this… Who was it that said it? Biden? “Hey, we got a clean, articulate black guy here!” It was Biden that said that, right? Joe Biden. And so then they threw her overboard. I’m telling you, she’s the most cheated-on woman in America. They threw her overboard for Obama in in 2008. And there are a lot of people who would throw her overboard for Crazy Bernie this year, if they could.

Quickly, Kevin in Fargo, North Dakota. Great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Had I there, Rush. I would like to say it’s an honor to speak to you. I waited a very long time to have a chance to talk to you.

RUSH: I appreciate your waiting, sir. Thank you very much.

CALLER: Yes, sir. What I would like to talk about here is I find it very, very amusing that the Republican Party is now clamoring for unity and that we should all kind of gather behind the party for this great push for the presidency. … I, quite honestly, view Trump as little more than Hillary Clinton in a suit.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: I recognize fully that she usually is wearing a suit anyway. She’s probably more man than most of the guys I know. … But —

RUSH: She puts her pants on one leg at a time like all the other guys.

CALLER: That’s exactly right.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And I guess my feeling is with Hillary, she’s an evil that I know. Donald Trump, I feel that he has absolutely no substance, I feel that he has no credibility, and I really… I don’t feel like there’s any way I can bring myself to get behind this guy.

RUSH: All right. Well, let me just try to allay some of your feelings. There are a lot of Republicans who feel the same way, and I think some of these calls for unity may be a bit insincere. I mean, I’m not gonna get to ’em but I got sound bites. Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard is now leading a third-party movement. They want to go out and find a principled conservative these guys can all vote for to preserve their honor, even though they know they’re gonna lose and even though they know they’re gonna elect Hillary. Look, the Republican establishment, they’re not through yet here, folks. This is by no means over. I mean, the nomination fight may be, but they’re not through yet here. I mean, the fireworks haven’t ended, if they have begun. This Republican call for unity is a perfunctory thing, but there’s still a lot of establishment Republicans who are not signing on to this by any stretch. So you’re not alone in that regard out there, Kevin. …

RUSH: Paul in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Great to have you, sir. How are you?

CALLER: Yes, sir. Doing very well. Better than I deserve Rush. Thank you so much for taking my call. …I believe Donald Trump is going to win the presidency is they continue to underestimate this man. He works very, very hard. No matter what he was handed and whatever, no one can deny that Donald Trump has a strong work ethic and that he’ll do what it takes to get the job done, and I think that’s why he’s going to win. People will continue to underestimate him and what he will do, and he knows how to play the media. Wolf Blitzer, I don’t think he necessarily changed his position as much as he did kind of turned tables on them. He knows how to turn tables on people. And he doesn’t play by their rule books, you know? And I do plan on voting for Mr. Trump. I don’t agree with him on a lot of things. However, it’s not so much the lesser of two evils in my opinion, but, you know, someone who will try to do a good job, and there are some common-ground issues I can find with Mr. Trump.

RUSH: You know, you are the first person, I think… I could be wrong. You’re the first person that I can recall, anyway, who’s described Trump as “a hard worker.” You’re right. There are a lot of people, just… They see Trump and all the time he’s on the media. He’s everywhere. He goes he goes everywhere. He does an hour-and-a-half or hour-long personal appearances. He’ll do four, five a day. He’ll get on Trump Force One and fly all over the place. Radio, TV, he’s there. Plus he’s running his own businesses, his empire. He doesn’t get much sleep at night. But you’re the first person to observe, at least to me. And I think that’s a good point. He clearly appears to be working harder than Hillary is.

  LIFE, Rush Limbaugh: How to convert never Trumpers, WorldTribune.com