![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/650-083017-McConnell.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRUSH: Mitch McConnell — folks, I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve heard this — there is a story that\u2019s out today. It\u2019s a story that\u2019s the result of polling data that — I pause breathlessly — says the Democrats have a real chance of taking the Senate too.<\/p>\n
Did you know that? Yes. Not only is there going to be a red wave where the Democrats retake the House of Representatives, it looks now like the Democrats could take control of the Senate too. So the Drive-By Media went to Mitch McConnell to find out the truth on this, get his take on the possibility. Mitch McConnell speaking with reporters about the upcoming midterm elections.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
MCCONNELL: We know this is gonna be a very challenging election on the Senate side. I\u2019ll just list you a bunch of places that are dead even: Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia, and Florida. All of them too close to call and every one of them like a knife fight in an ally, just a brawl in every one of those places. I hope when the smoke clears that we\u2019ll still have a majority in the Senate.<\/p>\n
RUSH: What is that? “I hope when the smoke clears that we\u2019ll still have a majority in the Senate.” Yeah, well, I hope when 6 o\u2019clock comes tonight that I\u2019m where I\u2019m supposed to be, wherever that is. What do you mean, I hope when the smoke clears that we\u2019ll have a majority in the Senate? This is shaping up just like 2016.<\/p>\n
Folks, I think one of the things about the Republicans and Washington, they believe the media there. It\u2019s their life. They\u2019re confronted by \u2019em. They\u2019re surrounded by the media every day. And I think, as time goes on in some of these guys cases they\u2019ve been there for decades, years at least, they just believe it. Every poll that comes out, no matter what it is, no matter what it says, no matter what the polling says, they believe it.<\/p>\n
Just like in 2016, there isn\u2019t a Republican around that thought the Republicans could win the White House in 2016. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was gonna win it. And not only that, they all thought the Democrats are gonna win the House. The House Republicans, the incumbents, were not planning on being in the majority. And when Trump won, they didn\u2019t know what to do. They weren\u2019t set up for victory. They weren\u2019t planning on it.<\/p>\n
Now they were gonna have to lead, and now the president was gonna be a guy none of \u2019em liked — well, not none of them, but many of them, particularly in the leadership didn\u2019t like. I guarantee you, on election night in many sectors of the Republican Party there was not celebrating. They got it in their heads they were gonna lose. And they were gonna be the opposition party, and the job was gonna be to try to contain Hillary like they tried to contain Obama, but that was it.<\/p>\n
As long as they keep the donors donating, saying and doing whatever they had to do for that, then that was fine. And it sounds like the same attitude\u2019s crept in here. “Ah, man, I hope when the smoke clears we\u2019ll still have a majority in the Senate.” Well, hope isn\u2019t gonna get it done! Voters are gonna have to — once again, it\u2019s gonna come down to Republican voters, which it always does.<\/p>\n
But I want to go back to 2016, September 29th, 2016. So this is a month and a half before the election. Same place, Capitol Hill, Mitch McConnell, Republican, Kentucky, held a press conference. During the Q&A, this is what Senator McConnell said about the 2016 Senate elections.<\/p>\n
MCCONNELL: It\u2019s pretty obvious this was gonna be a really challenging cycle for us. We\u2019ve got knock-down-drag-out, sort of like a knife fight in a phone booth, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Nevada, Indiana, Florida.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Back in 2016 it was like a knife fight in a phone booth. Today it\u2019s like a knife fight in an alley. So I guess we\u2019ve moved up. We\u2019re out of the phone booth. At least we\u2019re in the alley. Got a little bit more room to conduct the knife fight. This is a list of states that are too close to call where we might well lose.<\/p>\n
Now, look, I\u2019ll give the benefit of the doubt. It could well be that Senator McConnell knows this is all a crock, the Democrats aren\u2019t gonna win anything, but doesn\u2019t want to say that because he doesn\u2019t want to fire the Democrats up or do anything. The strategy might be just downplay it and let \u2019em think what they\u2019re thinking and shock them on Election Day. But I don\u2019t think that was the way it was in 2016. In 2016, these people all expected to lose.<\/p>\n
Now, if Jeb, exclamation point, had gotten the nomination, then they might have thought they were gonna win big. Ha-ha-ha. Marco Rubio, they might have thought they were gonna win big. If Ted Cruz had gotten the nomination, it would have been all over. They would never have thought they were gonna win.<\/p>\n
With Trump? The Republicans thought they were headed to practical obscurity! With Trump winning the nomination, it could be the Republicans would lose every race because these guys thought everybody hates Trump. Oh, my God. They were embarrassed, they couldn\u2019t believe that Trump was gonna be the standard-bearer, and it went into election night with that as the predominant attitude. And it sounds like it\u2019s happening again. Now, it\u2019s not related to Trump per se here, Trump\u2019s not on the ballot. But it\u2019s dispiriting. But, as I say, it always comes back to voters anyway.<\/p>\n
I want to share with you something written by Conrad Black, just as kind of a counterweight to this. Since I don\u2019t know what McConnell\u2019s strategy is here, I\u2019m gonna chalk this up to fatalism. He sounds fatalistic: Yeah, we could lose, look at all these races, too close to call, knife fight in a phone booth, knife fight in an alley. Hope when the smoke clears that we\u2019re still running the show.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/APP-070618-Trump-Rally-Montana.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/650-050117-Conrad-Black.jpg\")
<\/p>\n