{"id":3584,"date":"2016-04-25T17:09:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T17:09:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-04-25T17:09:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T17:09:12","slug":"ted_cruz_isn_t_violating_the_rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/04\/25\/ted_cruz_isn_t_violating_the_rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Cruz Isn\u2019t Violating the Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. John, you\u2019re first. It\u2019s great to have you, and I\u2019m glad you called. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you so much for taking my call. Very quickly, my father passed a few years ago, but he turned me on to you. I\u2019ve been listening to you for probably 20 years. It\u2019s a great honor. Thank you so much.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you. I appreciate that very, very much.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Thank you. I wanted to call, I\u2019m in Pennsylvania as you said, and our primary is tomorrow. Listening to you as long as I have, I know that you don\u2019t endorse candidates in a primary. And Ted Cruz has an ad running in our local market that, to the average listener who doesn\u2019t know you as well as I do, would certainly think that you\u2019ve endorsed him. So I wanted to just give you a call and let you know about that and see if you had any thoughts on it.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I\u2019ve heard of this. This happens every campaign. Sometimes multiple candidates will use excerpts of things I have said and incorporate it into their commercials. There is this thing called fair usage. It is an FCC regulation. And it allows the fair use of what has been broadcast publicly of pretty much anything, with a maximum I think it\u2019s — I forgot what — eight seconds, 10 seconds, they can take eight seconds, 10 seconds of what you say without compensating you, without your permission or any of that. <\/line><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s on that basis that candidates would appropriate my words that could be said to be in their favor and incorporate them into their commercials. I don\u2019t make a big deal about it because there\u2019s nothing really I can do about it. It doesn\u2019t bother me. I mean, if they quote me accurately, put the context in there, that\u2019s fine. You know, I\u2019m not gonna deny I say what I say. I\u2019m very proud of what I say. I\u2019m very proud of what I know. I love hearing myself speak. You would, too, if you were right as often as I am. It\u2019s fun. <\/p>\n

So if somebody wants to repeat it and echo that, more power to \u2019em. But I appreciate the heads up. John\u2019s warning me out there that maybe — I know what he\u2019s trying to do. He says maybe that, you know, my words are being used and I\u2019m not aware of it. No, I\u2019m aware of it. I know when these things happen. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Dan in Traverse City, Michigan. Dan, you\u2019re next. Great to have you, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Fine, Rush, how you doing?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Very well.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. Rush I\u2019m another caller trying to — listened to callers last week — tried to get you to see the point of the Trumpists, and then a couple times last week said, “Oh, I think I see the point here,” which you didn\u2019t, and, “Oh, I think I see the point here,” and we all love you, by the way. So I want to note that. So I want to lay out the point that the Trumpists are trying to give to you and why there\u2019s some disappointment. <\/p>\n

<\/a>You normally look at things and you make a judgment about whether things are BS or they\u2019re good. And the Trumpists want you to say, hey, when a state votes, it\u2019s done, the delegates ought to be locked in, and there shouldn\u2019t be a way to go back and try to convince the guys smoking the cigars. That\u2019s BS. We want you to say, hey, this latest thing with Cruz and Kasich, the people are voting, whoever they pick ought to be the winner. And now them trying to manipulate the system this way, is BS, and so we want you to make a call.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Wait, wait, let\u2019s not mix. You\u2019re talking to — when you bring what Kasich and Cruz are doing in this, now, you\u2019re mixing that with the delegate things that are happening, and those are —<\/p>\n

CALLER: Correct.<\/p>\n

RUSH: — two different things. Let\u2019s stick with one thing.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let\u2019s stick with the delegate. See, I don\u2019t see it quite the way you guys do because I don\u2019t see anything wrong with what Cruz is doing, because what Cruz is — bear with me on this. I\u2019m just trying to get this right. I\u2019m not trying to rile anybody up. The point is that Ted Cruz is not trying to get anybody pledged to Donald Trump to vote against Donald Trump when they can\u2019t do so, the first ballot. That\u2019s not what this is all about. <\/p>\n

This is all about if there are second and third ballots and trying to isolate delegates that may be required to vote for Trump but do not support him. That\u2019s all that\u2019s going on here. Now, it\u2019s always been the process. There\u2019s nothing new this year that has never happened before. It\u2019s just that nobody\u2019s seen it to this degree, nobody\u2019s seen it this deeply, because it\u2019s never mattered like this before. But what specifically do you think I am not seeing or that you specifically want me to condemn and call BS on?<\/p>\n

CALLER: We want you to say, folks, when the state votes, and it should be a primary where everyone goes and votes, the delegates are allocated however they\u2019re allocated, and that ought to be the end of the story until the convention. People shouldn\u2019t be able to or even have to go back to the state and go back in the rooms and try to convince people of anything. The delegates should be locked in, period, and then they move to the next state. And so the fact that Trump hasn\u2019t been going back as well, that we\u2019re trying to get you to see, we want you to say, hey —<\/p>\n

RUSH: Tell me something. Okay, state has its primary. Florida has its primary. You\u2019re calling from Michigan. Michigan has its primary.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n

RUSH: When are Michigan\u2019s delegates then chosen?<\/p>\n

CALLER: After the primary.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Where?<\/p>\n

CALLER: When you say where, what do you mean?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I mean, the primary\u2019s one thing and then they choose the delegates, that\u2019s another different thing. Where do the delegates get named, where are they chosen? Hmm?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, after the primary, the formula —<\/p>\n

RUSH: See, the primary has nothing to do with the actual individual people chosen as delegates. All the primary does is tell those delegates what they have to do on the first ballot or, in the case of Florida, the first three ballots. I have to take a break. I\u2019m sadly out of time.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: You know, I\u2019m wondering if I should try this again or just let it be. Would people be more comfortable stewing in their anger or actually figuring this out? I just got an email from a friend in North Carolina. “I just had the process of delegate selection in North Carolina explained to me, and the Cruz people came in here and they took charge, it\u2019s all legal, but it\u2019s an amazing story of massive knowledge of the rules and coordination by the Cruz campaign.” <\/p>\n

Greetings. Welcome back. Rush Limbaugh at 800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program. Email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. <\/p>\n

What is this? This is a Politico story: “Cruz Crushes Trump in Weekend Delegate Fight.”<\/a> Hang on now. Folks, stay with me on this. There\u2019s no attempt here being made to irritate anybody. There are explanations for all of this, and nobody\u2019s being cheated. Now, I realize that some of you are never going to believe that, but nobody is being cheated. In other words, the process is not being violated. The rules are not being violated here in any of this delegate selection stuff. <\/line><\/p>\n

And I will do my best again to try to make this understandable. It may not be satisfactory. “Ted Cruz notched another delegate landslide Saturday, stretching his advantage in a competition that might never occur: the second ballot of a contested Republican National Convention in July. Cruz won at least 65 of the 94 delegates up for grabs Saturday (he may have won more than 65, but Kentucky\u00c2\u2019s 25 delegates haven\u00c2\u2019t revealed their leanings).”<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just reading from The Politico news story. “The Texas senator has so thoroughly dominated the fight to send loyalists to the national convention that if front-runner Donald Trump fails to clinch the nomination on the first ballot, Cruz is well-positioned to surpass him — and perhaps even snag the nomination for himself.”<\/p>\n

Now, I understand how just the possibility of that might make somebody think, “Wait, that\u2019s gotta be cheating.” Because here\u2019s the process. The people vote in a primary, and in our country, the way people vote is the way it ends, is what everybody thinks. People vote, so we have a primary, and Donald Trump wins Florida. And there is no way that Donald Trump should ever lose Florida after that, is what everybody thinks, right? If the people in Florida in the primary gave more votes for Trump than anybody else, then every vote at the convention in Florida ought to be voting for Trump, right? And anything other than that means the system is being gamed. <\/p>\n

Florida is not actually a good example here to use because that does happen in Florida. The first three ballots the delegates are required to vote the way the popular vote in the state went. So Trump would win the first three ballots from the Florida delegation. Let\u2019s just pick a state and an arbitrary number of delegates here to deal with, in, once again, trying to explain — \u2019cause, folks, really, my whole point here to you, I\u2019m really trying to get you to not think that this particular system\u2019s being rigged or you\u2019re being cheated. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re not. This is how politics is. It\u2019s how anything where there are votes, boards of directors, anywhere where there are votes that determine outcomes of things, there are sometimes many votes, multiple votes, people change their minds. It\u2019s bloody. I mean, this is big leagues. It\u2019s for all the marbles. But I understand the basics. I understand how it can be easily manipulated to be misunderstood. <\/p>\n

So let\u2019s take the state of San Cordoba. Let\u2019s make up our own state, San Cordoba has 100 delegates. Now, just sit with me on this, and San Cordoba has a primary in January. And in that primary let\u2019s say Donald Trump wins San Cordoba and gets, let\u2019s just say all of their delegates, on the first ballot. Donald Trump wins all 100 delegates in San Cordoba. But San Cordoba doesn\u2019t have any delegates yet. The delegates have yet to be selected in San Cordoba. San Cordoba\u2019s delegates might not be chosen until May, or April, or March, whenever San Cordoba has its convention, its party convention. <\/line><\/p>\n

All that\u2019s known when the San Cordoba convention convenes is that in the first ballot at the upcoming national convention, every delegate has to vote the way the people of the state vote; that means for Donald Trump. But on the second and third ballot, the delegates are free agents and can vote for whomever they wish. Okay, so the San Cordoba primary happened in January. The San Cordoba Republican convention is in April. <\/p>\n

Now, there have been a lot of primaries since January; there have been a lot of other elections. And in April, the candidates decide whether or not they\u2019re going to send emissaries to the San Cordoba state convention. In our scenario, Donald Trump doesn\u2019t send anybody. Ted Cruz does. Cruz sends in a bunch of people to participate in the actual selection of delegates, the actual human beings. The primary has not a thing to do with the individuals chosen as delegates. All the primary does is give them instructions on how they must vote on the first ballot.<\/p>\n

After that, they are free agents, and those delegates are subject to any number of procedures in terms of being named as a delegate. It is an honor in many people\u2019s experience, to be a delegate. In some people\u2019s experience, it\u2019s a hassle. Some people love it; some people hate it. But San Cordoba\u2019s got 100 of them. And let\u2019s say Ted Cruz decides he\u2019s gonna go in there and he\u2019s gonna try to arrange it so that as many of those 100 delegates from the state of San Cordoba support him. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Kasich can do the same thing. Jeb Bush could have done the same thing. Marco Rubio could have done the same thing. Chris Christie could have done the same thing. Depends on how much money they want to spend; depends on how organized they want to be; depends on how deeply they want to plan for the convention going. It\u2019s all up to the individual desires of each and every candidate to determine how involved he or she\u2019s gonna be in each party\u2019s convention. <\/p>\n

Cruz has known for a long time he doesn\u2019t have a prayer of getting to 1,237 on the first ballot. Only Trump does. Cruz knows his only hope is a second or third ballot, the only hope he\u2019s got. For that to happen Donald Trump must not reach 1,237 on the first ballot. Well, there\u2019s nothing Cruz can do about San Cordoba\u2019s 100 delegates. Even if every 100 delegates, if every one of those delegates is a Cruz supporter, they have to vote Trump on the first ballot. <\/p>\n

But if there is a second ballot, Cruz\u2019s hard work at securing delegates in San Cordoba could get him the majority of those delegates on a second ballot. And that\u2019s the rub, because you think that that\u2019s not fair, you think that\u2019s not constitutional. Why, the people voted. How come, after the people vote, those delegates\u2019 votes can change? You think once chosen, once voted, the delegate should always have to vote for who won the state. Am I right? <\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, and nobody ever got to 1,237, in this case, how would we ever get a nominee? If ever state delegation has to vote according to the popular vote of the state, on every ballot, then no ballot\u2019s gonna differ. The first ballot\u2019s gonna be the same as the tenth and nobody\u2019s gonna get to 1,237. Now, this has been standard operating procedure standard at party conventions and other democratic institutions for, you know, I shudder to think if the 2000 presidential race, if the Supreme Court had not stopped that recount and that election had gone to its constitutional end, I shudder to think. <\/p>\n

You know who would elected the president in 2000 had the Supreme Court not shut down that recount? The House of Representatives. The House of Representatives would have chosen the president. And guess who owned the House of Representatives in 2000? The Republican Party. Therefore, George W. Bush would have been elected president if they had not stopped the recount and Algore had never won, nothing changed — remember all that hassle with the hanging chads and everything? <\/line><\/p>\n

If the House of Representatives had chosen the president, can you imagine the revolt that would have taken place? Because here you would have had Algore supposedly winning the popular vote, the Supreme Court would have stopped a recount, the election in Florida, which is where this all turned, was certified, it was made official long before the US Supreme Court told the Florida Supreme Court to stop the recount. <\/p>\n

Had it gone to the House choosing the president, can you imagine the outrage from people in this country who would not have had any idea that that\u2019s how it happens and would have thought cheating was what was taking place and that the Republicans were pulling a fast one, when it would have been right there in the Constitution. <\/p>\n

There are steps taken in the election of a president anticipating trouble at every phase how you eventually get it done, and the last possible step is the House of Representatives voting. But in the case of San Cordoba here, I know what you all want me to say. You want me to say that the system is BS. You want me to say that the system is rigged when somebody who didn\u2019t win the popular vote can go in there and manipulate delegates to vote for him on subsequent ballots. You don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair. You don\u2019t think that\u2019s right. You think that is subverting the system and subverting the will of the people as expressed in the vote in the primary. <\/p>\n

I understand you thinking that, but that\u2019s not the case. There is no requirement — this is, I think, where this breaks down. You have the primary election, and the people vote their preference. That does not mean that every delegate in that state\u2019s convention has to personally support that nominee or that winner. That\u2019s not what the primary vote means. The primary vote does not mean that every delegate must personally support the winner. And I think that\u2019s one of the areas where this is breaking down, where people are misunderstanding what primary elections mean. <\/p>\n

The delegates are up for grabs once the state convention begins. Anybody can run for delegate. People can be appointed delegate. Candidates can go in and try to get people supportive of them as delegates, named as delegates. That\u2019s the fight. That\u2019s the process. That has always been the way it happens. There is nothing happening this year that has not happened before in terms of delegate selection, allocation, or what have you. <\/line><\/p>\n

The will of the people… I can see where you think the will of the people is being subverted because if the people vote in San Cordoba — if a hundred delegates vote for Trump — and then a second ballot, they all don\u2019t vote for Trump, then some game is being played. “It\u2019s not right! People voted. Why don\u2019t the people\u2019s votes count anymore?” They did count. They did count on the first ballot, as written in the state\u2019s charter. And every state\u2019s different. And states have a right to be different. It\u2019s called state sovereignty. <\/p>\n

What Cruz is doing here is simply trying to secure support for what he hopes is going to be a second or third ballot. That\u2019s what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s not monkeying around, nor is anybody else. They\u2019re not changing, they\u2019re not trying to cheat what happens on the first ballot. They\u2019re not — they can\u2019t. There\u2019s no way they can monkey with that. There is no way that anybody can go in and make delegates all of state vote other than they are pledged, other than how they are pledged on the first ballot.<\/p>\n

It cannot happen. And that is not what Cruz is doing. Cruz is not going in and talking Trump voters out of it. What Cruz is doing is trying to make sure that there aren\u2019t very many Trump voters in the delegation from San Cordoba so that if there is a second ballot, most of the delegates vote for Cruz. If Trump chooses not to go into San Cordoba and compete for delegates because he doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s gonna need \u2019em, then that\u2019s a decision that he made, and he\u2019s leaving that field open to Cruz. <\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t any cheating, and there isn\u2019t any gaming of the system — and there isn\u2019t any talking Trump voters out of it. That is not what is happening — and even if it were, how in the world is it? But it isn\u2019t. I don\u2019t even want to go there because it\u2019s not what happened. It\u2019s not what happened in Colorado. Ted Cruz did not go in there and wine and dine or threaten or whatever a bunch of people that were gonna vote for Trump and convince them to vote for him. Not in any way, shape, manner, or form. It\u2019s not what happened in any of these states.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, I\u2019ll tell you something else. There\u2019s one little other thing to add here. Let\u2019s say — just pretend here that all of these efforts that Ted Cruz is making to win on a second or third ballot, let\u2019s skip forward and say that it happened, all right? Whew. First ballot, nobody gets 1,237. Go to second ballot, and all of this work that Cruz has done in securing delegates in his favor gives him 1,245 delegates on the second ballot. I don\u2019t think anybody understands the blowback that would happen from the Trumpsters. <\/p>\n

If that ever happens, we are gonna see a nuclear explosion like you\u2019ve never seen before. Because if they think what\u2019s happened now is cheating and rigging the game, with Trump leading everything and nobody even close to him throughout the entire primary process — and nobody gets closer than 300 delegates, and then somehow on the first ballot he doesn\u2019t get to 1,237, maybe he gets to 1,150 — and they don\u2019t let him have it, and they go to the second ballot and all this work that Cruz has done produces 1,250 and he wins it on the second ballot?<\/line><\/p>\n

Holy smokes! The blowback that will happen then, the backlash? That will be the end of the Republican Party. There are results. There is… I mean, there are consequences to all this. I\u2019m not speaking about any of this in a vacuum, folks. All of it has consequences. That…? Whew! I shudder to think. That would end up being one of the most dramatic political conventions ever to be on TV. It might make the Watts and Rodney Riots look like Romper Room when it was all over, if something like that actually happened. But that is all Cruz can do.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the only chance he\u2019s got. <\/p>\n

He can\u2019t get to 1,237. <\/p>\n

The only chance he\u2019s got is second or third ballots. It\u2019s the only chance Reagan had in 1976. And it\u2019s not because anything\u2019s illegal. Everybody\u2019s taking advantage of the rules. But if that were to happen? I shudder to think the backlash that would happen because there wouldn\u2019t be any amount of… The words would not be there to explain to people what happened. It would just be seen as straight highway robbery right out in broad daylight, and people wouldn\u2019t put up with it. It would be… You wouldn\u2019t want to be near Cleveland if that scenario actually manifested. You wouldn\u2019t want to be in Ohio if that happened.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. Now, just one more time just so you all know that I know where you\u2019re coming from; I know where the breakdown is. In my example of San Cordoba (my made-up state), Trump wins it, okay? And you don\u2019t understand how in the world ever Cruz could win it. He didn\u2019t get the votes. “How could he ever win? The people in San Cordoba voted for Trump, so how can Cruz ever win San Cordoba at a convention?” You think it\u2019s a violation of the vote. “There\u2019s no way. Cruz lost the votes. How does losing votes equal winning a state?” <\/p>\n

I understand your reaction to this. “It\u2019s not fair!” I can hear you shouting it, but it\u2019s all about the delegate-selection process. And as I\u2019ve said… If I\u2019ve said it once, I\u2019ve said it awe thousand times. Here is 1,001. Every state on the first ballot must vote the way the popular vote in the state went. That\u2019s why the number of 1,237 is so important, \u2019cause whoever can get there in the primary process, it\u2019s over before you get to the convention.<\/p>\n

If somebody gets 1,237 delegates before the convention, it\u2019s over. But if nobody gets there before the convention, the first ballot is going to show nobody getting 1,237, unless there are 200 unbound delegates of that 1,237. So if somebody can go in there and manipulate whatever they need on the first ballot and maybe not have won a state but get enough delegates from that state on the first ballot… You\u2019re just gonna have to trust me on this. There isn\u2019t any cheating, and nobody\u2019s going in and convincing people pledged to vote for Trump not to vote for him. <\/p>\n

That is not — and what\u2019s happening is, I think you\u2019ve got a lot of people in the media spreading all this just to incite people, just to get \u2019em all fired up and charged up and just spread this narrative that there\u2019s cheating going on, when either they don\u2019t understand it or they want the fireworks. They want charged-up and angry callers calling in, raising hell for the sake of it, to get ratings or what have you. Anyway, back to the phones because we\u2019ve got lots of people want to weigh in on this. Up next is Myra in New York City. Great to have you, Myra. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hey, Rush. So excited to talk to you.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I have called I-don\u2019t-know-how-many times. I\u2019ve been a long-time listener, and I was actually gonna call you because you just said what I wanted you to say, and what I wanted you to say is that there are… Everybody from Breitbart in the morning to my friend that I\u2019m disappointed in, fellow New Yorker Sean Hannity, they\u2019re inciting people to feel that there\u2019s cheating, where they can easily point like you did to Colorado and the fact that they made a decision that they weren\u2019t gonna become, you know, insignificant or what happened with Santorum. They were all bound to vote for him, and they changed their own rules, and that\u2019s the reality. <\/p>\n

I mean, whether you like it or not, I think Cruz\u2019s ground game is second to none and it demonstrates the incredible president he\u2019s gonna be. I\u2019ll vote for Trump if he winds up being the nominee; I\u2019m a New Yorker. But the reality is, you need somebody that really can intellectually pull together the government in a manner that\u2019s constitutionally tilted, and there\u2019s only one guy that can do it — and it\u2019s not about being a Cruz bot. It\u2019s about the fact that he\u2019s demonstrating it. And there is no cheating here. And what my challenge to you is, I really think you can\u2019t let go of this topic. You have to repeat this every day, as boring as it may seem to you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Oh, jeez. Don\u2019t do that to me. That\u2019s Purgatory, to have to explain this each and every day. Because I\u2019m gonna tell you: This is one of those topics that people don\u2019t want to hear. They have their comfort level in what they think about what\u2019s going on, and if I come along and challenge the comfort level they have, they get mad at me — and I\u2019ve been explaining this for months. I was one of the first ones to discuss the entire delegate selection process and how it has nothing to do with the primary, nothing whatsoever to do with the primary president delegates have nothing to do with the vote on primary day, absolutely not a diddly-squat thing, other than how they are required to vote on the first ballot. But who they are, the primary does not determine who the delegates are. The primary, after the primary, nobody knows who the delegates are. <\/p>\n

Anyway, Myra, I appreciate very much. Thanks. <\/p>\n

Here is Jeff in Summit, New Jersey. You\u2019re next. It\u2019s great to have you with us. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: It\u2019s great to be here, Rush. Thank you.<\/p>\n

RUSH: You bet.<\/p>\n

CALLER: I\u2019ve been listening to you since my brother introduced you to me on a golf trip to South Carolina in 1991, and you have been the gift that keeps on giving ever since.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I really do. Thank you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Listen, on this issue of irate Trump supporters who don\u2019t seem to like this process of Cruz negotiating for delegates on the second and possibly the third round. First of all, the will of the people is not being thwarted here because as far as I can tell, Trump — who gets 37, 38, maybe even 39% of the overall vote so far — is certainly not the will of the majority.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Yeah, you can look at… It works both ways. Exactly. Trump got 60% of the vote in New York and 95% of the delegates. What\u2019s fair about that? It works both ways.<\/p>\n

CALLER: That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Nobody complains about that. Nor am I.<\/p>\n

CALLER: The Trump people don\u2019t complain about it, and certainly you don\u2019t hear Cruz complaining about it because he understands that this is the system. But it\u2019s also not his style to whine and complain the way Trump does. That\u2019s part and parcel of his persona so far. What\u2019s, I think, even more critical here is that this is a deal-making process that Ted Cruz has engaged in, and if Donald Trump is the supreme dealmakers, as he\u2019s told us many, many times, that he can make better deals than anybody else, this process should be right up Trump\u2019s alley, should be right in his wheelhouse. Even if he comes close on the first round and doesn\u2019t get the nomination, he should be out there making his great deals and locking up the delegates for the second round such that Cruz and Kasich could be left in the dust. If he\u2019s such a great dealmaker. But it looks as though Ted Cruz is I much about either deal maker than Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, that\u2019s… I\u2019m not prepared to concede that. I think Trump just never… I don\u2019t think Trump got into this. Trump was winning this a different way. This was the shotgun approach. Trump was winning this with national media. It was a national swarm. It was national popularity. It was just a giant wave. The Trump phenomenon is and was a wave, and it\u2019s like a tsunami, swallowing everything. And it\u2019s gonna take everything along with it, and it\u2019s so big and so powerful that he\u2019s not going to have to go to these state conventions.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not gonna have to negotiate and get involved with delegate selection because he\u2019s gonna win it long before the convention. I\u2019m sure that was the Trump strategy. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s what the Trump camp intended to happen. It\u2019s not a criticism of them, either. I can understand their thinking on this. I mean, the Trump campaign has to be an amazing thing to be part of. It\u2019s very, very rare the air being breathed in the Trump campaign to have this kind of a national impact to be at the focus of attention in this way. It\u2019s really, really heady stuff, and Trump is blessed with supreme confidence and I think believes that he\u2019s going to win this thing with the power of his personality and the power of his existence.<\/line><\/p>\n

And I believe that\u2019s how he believes he wins in everything that he does. <\/p>\n

He has other people that roll up the sleeves, get down and do the nitty-gritty and stuff. He keeps up with the details on it. If he\u2019s needed in the nitty-gritty, he gets down there and does it, but he\u2019s got a whole staff of people. He does hire the best people that he can hire. I just don\u2019t think he made the effort here. That\u2019s again not a criticism. The reason Cruz did, it\u2019s the only chance he\u2019s had. Cruz, it was very clear. Once Cruz did not sweep the evangelical states, it was very clear Cruz was not gonna get to 1,237. The Cruz strategy blew up on them early. The Cruz strategy actually blew up when Trump got in the race. <\/p>\n

When Trump got in the race, that kind of screwed up everybody, including Jeb, but that divided the Republican vote in ways that nobody had planned on it being divided, and so everybody had to make alterations on the fly, in reaction to Trump. Trump was leading and running far away ahead of everybody. There was no reason for Trump to go into these states, start wining and dining delegates. He wasn\u2019t going to have to. <\/p>\n

By the way, you Trump people, I understand emotionally how you feel about this. A, your guy is the outsider. B, you don\u2019t look at Cruz as an outsider. To you, Cruz is as much an insider as anybody else is, \u2019cause he\u2019s in the Senate. He\u2019s an elected Republican. He\u2019s been in the Bush administration; he\u2019s been in Texas government. He\u2019s an insider, no matter what he says. And he\u2019s working with the other insiders and doing all these delegate games, and I can see how you would think that it\u2019s a bunch of insiders conspiring against the outsider, Mr. Trump, to deny him what he has earned. <\/p>\n

I know that\u2019s how it appears to you, but that\u2019s not specifically what is happening. I don\u2019t want to repeat myself, but Cruz is simply doing the only thing left to him, to win this, and that\u2019s win delegates on a second or third or even fourth ballot. And the odds that we\u2019re gonna get to a second, third, or fourth ballot, nobody knows. Depends on who you talk to. But there is nobody that knows right now. There\u2019s not a single person that knows what\u2019s actually going to happen here, which is why everybody\u2019s having to plan for whatever contingency or series of contingencies that they can imagine taking place and being ready for them. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Here is Amanda in Atlanta. Great to have you with us. Hi.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi. Longtime listener, first-time caller.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Great to have you with us, Amanda.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay. The reason why I called was in 2012 I was a state delegate to the Georgia convention, and what a lot of listeners probably don\u2019t realize \u2019cause they don\u2019t get involved at the local level and then go through to the state level, is that while it\u2019s not necessarily cheating, a lot of underhanded things do go on. We saw firsthand how rules were changed and implemented specifically to reduce the impact of the Ron Paul supporters, and we were at the convention for many, many hours —<\/p>\n

RUSH: See, folks, that is an excellent point. A lot of this stuff, like Rule 40(b) that we\u2019ve all talked about this year, rule 40(b) states that a candidate cannot win the nomination unless he wins a majority of delegates in eight states. That\u2019s rule 40(b). That\u2019s from 2012. That rule was written in 2012 to stop Ron Paul from pulling some chicanery with Romney. There are going to be rules written at this year\u2019s convention. There\u2019s a rules committee at every convention. There\u2019s gonna be a platform. There\u2019s gonna be delegate rules, all kinds of rules that will be written that govern this convention. <\/p>\n

Now, normally what happens is that, in an average campaign year, the nominee is known before the convention. The nominee wins enough primaries early enough so that the nominee is in charge of all that. The nominee becomes the de facto head of the party, and the nominee gets to determine who heads the committees, what the rules are gonna be, what the platform\u2019s gonna be. The convention ends up being a mirror of the nominee. It\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been. It\u2019s just the way it\u2019s always been. It\u2019s part of the power that accrues to winning. Didn\u2019t mean to use accrues. I\u2019m not talking Ted there. It\u2019s one of the benefits of winning is that you get to run the convention. <\/line><\/p>\n

Well, who\u2019s gonna do that, if nobody gets to 1,237 before the convention and there\u2019s not gonna be a nominee before the convention, therefore there\u2019s no nominee who gets to run it. Well, it\u2019s the RNC that\u2019s gonna run it. And then after a nominee is chosen, then the real meat and potatoes begins. Then the rule making and delegate selection process changes, party platform, all of that. Hardly any of it is ever, ever seen. It\u2019s all backstage stuff. It\u2019s always been backstage stuff. Trump just happens to be exposing a lot of it in this campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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