{"id":4264,"date":"2016-02-05T19:09:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T19:09:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-02-05T19:09:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T19:09:07","slug":"don_t_misunderstand_me_on_rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/02\/05\/don_t_misunderstand_me_on_rubio\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Misunderstand Me on Rubio"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

RUSH: I\u2019m gonna state it again. I shouldn\u2019t have to do this. I run the risk of doing this and even sounding a certain way. I wish, sometimes, you all could see the e-mail that I get after any given show, because it\u2019s routinely filled with people either thanking me or really, really mad at me for either being for their candidate or not being for their candidate. And it changes day to day. I can\u2019t tell you the number of people who are sending me notes warning me about Rubio. <\/p>\n

But I am also getting e-mail from all over the world, “Hey, Rush, I like what you said about Rubio.” Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, San Francisco, San Diego, you name it, all over the place. I haven\u2019t endorsed anybody. All I am, folks… It\u2019s very simple to understand me. I\u2019m one of the most easily understood, \u2019cause I tell you everything I believe and think. I just don\u2019t believe in excommunicating people from our movement. I have never liked this idea that we have this tendency to throw people out, throw people overboard. Not just for a cycle, but forever.<\/line><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about people on our side. We are not talking about reprobate ne\u2019er-do-wells, and I just… Well, it just bugs me when I see otherwise.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I mentioned earlier that all of the… I don\u2019t know what they call it. I just call it the reaction that I am getting after having spoken up for Marco Rubio the other day, not as an endorsement. I just spoke up for him as those of you who are listening heard. Yeah, here it is. Grab sound bites 22, 23, and 24. I\u2019m hearing from a lot of people, “Rush, you know, Rubio, he\u2019s just Romney. Don\u2019t you understand that? Romney and Obamacare, Rubio and the Gang of Eight.” Folks, my attitude on all this… I\u2019m only going into this because I don\u2019t want to be misunderstood here. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t endorse people. I never have endorsed in a primary, and people think that I should. But I don\u2019t because of all the reasons I\u2019ve announced on prior occasions. There\u2019s more downside to it than up. I don\u2019t control their campaigns. I don\u2019t have anything to do with their policy positions or where they\u2019re gonna go from day to day. When you endorse somebody, you\u2019re pretty much locked into what they do unless they do something so bad you have to drop the endorsement. What good\u2019s that? That\u2019s not helpful. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Plus, I think the campaign is where the winners are determined, and I\u2019ve never lived under the illusion that it\u2019s the job of the media to pick candidates, either the Drive-By Media or us. So my only thing with Rubio was, actually, I started receiving some e-mails and just listening to people talk what a rotten guy he was. And I know he\u2019s not a rotten guy. I just… To me, it\u2019s no more complicated than not wanting to throw people overboard forever, to excommunicate them forever. You can disagree with them, you can say whatever you want if you think they\u2019re potentially dangerous. <\/p>\n

Many people think Rubio is not conservative. “He\u2019s a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing! He\u2019s gonna be no different than Romney. And you wait, Rush! It\u2019s gonna all be proven \u2019cause he\u2019s gonna end up being the establishment candidate, and they\u2019re gonna use him. They\u2019re gonna try to defeat Cruz,” and so forth. It may well be. But none of this is a secret to anyone. I have spoken admirably of all kinds of people in this race. I have great admiration for many of them — and any of them, to me, are preferable to Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or whoever else. <\/p>\n

And I just worry about that some of these people can get so damaged in the primary that they don\u2019t have a chance if they end up getting the nomination down the road. So I wasn\u2019t trying to stir anything up. I wasn\u2019t trying to take momentum away from anybody or transfer it to anybody. There was no grand scheme or design here, and I\u2019m only mentioning this \u2019cause you can\u2019t believe the number of well-intentioned people who are reaching out to me saying I may not have realized what I have done or I may not have realized what I had said, or I might want to rethink.<\/p>\n

“Did you know this? Did you know that?”<\/p>\n

So I just wanted to say, “Yes, I know what I did and I know why I did it. I said why I did it. I also know what I didn\u2019t do. I didn\u2019t endorse anybody, and I never do and never have.” Now, that\u2019s a whole other argument, too, because I have a whole lot of people telling me that I should. If there\u2019s somebody so far and away, runaway better that you ought to not just leave it up to the process because you can influence the process. “You ought to get in there and roll up your sleeves and just tell us who to vote for. Tell us who you like. Tell us.” <\/line><\/p>\n

And sometimes, I must tell you, the temptation is great. But it\u2019s not as though I\u2019m sitting here not telling you what I think. I don\u2019t hold back what I think of people or events or policy or certain things that happen here. I also happen to assume that everybody in this audience is capable of making up their own mind, and that you usually do without me telling you what to think. I\u2019m not the one that thinks of you as robots incapable of thinking on your own. That is what the Democrats try to characterize the audience at talk radio as. <\/p>\n

And I know it\u2019s not the case. <\/p>\n

Anyway, it has become a quite frequent discussion topic on cable news — and in many instances, it\u2019s at Fox News. So let\u2019s go to the audio sound bites, here. We\u2019ll start at number 22. This is The Five yesterday. And… No, I take it back. The first one is from Gretchen Carlson\u2019s show yesterday afternoon called The Real Story. And she\u2019s speaking with the political editor at TownHall.com, Guy Benson, about Rubio\u2019s campaign. She said, “A label that Rubio has been given — and I think it\u2019s fascinating because maybe in any other race, he wouldn\u2019t be given this label. But he\u2019s called a moderate. Where do you see that going?”<\/p>\n

BENSON: He got a much needed vote of confidence this week. Rush Limbaugh on his number-one-rated radio program just went out there and said, “Look, I don\u2019t like this idea that people are calling Rubio ‘establishment.\u2019 He is a full-throated, legitimate Reagan conservative.” That is a very welcome sound bite for the Rubio campaign.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. Now, the reaction to that — and there has been much. I mean, coming my way. “What do you mean, Reagan conservative? W-w-w-w-what do you mean Reagan? Reagan, amnesty?” Wait a minute, now. Reagan, amnesty? Yeah. I wasn\u2019t thinking of that when I said it, but there was the Simpson-Mazzoli bill, but be careful what you say to me, because when I think Reagan-conservative… Did you see Rubio\u2019s speech? I\u2019ve even had people complaining, “Rubio, do you know what he did? He went out there and he acted like he won after the Iowa caucus. How dare he!”<\/p>\n