RUSH: James in Ripley, Ohio, as we go to the phones, I’m glad you waited. You’re on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.
CALLER: How you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Good, sir. Thanks very much.
CALLER: Hey, I just wanted to call because I heard your interview with Donald Trump. And it excited me in that he has no need for fame or fortune, and it sounds to me like he wants to do what’s good for the country, good for the people — and I wanted to ask you put him back on and let’s hear some more from him.
RUSH: You want more from the Trumpster?
CALLER: Absolutely. We need some common sense, and he’s talking common sense. He’s talking truth. He has no agenda that I could see, you know, he just wants — and it’s all about the money. And we need a money man, and somebody who ain’t afraid to step on some toes.
RUSH: So you think he doesn’t need fame or fortune, so you think that his motives are pure?
CALLER: Well, yeah. I mean, why wouldn’t they be?
RUSH: Well, I’m not challenging you. I’m just asking you, ’cause it’s an interesting point. I know a lot of people, and I (sigh). I shouldn’t say this because I’m not saying it about Trump. I want you to understand this, but it’s a whole topic. You’ve kind of interested me with your point that some people could be satisfied with enough money or fame. Most people I know don’t have enough of each. Whatever amount they have they want more —
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: — and particularly fame. I don’t know much of anything more destructive than that, and it pains me when I see it. But I’m not talking about Trump at all. I don’t know if he’s satisfied with his level of fame or not, but I’m not questioning his sincerity about the ChiComs. He’s clearly irritated. He’s clearly irritated about what’s happening to the country. He’s clearly irritated with the leadership. So, all right, we’ll make a note: You want to hear more. I got a bunch of people here who want him to be guest host. I’ve got that, too. So we’ll put it in the hopper.
Jennifer in Bel Air, Maryland. Your turn. You’re next on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Rush, I’m nervous. My heart is in my throat so… (giggles) I am steamed about the Donald Trump interview, and I will tell you why. Mr. Trump is free to do whatever he wishes with his money; he can give it to anyone he wants. But my vote belongs to me, and if he thinks I’m gonna give it to him, he’s crazy. Basically this is why I feel this way.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: The connection of the Emanuel brothers, Rahm and his brother Ezekiel, to Obamacare legislation. I will not give my vote to anyone who supports the Emanuel brothers and the travesty that they brought us through Obamacare.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: Now, I remember. I’m pretty sure that you had on your show in the summer of 2009 when all the town hall protests were going on, the paper that Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel — I don’t even like to call him that because it’s just an outrage to me — wrote —
RUSH: Yeah, I know what you’re gonna talk about.
CALLER: Wrote about care for people and how it would be given to certain people and with help from other people and how that’s been worked into Obamacare. I’m sorry. Mr. Trump can say that he’s loyal and that that’s why he gave the money to Rahm’s mayoral campaign. I’m loyal, too, to my family and my fellow Americans — and we cannot go other places for health care. We will be stuck — or should I say stabbed in the back — with the Obamacare that the Emanuel brothers delivered to us. I don’t want to hear one thing that Donald Trump has the say.
RUSH: Well, I can’t argue with you about that. The whole health care business is an abomination, and I know Ezekiel was the guy really making the case for death panels. If you want to get right down to it, he was the guy arguing about that in totally impersonal terms what is the value of investment in giving health care to the aged —
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: — versus providing it to the young who are gonna be more productive with the care than somebody who’s at an advanced age. You know, Ari Emanuel is his agent for all of his television work, but in addition to that he did say that in Chicago there’s never going to be a Republican with a chance to win anything; and politics is what it is, and he’s got a bunch of projects in Chicago. I’m not trying to talk you out of anything, don’t misunderstand, but he did give another reason other than being loyal to Ari. But I’m not gonna disagree with you about that.
CALLER: Well, I would have — if I were him, obviously I’m not, but I would have — withheld my money and I would have given it to a much worthier cause. I’ll tell you what, so many people in the Tea Party — and I went to town hall protests in 2009. I live in Maryland’s First Congressional District, and we heard a lot of heated town hall debates here about the health care legislation. We are tired of politics-as-usual, and this is the same thing that we see all the time, especially from the Republican establishment. ‘I’ll do this but then behind the scenes I’ll do that,’ and we’re sick of it, and if that’s what he’s gonna do he’s not gonna get my vote.
RUSH: You’re basically talking about you want an ideologue. You want a conservative. You want somebody to whom that means something.
CALLER: That’s exactly right. (giggles) That’s exactly right.
RUSH: You just don’t think that Donald is a conservative. He’s not an ideologue. He’s a practical politician, ‘pragmatic’ or whatever you want to attach to it?
CALLER: I suppose, but I don’t view Obamacare as practical for any of us, and especially for those of us who are gonna be stuck with it. My father will be 84 this month, Rush. He is a World War II Navy veteran; he is on full-time dialysis. He is just the kind of guy that Ezekiel Emanuel would want to get rid of. And, I’ll tell you what: Not in my America. Absolutely not. I will not stand by and watching something like that be implemented on our seniors. I won’t stand by and watch it, and I cannot — cannot — from a conscientious point of view, support anyone who will back those who pushed this legislation on us. I can’t do it.
RUSH: I totally understand where you’re coming from, a hundred and fifty percent. I’m glad you called.
CALLER: Thank you.
RUSH: All right, that’s Jennifer. By the way, you didn’t sound nervous. Quite the opposite. You didn’t sound nervous. (interruption) They’re all applauding you, by the way, Jennifer, on the other side of the glass in there.