RUSH: This is last night in the debate. This is the moderator Jacob Tapper. “In an interview last week in Rolling Stone magazine, Donald Trump said the following about you. Quote, ‘Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?’ Mr. Trump later said he was talking about your persona, not your appearance. Please feel free to respond what you think about his persona.”

FIORINA: It’s interesting to me. Mr. Trump said that he heard Mr. Bush very clearly and what Mr. Bush said. I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.

AUDIENCE: (applause)

TRUMP: I think she’s got a beautiful face, and I think she’s a beautiful woman.

RUSH: Okay. “I think she’s got a beautiful face. I think she’s a beautiful woman.” As I mentioned to you, Gloria Borger was not pleased at all at all about this. Last night after the debate on Anderson Cooper 360.

COOPER: How big a mistake do you think it was for Donald Trump to come back —

BORGER: Terrible.

COOPER: — to Carly Fiorina and say, “Actually, I think you have a beautiful face”?

BORGER: Terrible. First rule of holes: Stop digging. That’s what I think. I mean, it was so patronizing.

RUSH: It was not sincere, she’s saying. It was patronizing. He didn’t mean it. He should have stuck with what he originally said and not said anything, let the applause go by and just let it sort of fade away on its own rather than give it more food, give it more energy by saying, “Beautiful face, beautiful this.” Now, this may be a generational thing. My guess is that depending on the age of the person, you’re gonna find a difference of opinion here.

Some people are gonna think that what Trump did was a valiant attempt at apologizing, covering up a mistake. Others are gonna agree with Gloria Borger that it was an absolute patronizing comment and he shouldn’t have said it ’cause it doesn’t look like he really means it or any of that. Then on the Today Show today Savannah Guthrie said, “When you say that women in this country heard who Donald Trump said and knew what he meant, let me push you on that a little farther: What do you think women heard when Donald Trump said that about you?”

FIORINA: Women are still caricatured and scrutinized and criticized differently. And I think it’s only a woman who would be criticized for her appearance while running for the highest office in the land. And so I think women know that. Women deal with that every day, and so I think women understood.

RUSH: You know, I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe publicly voiced, there might be something to it. But how many…? (interruption) What are you ta…? (interruption) What do you mean there might…? (interruption)What are you arguing? (interruption) You don’t even know what I’m gonna say yet! (interruption) Okay. Then let me… (interruption)I know. The fat jokes with Christie. This was gonna be my point, but now we’ve reached another obscene profit break. So keep your pants up, folks.

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RUSH: So Gloria Borger’s all offended. Look at who she’s offended at. So here’s Donald Trump, says something about Carly Fiorina’s face. Then he’s called on it, does a flip-flop and says she’s beautiful. Gloria Borger is righteously indignant. If you don’t want to get indignant, don’t ask the question. You know, deal with the debate moderator here. You guys got exactly what you wanted in that exchange, and then to complain about getting it is kind of disingenuous to me.

This is what bothers me about the Drive-Bys. They knew exactly what they wanted last night. They wanted exactly what happened. And then they get it and they start complaining about it. “It was pandering.” Meanwhile, the genuine horn-dog-in-chief is out there skating along happily, mindlessly with no criticism whatsoever, and that’s William Jefferson Clinton. And the same people bothered by whatever Trump did or didn’t say and then came back and didn’t say or did say, are the same people that applaud Bill Clinton, marvel at what a great guy he is. It’s a double standard that continues to irritate me left and right. If you don’t want the answer, Ms. Borger, if you don’t like it, then don’t go there. “I thought it was terribly pandering.” What did you think was gonna happen when that comes up?

This is what bothers me about these people. This is what bothers me about choosing CNN as a venue, although I don’t know where you go now to do one of these debates, but you gotta know certain things are gonna happen at CNN. One of the things that is gonna happen is exactly what happened. This debate was designed to make as many of those people on the stage look foolish as possible. A(interruption) No, I don’t want to hear about me hosting it. Don’t want to go there. I wouldn’t be any good at it. You people that want me to host one of the things have got to get over it. I wouldn’t be any good at it. Because I don’t want to do it and if you don’t want to do something, you’re not gonna do it well.

I have no desire to do it. Believe me, just believe me. It wouldn’t work. I couldn’t keep my own opinions out of it. I’d end up dominating the damn thing. It would be panned. It would be ripped to shreds. I’d destroy the debate, I couldn’t do it. I’m not that curious anyway. What I think is what counts and that’s what I’m looking for, other people who agree with me. I’m not looking for people to change my mind on something. I know I’m right. I spent my life arriving at the conclusions I have on the things that matter. I don’t want to subject myself to something to try to change my mind. What do I want to do that for?

“It’s not what it’s about, Mr. Limbaugh. You’re there to have those people’s opinions spread and you’re to elucidate what they think.” I already know what they think. Anyway. I’m just telling you, I’m flattered. Snerdley tells me Twitter was afire last night with this suggestion. In Snerdley’s world Twitter being afire could be five tweets — (laughing) — if they are about me.

Now, seriously, folks, here you have the Carly Fiorina and Trump situation, and everybody knew — they didn’t know when — but everybody knew it was gonna happen. And for the media to start, “Oh, I really don’t like that. That’s just terrible.” If you don’t like what the answer’s gonna be then don’t even go there. It’s kind of disingenuous. You sit there and you build it up and you telegraph it, get all excited, can’t wait for the debate to happen. Then when it does and exactly what you want to happen happens, “Oh, oh, that’s such a horrible answer.” What did you think was gonna happen? Did you think Trump was gonna continue to insult her when it came up? Maybe they did. Maybe that’s what they were trying to. I don’t know.

But despite that, these people looked good last night. Folks, whenever there’s conservatism on display, genuine passionate conservatism, I’m happy. And it was all over the place last night, despite whatever efforts there were to make these people look bad. You talk about being bombarded on Twitter. My e-mail was bombarded with people that thought this debate was great last night compared to other debates that they have seen. They thought this was fabulous last night.

And you know why? If there was one common theme in all the e-mail praise that I got about this, it was that the candidates were allowed to speak. That there weren’t a whole lot of assertions of time limit expiration and that kind of thing. And that’s probably a pretty good observation.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The looks thing, let me delve into that right now. This whole business… Here, grab sound bite nine. This will help me get into it. This is Today Show today. Savannah Guthrie was interviewing Fiorina. “When you say that women in this country heard what Donald Trump said and knew what he meant, let me push you on that a little further: ‘What do you think women heard when Trump said that about you and your face?'”

FIORINA: Women are still caricatured and scrutinized and criticized differently, and I think it’s only a woman who would be criticized for her appearance while running for the highest office in the land. And so I think women know that. Women deal with that every day, and so I think women understood.

RUSH: I don’t think it has the slightest thing to do with running for the presidency. People make fun of people running for the presidency and their looks all the time. If it weren’t for editorial cartoonists, where would we be? Editorial cartoonists lampoon the way people look every day. One of the best at it is Michael Ramirez. Michael Ramirez does some of the best editorial cartoons in this country. They’re all made up of caricatures of people’s appearances. It’s not just women.

This is not to defend Trump, but how many people have made fun of Trump’s hair? How many people have made fun of Trump’s glare and lack of smiling. People’s appearance is commented on all the time. People are laughing at Bernie Sanders’ appearance. If they’re not laughing about it, they’re commenting on it. The simple fact of the matter is what Trump did in commenting on Carly Fiorina was violate something in the appropriate-inappropriate area that’s not contained exclusively in politics. It’s just considered, in polite society, that when one sees an Uglo-American, one doesn’t say so.

Whether you’re in politics or whether you’re at the bowling ally. Of course, at a bowling ally you just don’t say it. And that was the violation at Trump. It’s not that she’s running for president why you don’t say it. And there’s another reason why you don’t say it. And I’m not talking about Fiorina and Trump here. I’m talking in general. Another reason why you don’t say it is especially if it’s true, you don’t say it. That’s what’ll kill you. Now, deny that. You can laugh on the other side of the glass all you want. I’m not talking about Trump-Fiorina. I’m talking about relations, relationships between people.

Folks, I can tell you, I wish I could name names, but I can’t. I’ve got good friends of mine, there’s no way they’re gonna support somebody in this field, no way. “Eyes are too close together.” No way, isn’t gonna happen, no matter what else. They openly tell me this. Now, if I were to name the people involved here, that would be inappropriate. I’m leaving you wondering hanging, whatever.

My only point is, people do this all the time. Why do women wear makeup? Why do women shave their legs? It’s all to improve their appearance, right? Is it not hopefully noticed? I mean, the effort is put in. Is it not so that people notice it? So you know people react to it. They comment on it, they see it, they register it. The inappropriateness is to describe it or talk about it or make reference to it, especially if it happens to be true. That’s what violates the rule.

All I’m saying is it’s not possible, just like this Democrat liberal pipe dream here. These are the people that run around and supposedly champion a colorblind society and they talk about seeing people for what they’re worth. They are the first people to judge and notice people on surface basis. Liberals are the first to notice if somebody’s male or female, the first to notice if somebody’s black or white, and then they judge them based on that alone. They’re the biggest hypocrites in the world on all that.

The fact of the matter is I don’t care, it’s never gonna happen. I am never not going to notice an attractive woman walking down the street or in a room. Sorry, you’d have to lobotomize me. You know why? Nature. It’s the way God made us. It just happens. And women are the same way, although maybe different characteristics. But you cannot legislate that. You can’t shame that. You can’t wipe that out of human behavior, human existence.

But I don’t think Ms. Fiorina is correct here to say that she’s the only one who’s been made fun of because of the way she looks. It happens to everybody, and it happens to a lot of men. And not just running for office. I mean, I’ve had books written about the way I look. It happens. I never whined, moaned, cried a tear about it all.

Anyway, I gotta take a break here, but I’m gonna dovetail from that into some of the high points for Fiorina as I heard it last night in the debate, some of her comments.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: To the phones we go, as I stated, George in San Francisco. Welcome, sir, to the EIB Network. Hi.

CALLER: Hello?

RUSH: Hey, George, how are you?

CALLER: Okay. I’m a little nervous. First off, I have to say mega dittos.

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

CALLER: Next is — well, I’m gonna preface it a bit because I’ve been listening to you from the beginning, and then you give me a five-minute lecture on being myself by talking about how good politicians do that. So I’m gonna try to not think of pink elephants here, but I think Donald Trump is just brilliant at taking them out of their game. And I think that’s exactly what he did with this thing about Fiorina and her appearance. When he answers her by saying, “I think you’re beautiful,” I think he’s just playing on the level. If you’re gonna deal on that level, it’s a PC thing, and he’s been bucking PC from the beginning.

RUSH: Yeah. Let me tell you how this whole thing started. It was at the end of a long day and Trump’s on his jet watching TV. And Fiorina pops up on TV. There’s some media people. He said (imitating Trump), “Look at that. You look at that. Who would ever vote for that.” It’s just Trump being Trump in a private moment, some media people heard it, it ends up being major news. He did not say it in a campaign appearance. He didn’t say it talking about her on a stump or any of that. He was sitting around watching TV after dinner on his jet after a long day. He was letting his hair down.

He made fun of how slow Scott Walker is at the same time. Yeah. But no outrage about that. I think the “she’s beautiful” thing last night, I could probably explain that. I don’t know that I should take the time to do it. I don’t think enough people would understand, given the heightened political correctness that exists today, but I don’t think he was trying to be offensive at all. I think it was his sort of lame way of trying to take it back.

Salvana in San Diego, you’re next, it’s great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Yes, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to make a comment about this Donald Trump-Fiorina issue. First of all, that’s not a big issue for me. But, anyway, my take on this is this. Fiorina is not really dealing with that issue. To me, it almost looks like she’s whining about it and looking for sympathy from other women. Look how mean Donald Trump is for me. He’s speaking on my looks. To me, dealing with it would be for her to be strong, stand up and say, “Yeah, I’m an ugly broad, but what that means is that I got where I am not based on my looks or anything else on the outside, my skin color, my ethnicity, any of that stuff. I got where I am based on what I have inside, my spirit, my intelligence, strength of my character. That’s what matters. Not if somebody thinks that I’m beautiful or not.”

RUSH: All right, so let me go back to the beginning of what you said. You think that she’s beginning to play the gender card here and it doesn’t make you comfortable, right?

CALLER: Correct. Yeah. It doesn’t make me happy at all. I want to see a strong woman that doesn’t get rattled by stuff like, “Oh, you’re ugly.” That’s small stuff.

RUSH: Yeah, but you don’t really expect her to stand up there and say, “Okay, look, let’s be honest, I’m an ugly broad” like you said?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: You don’t think she’s gonna stand up there and say that?

CALLER: But I think she would win over a lot of women. It would be funny. It would show how self-confident she is.

RUSH: Well, okay, I’ll give you an example. You know when the question came up about putting a woman on the dollar bill, you remember that in the debate?

CALLER: Yes, I do yes.

RUSH: And everybody said, “I would put my mother. I would put my first daughter. I would put Margaret Thatcher.” And here comes the woman, and you know what she said?

CALLER: She said that she wouldn’t change the bill.

RUSH: Right, don’t screw with it. We don’t need to be changing our history, for crying out loud, and what does it matter? Why do we need to pander to women, and yet you think she is by playing this gender card and I can tell you what you’re saying. You think she’s trying to get sympathy from other women, right? You don’t like it.

CALLER: I don’t, yes.

RUSH: All right. Well, so you weren’t that impressed with that, then, at the end of the whole thing?

CALLER: No. And, you know, neither one of those two, I’m not Donald Trump, I’m not Fiorina.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah.

CALLER: I’m still kind of looking. I have another candidate that I’m interested in, but I’m still kind of relatively fluid.

RUSH: Okay, good. Well, that’s perfectly fine this far out. You still got a lot of candidates to be fluid with, or about, until you have to make up your mind out there. But this business that only women get made fun of in presidential politics, come on, that’s not true.