RUSH: This is interesting, too. Let me give you two headlines here side by side. Over on Yahoo News, this is from I think Saturday, so it’s a weekend story. “Clinton’s Support Slides Ahead of First Democratic Debate — Just days before she will take the stage in the first Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton’s lead over rival Bernie Sanders has narrowed, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Clinton’s support among Democratic voters fell 10 points within less than a week.” She is literally plummeting in poll after poll after poll.
It’s a Reuters story, but if it’s at Yahoo News that’s where the low-information crowd picks it up. And just as an aside, NBC News has to be really disappointed after all they did for Hillary during the week. Did you hear that the comedienne Amy Schumer, who hosted Saturday Night Live, openly said how disappointed and frustrated she was that during the show whenever Hillary’s name came up or whenever Hillary was impersonated or whatever it’s included in the show that there was hardly any applause for her, and she was upset by that?
She was embarrassed. She was upset that there wasn’t more support for Hillary in a Saturday Night Live audience. And I’m saying NBC overall has gotta be somewhat disturbed, too. I mean, they pulled out all the stops trying to save Hillary, trying to help Hillary, trying to make Hillary look human, trying to make her look like she’s something other than a robot. They had that Saturday Night Live appearance. Anyway, here’s Reuters. “Clinton’s Support Slides Ahead of First Democratic Debate.”
Over here at the New York Times, the headline is: “From Donald Trump, Hints of a Campaign Exit Strategy.” Trump’s numbers continue to rise. Trump’s numbers once again are rising. One of the untold stories of recent Republican polling is that Carly Fiorina has now dipped to below double digits. The only two in double digits that remain are Trump and Ben Carson, who, by the way, is enmeshed in his own silly controversy. You know what Ben Carson had the temerity to say? He said if the Jews had had guns, that the holocaust might have turned out differently. And people are reacting to that like it’s the most insane, ludicrous thing anybody’s ever said.
You know, I’m wondering if people have forgotten what happened in Warsaw when the Jews were summarily overtaken? Ben Carson’s exactly right, but it’s more profound. These people are treating his comment as absolutely sophomoric. He’s so out of touch, so unprepared, so unqualified, what kind of an idiot would say anything like this, and yet all he did was utter blatant common sense. It stands to reason that had the Jews been armed, the Nazis would have had a little bit more trouble. They would have had some resistance. It’s common sense.
The reason I think the left and the media is going nuts is because they’re taking that comment and they’re transposing it into the current climate of the American debate on guns. And they’re thinking, what would Jews today want guns for? Carson’s a nutcase. And you never invoke Hitler. You don’t bring Hitler up. You just don’t do it. That’s political neophyte stuff. But the facts, Carson’s exactly right. Anyway, my point here is Donald Trump is either holding steady or back to gaining ground. He is undergoing a bit of a transformation on the stump now too that is one of a bit more substance, discussion of issues. Some of the theatrics have been dialed back, they’re still there, and his support is becoming more solid and broad-based. And yet the New York Times has this story: “From Donald Trump, Hints of a Campaign Exit Strategy,” despite the fact that Trump said he’s not going anywhere. Trump has said: I’m not going anywhere. I’m not getting out. Why are you even asking me this? I’m not the guy down 10 points. I’m not the guy that ought to be indicted. You’re asking the wrong person. I’m not getting out. And yet there they are.
“In unmistakable ways over the last two weeks, whether he has intended to or not, Donald J. Trump has started to articulate a way out of the presidential race: a verbal parachute that makes clear he has contemplated the factors that would cause him to end his bid.” Now, never mind that for a week Trump has insisted the Drive-Bys are mistaken and that he has no exit strategy whatsoever. Never mind that as John Heilemann at Bloomberg said on MSNBC three days ago, if Jeb Bush had Trump’s numbers, everybody would declare the race over. Nobody would be talking about an exit strategy if these were Jeb Bush’s numbers.
Nobody is talking about an exit strategy except the Drive-Bys, who have it I guess in their guts that Trump has never been serious, he isn’t serious, all of this is for a reason that we don’t know yet, but he’s never intended to win this, he never intended to stay in it all the way, he’s never intended to get the nomination. And so they believe, they’ve talked themselves into believing that Trump is in the middle of some kind of stunt here. They haven’t quite figured out what it is, but at some point he’s gonna get out. So that becomes the narrative, if you will, or the template around which the coverage of Trump is written and broadcast. So now even though Trump had not said a word about getting out, they think they’ve heard him say so.
Meanwhile, over here you have Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is just shedding support. It is just abandoning her in droves. And not a single story about the possibility that Mrs. Clinton might get out of the race. And the Drive-Bys believe they’re fooling everybody. That’s the funny thing about this. You know, finally there has been so much education about the Drive-Bys, so many people much more informed about them than ever. It’s not a majority yet. But if you take a look at polling data on respected professions and respected people in those professions, people in journalism are just near the bottom, they’re in the tank in terms of respect. Another indication in the polling data is people don’t believe what they hear and so forth. They still they wield a lot of power, so I’m not under any illusions here. But it’s just amazing to watch them operate as though it’s 40 years ago and they’re still pulling the wool over everybody’s eyes.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: No, no, no, I know that Trump said he wouldn’t be in a race if he was losing, if the bottom dropped out of his poll numbers, but that was not an exit strategy. It was not, “Yeah, I’m waiting to get out of the race, when my numbers finally plummet, yeah.” That’s not what he was saying. I play golf a lot. I have no intention of quitting the game even though I threaten to every time I play. I was out playing golf one day with a couple of guys, nice guys, you’d know them both, they can’t hit the ball 150 yards off tee, and I said to the fourth in the group, “If I couldn’t hit 150 yards off the tee, I’d quit the game. What’s the point in coming out here, 150 yards off the tee, for crying out loud, that’s barely past the ladies’ tee.” But I wouldn’t quit the game.
Trump, they’ve been hounding him, “When are you gonna get out?”
“If my numbers tank, why stay in?” He was trying to insult the others. His point in making that claim was, “What are they still doing in here? These guys are 1%, 3%, 6%, what the hell. They don’t have a prayer. You need to be talking to them about getting out. If I was one of those guys, I’d get out,” and that became, they invented a whole story unto itself. “Trump: I will exit race if I am losing in poll.” And they kept it up. Like here at the New York Times in this story: “In three television interviews, Mr. Trump, who’s made his standing in the polls a simple facet of his campaign.” No, he’s not.
He was trying to point out that if he was lagging as far behind as some of the others, he wouldn’t waste his time. He’s talking about people like Lindsey Graham and Pataki, some of the others. “Mr. Trump spoke about what would prompt him to quit a race in which he’s currently leading in the polls. Trump said, ‘I’m not a masochist. If I were doing poorly, if I saw myself going down, stop calling me because you no longer have any interest in Trump ’cause he has no chance, I’d go back to my business.'” That has become Trump has exit strategy. So they’re creating a nonexistent, phony narrative. It’s how they do it.