RUSH: Oh, my friends, the excitement is palpable today. So much going on. So much earth-shattering breaking news happening right before our very eyes and ears. It’s a huge day in the literary world because yet another Rush Limbaugh Rush Revere book is on the store shelves, and, in most cases, right up there at the front.
Great to have you with us, three hours of broadcast excellence straight ahead. The telephone number if you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
The Drive-By Media and even some in the conservative media are so excited they can barely stand it because of the latest polling data, both nationally and in Iowa. And depending on which networks you watch, you Trumpsters out there better prepare yourselves, because today it’s over. Trump has peaked and your best days are behind you. You better face the fact. That’s what you’re gonna be dealing with in the Drive-By Media all day today, through the Republican debate tomorrow and whenever the next set of polls come out.
Not only is Trump behind Ben Carson in Iowa by 14 points in one poll — it is a Monmouth College poll — Carson now leads Trump in the latest New York Times/CBS poll nationally. Ben Carson has edged ahead of Trump nationally and is way ahead in Iowa. The Hawkeye Cauci comes up on February 1st. That’s 97 days from now, and the Drive-Bys think it’s over. They think they’ve made it happen. There’s so much negative talking about Trump they’re patting themselves on the back throughout the media. There has been a lot of anti-Trump rhetoric out there and there have been a lot of people spending a lot of money.
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RUSH: Let’s do an audio sound bite just to flavor you, give you excitement here of the media, a flavor of how jazzed and jubilant they are over the latest polls showing Ben Carson jumping ahead of the Trumpster both in Iowa and the New York Times poll nationwide.
CHARLIE ROSE: Carson tops Trump as the new GOP frontrunner.
ROBIN ROBERTS: New polls this morning show Donald Trump falling behind.
TOM LLAMAS: For months Donald Trump seemed unstoppable, but this morning more proof his campaign is struggling.
SANDRA SMITH: Donald Trump falling to second place now in a new national poll.
CHRIS CUOMO: Breaking news. Ben Carson is surging ahead of Donald Trump for the first time, not just in Iowa, in a national poll.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: This new poll out half an hour ago is big news.
BRIAN KILMEADE: This is huge.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Carson opening up a double-digit lead on Donald Trump.
MICHAELA PEREIRA: Dr. Ben Carson is leading Donald Trump for the first time in a brand-new national poll. What’s happening to The Donald?
NORAH O’DONNELL: Trump has fallen out of the lead.
RUSH: Yeah. And they’re so excited about it ’cause they think they made it happen. They think they all did it with their constant negative coverage of Trump. They’re all kind of hanging the hat on their own heads as having the power and influence to do it. They’re chalking it up, they think maybe Trump went overboard with his comments on Ben Carson’s religion. But that’s a bit sketchy, I think.
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RUSH: Just a review of the headlines on the polling data. By the way, let me throw in: I imagine that many of you in the audience are Ben Carson supporters and you’re probably ecstatic and very happy, and I don’t blame you. But if you think the establishment’s gonna be happy just because — and, by the way, the establishment is going to tell themselves that Trump is finished now. I mean, they’ll publicly say the opposite. But privately, among themselves, they’re going to think that it’s over now. They’ve been waiting for this moment since the day Trump announced.
They’ve been waiting for any day that they can go beyond speculating when Trump is gonna implode or peak or level off. Now we’ve got polling data in three different locations that shows Carson up in Iowa and up a little bit nationally. That’s the New York Times/CBS poll. And they have been anticipating this like most people anticipate Christmas morning. They just have been waiting. They’re gonna think privately that this is it and mission accomplished, and they’re gonna be turning their attention to Carson.
They’re not gonna ignore Trump, but now they’ve convinced themselves that it can happen, that Trump is fallible, that Trump can be damaged. They’re gonna give themselves a lot of credit for it. And their own media partners. And I’m talking about conservative and liberal media. There’s a lot of conservative media opposed to Trump as well. And everybody is going to be patting themselves on the back and putting feathers in their caps, and the establishment is go back looking at Carson.
I just want to prepare you Carson supporters for something I know to be true. Well, I don’t know it to be true, but, I mean, I “know” it. The establishment types who want Jeb Bush — and if they don’t get Jeb, then I guess it’s Rubio they want. But they want their establishment candidate. They are going to tell themselves that it’s going to be 10 times easier taking Ben Carson out than Donald Trump. They are going to believe that Carson’s support, while it may be somewhat strong and while it may have some depth, is highly localized.
To Iowa, where Carson has been.
They’re going to tell themselves that Carson’s support is coming primary from the religious right and the Moral Majority organization that no longer exist, but the establishment hated them so much that in their own minds they’re still out there. The old Southern pro-lifers. Ben’s a Seventh-day Adventist, and so they’re gonna tell themselves that it’s the fundamentalist Christian wing that’s putting Carson on the top. They have made a mistake in assessing Trump’s strength. Trump’s strength has not been predominantly come from conservatives.
There are quite a few conservatives have been supporting Trump, but Trump’s support comes from a much broader base of the electorate. Moderates, independents, disaffected Democrats. That’s why early on, some people were comparing the Trump coalition to the Reagan coalition, ’cause Reagan also had what were called the Reagan Democrats. And they were largely blue-collar, disaffected Democrats fed up with Jimmy Carter and the entire economic situation brought about by Carter and his Democrat policies.
And the genuine and angry opposition to Trump has been taken out by the establishment on the conservative wing, by their own base. The establishment has believed it’s their base responsible for Trump. And there’s, again, clearly a significant number of conservatives supporting Trump; but that’s not the majority of his base of support. It’d be hard to identify a true majority that supports that broad base. Carson’s is more focused and is indeed more genuinely tied to what would be called the Republican base and conservative base that is tied to the…
I don’t want to name it, because it’s name-calling, but the religious and moral religious and moral aspect or part of the party that’s supporting Carson. They’re gonna… The point is the establishment’s gonna think that getting rid of Carson is gonna be easy compared to Trump. They look at Carson and they see somebody very low-key, not very excitable, not very passionate. They see his support as being highly localized. So they’re looking at this poll today or these series of polls as literally great news. They see it as the end of Trump, or at least Trump’s peak.
Now, they don’t see any of their own people rising. This is the one thing that they’re missing. They don’t see Bush gaining any ground, despite all of his money. They don’t see any of the other establishment candidates rising. I tell you, like I said yesterday, the guy lurking just beyond visibility who is raising tons of money from a broad-based group of people is Ted Cruz. I don’t know if I would attach dark horse status or label to Cruz. But Cruz is positioned extraordinarily well for whatever transpires between now and February 1st, which again is 97 days.
In 97 days, anything can happen.
Anything can happen.
Trump could regain the momentum. Who knows? He can continue to lose momentum, if in fact he is. Carson could, at any point, go a different direction. But the key to this is the establishment’s gonna think that they are making all of this happen. This is true of both establishments, Democrat and Republican. They do not think that you or anybody else in the public really makes up your own mind about anything. You’re all the product of influence.
You are either being influenced by me. You’re either being influenced by Fox News. You’re being influenced by something.
But you’re never, ever thinking on your own. And since they believe that, they’re going to believe that it was their outside influence and whatever they have been able to arrange in the media, anti-Trump, that has brought this about. They’re not gonna conclude, for example, that people on their own have tired of Trump. Now, they may say that in public, because they want you to think that they have a lot of regard for you, in this decision. When you make a decision or do something such as vote or respond to a poll in the way they want, they will praise your intelligence to the end of the world.
But secretly they don’t think you have any. Secretly, they don’t think so, and the proof of that is they don’t trust you to elect the right people, to support the right causes. They don’t trust the public on any of these things, which is why the moneyed people are the ones who are listened to. So the reason I’m making all of these various and disparate points is, the establishment’s gonna shoot themselves in the foot over this. They’re gonna mis-analyze it. They’re gonna get it wrong.
Their media acolytes are gonna be patting themselves on the back and once again missing why whatever is happening is happening. And that means their reaction to it is not going to be the best and the brightest. And they might… I’m starting to see signs of this in the media, that first sound bite I played for you. They’re already celebrating. We’re not even in third inning yet and they’re celebrating like the game’s over. And that’s always a death knell. So the thing for everybody to realize is that all of this is fluid and none of this is predictable, and there probably isn’t anybody who can tell you why any of this is happening right now.
But the establishment and their media types are gonna tell you they know exactly why all of this is happening. And of course every reason they give you is going to be a reason that would allow them to say, “As we suggested six months ago, six weeks ago, yesterday, last week,” whatever. They’re gonna position it so that they are the brains — the Svengalis, the experts — and it’s all happening as they knew it would, when they haven’t slightest idea what’s gonna happen tomorrow. But they will take every occasion they can to try to influence the outcome of these events.
And then when they get the outcome they want, why not claim credit? Here are some of the headlines. “Fox News Iowa Poll: Carson Leads Trump by 14.” Fox News is very happy about this. “Ben Carson has taken a commanding double-digit lead in Iowa, according to a new Republican presidential primary poll. Monmouth University released a survey Monday showing the retired neurosurgeon leading with 32% among caucus-goers. Trump registered with 18%.” That’s a huge. I mean, that’s way beyond margin of error, 32 to 18. You want to hear the explanation for this?
The explanation for this from the Drive-Bys is, “Well, you know, Hawkeye Cauci goers, Republican caucus attendees are really, really religious. Really, really rigid conservatives. They don’t like big talkers and flamboyant people that draw attention to themselves. They like Steady Eddie.” Really? If that’s the case, how come Trump was leading for so long among Republican Iowa caucus-goers? No, there’s more going on than just the mass supposition of what Republican caucus attendees want and don’t want. Now, to put this in perspective… Again, it’s the Monmouth University survey released yesterday: Carson 32, Trump at 18.
That’s a 14-point lead.
That’s Carson’s biggest lead to date, obviously.
Let me put this in perspective.
According to the latest CBS News poll, Trump and Carson are tied in Iowa. Trump is away ahead in New Hampshire, 38 to 12. And in South Carolina, Trump is even further ahead, at 40 to 23. Yet in the New York Times poll Trump and Carson is even. Carson’s a little bit ahead nationally, but in these early states, Trump is off the charts in the lead. New Hampshire and in South Carolina and the other states gonna make up the SEC primary back when we get into March. In the Monmouth University poll, Carson leads Trump by nine points among self-described very conservative voters and 21 points ahead of Trump among self-described somewhat conservative voters. So when you combine those two categories you have Carson leading Trump by 30 points among those who call themselves conservative, either “somewhat” or “very.”
So we’re told in the Monmouth poll that these voters in Iowa see Dr. Carson vastly more conservative than Donald Trump. Neither of them are as conservative as Ted Cruz. That is an important point to remember throughout this entire primary process, which is still in its early stages. The race in Iowa remains fluid. Just 19% of potential caucus-goers saying they actually completely decided on who they’ve supported. Only 19% are firm in who they support. So it’s all very fluid.
And on a side note, Mike Tyson just endorsed Trump. “Donald Trump just landed another heavyweight endorsement.” In a Monday interview with the Huffing and Puffington Post, the self-proclaimed “Baddest Man on the Planet,” Mike Tyson, endorsed Trump saying: “He should be president of the United States. A guy that came from where he came from –” His dad was only able to loan him a million bucks? “Doing what he’s doing in that field,” construction and real estate, “and now this is where he’s at now. You know what that means? That doesnÂ’t mean heÂ’s a bad guy and the people donÂ’t know what theyÂ’re doing, that means the people are tired of what youÂ’re doing,” and Trump is the guy. Mike Tyson, the latest Trumpster endorsement.
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RUSH: USA Today: “Republican Power Rankings: Ben Carson is the New King,” is the headline. “Ben Carson has overtaken Donald Trump for the first time in USA TODAYÂ’s GOP Power Rankings, deemed the strongest candidate in the Republican field this week by our panel of political experts.” You know the Drive-By Media and their experts. Their experts are routinely stumped every week when unemployment numbers are announced. Their experts are stumped every week when the world does not get warmer. So keep that in mind about USA Today’s experts.
“CarsonÂ’s rise in [the USA Today] rankings reflects recent Iowa polls showing him passing Trump in the critical first-in-the-nation Hawkeye State.” You know, just imagine what the USA Today panel of political experts will say when they hear about the New York Times/CBS News poll. These experts convened and did their power rankings before the CBS/New York Times poll came out and put Carson ahead just by a little, nationwide. These experts, by the way, these are USA Today insiders, as opposed to the insiders at Politico, as opposed to the insiders at ABC, as opposed to the insiders at CBS. I mean, all these establishments have their insiders, and at USA Today they’re ranking Carson at number one. And look, I guarantee you, within the bowels of the establishment, they’re all applauding. “Carson, you kidding me? That ain’t gonna happen. Isn’t gonna last.” The news to them is that Trump has peaked.
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RUSH: Okay. Pop quiz: The last two winners of the Hawkeye Cauci on the Republican side? Who won the Hawkeye Cauci in 2012? (interruption) No clue in there? That’d be Rick Santorum. Huckabee won, I think, in 2008. I think Huckabee won the Hawkeye Cauci 2008. It might be the other way around, but I think that those are the last two winners. I’m actually not sure about the years. So ask yourself a question: “Hey, what has happened here? What happened? Why did Ben Carson surge to such a commanding league in one poll?”
In another poll they’re tied in Iowa, don’t forget, and it’s only Iowa, too. It’s not South Carolina and it’s not New Hampshire. In both those states, Trump is just miles and miles ahead. It’s not even close in those two states and others, but Iowa, it’s Dr. Carson. Now, one of these USA Today experts, their panel of experts analyzing all this, they put Carson number one in their power rankings. It says that this is it. This is the end for the Donald. It says it might mark the end for the Donald. That view is shared by many of the USA Today experts, and I’m telling you that that view is a wish.
They’re hoping that’s what this means. But, okay, Carson’s working Iowa. Is that the only reason? All right, what are the other reasons? Why has Carson…? And let’s deal with the Monmouth poll. I mean, that’s what everybody’s talking about. That has Carson up by 12 or 14, whatever it is. Why? If it’s not just Carson working this — which he is. I mean, you’re right. He’s pounding the state. He’s got a professional political organization on the ground. What is it? (interruption) Who has, Carson’s been quiet? (interruption) Carson’s been quiet.
Okay. All right. Carson’s been quieter, and he’s working the state. Well, let me throw something else in. Given who Carson’s supporters are, does it matter — is it a factor — the way Trump has gone after Carson? Called him lazy. Here’s a guy that routinely did 20-hour surgeries on the brains of children.
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RUSH: Now, Ben Carson has been the most vocal candidate hitting Planned Parenthood. And despite what you hear in the Drive-By Media, there are Americans sickened to the point of real anger and outrage over this. Carson has been the candidate that has hit Planned Parenthood the hardest.
Maybe a close match with Carly Fiorina. She has, too. But it’s a close contest between the two of them. But, if you add all of that up, then you have Trump out criticizing Carson in ways that many people say, “It’s just beyond the pale. Carson has not said anything to you, hasn’t talked about you. You said you only fight back when you’re hit. What…?” Trump has made snide comments about his religion and made snide comments about his laid-back personality, signaling laziness and so forth.
And I have to think that where you can say things like that about establishment candidates and others who are well-known in the world of politics and people just instinctively know those kinds of things are said about other, Ben Carson is not of that world. Ben Carson doesn’t run around ripping other people to shreds. He saves lives, in fact, particularly children. So I don’t know. I’m thinking that maybe some of the people in Iowa think Trump’s overboard board on the way he’s hitting Dr. Carson. Some people might perceive it to be beyond politics.
Somebody’s religion, Seventh-day Adventist? I don’t know. Then you go after the apparent laziness? It didn’t… Not lazy. What was it he said? Anyway… (interruption) Yeah, “low energy.” That’s what it was; Super low energy. That’s when Carson replied, “Low energy? I have 20 hours of intense concentration in pediatric brain surgery,” and so forth. I think those kinds of things resonate. Trump is also in some trouble over comments he made about a burqa, about burqas. This from TheHill.com:
“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday said the US should not tell countries with large Muslim populations to forbid burkas. ‘They want to [wear them]!’ Trump said to his supporters at a town hall in Atkinson, NH. ‘What the hell are we getting involved for? In fact it’s easier. You don’t have to put on makeup, look how beautiful everyone looks. 
Wouldn’t it be easier?'” He means: Wouldn’t it be easier for women to wear burqas?
They wouldn’t have to worry about all that outside stuff.
I don’t know what’s so bad about it, but in politics today you’re not allowed to talk this way of women. You just can’t do it. Anything you say that in any way crosses a line that makes it look like you understand women or you know what they want or what may be best for them, you’re not permitted to go there. No matter how right you may be. You just can’t cross that line. According to the left. I happen to think… I mean, how many people do you know who’d rather never have to put on high heels and not have to spend all day or however long it takes doing makeup and this kind of thing? Not being so slavish to fashion and this kind of stuff.
I actually think… I don’t know if it’s a majority, but I think Trump, probably a lot of women say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly right.” I don’t know. This is a controversy in the Drive-Bys more than it is, I think, actually with women.