RUSH: This was on CNN yesterday. Now, see if you think this is goofy or not. CNN ran a story. Somebody postulates — I didn’t see the story, I’m only reading about it so I don’t know who on CNN believes this or if it’s somebody believes it that CNN’s covering. But they explored the possibility that Trump and Hillary have a secret pact… (interruption) Jeb Bush floated this out? When did this happen? When did he tweet this? (interruption) No, you don’t have to get it. I believe you. I’ve got enough paper here. I don’t need the tweet. If you say Jeb Bush tweeted this out, then I believe it.

I don’t know that that’s what CNN did. I mean, I don’t know if that’s the source for CNN’s story. I’m sorry. It is. Very fine print here: “Citing tweets from Carly Fiorina and Jeb Bush, in addition to Trump’s own past statements in favor of Hillary.” So I guess it is Fiorina and Jeb are putting out there the possibility that this whole Trump campaign is a sabotage. It is designed to get Hillary elected, that Trump knew from the get-go he was gonna be able to siphon off enough Republican bigots — this is how the theory goes, folks. Now, it’s not me. I’m telling you this is how the left, the media, and all these other people think this is going. Trump and Hillary get together, they agree that there’s enough bigots and racists in this country that Trump could siphon off enough of ’em in a fake campaign. Go out and say this outrageous stuff knowing bigots and racists would just love to hear and glom on, and then the Republican Party would go ape and not support Trump if he gets close to winning, Trump then goes third-party like Perot did, which guarantees Hillary Clinton the presidency.

CNN did all of that off of these Bush and Fiorina tweets. And this is, I guarantee you, one of the media’s tactics or techniques to try to, shall we say, weaken Trump’s support, by making his supporters think, by reporting and then having it get broadly amplified that all of this is a giant trick, that Trump and Hillary are in league, that Trump wants Hillary to be the next president, and that just to guarantee this, they’re setting up another third-party run that will siphon enough Republican votes away from Jeb Bush, the eventual nominee, to guarantee Hillary’s victory.

So it’s out there. CNN’s the first to do it, and I predict that you will be hearing more and more of this, as more media outlets report this as “Some have speculated, some are saying. Not us of course. No, no, no. Some are saying that,” and they’ll have expert guests come in to analyze the possibility, and a bunch of Republican think tanks types, “Oh, it’s entirely within the realm of possibility for Donald Trump. Are you kidding? He does this kind of trickery in business all the time. And he has the ability to get these Republican racists and bigots in the palm of his hand. Everybody knows that. Yes, it could very well be what’s going on out there, Anderson,” or some such thing.

So I am just warning you. But likely this is all BS. I have another question for you spinning off Carly Fiorina saying, “Look, we gotta get rid of Trump because Hillary’s gonna wipe the floor with him.” And my response was, “Well, if it’s that easy to beat Trump, why aren’t you?” My question is this, if Donald Trump can beat the United States media, why can’t he also beat Hillary Clinton? Hmm? If he can beat the media, and nobody’s been able to do that, then why can’t he also beat Hillary? If you beat the media, that’s halfway or more on the way to beating Hillary, is it not, or any Democrat nominee.

Oh, by the way, there’s another theory running around out there that I’ve heard, and it has nothing to do with this third party business. I had this explained to me one afternoon last week after the program. “Rush, something you really ought to consider.”

I said, “What’s that?”

“Trump has no intention of staying in this race. He has no intention of winning this thing. He has no desire to be president. He doesn’t want to be shackled. You better be ready for what’s really happening here, Rush.”

And I said, “Well, what is it? Just tell me.”

“Trump is pulling a prank on the country. He’s running a practical joke on the entire political system. Trump thinks that the political system in the media is so chock-full of absolute idiots that he’s demonstrating it. He’s showing how phony everybody is, how easy it is. He’s trying to prove what a bunch of bigots exist in this country. He’s trying to prove how dangerous this country is because of all the racists and bigots and how easy it is to mobilize ’em. You better be ready for this, Rush, you better be ready.”

Now, when these kinds of theories surface and otherwise intelligent, reasonable people say they believe that they are possible, then we’re reaching a point where whatever it is that’s happening with Trump is driving people batty. You’ve heard the old saw that the simplest explanation for a complex scenario is usually the best. The simplest explanation is usually what’s right. The simplest explanation is the explanation. Well, when people come along and look at somebody who’s pretty simple and start trying to complicate it and create all these different theories to explain it, you realize they are nearing their wits’ end in being able to deal with it.

So there are probably gonna be even more of these conspiracy theories, if you will, that will pop up. But this business that Trump and Hillary are aligned to sabotage the Republicans and elect Hillary, I think that one is gonna have some legs in the Drive-Bys, because the Drive-Bys are panicked. They’ve gotta come up with something that would explain this, that would exonerate them, and this could do that. Just keep a sharp eye, see what happens with this and how it unfolds, if it does. But don’t be surprised if it does.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ray in Plainfield, New Jersey, great to have you here, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: I want to throw another theory out there. Hopefully it’s a simple one. I don’t believe that the Republican establishment has any interest whatsoever in winning the presidency.

RUSH: Hmm.

CALLER: The reason I say that is, if you look at what happened in the last election —

RUSH: Yes?

CALLER: — Mitt Romney had no interest in being conservative, consulting with conservatives —

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: — or making us a part of his program, or his platform. To me, that’s all the evidence you need, and I think Trump is created in the petri dish of Republican fecklessness where they go in and they tell us they’re gonna do all these things and they’re gonna harumpf harumpf harumpf. And, frankly, we’re just tired of it. And I will say it this way: Those in the Republican establishment — Marco, Jeb, all you guys, everybody — you need to understand who it is that gets you elected. Even George Bush was not necessarily a conservative, but we voted for him. So all I’m gonna say is, if they don’t get on board and appreciate where we’re coming from, then it’ll be Hillary.

RUSH: They know all that. Ray, they know all that. They don’t want us anywhere near the reins of power. They would be happy to gain power themselves via our votes, but that’s as far as they want to go. I disagree. I think they desperately want to win the White House, and I think they want to win the White House so they can please and pay back their donors. I think they wanted to win control of the Senate so they could get their committee chairmanships and pay back the donors. I think they desperately want this.

But at the same time they do not want to be thought of or known as conservatives, and that’s why there isn’t any outreach to the Tea Party. There has been no effort whatsoever to coalesce a majority behind the Tea Party starting in 2010 when the Tea Party came to life due to Obamacare. You say, “The Republican Party’s fecklessness has actually been the petri dish that created Trump.” To a certain extent, I agree with that, but I also think the last seven years of Obama has set the stage for somebody like Trump.

This is what the establishment doesn’t get. Let me just speak bluntly. The people of this country are outraged over what Obama and the Democrats have done to it the last seven years, and they cannot believe that there’s not a single Republican in the establishment who even comes close to saying anything like that. The people of this country — and I’m talking about a majority of people — are livid. They are angry, and they are also scared. Their health care system has been turned upside down and made more expensive and less good, less efficient.

The country is being overrun with people who are going to end up depressing wages, taking jobs, and harming people’s ability to improve their standard of living. The majority of the American people know this full well, and they don’t oppose this because… None of this is rooted in bigotry or racism or any of this. It’s rooted in love of and for the country, and they don’t see any of that love for the country that they feel, in Washington. They don’t see it represented. They don’t see it talked about.

They don’t see anybody expressing the same things they feel and think about this country in Washington from either party. So Trump comes along and says the things he says, and really all it takes is Trump saying, “I’m gonna make America great again,” and that’s enough for a bunch of ’em. But then Trump puts icing on the cake by identifying the very problems a majority of people in this country know are responsible for the problems that exist. Trump says he’s going to stop it and he’s going to fix it, and that’s what a majority of the American people want.

It isn’t about ideology anymore. It isn’t about conservatism and being thoroughbred conservative. It’s about stopping what has been put in play by Barack Obama and the Democrat Party. A majority of the American people continue to hear Barack Obama and the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton, and they know that if this party continues to win, the things that have been done that damaged this country are going to continue.

The people I’m talking about have elected Republicans twice — 2010, 2014 — in vast majorities to stop this. The people they voted for have not stopped it. Their patience has run out. Their loyalty has been shown to be one way. They’re simply opting for somebody else who is making them believe that he understands and agrees with them about everything these problems represent and is gonna fix them. It’s no more complicated than that. A vast majority of the people in this country are appalled at what has gone on the past seven years and want it to stop.

It’s no more complicated than that.

I gotta take a break. I wish I didn’t.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, I don’t for a minute believe that Trump is in league with Hillary Clinton. I know how seductive that might be to people who are scared to death and in panic and love conspiracy theories, but I will explain why I think that’s a crock when we get back here, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, so the theory is that Donald Trump has made a secret pact with Hillary Clinton to go out there and engage in a phony campaign. It’s not designed to win. It’s simply designed to get enough supporters to verify and qualify Trump to go third-party, thereby electing Hillary Clinton. Now, this possibility has been alluded to in tweets from Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina. CNN dutifully picked this up and began reporting it recently, and I’m sure that more Drive-By outlets will also pick it up and begin to have panel discussions on it with the appropriate expert guests and analysts and strategists and so forth.

And they will all discuss the likelihood, the possibility, the various aspects of this, and could it possibly be true, and you will hear, “Hey, it could well be, because, look: Trump invited the Clintons to his wedding, and he’s given money to ’em, and he’s given money to the Democrats, and he’s really said great things about the Clintons over the years. It could well be that Trump just hates the Republicans. He’s a New Yorker. He’s a New York liberal Democrat,” people will say. “He hates the Republicans. He’s making a mockery of ’em.

“He’s single-handedly trying to destroy the Republican Party and get Hillary Clinton elected, and what’s great is all these idiot Trump supporters falling right in line — falling for it hook, line, and sinker.” This is what they’re gonna say, is my prediction, depending on how widespread this gets. But look at what that theory is asking us to believe. Who is Trump to these people? I’ll tell you who he is to these people, to the media, to the Democrats, to many in the Republican establishment.

Donald Trump is a monomaniacal egotist vulgarian. He is rude, crude, bad hair. He is embarrassing, he’s racist, he’s a bigot. But the things that dominate people in their pondering and thinking of Trump is that he’s a monomaniacal egotist. And what’s he done? He’s done something that nobody in modern American politics can say they’ve even gotten close to doing. He has commandeered the entire domestic media and made it his own. Donald Trump has conquered the media. He owns the United States media and much of the global media.

He has done all of this. He’s acquiring all of this unique power. He’s acquired all of these millions and millions of loyal supporters all for one purpose: To transfer it to somebody else, Hillary Clinton. That’s what they think Trump is doing. “This monomaniacal egomaniac vulgarian is doing all of this to transfer all this power to Hillary Clinton.” That sounds like a stretch to me. But I just want to warn you, since CNN has run with this and given life to the Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina tweets, don’t be surprised if you see quote/unquote “serious” discussions of the possibility on various cable networks.