RUSH: So I just got a flash note from Cookie, who is monitoring all of the cable news networks out there as we scour constantly for intriguing audio sound bites, and she says — what’s she say here? I want to read it verbatim: “MSNBC cannot stop reporting that you turned on Trump today.” You know, can I tell you all something confidentially? I don’t want you to tell anybody. It’s just between us. If you tell anybody, I guarantee you I’ll hear about it. The media, they think I have the ability to make or break any of these candidates. They can’t. They think I have the moral authority — now, don’t tell anybody I said this, ’cause I don’t want them to think that I know this. (interruption) Well, no, they’re not listening here. They’re not gonna hear about this, Snerdley, they never listen here.

If MSNBC doesn’t tell ’em I said this, they’ll never know, or Media Matters or whatever. But they’ve been waiting. They’ve been waiting. They’ve been hoping.
They hate Trump and they’ve been hoping, and they think only I can do it, so they think that my question — I did not throw Trump under the bus today. I did not — what does it say here? “Turn on Trump.” I haven’t turned on anybody. I haven’t thrown anybody away. I haven’t announced support for anybody.

All I did was raise a question about the way Trump went after Cruz. That’s all I did. And I said it disappointed me a little bit, because it sounded like the same kind of criticism we would get from the establishment Republicans, which Trump is running against. So if you hear somebody say, if you’re out there on social media, “Limbaugh turned on Trump,” you now have it from the horse’s mouth that I didn’t. And if you’ve been listening you know that I didn’t.

But so eager are they for somebody that they know has the credibility and the moral authority to do it, that they’re hoping, they want the world to think that I did because whether I did or didn’t, they think reporting it will equate it. (interruption) Do I think Trump will attack me now? (laughing) No, if he did (imitating Trump), “You know, I’ve always thought Limbaugh was overrated. Claiming he’s got the biggest audience out there, but hell, nothing compared to what I had on TV. It’s radio, nobody pays any attention, he’s overrated, he’s third-rate.” Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me. No, it would. He’s not gonna do that. I didn’t turn on anybody here!