RUSH: Audio sound bites. Let’s start here. Last night on CNN, The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer was speaking with Jeb Bush about Sarah Palin’s endorsement of the Trumpster. Blitzer said, “Sarah Palin, as you know, endorsed Donald Trump. You call that ‘laughable.’ That was your word. She’s saying that Donald Trump’s conservative enough. What’s your response, Governor Bush?”
JEB: I have a lot of respect for Sarah Palin, particularly her commitment to the life issues and to protecting the disabled. But for her to say that Donald Trump’s a conservative when he was pro-abortion in the most recent past, he believed in higher taxes, he thought Hillary Clinton would be a great negotiator in Iran? He’s been all over the map on foreign policy, certainly not a conservative. Rush Limbaugh and others are now questioning his conservative credentials, and I think they’re right.
RUSH: (chuckles) This is why I’ve been delaying this. Every one has got me in it. Every one of these. “That’s right,” Jeb Bush said. “He’s certainly not a conservative! Rush Limbaugh and others are now questioning Trump’s conservative credentials, and I think they’re right.” This is Algore, 1993, CNN’s Larry King Alive, the NAFTA debate between Algore and Ross Perot.
GORE: Let me just finish this one point — and distinguished Americans from Colin Powell to Tip O’Neill to Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH: (laughing) And we go to CNN last night. Don Lemon, Don “Black Hole” Lemon. We love Don Lemon here, folks. CNN wouldn’t be CNN without Don Lemon. “Do you think that jet coulda get swallowed by a black hole?” (chuckling) We say this affectionately, folks. So Lemon’s got… Let’s see. He’s talking to Trump about Palin and all. Here is how it went.
LEMON: I watched the speech last night. Everybody was riveted by that. But you did seem to be uncomfortable. Other people have said it. Here’s what Rush Limbaugh said. Take a listen to this.
RUSH ARCHIVE: I saw Trump standing aside while she was at the podium, and he’s not the kind of guy that stands aside. He just isn’t. He’s that dominant. He is that huge to give up the podium even to somebody endorsing him, sponsoring him. I’m not criticizing it. Don’t anybody misunderstand. I’m just telling you what I think here. Do with it what you want.
RUSH: I did. I observed. I said yesterday, Trump doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to give up his podium. But he did. I remarked on it. Here is Trump’s response to Don Lemon. Clearly these guys are trying to get Trump to throw me overboard. Here’s what happened…
TRUMP: I love Rush. I think he’s an amazing guy, and he’s been so supportive. And I understand some people thought it was really nice because it showed respect. So, you know, I guess it’s a flip of a coin. Probably if I left people would have said, oh, gee, why did he leave the stage, that wasn’t very nice. But I understand exactly what they’re saying, and I understand Rush, and, by the way, I really like Rush.
RUSH: Back to CNN, CNN’s Don Lemon up next is talking to Gloria Borger, the chief political analyst at CNN, about Trump and Palin, and that’s how this went.
LEMON: He did look a bit uncomfortable because he didn’t know Sarah Palin’s speech was gonna be —
BORGER: That long.
LEMON: Yeah.
BORGER: I thought — and I’m glad you raised that, because — and Rush Limbaugh obviously raised it — he was wearing a full coat —
LEMON: Yeah.
BORGER: — too. So he looked a little uncomfortable sort of being in the background, you know.
LEMON: Yeah.
BORGER: He’s not a good presidential spouse.
LEMON: Yeah, he’s not a guy that, you know, who’s number two on the stage.
BORGER: No.
RUSH: Presidential spouse? I didn’t mean that. He’s not running for presidential spouse. Does that mean Clinton is a good presidential spouse? Who is a good — anyway, just Gloria Borger. See, even Rush Limbaugh said it, so it must be true, when it comes to Trump. This morning, back to CNN, Alisyn Camerota speaking with Trump’s campaign cochairman, Sam Clovis, about me. They played the clip of me and then had a discussion.
CAMEROTA: Rush Limbaugh is saying that Donald Trump is wrong to be calling Ted Cruz nasty. Listen to what Rush Limbaugh just said.
RUSH ARCHIVE: I think Trump going after Cruz is quite normal, it’s understandable, but I think he’s making a tactical error the way he’s doing it. Whatever you want to say, Cruz is not a nasty guy. When you get into criticism, it better be unbelievable.
RUSH: And it continued.
CAMEROTA: Is Rush Limbaugh wrong?
CLOVIS: No. I think Rush Limbaugh has a job to do as well. Rush Limbaugh is the absolute master. Rush Limbaugh has 20 million people who listen to him, and he carries a lot of sway in the Republican Party, in the conservative movement in America. So what he’s doing is he’s out there defending a person he considers to be a puritanical, orthodox conservative. I’m an orthodox conservative. I get where Rush is coming from. But the whole issue here is that Rush is defending someone that he happens to think a lot of. What he was saying, this is from a political perspective, is a tactical error. All again Mr. Trump is doing is passing on what other people inside the Washington Beltway say about Ted Cruz.
RUSH: Right. See? So they’re trying, folks, they are trying so hard. On the one hand they are quoting me as an authority to buttress the points they want to make and then they would just love it if — (sigh) But these Trump people get it. I mean, they know what’s going on. They hear what I say. You want to criticize Cruz, go right ahead. I’m just saying that there may be better ways of doing it. And then this guy comes, “Hey, look, I understand what Rush is saying, but we gotta remember, Mr. Trump is just repeating what other people are saying.”
And last night Don Lemon interviewed Trump, and they were talking about Trump’s speech at Liberty University and the whole Two Corinthians versus Second Corinthian thing came up, and Lemon said, “You got a lot of guff for this. Plenty of your supporters defend you and then there are other people saying it’s a screw up, you said Two Corinthians instead of Second Corinthians. You also said hell. It’s a violation of what you say for religious people. What about this, Donald?”
TRUMP: My mother was from Scotland, and in Europe and in the UK they actually say two, they say Two Corinthians, and a number of people have pointed this out. And it was not a big deal. I’m surprised you’re even asking the question. And, frankly, Tony Perkins wrote that out for me, ’cause Tony thought it would be great. He knew I was going to Liberty, he has a great respect for Liberty and Tony Perkins is a very, very good guy. And he actually wrote out the number Two Corinthians, which I could show you very nicely if you’d like. And I called Tony and he said, “No, well, I meant second,” but he wrote out the letter “two.” He’s somebody I do respect a lot and like a lot.
RUSH: We gotta take a break.