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RUSH: This is very, very interesting. Snerdley. Did you watch this last night? You…? (interruption) I lifted the ban because it was part of the campaign and the focus was not an MSNBC host or hostette. It’s not a traditional… It was not an MSNBC show per se. It was a special, one-time-only program, a town hall with Trump to counter the town hall going on CNN. Of course I lifted the ban. (interruption) Actually, I didn’t even have to lift the ban for this because I didn’t lift any ban.

The ban is on the normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill MSNBC programs, but they brought in their morning team to do this thing last night. They didn’t let Chris Matthews anywhere near this. He’s out there probably trying to get on the pope’s plane to thank him, even as we speak. Anyway, Mika Brzezinski (who is the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security advisor for Jimmy Carter) and Joe Scarborough, conducted a town hall with Trump last night. And this was a… Well, just listen. This is… It got me. I have to tell you, I fell for this, too.

BRZEZINSKI: I wanted to describe a candidate to you. The candidate is considered a political outsider by all the pundits. He’s tapping into the anger of the voters, delivers a populist message. He believes everyone in the country should have health care, he advocates for hedge fund managers to pay higher taxes, he’s drawing thousands of people at his rallies and bringing in a lot of new voters to the political process, and he’s not beholden to any super PAC. Who am I describing?

TRUMP: Or any special interests or any donors. You’re describing Donald Trump.

BRZEZINSKI: Actually, I was describing Bernie Sanders.


TRUMP: Oh, that’s good. There’s one thing we are very similar on. He knows that our country is being ripped off big league, big league on trade. The problem is, he can’t do anything about it.

RUSH: All right, now, folks, I was disagreed with last night on cable TV, and we have the sound bites coming up. Do you remember yesterday — or maybe it might have been Monday or Tuesday. Well, it had to be Monday or Tuesday ’cause this is only Wednesday. Remember when Trump went off on George W. Bush in the debate Saturday night and we…? (interruption) This is Thursday? It just makes the case it was either Monday or Tuesday then, because I know it wasn’t yesterday. (chuckles) Anyway, remember I went off on Trump when he went off on Planned Parenthood, in the debate, supporting them. He said they’re great, and he went off on George W. Bush.

“He knew about 9/11, didn’t do anything to stop it, didn’t keep us safe. There were no weapons of mass destruction.” Remember all that? And I said, “South Carolina is an open primary; Trump made that move on purpose to try to expand his base, expand his support base since it’s open, either just slam the last nail in the coffin — just wipe this thing out, just end it — or else he believes internal polls that show Cruz catching up, so he’s gotta go out and get new voters somewhere. But I said, in any case, this was the result of strategy.

Well, last night that theory was discussed by analysts on cable TV, and I was said to be all wet, that that’s not Trump.

They made it sound like I was making Trump sound diabolical. And it wasn’t diabolical, it was political strategizing, but they think I was saying Trump was being diabolical. I wasn’t. They’re saying, “No, no, no, Trump wasn’t strategizing, he was just speaking from the heart in that debate.” Well, I’m here to tell you that I think he was strategizing in his reaction to this. He has just been told by Mika Brzezinski that there is no difference between him and Bernie Sanders. And what did he do?

He praised Bernie Sanders. He said the difference in Bernie and me is that Bernie can’t do anything about any of this, and I can. Remember this discussion we had the other day about the political spectrum not being a straight line but a circle? This is exactly what I mean. Both sides, both ends of the spectrum eventually meet at the top of the circle.


So she throws him a curveball. I fell for it. I thought for sure she’s describing Trump. And then she says no, I actually was talking about Bernie Sanders. And Trump said (paraphrasing), “Well, that’s good. There’s one thing that we’re very similar on. He knows our country is being ripped off big league, big, big league on trade. Problem is he can’t do anything about it.”

He did not take the occasion to hammer Bernie Sanders as crazy or anything else. Now, I’m not saying this is strategy because he didn’t know this question was coming, but given the chance to hammer Bernie, he didn’t instinctively hammer Bernie when he was effectively told that there’s not much difference between him and Bernie, in the ways that she described. The ways that she described him as basically their impact on the political scene, not policy differences.

So don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not saying that Trump is no different than Bernie Sanders. The way she set it up made it look like that. Scarborough then said, “How do you convince a Republican like me, Mr. Trump, that if you were nominated, you’re not gonna nominate the type of Supreme Court justice that always seems to go in there and flip and become a big lib?”

TRUMP: Okay. So if you look at me as a conservative, okay, and I’m not sure that that’s necessarily the most important word, but I say I’m a common-sense conservative, I’m the most conservative on the border. Nobody tougher than me on the boarder. I’m the strongest on the military, most conservative on the military. We’re gonna get rid of Common Core. I’m very conservative on that issue. Common Core is going. We’re gonna have local education. On the Second Amendment I am absolutely the strongest.

RUSH: So there’s Trump. He’s been insisting he’s a conservative since the summer. Now that’s not the most important thing. He’s a common-sense conservative. And he says, as you will hear coming up, that he’s gonna have more crossover votes. That’s exactly what I said that he was doing on Saturday night that all these analysts last night told me I was wrong about.

He’s out there now telling everybody it’s gonna happen. Mika Brzezinski again. “You said that if you knew about bin Laden, why didn’t the government know about him?” Meaning he was a bad guy before he blew us up. “If you knew about it, why didn’t the government, Mr. Trump? It seems like an approach a Democrat would take against a Republican.” She’s talking about the way he went after Bush Saturday night in the debate. And here’s his reaction.


TRUMP: I will have more crossover votes if I get the nomination. I will have more crossover votes than anybody that’s ever run for office. I will have Democrat votes; I will have independent votes; I will do tremendously with crossover. One other thing, I will have states that nobody ever thought of getting in terms of a Republican.

RUSH: It’s exactly what I said. He just admitted it. He says he’s gonna get more Democrats, more independents. I said that he’s going to redraw the electoral map. He’s gonna put Pennsylvania in play. He’s gonna put Wisconsin in play. He’s gonna put Michigan in play. Pennsylvania, I said all this on Monday or Tuesday, ’cause this is Thursday. I said this on Monday or Tuesday after pointing out that he had made a move on the left.

Let’s go to these sound bites. We’re gonna jump forward here, we’re gonna find these bites. Roger Stone is the first one. This is Fox Business Network, After the Bell, this is last night, and David Asman is talking to Roger Stone, who’s a consultant, used to be with Trump, has been with bunch of Republicans. He’s one of the guys that said that I didn’t know what I was talking about. He was not mean about it, just thinks I was wrong about it.

ASMAN: Rush Limbaugh suggested today that there is a strategy here, that, if Hillary is the nominee for the Democrats, she’s gonna go after Bush’s Iraq war and Bush’s recession, and this is a way of undermining that strategy from Donald Trump. What do you think of that?


STONE: I just don’t think that Donald Trump is that diabolical. He’s just speaking from the heart. Look, I was there, I was working for him at the inception of the Iraq war. There is no doubt whatsoever he was opposed to it and vocal. And he also believes that the government had numerous tips to our intelligence agencies, the CIA, the NSC, about 9/11. There’s nothing — there’s nothing diabolical or Machiavellian. Trump merely tells you what he really thinks.

RUSH: I didn’t say it was diabolical or Machiavellian. Trump has admitted it anyway. He admitted that what he’s doing here is going for crossover votes. He’s proud of it. He’s gonna have more independents. He’s gonna have more Democrats, and he’s gonna have more states that normally go Democrat, vote Republican. And I said that’s what I thought Saturday night was all about. I don’t think Stone either understood the point that I was making in the clip or was thinking about something. Maybe he thought I was being critical and his instincts are to defend Trump.

I was not being critical. In a way, I was trying to tell people this guy is not an idiot. He’s not a political neophyte. He’s got serious political advisors in his circle, and I just didn’t think that going after Bush the way he did and defending Planned Parenthood, I didn’t think that that was happenstance. Anyway, after hearing all this, folks, I’m sure you all agree now that I was right.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: What I was saying was that Donald Trump was not out of control in that debate. The additional strategy — look, this is not diabolical. If you know that the Democrats number one target in this upcoming campaign is gonna remain George W. Bush and the Iraq war and torture and weapons of mass destruction and the recession and the current economic plight and ISIS is still George Bush’s fault, my point was that Trump is taking that off the table, taking that ammunition away from Hillary for the general election by doing what he’s doing on this score.

It’s not diabolical. It’s forward thinking. These guys are just hypersensitive. Whenever they think Trump’s being criticized, then as they have a rote behavior that they engage in. “No, no, no, he’s not a mean guy, no, he’s speaking from the heart.” I didn’t say he wasn’t.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Josh in Brick, New Jersey. It’s great to have you, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. First-time caller, longtime listener.

RUSH: It’s great you’re here.

CALLER: Actually, I have two points. The first point is, I believe, and I’d like to know what you think about, had Ted Cruz not been in this primary, would the Republicans even be claiming that they would hold the line and not even take up Obama’s Supreme Court pick?

RUSH: Hmm. It’s an interesting question, as Tom Brokaw would say. (imitating Brokaw) “Interesting question.” You may have a point that — I think Cruz’s presence does hold their feet to the fire, in a way. But you’ve noticed —

CALLER: That’s my point.

RUSH: — there are already signs they’re caving.


CALLER: Yes. He did say that he would filibuster that, so that’s gonna put the pressure on them.

RUSH: What’s your second point?

CALLER: My second point is this is not about Ted Cruz, but I’m just curious; if Trump loses the Republican primary, forget third-party, why doesn’t he just go on the Democratic ticket, and who knows, he could beat Hillary or Bernie?

RUSH: Well, because she’s gonna have all the delegates. I just saw a story, she just picked up some more delegates and there hasn’t even been a primary. She can’t see, she can’t sing, she’s barking like a dog, she’s losing in the public polling data, all the excitement was Bernie, Susan Sarandon’s saying I’m through voting with my vagina, which I still would like to see that. I’ve never seen that. She’s gonna vote for Bernie now. And yet Hillary picked up a couple more delegates today.

How does that happen? But, no, I get your point out there. You know what Josh is saying, he took the circuitous route. Hey, look, if Trump doesn’t win the Republican primary, why doesn’t he just go be the Democrat liberal that he is? That’s what Josh was saying. That’s what he was saying. Don’t think you got that one past me, Josh, old buddy, old pal. I spotted it. And since you didn’t say it that way, I decided to translate what you said, because that’s what you meant. I could hear the sarcasm in his voice. He’s a Cruz guy. Would be only natural that he have some opposition to Trump out there.

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