RUSH: Now, folks, I went through a lot of mainstream media over the weekend and this morning, and there’s a theme out there, and you might have heard it bandied about in any number of places.

You’ve heard it bandied about in the Republican establishment. You’ve heard it bandied about in the campaign, certain sectors. You’ve heard media people talk about it — and that is that Donald Trump cannot win a general election. “He just can’t. Why, his negatives are way too high. It’d be the absolute worst thing the Republican Party could do!” Who’s telling us this? Once again, our quote/unquote “friends on the left.” I went through story after story of how scared to death they are of Trump.

A Harvard professorette actually has a piece today saying this is how Hitler did it. Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler. The United States is about to become Nazi Germany while nobody is looking. This is how it happens, she says. She is a professor at Harvard. And any number of other left-wing rags, websites, papers, you name it. For somebody or group of people who think that beating Trump would be one of the easiest things they’ve ever had to do, they sure as heck are scared of him — and once again, the two don’t go together.

If you really think Trump is easy, if you really think beating Trump is the best option you could have if you’re a Democrat, then wouldn’t you want to be promoting him? Wouldn’t you want to be talking positively? Wouldn’t you be trying to secure his primary victory and nomination on the Republican side? I mean, the people writing this caustic stuff about Trump. I mean, there’s some on the right, as you know. The mainstream Republicans.

But I’m talking specifically now about people on the left who are never gonna vote for Trump. Why spend all this energy on how rotten and dangerous Trump is? (interruption) Well, no. There are possible answers. These are all establishment people. Trump’s an outsider. It doesn’t matter Republican/Democrat, they don’t like outsiders. They gotta trash anybody trying to upset their world. That’s understandable. But I think this is more than that. I think there’s a genuine fear out there that Trump can win.

I think there’s a genuine fear — at least that’s what I’m interpreting here — that he can beat Hillary Clinton. And, furthermore, I think that these people think that about Marco Rubio, too. And I believe they think it about Ted Cruz. I think they believe Hillary Clinton is vulnerable. Which would take us into an entire discussion of what happened in Nevada over the weekend. Memo to Bernie Sanders: As far as the Democrat National Committee is concerned, you are still a bum. And, Bernie, it’s over. Even Hillary is running around out there now saying, “We have to be more than just what we’re going to give people.”

Grab audio sound bite number 20. Saturday night, Las Vegas, at Clinton campaign headquarters. Hillary addressing supporters after winning the Nevada Caucuses.

HILLARY: I want you to think about this. It can’t be just about what we’re going to give to you.

AUDIENCE: (silence)

HILLARY: It has to be about what we’re going to build together.

AUDIENCE: (applause)

HILLARY: Your generation is the most tolerant and connected our country has ever seen. In the days ahead, we will propose more ways for more Americans to get involved in national service and give back to our communities, because every one of us has a role to play in building the future we want.

RUSH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Bernie voters don’t want to hear any of that. Young Millennials, they don’t want to hear that. “What do you mean, ‘community service’? What do you mean ‘national service’? What do you mean ‘giving back’? We want to know what you’re gonna give us! That’s why we like Bernie.” And Hillary’s telling ’em there is no Santa Claus, even on the Democrat side.

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RUSH: I think the Democrat thing is over, folks. It never really got started. You understand Bernie Sanders was never gonna win the nomination. He was never gonna be permitted to win the nomination. Now, what kind of fallout there is on the Democrat side when Bernie’s voters figured that out, they don’t know that yet. Bernie’s voters think he’s still in this. They’re starting to get the picture, because they see how the superdelegates are being allotted.

Nevada was Hillary’s first real win but it took shenanigans for this to happen. It took Harry Reid paying off the unions. It took Harry Reid paying off the unions to prevent caucusing in the casinos. Hillary Clinton has with her vast fortune helped Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz and the Democrat National Committee out of some debt. So the game is in, it’s rigged, it’s fixed, and Bernie has always been there primarily as a foil, although Bernie doesn’t know it.

Bernie has been there to create the illusion that Hillary can overcome a tough fight, that she can engage in a tough fight, that she can survive and thrive, that she’s not worried about people coming at her, that she’s not in a coronation, that she’s prepared to roll up her sleeves and start duking it out with anybody, Bernie Sanders, she doesn’t care who else. And then Bernie’s gonna be properly vanquished and people are gonna say, “See, this woman is not to be trifled with.” Bernie has been a foil all along, and he is now.

Now, the foil may have gotten out of control. Bernie might have been doing a little bit better than they intended for him to do, but he was never going to get the Democrat nomination, and he’s not gonna get it now. All the action’s on the Republican side.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You look at the exit polling data coming out of South Carolina and some of the predictive polling for the future, the AP here, and you can just sense the disappointment as this was written.

A new AP poll “finds registered Republicans and GOP-leaning voters put Trump at the top of the still-unwieldy GOP field when it comes to which candidate fits best with their stand on the issues. They give Trump the best marks for competence and decisiveness.

Far more Republicans than not say they’d vote for Trump in the general election, and 86 percent of Republican voters think he can win in November — giving him a 15 percentage point advantage over his nearest rival.”

Now, the conventional wisdom is that Trump can’t win, his negatives are too high, it would be an embarrassing landslide loss for the Republicans. It’s over. Hillary will mop the floor. But 68% of Republican voters think he can win. And based on my reading of the Drive-By Media yesterday and today, they’re scared to death he can win, while they write that he can’t, while they write that he has no chance, while they write that he is the modern incarnation of Adolf Hitler, while they write that he would blow up the Constitution and do great damage to the country, and while they write that his supporters are clueless and do not even know who they’re really supporting. They say, “There’s no chance he can win.” Well, then encourage ’em to go forward!

If you’re the Democrats and you’re scared to death of this guy and you don’t want him to win and you don’t believe he can — if you think that he is guaranteed to lose in a landslide — why don’t you people on the left start encouraging every Republican primary voter to support him? Why not run the trick? Why not do the trick? If Trump is your guaranteed route to Hillary Clinton becoming president, why don’t you promote him instead of writing all these pieces about why you’re so afraid of him and why everybody else should be afraid of him?

“Predictions of Trump’s inevitable political demise have arrived almost daily,” this is back to the AP story, “since the brash real estate mogul jumped into the White House race. They came again after last weekend’s GOP debate, when Trump aggressively went after Bush as a president…” They’ve concluded here his comments on Bush, on 9/11, weapons of mass destruction, none of that hurt him. They don’t believe it; they can’t understand it.

They thought he would be finished after his introductory remarks back on the 16th of June. Meanwhile, in South Carolina, the Republican turnout was yet another record. The real news is Democrat turnout so far — wherever you go, the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire, Nevada, Democrat turnout — you need a microscope to see it. It is that small. “Republicans’ turnout streak continued, with GOP voters shattering their South Carolina primary record Saturday night.

“With almost all precincts reporting, more than 737,000 votes had been counted. That was more than 20% higher than 2012. … By contrast, Democrats’ turnout has tumbled from its 2008 records in all three contests, including Saturday’s caucuses in Nevada. About 80,000 voters took part in the caucuses, with was 33% less than 2008’s level.” So to sum it up, the Republican primary in South Carolina beat their previous record by 20%.

The Democrat turnout was down by a third. Safe to say the Republican base is fired up. Despite the establishment’s best efforts, the Republican base is fired up. And there were some crossover voters. Stick with me here. In South Carolina, 24% of primary voters were not Republican. So basically one quarter of those who voted Saturday in the Republican primary were not Republicans. Of that 24%, Trump got 33% of ’em. Rubio got 19%. Ted Cruz got 17%.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So nearly 25% of the voters in the South Carolina primary were Democrats. Trump only got 33% of ’em. Now, stop and think about it. You might say he made an appeal in that Saturday night debate. But Rubio and Cruz together got 30% and 17%, so 37%. Trump got 33%.

My point is that Rubio and Cruz haven’t said anything that sounds like what any Democrat says, and yet there were some Democrat crossover voter voting for them. Now, it could be that they’re trying to sabotage Trump. It could be a number of things. Or it could also be that there actually is Democrat fallout for the Democrat position, crossing over to join the Republicans. We’ll know. It’s too soon to say.