RUSH: I just saw there’s a caller on line calling me delusional? He-he. Let me read what this is about. “Rush, you’re delusional. Cruz is every minute…” Is this a Trump supporter? You don’t know? Well, let me take it. Let me just take it. Is the guy ready to go? Have you finished the screening process? Have you got his Social Security number? Okay. Clay in Lansing, Michigan. Greetings, sir. I’m sure you didn’t expect to get on the phone this soon, but here we are. What’s up.

CALLER: No, Rush, after 25 years of listening to you I never thought I would get on this fast. Thank you for 25 years. I’ve been listening to you every day.

RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

CALLER: I think, sadly, what you all fail to realize is that perpetually you’re painting Ted Cruz as an outsider. He paints Ted Cruz as an outsider. The Tea Party tried to paint him as an outsider. Yet I’m gonna read you five names: Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, Jeb exclamation, exclamation, exclamation point, Bush, Nikki Haley. How much more insider can you get than this, okay? The establishment is going to destroy Ted Cruz from within and then the Tea Party is gonna back its bus right over his head if he ain’t careful.

RUSH: Run that last thing by me again. What was it you just said? The establishment’s gonna destroy Cruz from within? Is that what you said?

CALLER: The establishment’s gonna destroy him from within ’cause he’s buddying up to these people and the Tea Party hates every single one of them. What is Cruz doing? I know he wants to be the last man standing against Trump, but the point is he’s destroying his credibility. When Cruz first announced, I’m like —

RUSH: Wait. Hold it just a second.

CALLER: I’m sorry.

RUSH: There’s a mouthful here. First I need to know, are you for Cruz or are you for Trump or are you for Kasich?

CALLER: I was originally for Cruz. I am definitely for Trump.

RUSH: Okay, you were thinking about Cruz at one point, but now you’re for Trump. Okay.

CALLER: Sure. When Cruz first announced I was all on board with Cruz.

RUSH: Right. But then Trump came along and just electrified everything, and that swept you up. I understand that. Now, these endorsements, you realize what these people are trying to do? They’re trying to save —

CALLER: (crosstalk) — money to keep ’em alive.

RUSH: They are trying to save themselves. They’re wrapped up in the success of the party. Cruz, whatever else he is, is a Republican. There’s nowhere else for these people to go. Cruz is their last gasp.

CALLER: Exactly.

RUSH: And they are not happy having to do it. Lindsey Graham said so when he endorsed Cruz, he actually started singing the praise of Kasich. This does not mean that Cruz is an insider. This does not mean that Cruz doesn’t mean what he’s talking about. This doesn’t mean that Cruz all of a sudden is a new best friend of Mitch McConnell.

CALLER: No, but it’s hypocrisy in action right there. If you are outsider truly, ditch the PAC, Ted, run as an outsider on your own money. Put your big money where your big mouth is and run it like Trump is doing.

RUSH: I refuse to believe that you were a Cruz supporter. An original Cruz supporter wouldn’t be speaking of him in this manner as you are.

CALLER: Sure, I campaigned for the man on the Tea Party.

RUSH: Yeah, but now, “put your big money where your big mouth is and get rid of your PAC and fund yourself.” He doesn’t have that kind of money.

CALLER: No, but Trump does and that’s why he’s bigger than the establishment and bigger than the media. He can dictate and take the message right to the masses who are tired of this insider game.

RUSH: That’s all well and good, but none of that says that Cruz isn’t who he is. You’re essentially saying that Cruz was all fine and dandy until these establishment rubes started moving in and started endorsing him, and that means the establishment is gonna try to take over when Cruz wins or if he wins or whatever. This is the same stuff that happened with Reagan. I have to tell you, Clay, it’s exact same stuff that happened with Reagan. They didn’t like Reagan in ’76. They didn’t like Reagan in 1980. They tried to stop Reagan in both campaigns.

When Reagan won in 1980 they had no choice, and then when Reagan proved to be two landslides popular, all of those people that supposedly hated him couldn’t wait to be standing next to him every time a photo was taken. They were the hypocrites, not Reagan. And Cruz is not the hypocrite here. What’s he supposed to do, stand up and say, “Sorry, Governor Bush, but I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you really want me to win. So I would appreciate it if you would endorse someone –” is that what you want him to do Clay?

CALLER: Say that because Trump says it. Trump says it. He denounces his endorsements that he doesn’t want, he doesn’t need them. He needs the votes so he takes the message to the masses, not to the establishment. The establishment will destroy Ted Cruz from within.

RUSH: Let me ask you a question, just a hypothetical question, and I’m not predicting it by any stretch, I just want to know what happens to you, your supporter, what are you gonna do if somehow Trump does not get the nomination?

CALLER: If Trump does not get the nomination I would most likely go and pull the far lever for Cruz, and I know I would lose. Cruz will not win one state north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

RUSH: And you think Trump can?

CALLER: He will not pull one Democrat vote, Rush, not one.

RUSH: And you think Trump can win?

CALLER: Trump is already getting 30% of it. I’m on the ground game here in Michigan, I’ve watched it happen.

RUSH: I know. But have you happened to notice all of these so-called Republicans promising to either sit out or vote for Hillary if Cruz is the nominee? Those 30% he’s bringing in, some of them could be canceled out by these spoilsports deciding to vote Hillary or stay home.

CALLER: Rush, I initially thought that myself. Never in my life in six campaigns have I ever worked alongside Teamsters, Democrats, truckers, people that have never considered buying what Romney was wanting to sell or McCain wanted to sell or Bush wanted to sell. They’d hang up on me. They will talk to me with Trump because he takes the message right to the American people. And you know what? They are sick and tired —

RUSH: No, no.

CALLER: He’s running as an American, Rush.

RUSH: I know — I know — Clay, wait a minute. I know why Trump’s working. I know why people support Trump. I’m the guy telling everybody why. I’m asking you a specific question here. You have to be aware, whether they mean or not, there’s a bunch of spoilsports on the Republican side. You talk about hypocrites, they’re openly trying to find somebody other than Trump or Cruz, and if they don’t find somebody, they’re claiming they’re vote for Hillary.

I talked to a guy, listen, I talked to a guy last night who is in the so-called conservative movement who deals with a lot of young conservative media types, and he told me they all hate Trump, it’s horrible, they’re all talking about voting for Hillary. And he said all these Democrats Trump’s bringing in I’m worried how many people on the Republican side they cancel out by not voting. I think a lot of it’s just talk right now.

CALLER: It is definitely talk. You honestly trust the media, Rush? I mean, seriously, they will tell you anything to keep a story alive. Okay? You have got to see it on the ground to believe it.

RUSH: When did I — (crosstalk)

CALLER: I never, ever — (crosstalk)

RUSH: I didn’t mention media here. I talked to a guy who has a lot of friends who are in the, quote, unquote, conservative media. I’m not talking about the mainstream media here. And he’s telling me it’s driving him crazy how obstinate and single-minded and stupid they are. They hate Trump. They despise Trump because they think they should. They’re young, aspiring conservatives. They all want to be David Brooks. They all want to be Bill Kristol. They want to get a book deal, a Fox News gig and maybe a Saturday New York Times column.

So they do whatever they think they have to do to get that. And part of doing what they have to do to get that right now is make everybody know they don’t like Trump. And they claim to be conservative. This is not a media thing. This is not the New York Post or the New York Times or the Washington Post telling me this.

My only point to you — only question — is, I don’t… I’m the guy who pointed out that Trump’s bringing Democrats in! That isn’t news. I’m the guy that pointed out that Trump’s coalition happens to be exactly what the Republican Party has always claimed it needed and wanted in order to be able to win the White House. Now that Trump’s the one putting it together, they don’t seem to be interested. But on the other side of this, my question is, all those Democrats, what happens if those numbers are canceled out by a similar number of Republicans who hate Trump either not voting or voting for Hillary?

There’s no answer to the question. I’m just positing. As I say, that’s now. This is March, not even April. And a lot of people have their noses out of joint. Folks, you just have no idea. Despite my best efforts to try to convey to you the emotions and the thinking of the people I’m talking about, these are people, in many cases, whose very… Their own self-esteem, their self-worth, the things they tell themselves every night to reassure themselves how great they are, how important they are?

They tell themselves that they are crucially important to the outcome of events. They shape opinion in their minds. And they are facing a hard, cold reality here with the existence of Trump in the campaign. They have, from the first moment Trump got in the race, maligned him, impugned him, ripped him, criticized him, mocked him. They’ve done it on TV, they’ve written about it, and it hasn’t mattered! They haven’t been able to stop Trump. And they are questioning their own self-worth. They don’t want to do this. They do not want to think of themselves as irrelevant or ineffective.

And because they’re facing that reality, their anger is multiplying at Trump.

I guess what I’m saying is, you don’t realize how personal this to a lot of people who have devoted their lives to thinking that they matter when it comes to shaping public opinion, influencing public opinion, defining certain things such as intellectual conservatism. Or, if it’s not intellectual conservatism, defining what it is to be a good moderate, or defining what it is to be whatever it is. There’s a lot of people here shaking their heads. And those are the people — not all, obviously, but many of the people — saying, “I’m voting for Hillary! I’ll never vote for Trump. I couldn’t possibly. I’m staying home.”

Those are people.

I’m telling you, this is affecting them personally. Anyway, it’s not media. It’s not the usual suspects here.

Anyway, I gotta take a break. I’m way long here, folks, as seems to be the case all the time.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, this endorsement business, folks? You know, I don’t remember Trump chasing away his endorsements. Putin endorsed Trump. I don’t remember Trump saying, “I don’t want your endorsement.” I remember Trump saying he was honored. When Christie endorsed Trump, I don’t remember… I mean, do you think Cruz wants Christie’s endorsement? But this business of endorsements? You don’t control who endorses you, and it doesn’t mean that you owe anybody when they endorse you. These guys… These endorsements, folks. These are all…

Everything’s personal now, on the Republican side — and what I mean by “personal” is there are people… Have you ever thought you were gonna lose your job? Have you ever thought you were gonna be fired, for whatever reason, justified or not? Have you ever had a job you really like or something you really like and it was gonna be taken away from you, and the events making them happen are beyond your control? But yet you think you can control them. That’s what these guys are facing here, many of these Republican. They’re not endorsing Cruz ’cause they’re endorsing Cruz.

They’re endorsing Cruz ’cause they’re trying to save themselves by having somebody beat Trump, by having somebody that can win and save the party. It’s a sign of how desperate they’ve become. Because in the real world, we know that if given first, second, third choice, Cruz probably would not be who they would endorse. It wasn’t! All these people have endorsed other people first: Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham, some of them. So it’s just… It’s…

I’m sorry, folks. It’s fascinating to watch all this, and I don’t mean that in a lofty, uppity way. To me… This stuff fascinates me, human nature and watching people behave, to figure out why, to be able to detect sincerity and insincerity and so forth, and be able to apply it. But it’s… Actually, it’s more than fascinating.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Listen to this. You all know who Roger Stone is by now. He’s a former Trump — I guess he was on the staff. He’s no longer on the staff of the Trump team, but he’s still a Trump supporter. He has been a consultant and an operative for the Republican Party. He was at one time married to Ann Stone, who led Republican Women for Choice at the 1992 Republican convention. So, I mean, he’s a well-known operative, and in some cases he’s a proud dirty trickster. A proud dirty trickster. I’m not impugning him by saying so.

He has an op-ed at The Daily Caller. Another Bush has endorsed Cruz. This one is Neil Bush. Would you listen to Stone’s opening paragraph of this story acknowledging this endorsement. Get this.

“Neil Bush, the son of President George H. W. Bush, who defrauded US taxpayers out of $1.5 billion dollars in the savings and loan scam, and later peddled influence for the Chinese government, (who plied him with Chinese prostitutes) has formally endorsed Senator Ted Cruz for president.” (laughing) I mean, it is just vicious out there. Poor Neil Bush. Yeah, this is, I mean, he did have a little problem in the savings and loan scandal, but what a paragraph.

“Neil Bush, the son of President George H. W. Bush, who defrauded US taxpayers out of $1.5 billion dollars in the savings and loan scam, and later peddled influence for the Chinese government, (who plied him with Chinese prostitutes) has formally endorsed Senator Ted Cruz.”

It couldn’t just be: “Neil Bush, son of president George H. W. Bush, has endorsed Ted Cruz.” No. “This endorsement says much,” writes Stone.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Vinny in Long Island. Vinny, it’s great to have you back on the program. It’s been a while. It’s good to see your name up on the board there. How you doing?

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Maybe that’s another Vinny, but I’m a first-time, longtime, and probably a 95-percenter, which means —

RUSH: Oh, so you’re not the usual Vinny? Okay.

CALLER: No, there’s a lot of conservative Vinnies from Long Island (chuckles), as you can imagine.

RUSH: Well, there’s a lot of people in Long Island, so, yeah. It would makes sense that there are a lot of them are named Vinny.

CALLER: Yeah, a lot of Vinnies.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: Two points.

RUSH: (chuckling)

CALLER: I want to answer that point about surveillance about Cruz. My first point was that I have a hard time believing that of all those candidates up there, save for maybe Trump and Carson, that the GOP establishment didn’t have some kind of connection to every single one of them, including Cruz. Most likely Cruz, because he was a lawyer in the Bush administration going way back to 2000. His wife worked for a lawyer, I think, also. For Condoleezza Rice on various different programs, which, you know, it’s in doubt if she was for open borders or against open borders. You know, I don’t know any of that stuff. But Cruz is definitely part of the establishment for a long, long time and, you know, he’s made connections with ’em. He’s a senator. He’s not as anti-establishment as everybody would have him think. I mean, now the Bush endorsement —

RUSH: Well, now, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. Let me take these one at a time so I can interrogate you.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Ah, ask you some questions you some questions.

CALLER: Sure.

RUSH: So you think because Cruz once worked for George W. Bush —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — and Cruz’s wife was with Goldman Sachs and Condoleezza Rice —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — that all of that cancels out everything Ted Cruz says —

CALLER: No.

RUSH: — and means that he’s really just fooling you, that he’s —

CALLER: No. No. No.

RUSH: — as establishment as all these other blue-bloods are?

CALLER: No. No. I think it’s just like, you know, he’s one of them, but he has his own strong conservative values.

RUSH: Why do they hate him, Vinny?

CALLER: They hate him because he’s against all their… um… let’s call it “deal-making.”

RUSH: Well?

CALLER: But here’s the thing. Cruz is a lawyer himself. And you’re never heard of a lawyer that does not make deals, do you? I mean, he’s gonna make some deals on his own.

RUSH: (laughs)

CALLER: They’re gonna be to his liking.

RUSH: Wait a second. That’s all Trump is saying. Deal-making! That’s what Trump is running on: A platform of deal-making.

CALLER: Yeah. But I think it’s anti-establishment deal-making what Trump wants.

RUSH: Oh. Oh. (laughing)

CALLER: And Cruz, you know, unfortunately for him, he has… I mean, I liked him in the beginning. I mean, I really loved him. I thought he’d be a political (sic) vice president.

RUSH: Well, then what happened?

CALLER: What happened? I’ll tell you what happened.

RUSH: What happened? If you liked him and he hasn’t changed any, what happened?

CALLER: I’ll give you a great explanation of why probably 90% of Trump supporters now hate him. Because he took out the long lawyer knives on Trump. And what I mean by that is he started to cast aspersions. He started to, uh, attack —

RUSH: He was the last! He was the last. He went longer than anybody not attacking!

CALLER: Yeah, I know, you’re right. You’re right. I’m not saying that’s not true. It’s true. Very true. But I guess when he reached certain point he thought, you know, “Hey, I got a shot at this, you know? I’m not gonna let this guy, you know, steamroll me. I’m a lawyer,” and just… He really went after him in such a way that… Trump is not a lawyer. He’s not gonna be able to respond to half of that stuff. He’s gonna stand there looking foolish, I guess.

RUSH: You gotta be kidding.

CALLER: Yeah? This is the way I feel.

RUSH: Vinny, you can’t be serious.

CALLER: This is the way I feel.

RUSH: You’re telling me that because Cruz is a lawyer, he can go after Trump in certain ways that Trump can’t react to and respond to ’cause Trump’s not a lawyer, and a lawyer can make anybody look foolish, and you don’t want him making Trump looking foolish because Trump’s not a lawyer and Cruz is and so it isn’t fair?

CALLER: He doesn’t know how to respond in kind. I’m sorry, I think that’s… I think that’s the simple, simple explanation of it. Trump does his best with his New York style, which is kind of like mine. I mean, I’m a New Yorker.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And I understand Trump perfectly. I know he’s not a liberal Democrat, otherwise he would have ran as a liberal Democrat. Right now, the election would have been over.

RUSH: Wait a minute. You gotta be very careful.

CALLER: Rush, it would have been over if he would have run as a liberal Democrat.

RUSH: You gotta be very careful on this New Yorker business.

CALLER: (chortles)

RUSH: Because that’s really what this is about, isn’t it?

CALLER: M’yeah. So —

RUSH: When Cruz came out and accused Trump of having “New York values,” that was it with you, right? ‘Cause you’re New Yorker, and Trump’s a New Yorker, and you New Yorkers you hang together. You know how you talk; you know what you mean when you say New York stuff —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — and here comes Cruz! Here comes Cruz castigating all you. That was the last straw of that, right?

CALLER: Eh, only because I knew that Trump has been a lifelong conservative Republican. I mean, he was at the 1988 convention

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I forgot where that was. Maybe New Orleans. I can’t remember. And he was interviewed on CNN by Larry King, and he said, “Conservative Republican Donald Trump.” That was 1988.

RUSH: I have to step in here, Vinny. Just a second. For all of you listening, getting close to driving off the road or the nearest cliff, pulling your hair out.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: Dial it back.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: We got it under control here.

CALLER: (chuckling)

RUSH: They’re shouting at me out there. “What do you mean, ‘lifelong conservative Republican’? He donated to Hillary! What are you talking about?”

CALLER: Peanuts!

RUSH: Vinny, they’re shouting at their radio and at me.

CALLER: Peanuts. He gave them peanuts.

RUSH: Peanuts? (laughs) Folks, see? There’s an answer for everything here! This is why I’m trying to demonstrate: You cannot, and nobody can — and I’m not even trying to. You can’t break this bond. You can hit with logic. You can refute. You can point out the allegations being made about Cruz are not true. “Ah, you’re right. You’re right.” But it doesn’t matter. I’m at peace with it. It is what it is. There have to be other techniques, road maps, routes to accomplish what needs to be accomplished here, from the Cruz standpoint. Anyway, Vinny, I appreciate the call. We now happily welcome you to The Vinny Club here at the EIB Network. So next time you call, you’ll be the Vinny from Long Island.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Phillip in Sarasota, Florida. Great to have you with us, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Longtime listener, first-time caller.

RUSH: I appreciate that.

CALLER: All right. So you mentioned earlier in the show about Heidi Cruz, how Trump had responded to the ad about his wife saying that he threatened to expose Heidi Cruz.

RUSH: He was gonna spill the beans on Heidi Cruz and “Lyin’ Ted” needed to look out. He was gonna “spill the beans” on Heidi Cruz, right.

CALLER: Right, right. Well, I think, you know, what’s behind a lot of the Trump support and lack of support for Cruz by people who would identify themselves as Republican, there are a lot of conspiracy-minded people in this country on both sides of the political spectrum, even though they aren’t all outspoken. And that, I believe, is in large part the cause of Trump’s support and the lack of support for Cruz. And Trump knows this and that his supporters think this. It’s exactly why he threatens to “spill the beans” on Heidi — which those for listeners who don’t know, she’s the (sic) VP of Goldman Sachs, which was the single largest contributor to both parties in the 2012 general election. So people just think that he’s just part of the establishment, that he’s … just, uh, a part of it. You know, this is a big thread in the (crosstalk) today.

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that because Trump knows that she was a VP at Goldman Sachs, that he can convince his supporters that she’s part of some conspiracy, or are you saying she is part of some conspiracy?

CALLER: I’m saying that Trump knows that this is thread of consciousness that a lot of people follow. Because, you know, on the anals (sic) of the Internet, YouTube and such, this is the kind of material you see if you look up this stuff, and a lot of people are swallowing this.

RUSH: Yeah? Yeah? And believing it, too. In some cases, they’re two different things: Swallowing it and believing it are two different things. (interruption) Yeah, I meant to say that. Think about it. I know. There are all kinds… Folks, conspiracy theories? You know every one of them as a talk host. Believe me.