JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!

RUSH: You know, we were talking yesterday about instincts and how Trump should just keep following them. Somebody walked up to him and started giving him brief about calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas and he just shouted right back at ’em and doubled down on it. And I don’t even know if Trump — please don’t misunderstand me on this. This is a testament to his instincts. I don’t know if he realizes how brilliant this proposed debate with Crazy Bernie is. And I think everybody is missing the reason why it’s brilliant.

Greetings, folks. Great to have you. Rush Limbaugh behind the Golden EIB Microphone. Telephone number Open Line Friday, whatever you want to talk about is fine. It is 800-282-2882, and the email address is ElRushbo@eibnet.com. And hang on just a second. My battery is become unseated here. And before I hear myself — there we go. Got it back. Okay.

You’ve heard that the Democrats, like Joe Manchin and some of these others, “No! No! No! Don’t debate, no.” They’re mad at Bernie. They’re mad at Crazy Bernie for accepting it. Crazy Bernie is thanking Jimmy Kimmel for suggesting the idea. Trump went along with it.

Now, the Democrats, you would think that they’re upset about this ’cause it’s upstaging Hillary. And Hillary would be upset about it for that reason. But I don’t think that’s why the Democrats are worried about this. She’s only, what, how many delegates away? I know that wouldn’t have much to do with upstaging. It’s a factor. But I think what they’re really worried about, so far the Crazy Bernie campaign hasn’t been seen by very many people. Remember the Democrat debates took place on Saturday nights, or as they say in my hometown of Cape Girardeau, “Sat-eer-day,” they took place on Saturday nights. Nobody watched ’em. Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz purposely scheduled those debates when nobody’s watching TV.

Now, people are aware that Crazy Bernie’s winning, but they don’t know what Crazy Bernie’s saying, because that campaign is not taking place in mass media. It’s taking place in the physical locations, and there are excerpts, of course, highlights, news stories from the Drive-By Media about it. Crazy Bernie hasn’t had anywhere near the national exposure that, say, Trump has had, or even that Hillary has.

And I’m here to tell you, folks, that the reason why there is such panic and palpable fear on the Democrat side that this may actually happen, they are afraid the public is going to end up seeing the real Democrat agenda, with the mask off and with no camouflage, if they put Bernie out there. I mean, Hillary’s a radical socialist, too, but she knows how to cover it up. She knows how to hide it. She knows how to mask it. She knows how to camouflage it. She’s much better at that. So was Slick Willie. Obama is good at hiding it. Crazy Bernie doesn’t even try to.

Crazy Bernie is just pedal-to-the-metal, testicles to the wall as far as he can go on this, and nobody has seen it. This is the most exciting guy in the Democrat Party. That’s why they’re worried, folks. Remember, Democrat Party, it’s as true today as it was 27 years when I started this program. They cannot win national elections by being honest about their intentions.

Just to reillustrate. If Barack Obama told everybody what was gonna happen to the national debt before he ran for office as part of his campaign, he wouldn’t have gotten elected. If he had explained exactly what was going to happen with the passage of Obamacare, he would not have been elected. He had to lie (paraphrasing), “If you like your doctor, you get to keep your doctor. Like your plan, get to keep your plan, premiums coming down $2,500.” They have to lie about their intentions and they have to lie about the outcome, the results.

Crazy Bernie doesn’t. Crazy Bernie’s out there proudly, happily shouting all of this crazy, left-wing socialism stuff. Somebody asked him, “Crazy Bernie, how do you explain Venezuela?” He didn’t want to go there. You know, when you ask an avowed socialist about any avowed socialist failure, you either don’t get an answer or you get some derivative, “Well, you know, they didn’t have enough money. Well, you know, the right people weren’t in charge. I’m the right people. We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for,” something like that.

But he was asked about Venezuela, the other South American countries that are falling apart by Univision, of all people, that’s who asked him, and his response was in effect to tell ’em to shut up. He said he wants ’em to concentrate on his campaign, as if the real-life effect of radical socialism doesn’t have a bearing on the campaign of a radical socialist.

Have you heard Hillary’s reaction? “Oh, no, no, no, no, they’re not gonna do that, they’re just kidding, you know, they’re just kidding about this.” Meanwhile, she’s sitting over there saying (imitating Clinton), “What the hell is going on here? What’s Trump doing debating –” And she’s out there saying, “No, no, no, Trump’s gonna be debating me.” But she doesn’t want that to happen, either.

Now, this is a brilliant move. I do mean it when I said I don’t know if Trump knows how brilliant. I’m not trying to insult him. I’m trying to compliment his instincts here. His instincts just serve him so well, it’s breathtaking to watch.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This debate with Crazy Bernie. Who would ever do this? He instinctively agrees to it, and then, as the kicker says, “It’s gotta be for $10 million or $15 million, and the proceeds go to battered women, women in need, whatever. Something to do with women.” I guarantee you, he doesn’t have to focus group. He doesn’t have a bunch of people studying this. This was not something planned. It just happened. But I’m telling you, remember, because you’re gonna see more and more people talking about this if it actually appears that it’s gonna happen.

I mean, you’re gonna see panic on the Democrat Party side like you haven’t seen before, and you’re gonna be made to think that the panic is because this upstages Hillary, that Bernie should go away. “Bernie ought to know not to do this. You know, Bernie’s not a team player. Bernie knows Hillary’s the nominee. He’s got no business debating Trump, got no business accepting the invitation! Bernie ought to stand down, step aside and let her have it,” which is what was supposed to be since 2008. Isn’t it interesting?

That was 2008. Here we are in 2016.

Both guys who wanted the presidency at the same time Hillary wants it refused to stand down and let her have it. And yet that’s what both guys were supposed to do. And neither guy, Barack Hussein O or Bernie, are agreeing to stand down and let her have it. So Bernie, he would love this, and the Democrats would hate this because this would be that audience that would rival some of the highest rated TV shows in or out of politics. And it would give a worldwide audience to what the Democrat Party really stands for — unmasked, uncamouflaged. ‘Cause Bernie doesn’t care.

And that’s what the Democrats don’t want anybody to see.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: with Joe in Bellaire, Ohio. Joe, thank you so much. Great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Appreciate you taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: The point I wanted to bring up was kind of why Trump is having this — agreeing to debate with Bernie Sanders. And I believe it goes to the fact that he might be able to pick off some of the disenfranchised liberals that supported Bernie just by simply acknowledging his existence. And I think that scares the Democrat Party. I think they’re worried that he is gonna be seen as somebody who bridged the gap between the disenfranchised and he might pick off some of those voters.

RUSH: Let me ask you about that, because I think you have a point. I think that’s true. I think Trump would make a pitch for ’em. Trump has been, in many of these open primaries, Trump has been obviously courting Democrat crossover votes. So, the debate with Crazy Bernie, let’s assume in that debate that Trump behaves in such a way as to make himself acceptable to somebody who’s really excited to vote for Bernie Sanders. Now, that’s not us, Joe. A Bernie Sanders —

CALLER: I agree.

RUSH: — voter is not anywhere near us. What if Trump did that in the debate. Are you a Trump supporter?

CALLER: I’m absolutely. I’m definitely supporting Trump.

RUSH: Okay, what if he does that, what if he does exactly what you think and makes an open, obvious pitch to Bernie votes to join him, is it gonna upset you, gonna worry you, gonna concern you?

CALLER: No, it’s not gonna concern me. I think it’s gonna show that, you know, the establishment doesn’t necessarily have the foothold that they once thought they had to, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.

RUSH: Well, yeah, but look there’s two establishments, and the conservative movement’s not part of the establishment. I take that back. There are some conservatives who are in the establishment. But I’m not. I’m not in the establishment, and I’m conservative. And I’ll tell you this. In a debate, if this thing happens with Trump and Crazy Bernie — and, by the way, it is brilliant. It’s brilliant on a whole bunch of levels, and I’ve already explained why.

But I would prefer Trump make a pitch for conservatives that are not eager for his candidacy before he goes out and tries to pick off Crazy Bernie voters. I think there are a lot of Ted Cruz people who don’t know what to do right now. A lot of Ted Cruz people may be thinking of sitting it out. Trump is a Republican, after all. He is supposed to be much closer to your average conservative voter than a Bernie Sanders voter. And I know that there are a lot of people that are working hard to influence and guide Trump in conservatism.

But it’s clear he wants these Bernie voters. It’s clear that he’d like to get ’em. I think part of that, I do think it’s a Trump political strategy. I do think part of that is decimating and weakening the Democrat Party, by picking off a bunch of them. It’s the old saw, folks. It’s no different than the Republicans signing on for amnesty. Okay, if we want to get Democrats’ votes, do we want Democrats to become Republicans and stay Democrats after they vote for us, or do we want to become people that are able to attract Democrats and convert them to Republicans as they move to us?

And that’s the question here. If you look at the Republicans in Congress signing on to amnesty, for example, they’re doing it ’cause, “We need the Hispanic vote, Mr. Limbaugh! We can’t win the White House ever again without the Hispanic vote.” By the way, has that not been blown through the roof now, that whole belief of the Republican establishment? “We can’t win the White House without Hispanic votes.” And now everybody’s acknowledging that Trump can indeed win the White House, and nobody’s saying he’s doing it by getting Hispanic votes, and nobody’s saying he’s doing it by signing on to amnesty.

Everything the Republican establishment said they had to do to win the White House is being shown not necessary. But to stick to my argument, the Republican establishment said over and over again, “We gotta support amnesty, ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ because we need Hispanic votes, which means we need Democrat Hispanic votes.” Okay. Fine. Do you want those Democrat Hispanic votes to become Republicans? Is that how you want to grow the party, or do you want to grow the party by watering down what you stand for so that it is open to people that don’t agree with you?

And that would be the question people would have about your theory that Trump is gonna go use the debate with Crazy Bernie as a means of picking off Crazy Bernie’s supporters. How is he gonna do it? The way he’s gonna do it is to convince ’em, “Hey, look, you know what? Your guy, Crazy Bernie, is a great guy, and he’s getting shafted, and he can’t win. But I can.” And he’s gonna make ’em think that he’s one of them. So we’ll see how that plays out. I really think it’s, as I say, smart on a bunch of levels.

It marginalizes Hillary and puts her over here in the used heap, the unnecessary heap, the irrelevant, “Who? Hillary? No, I’m debating Crazy Bernie.” Crazy Bernie never has had national exposure. Crazy Bernie goes out there and if he just be’s who he is, if he is who he is, it would unmask Democrat Party like it’s never been unmasked. The Democrats camouflage, lie, and hide behind all kinds of camouflage and cover to keep people from knowing what they really believe. Bernie Sanders doesn’t.

That’s why I think the Democrats like Joe Manchin, some of the others, are all worked up about this. They’re saying he shouldn’t do it ’cause it’s disrespectful to Mrs. Clinton, but that’s not why they’re really worried about it. They’re worried about it because Crazy Bernie doesn’t hide it. Crazy Bernie doesn’t try to cover it up. Crazy Bernie does not try to hide what he believes and what he thinks the Democrat Party ought to be, and every other Democrat does. They have to. They would never win if they were honest about the things they actually intend to do.