CALLER:  Hi, Rush! I’m good.  How are you?

RUSH: Very well.

CALLER:  That’s good.  I read your books, and they were excellent.  I really enjoyed them, and I’m really excited to be on the show today.  I had a question for you about what’s been happening the past couple days at the RNC, and I wanted to know your opinion on it.

RUSH:  All right.  I’ll be happy to help.

CALLER:  Okay.

RUSH:  You’re 13, is that right? You’re 13?

CALLER:  Yes, I am.

RUSH:  That’s incredible.

CALLER:  Well, my family were very strong Cruz supporters until he dropped out of the race a little while back. And we were really disappointed about what he did with his RNC speech a couple nights ago, all his unforgiveness with Donald Trump with his wife and his father. So I wanted to know your opinion, ’cause Cruz said about voting your conscience and not endorsing Trump. Could this give his supporters the idea to vote for Hillary Clinton and possibly allow the Republicans and other viewers to have Trump lose voters and even bigger than that, to lose the election in November?

RUSH:  No, because the next day… He attended a Texas delegation breakfast and he clarified that he’s not voting for Hillary. He wasn’t intending to say that.

CALLER:  Yeah.

RUSH:  Now, one thing, Haley, that we learned today from a Donald Trump press conference was that apparently Ted Cruz did change his speech.  You know, they submitted — the Cruz people submitted — the speech to the convention, and it was approved.  Apparently, Cruz added something to his remarks that they didn’t know was coming.  I don’t know what it was, but I do know…  I was watching it, and I saw Ivanka and Donald Jr. stand up and start pointing at the screen and saying, “What the hell is this?”  I think it may be that that’s when he inserted something that had not been vetted.  I didn’t know what it was; I didn’t learn about it until today.  Now, look, I’ve gotta take a break here.  Can you hang on through the break and we’ll continue?

CALLER:  Yeah, sure.

RUSH:  Excellent.  Don’t go away.  We’ll be right back before you know it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  And we are back with 13-year-old Haley in Pittsburgh.  I heard you trying to interrupt me, and I didn’t let you because I was running out of time.  Did I misunderstand the question you were asking me?  Was that where you were trying to correct me on?

CALLER:  No.  No, I was actually — you got it great.  Yeah, I just wanted to clarify that I am a supporter of Donald Trump and I just —

RUSH:  But you were, you and your family were supporters of Cruz, right?

CALLER:  Yes, sir.  Yes.

RUSH:  But you upset with the way Cruz did what he did, and you’re afraid that what Cruz did might end up having people that supported him vote for Hillary?  Is that what your concern is?

CALLER:  Well, yes, because we thought he could say — well, I thought that what he could have done at the Republican National Convention, which he didn’t, is he could have tried to unify the party, because we want to win in November. And so our party could be unified to — so he could have supported Trump, he could have unified the party by making a decision during his speech, which he didn’t do.  But I was saying about how we’re not sure if it could affect Trump’s vote in November.

RUSH:  Let me run an alternative theory on the Ted Cruz speech at the convention by you, ’cause there are some who are saying —

CALLER:  Okay.

RUSH:  — that Cruz didn’t do anything wrong. That the real incivility was the New York delegation when they started booing him and when they started hissing at him, when they started shouting, “Endorse Trump, endorse Trump,” that it was the incivility and the mean-spiritedness of the New York delegation, led by Peter King, who hates Cruz, that led to everything thereafter happening. The boos, Cruz having to leave the stage in disgrace, and some of the pro-Cruz people are saying that Cruz, had the New York delegation left him alone, everything would have been fine, but they started booing him and they started treating him with incivility, and it’s typical of what Trump people do, and that’s the problem we really face. Ted Cruz is a great, virtuous guy, but he ran up against these uncivil, mean-spirited Trumpsters from New York.

CALLER:  Yes.

RUSH:  What do you think of that theory?

CALLER:  I think what you’re saying could be true because he could have felt some pressure from the crowd, especially the New York delegation.  But I think he came out and said he wasn’t going to endorse Trump at the Texas delegation because of what he said about his father and what he posted about his wife.  But I think your theory could be correct, Mr. Limbaugh, but —

RUSH:  Not mine, it’s not mine.  It’s a theory that is running around among some of the very devoted Cruz supporters.

CALLER:  Right.  Yes, I agree.  I do agree with that.  I just think if Cruz could have chose a different way to — with his speech, I think he could have unified the party more and —

RUSH:  Well, you know, you’re not alone, I gotta tell you, Haley, a lot of Cruz people have shared with me their disappointment over how it was perceived that he did what he did.  So you’re not alone there.

CALLER:  Okay.

RUSH:  But, look, I still can’t believe you’re 13.  I honestly can’t believe you’re 13.

CALLER:  Thank you.

RUSH:  You sound more intelligent and more mature than some college kids that I know.

CALLER:  Thank you very much.  I appreciate it.

RUSH:  And you’ve read the Rush Revere books?

CALLER:  I have.  I enjoyed them a lot.  I still have to read the third one, but I read the first two, yes.

RUSH:  Oh, you haven’t read the third one.  Oh, well, and there’s a fourth.  And there might even be more, Haley.

CALLER:  Awesome.  I can’t wait.

RUSH:  Wink, wink.  So, yeah, I tell you what, why don’t you hang on and Mr. Snerdley will get your address and I’ll send you the other two, we’ll sign a couple of them maybe, and do you have an iPad?

CALLER:  I have an iPod, actually.

RUSH:  You have an iPod?

CALLER:  Yes.

RUSH:  Well, that’s cool, but I want to send you a 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

CALLER:  Oh, my gosh, thank you so much.

RUSH:  If your parents wouldn’t mind.  I don’t want to do —

CALLER:  I don’t think they would.  I’ve been trying to save up for an iPad.

RUSH:  Okay, cool.

CALLER:  Thank you so much.

RUSH:  So don’t hang up so Mr. Snerdley can get your address, okay?

CALLER:  Okay, thank you so much.

RUSH:  You bet.  And make sure it’s an address FedEx delivers to, not a post office box or something.  That’s incredible.  13 years old. (interruption) Don’t I what?  She’s really smart. Well, that’s obviously her family.  I’m convinced that a little girl like that can be pummeled with all this global warming crap and it would not, it would not permeate her boundaries, it wouldn’t penetrate her boundaries.  She’s got a solid upbringing and so forth.  But, anyway, you never know.  But, yeah, that’s incredible, 13.  Not just the ability to speak, but the intelligence, the knowledge, the poise.  Incredible.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Frank in Boston.  Frank, welcome, sir.  Great to have you here.

CALLER:  Thank you, Rush.  Great to talk to you.  I happen to love Ted Cruz.  He’s a good man, and I was very disappointed when he didn’t make it. But Ted Cruz was in a no-win situation the other night.  If he comes out and endorses him, “He’s a fraud! He’s a phony! He said all these things about Trump. Now he comes out and endorses him?”  He doesn’t endorse him, and he gets the abuse that he got.  So Ted Cruz was gonna lose no matter what he did, but he spoke his mind, and he’s a man of integrity.  That’s why people like me and support him, and I’m gonna vote for Donald Trump, okay?  I’m gonna hold my nose and do it, but I’d rather do that than vote for that diseased rodent on the other side, ’cause I would never do that.

RUSH:  “Diseased rodent,” did you say?

CALLER:  Yeah, “diseased rodent.”  I could say something more, but I know this is a family hour show.

RUSH: What do you want to say, “Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up”?

CALLER:  No, I’d say worse than that, but I can’t do that.

RUSH: By the way, Trump got credit for a lot of class last night.  The crowd’s going, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”  He pauses. “Let’s defeat her.”

CALLER:  Well, she deserves to be locked up and more.  She’s a treason-er, in my opinion.

RUSH:  Yeah, let’s go back to Cruz only because time is dwindling here.  I think that there is a way Cruz could have done this and not have what happened happen.  I think he could have made a speech that would have satisfied his supporters and not angered the Trumpists.  And, frankly, that’s what I thought he was gonna do. He wouldn’t have had to mention the actual words “I endorse Trump.”  All he would have had to do was make an appeal to unity.

And he could have done it when he talks about “vote your conscience.”

He could have added something like, “And that cannot include voting for Hillary Clinton.”  It would have been real easy.  There obviously something deeply bothering Ted Cruz here.  I think there’s something to the fact that if the New York delegation hadn’t started having fun here, it might not have ended the way it did. But he could have done this in a way that would not have angered one group or the other — which, again, is what I thought he was gonna do.

I thought that was the objective of the speech.