RUSH: Okay, yesterday on this program, I happened to praise an aspect of Donald Trump’s speech, one of his speeches over the weekend, in which he appeared to be reaching out to African-Americans.  Now, the audience for that speech was largely white.  And my reaction to what Trump said, I will admit today — I’m not gonna try to run from this — I was supportive.  I thought it was good. 

And then I ran across a lot of other people who thought Trump blew it. Who thought it was insulting, who thought it was stupid, thought it was dumb, and that he wasn’t even reaching out to African-Americans, he was actually reaching out to white women.  This was the theory. 

So what did Trump say?  Well, this was the speech where Trump said to African-Americans, what have you got to lose by voting for me?  And then he characterized the way they live.  And I happen to think it was okay because this is what we’re all told.  If you listen to Al Sharpton, if you listen to Jesse Jackson, if you listen to the Congressional Black Caucasians, if you listen to any interest group representing African-Americans, what picture do they paint of life in America for African-Americans? 

It’s pretty bleak, right?  I mean, the cops are wanting to shoot them all the time and put ’em in jail all the time. They’re unemployed. They can’t get work. They’re discriminated against, perpetual racism.  It’s not a pretty picture, right?  I’ve always heard this portrayed.  I’ve always heard life in America for blacks portrayed that way to one degree or another by black leaders.  And it’s all part of the way black leaders convince black voters to vote Democrat. 

If you vote Democrat, they’re gonna fix this stuff.  If they vote Democrat, they’re gonna make sure there isn’t any racism anymore.  The Democrats are gonna protect you from the cops.  The Democrats are gonna protect you from evil corporations that won’t hire you.  The Democrats are gonna protect you from the evil racists and the bigots.  The Democrats are gonna punish the evil racists and bigots.  The Democrats are gonna make sure you have work.  The Democrats this, the Democrats that.  You can’t trust the Republicans. The Republicans don’t like you. The Republicans are racists, bigots, sexists, all that. 

That is what a large percentage of African-Americans are told.  That’s what they think. That’s how they’re raised.  And so Trump was, I thought, facing it head on.  I was surprised to see so many people, conservatives, by the way.  Now, these are magazine and blog internet conservatives, but I mean, they just roasted Trump. They just raked him over the coals. It was a demeaning appeal.  It was negative. It was apocalyptic, and this is not the way to reach out to African-Americans. This is not how you do it. And then they came along and said he wasn’t even trying to reach out to blacks anyway. 

They were saying Trump was very cynical. That what he was really doing was trying to make it seem that he cared about black people so as to soften the opinion of him that white women specifically have.  This is what I picked up on.  People, again, people who were criticizing Trump’s outreach to African-Americans were saying, “Look, it wasn’t even a black audience. It was a white audience.  He wasn’t really even speaking to blacks.  He was trying to demonstrate to white women that he’s actually a nice guy and he actually wants the best for everybody.” 

And I thought, “Why do I think so differently about this?”  Why did the way I processed what Trump said so differently than people who think like I do in a lot of other areas who disagreed profoundly with Trump and his approach and thought it was demeaning and counterproductive?  One of the reasons that what Trump resonated with me is that I’ve always — not dreamed — but I’ve always imagined if I were a candidate, a Republican conservative candidate running for office and the effort required reaching out to African-Americans, I often asked, how would I do it? 

And I have even shared with you how I would do it over the course of the 29 years, 28 years, whatever it is we’ve been doing this program.  And it’s pretty close to what Trump did, except I would make sure that there were blacks in the audience when I did it.  I say it frequently here as it is, and I put it in the form of questions.  Okay, you’re angry.  And you are angry at — and list the things they’re angry at, and I will base that on what I hear and what I see from actual African-Americans and from their leaders.  And they’re angry at the cops, they’re angry at the prison system, they’re angry at the judicial system, they’re angry at the housing market, they’re angry at the job market.  They don’t think they get a fair shake. 

And I wouldn’t disagree with them.  I would simply ask, well, how come the people you’ve been voting for for 50 years haven’t changed any of this when they’ve been promising to every four years?  And I would say, at some point don’t you think it’s time to try something else?  ‘Cause the people that you are investing all of your hopes and dreams seem to be failing big time.  And I would say, it seems to me that your angrier today than you were four years ago, you’re angrier than you were eight years ago.  So voting Democrat actually isn’t working for you. 

I would stay that straight up, just as I am now.  And I thought this is essentially, in fact, what Trump was doing when he said, what have you got to lose?  “What have you got to lose” means, “Look, the way you are voting now to rectify some of these problems is obviously not working.  How could it get any worse?  What do you have to lose?”  To me, it made sense because it is how I would go about doing it.  Then I find out that it is insulting to do that.  I read that it’s insulting, that it’s demeaning, that it’s counterproductive, that it will in no way work. 

And then I started reading how it’s not that bad for African-Americans.  I said, what?  I wish that were true.  Don’t misunderstand.  But now I’m confused.  It’s not that bad for African-Americans?  So Jesse Jackson’s exaggerating?  So Al Sharpton’s exaggerating?  Black Lives Matter, they’re exaggerating?  It’s not as bad as Trump indicated?  It’s not as bad as what we’re told every day? There isn’t as much racism?  There isn’t as much discrimination?  It’s not that hard to get a job if you’re African American, it’s not as bad? 

It may be the first time in my adult life that Democrats and leftists in the media wrote of life in African-American America that it is not that bad.  So last night, yesterday afternoon, last night, I did some soul-searching.  I wanted to understand how in the world could I be seeing this so differently than — I don’t want to name any names.  It’s not about them.  It’s just about how in the world can I be seeing this so differently than people who I normally agree with on 70, 80% of other things? 

So then I asked myself, well, okay, do they have an inherent, built-in hatred of Trump that no matter what he does, it’s bad, and no matter how he goes about it it’s unprofessional and amateurish?  Are they part of the Never Trump crowd that no matter what he does, he can’t succeed ’cause he’s not one of them and he’s not sophisticated enough and he’s not this or he’s not that?  And I come across this Salena Zito piece which reaffirms my interpretation of a large percentage of the Trump base.  I think they would think the same thing. 

The point is that all the people that Salena Zito’s writing about, people like me, we don’t like all this racial strife. This is the United States of America, and we don’t want people mad at this country; we want them loving it like we do.  And we want it working for everybody.  We want the opportunity this country presents to be availability to everybody.  We don’t want to exclude anybody.  We’re not class oriented.  We’re not the kind of people that say, “Well, you’re not good enough for us.  You’re not good enough to live where we live. You’re not good enough to be in the clubs we’re in.”  It’s not who we are.  It may be who the elites are, but it’s not who we are. 

I guarantee you the vast majority of in this country don’t like all this racial strife.  They don’t like what’s happening to the police. They don’t like the attitude that a lot of people have that America’s a failure, that America’s rooted in unfairness and its unjust and immoral.  It’s the greatest country on earth, and we want as many people as possible to see that.  And a lot of us believe that what’s holding people back is nothing more complicated than the Democrat Party. 

The Democrat Party doesn’t want people to be self-reliant.  The Democrat Party doesn’t want people to be self-sufficient.  They don’t want ’em to be individualistic.  They don’t want them to be able to provide for themselves.  The Democrat Party needs as many people as possible believing the deck is so stacked against them that they can’t succeed unless the Democrat Party is looking out for ’em.  And yet that begets the question:  Why, then, is life not getting better for you?  No matter who you are.  Black, white, Martian, you vote Democrat every four years, why are you still mad?  Why are you still complaining?  They have power, gobs of power, they have been using extraconstitutional power.  Why aren’t things getting any better? 

How come the Hillary Clinton campaign is basically made up of what’s wrong after eight years of her and her party running it?  Why is this campaign not made up of how great things are now and how much better we’re gonna make ’em?  Why is the Democrat campaign not that?  Why is it never that?  Why is every Democrat campaign rooted in detailing everything that’s wrong, blaming Republicans for it, and then promising to fix it?  And the fix never happens.  And yet people keep voting for it. 

And that’s when you get into answers such as, “Well, they may be getting by on the fact that people think they’re trying.  They have their good intentions, and they have successfully destroyed the Republican brand so that no matter what Republicans say, they’re not believed.”  But I really was scratching my head late yesterday afternoon and last night trying to fix this, or understand this.  ‘Cause I didn’t see how it was demeaning. 

Maybe somebody can help me out here.  I know we have a lot of African-Americans in this audience.  Maybe you can explain to me how it’s demeaning to say, “What have you got to lose?”  Because all I’m doing is listening to what I hear.  I hear civil rights coalition leaders.  I hear Jackson and Sharpton and Farrakhan, I don’t care who they are, I listen to them describe an absolute hellhole when they talk about life in America for African-Americans.  They regale us with all the racism and all the bigotry, with all the discrimination, the prejudice in the legal system, cops, law enforcement, jobs. 

It’s just the negative drumbeat.  And they’ve been voting for people who’ve been promising to fix it for 50 years, and they’re just as mad today as they were 50 years ago.  But they’re never mad at the people who do not come through.  They’re never mad at the people whose promises are never realized.  So approaching them on that basis, “Hey, at some point maybe do you think you might try a different approach if you want to improve things for yourself and your family and your kids?”  I mean, you look at out across the country and you see a lot of success.  You see a lot of successful people. 

I mean, somebody’s having it.  Somebody’s finding it.  And it’s not everybody that’s got it preprogrammed by family connection or whatever.  I mean, some people are stumbling into success.  Why aren’t you?  I don’t see how it’s demeaning.  But that’s what they said it was when Trump talked about it.  They said it was demeaning, it was insulting, it was insensitive.  And yet it was close to how I would go about it if I were a candidate.  Maybe this is an illustration of how I should never be a candidate. I don’t really know that business and I don’t really know what it takes or what getting votes is all about, and that may be because I’m not accustomed to selling things for support, so I don’t know.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, let me get back to the phones ’cause I’ve got Karen in Miami who’s waiting.  It’s great to have you, Karen.  Thank you for calling.

CALLER:  Hey Rush, you’re my radio crush.  I wanted you to know that.  But I want to get down to it.  Trump exposed the bear naked truth about America, black America, and the so-called black keepers of America and that they’re not doing a darn thing for black America.  And because it came from him, you have people offended.  But it should be the same things that should come out of the mouth of Jesse Jackson. It should be heard by Al Sharpton. It should be heard by Tom Joyner. It should be heard by all the preachers and pastors in the pulpit —

RUSH:  Karen, the people I’m talking about who ripped Trump over the coals are conservatives. Conservative writers who are basically saying Trump was insensitive, it was a stupid appeal, he wasn’t even speaking to blacks ’cause they weren’t in the audience. It was tasteless and all this stuff.  I said, what in the world did I miss about this?

CALLER:  Well, let me tell you why I disagree with that.  First of all, he had just come from Louisiana, and Louisiana was destroyed by Katrina, and you saw all the black people and the poor people and how they were upset with Bush for not doing enough, then you have Trump coming off the plane from there. So he had already had this preplanned event.  What else is he going to speak about than speak from the heart, speak from what he sees. 

That’s why he had the conversation he had at the time, and in Michigan, but about black America.  So it wasn’t that he preplans to go out and talk about black America over in Michigan.  Again I say, what he said, they’re just upset that he said it, it came from him.  If those same words had come from Jesse or anybody else or Barack or anybody else, it should have been — it never would because they’re cowards, but if it had come from them, it would be okay.

RUSH:  Well, exactly.  But the words don’t come from them, that’s the point.  The words don’t come from them.  That is my exact point.  The civil rights coalition leaders continue to make African-Americans victims.  They don’t speak of uplifting, positive ways to improve life.  All they do is convince ’em that their current lot in life is something they’re locked into because evil forces are discriminating against them and keep voting for us to make sure it doesn’t get any worse, keep voting for us to look out for you. 

And my only point is the people looking out for ’em aren’t doing anything for them.  Now, wait, before you — I know what your reaction, “Well, why should they?  People do things on their own.”  Folks, they have been conditioned to believe the government’s gonna take care of ’em. 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Back to Trump in Akron, Ohio. These next three bites are Trump once again delving into the problems of the inner city.

TRUMP:  Poor Hispanic and African-American citizens are the first to lose a job or to see a pay cut when we don’t control our borders.  Hillary Clinton’s plan amounts to total and absolute, total open borders, open borders.

RUSH: What’s next, this is crucial, this is important. Okay, why is all of this happening?  Why are borders open?  Why are poor Hispanic and African-Americans the first to lose a job?

TRUMP:  Democrats have failed completely in the inner cities.  Poverty, rejection, horrible education, no housing, no homes, no ownership, crime at levels that nobody’s seen.  You could go to war zones in countries that we’re fighting, and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities.

RUSH:  You would think that they’d be all over that.  You would think the media would be all over that. And some of our conservative buddies, “That’s just not right. That’s just irresponsible. That’s not the way to reach out to African-Americans.”  But the next bite that we have here, this is the part of the speech that the Drive-Bys are focusing on.

TRUMP:  It is a disaster the way African-Americans are living in many cases.  I’ll bring jobs back.  We’ll bring spirit back.  We’ll get rid of the crime.  You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot.  Right now you walk down the street, you get shot.

RUSH:  So the Drive-Bys are all over that, of course.  Pretty much describes inner city Chicago.  But the Drive-Bys, kind of like what I was discussing yesterday, when Trump was making his appeal to African-Americans, and I thought it made sense, and I find out many of my conservative buddies think it was over-the-top insensitive and counterproductive.  And I thought, wow, either I’m losing touch and am way out of touch or they are.  And Trump’s doubling down on it today. 

See, I am of the impression that if this kind of stuff kept up, it would be effective.  Folks, one of the primary reasons that Trump says this and thinks this is he hears it said by people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  Take your pick, I don’t care what African-American leader, civil rights leader you hear talk, they have always portray life in America for African-Americans as what?  Well, we’re not in Candy Land, I’ll tell you, it’s not dreamland.  I mean, the cops are trying to shoot ’em, cops are trying to put ’em in jail, you name it. 

Now, even if that’s true, which to many extents it’s not, but even if it’s true, why doesn’t it matter who’s been running the show?  Who’s been promising them to fix all of this? Who’s been promising them home ownership?  Who has been promising them to end the discrimination?  Who’s been promising them to end the racism?  I mean, what was the election of Obama really all about, if not ending all of that and turning it around and making it all better.  And it isn’t all better, and people are angrier now than they’ve been in eight years.  And in my mind you can lay that at the feet of the Democrat Party.  They’re the ones making the promises to fix all this stuff. 

Well, the Republicans do, too, but they’re impugned.  When Republicans talk about improving life for people they’re laughed at, mocked, criticized, called names, and so forth.  The Democrats, they get away with making the promises, but they never have to deliver.  The Democrats never, ever have to deliver.  In fact, they don’t deliver.  So we’re not supposed to examine that.  We’re not supposed to examine the failure.  We’re not supposed to examine the results of their efforts. 

No, no, no, no.  We’re only to look at their big hearts.  We are only to be impressed by their great intentions.  And that’s what makes them good people.  At least they care, we’re told, at least they are trying.  Now, one more bite before the break.  The Drive-Bys are all in a faux outrage over the contents of Trump’s remarks that you just heard.  They are spitting angry.

KIRSTEN POWERS:  Most African-Americans walking down the street in their neighborhoods are not worrying about getting shot.

CHRISTINE QUINN:  Made it sound like no street in America was safe for an African-American or a Latino or a Hispanic person.

HALLIE JACKSON:  Facing fire of his own now for some comments on African-American voters.

CHRIS MATTHEWS:  Pitch his candidacy to African-Americans using some pretty rough language.

ANDERSON COOPER:  He’s still clearly doubling down.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER:  Raising eyebrows with his tone, yet again.

BAKARI SELLERS:  I actually feel as if Donald Trump is trying to not speak to African-Americans or Hispanics, but he’s trying to convince white college-educated voters that he’s not intolerant.

CORNELL BELCHER:  We don’t need a Donald Trump to come save us.  We don’t need a great white hope.  

RUSH:  See, I’m sorry, but why does Trump think that?  He’s hearing African-American leaders complain about it.  By the way, all you have to do is consult the news in Chicago every day and it is happening.  But lest we forget, ladies and gentlemen, February 11th, 2007.  This would be what?  A little over nine years ago, 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft interviewing Michelle (My Belle) Obama. 

Kroft says, “Michelle, it’s a tough question to ask, but a number of years ago, Colin Powell was thinking of running for president.  His wife, Alma, really didn’t want him to run.  She was worried about some crazy with a gun assassinating him.  Is that something you, Michelle (My Belle) Obama, think about, too?”

MICHELLE:  I don’t lose sleep over it because the realities are that, you know, as a black man, Barack can get shot going to the gas station.

RUSH:  Well?  I mean, that’s just one example of what we constantly hear, and all Trump did was reflect it, get shot going to the gas station, get shot in the neighborhood. You name it, we hear about it. (interruption) Well, yes, I know, she can say it, Trump can’t, is the bottom line, right?  She can say that stuff.  Trump can’t.  Even if he’s trying to get to people to fix it, he can’t address it. (interruption) Yes, I know, Jesse Jackson has also admitted how scared he is walking down the street. If there’s a lone black guy, he will across the street, yeah, Jesse Jackson said so, too.  He can say it.  You can’t.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  So the Drive-Bys are out there, they’re livid, they’re livid that Trump says that African-Americans walk down the street and get shot, but isn’t that exactly what African-Americans tell us the cops are doing?  Isn’t that “hands up, don’t shoot”?  Isn’t that lie based on the fact that the cop shot a black kid in the street for no reason who was trying to surrender, when he wasn’t, and he had his hands up. 

The Drive-Bys have been telling us for years African-Americans are afraid to walk down the streets ’cause a cop might shoot ’em.  That has come to define the black experience in America since Ferguson, Missouri.  Black Lives Matter, the whole reason for its existence is that premise that blacks are being shot and murdered by racist whites, cops or otherwise. 

So Trump comes along and says it doesn’t have to be this way, and the next thing we hear is, “It isn’t that bad. To run around talking about it, that’s irresponsible to say that you get shot down walking in your own neighborhood,” by the very people in the media who had been promoting the premise.  It’s exactly what they’ve been saying.  They’ve been echoing Black Lives Matter. They’ve been echoing Occupy Wall Street, Congressional Black Caucasians, you pick the group. 

For the last two years, since Trayvon Martin, that’s what we have been told life in America is for African-Americans.  You walk down the street, you’re gonna get shot.  So here comes Trump saying you don’t have to do that, you don’t have to live that way anymore, it doesn’t have to be that way.  And the very people telling us that that’s what life is all about for African-Americans — and this is the second day in a row for this, by the way — are now castigating Trump for making things up and lying and saying, “This is not the way to reach out to African-Americans. To say that just walking down the street you could get shot, I don’t know blacks living that way.” 

You don’t?  You don’t, Mr. African-American leader, Mr. African-American senator, Mr. African-American news commentator, you don’t?  Because every other day that’s what you’re telling us life is for African-Americans in the United States of America.  This is just another glaring, glittering example of this ridiculous double standard and another glittering example of how there isn’t journalism anymore.