RUSH: So the new way of tabulating winners and losers continues. Greetings, my friends. Great to have you. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, Advanced Anti-Media Studies and Anti-Leftist Studies. Happy to have you here.

So all five Donald Trump-endorsed candidates won yesterday. That means that the Democrats are gonna take the House. That means the Democrats are gonna take the House in November. It’s even more of a lock now than it was before the Democrats all lost these elections yesterday, and that’s from no less than F. Chuck Todd. These results yesterday show that the Democrats are on the way to a big sweep, a gigantic blue wave in November.

They’re trying to say that Trump’s endorsement didn’t help any of these candidates. They’re trying to say that the massive Democrat turnout in these districts that were predominantly dominated by Republicans shows that the enthusiasm is all on the Democrat side. And the fact that these races were relatively close in special elections and primary elections in the vacation month of August means that when things return to normal in the fall, school starts and family life cycles resume their normalcy, that once we get to November, the Democrats are just gonna sweep everything.

Isn’t it amazing how, when the Democrats lose in these special elections — eight out of nine, by the way, for Trump… Eight out of nine-Trump endorsed candidates in special or primary elections have emerged victorious. And yet in practically every one of them, the Democrats are reported to have won, at least if not a real victory, a moral victory.

They still can’t believe it. Folks, do not fall for this for a second. I’m telling you behind closed doors, in the privacy of the greenroom restrooms at CNN and MSNBC, they are livid they didn’t win Ohio. They’re not telling each other, slapping each other on the back talking about their moral victories. They are livid they didn’t win it. They had everything planned. It was gonna go big. Trump was gonna get shellacked. These Republicans were gonna lose by major margins.

What are they gonna do? The so-called new face, the star of the Democrat Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, every one of her candidates lost! Every one of them. And she went on a barnstorming tour all over the country. She was endorsing Muslims here and minorities over there. Every one of her candidates lost.

We also have some very funny and interesting audio sound bites from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez coming up. She has been asked repeatedly how she’s gonna pay for this massive socialist agenda that is supposedly gonna create wealth like we’ve never seen it. And she cannot answer. She has no idea what she’s talking about. She literally doesn’t know anything. And it’s again noteworthy because this woman has an economics degree from Boston University.

Our buddies at Campus Reform, they went to Columbia University. Did you hear about this? They went to Columbia University and they took some average, ordinary college students off the street and said, “Can you name the five freedoms designated in the First Amendment?” And nobody could.

They didn’t find a single student who could name anything more than freedom of speech, and some of them couldn’t even name that. And these are college students at Columbia. Columbia! Yeah, it’s near where a bunch of — well, never mind where it is. (laughing) It’s stunning the way people are not being educated today, and it’s on display each and every day in our elections, in our country, in the Drive-By Media.

So let’s go through this. Now, in Ohio, in Ohio 12, the margin of victory here is 1%. There’s gonna be a recount there. And as I mentioned yesterday, this election is gonna be rerun in November. The same two people are gonna — and no matter who had won yesterday, this is simply an election to fill out the remaining months, three months here of a term of a retiring Republican. And this is a suburban Columbus, Ohio, district.

So people are trying to figure out, “Okay. We had this turnout here, the massive Democrat turnout in a predominantly Republican district.” The thing that people are not talking about — and this is a key to me. I’ve been harping on this for the past couple days. This guy, O’Connor, the Democrat who ran in Ohio 12, really didn’t run on the Democrat agenda. None of these candidates are.

They’re either running on Trump hatred or they’re trying to sound like Republican or conservative light. This Conor Lamb guy, the special election — well, that was in Georgia — the same thing. They’re not running on Democrat agenda items. And I don’t mean the new socialism of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They’re not running on an Obama type agenda. They are running on Trump hatred.

This guy in Ohio 12 was out there trying to scare seasoned citizens that the Republicans are gonna take away Social Security and Medicare and so forth. Which, I mean, that’s a throwback. That is a huge throwback. That was a Democrat Party staple all the way up through the 1990s and I think even maybe the first, you know, 2004 and George W. Bush. It could have been a big issue. But the margin of victory is about 1%, probably gonna be a recount.

Look at the money that was spent on just an election for three months, and it’s gonna be respent. Don’t know how much, but they’re gonna have to plow some more money into it for a rerun of this the same election in November. Now, one of the tricks that the Drive-Bys are playing on this turnout business, they are comparing turnout in the presidential race in 2016 to turnout in a special election in August two years later. And they’re trying to say that the vast difference in turnout is a sign that all enthusiasm for Trump has evaporated.

In the district Ohio 12 in 2016 there were — I forget the exact total. Three, four hundred thousand votes, versus less than half that yesterday. They’re trying to say — and I may be off on the numbers, but the percentages are not wrong. They’re trying to say, “See? See? All the enthusiasm is on the Democrat side. The Trump side didn’t even bother to show up.” We learned that in 2010 or actually it was 2012.

Remember a lot of people were taking the — and I made this mistake myself. Take the 2010 midterm turnout where the Republicans picked up 63 seats and won the House back. And we were looking at the enthusiasm of that and saying, these pollsters that have Obama up by five or six in 2012 are missing this turnout in 2010, and they said you can’t compare ’em. You can’t compare a midterm election is to a presidential year.

You can’t compare it in any way, particularly voter enthusiasm or turnout — and it turned out they were right. That big wave in 2010 — 63 Republican victories, take control of the House. You would think that momentum that was anti-Obama in 2012 — and the anti-Obama sentiment had not evaporated. What happened was in 2012 — a presidential year — a bunch of people who didn’t vote in 2010 ’cause Obama wasn’t on the ballot showed up in 2012 and did!

I was looking at the polling data in 2012 showing Obama up by five or six and said, “It doesn’t make any sense. They’re not factoring in what happened with the turnout in 2010.” They said, “You can’t compare ’em,” but they are comparing this. See, this is the trick they play. They’re taking turnout in a presidential year and all the people showed up and voted for Trump, and comparing it to all the people that did not show up and vote yesterday in Ohio 12 on the Republican side, and trying to tell you that every bit of enthusiasm for Trump has vanished.

Even though Trump wasn’t on the ballot! They’re also trying to say that Trump had no impact on any of these races in Kansas with Kris Kobach or in Ohio with Troy Balderson. “No, no, no. Nah. Trump didn’t do anything,” and of course Kasich is out there saying Trump hurt. But yet the Republicans win five out of five yesterday, and the big news for a lot of people (I’m gonna put myself in this list) is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her massively new supposedly “taking the country by storm” socialist movement just fizzled.

I mean, it just plopped.

Now, the Democrats… Don’t make the mistake of assuming that she’s taking the Democrat Party with ’em, because remember, there were a lot of old- line, mainstream Democrats… Remember Pelosi after Joe Crowley lost and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the big winner and there’s all this excitement and people are running around calling her (in the Drive-Bys) the new face of the Democrat Party. And Pelosi in the Wicked Witch of the West greenroom where she lives said, “It’s just one race. It’s just one little district. Doesn’t mean anything. Don’t overanalyze this. Don’t read anything into this that isn’t there.”

So these old-line Democrats didn’t want any part of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becoming the new face of the Democrat Party. But her crowd wants her to be, and she was. She traveled to Michigan, she traveled to Hollywood, and everywhere she went her endorsed candidates were just blown to smithereens. Let me take a brief time-out. I want to come back and get started on some sound bites, some individual election data on this and discuss what it means, if anything, and how to extrapolate, if we can, what happened yesterday to the upcoming midterms in November.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Our old buddy Seton Motley has an observation. “I think it may be true one of the biggest obstacles we have in Ohio is that the Republican base needs to overcome all those years of John Kasich beleaguering everybody!” I like this contrarian view of things.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I made a mistake also. Folks, I’m a little hoarse today, and when I get hoarse, I get distracted. I get distracted by it. That means that sometimes I don’t focus like a laser on what I’m saying because it becomes a chore to say it. I goofed up and I said that Conor Lamb was from Georgia.

I was confusing him with one of the early special elections. Conor Lamb was in Pennsylvania. The point that I was making is that in all of these special elections — and it’s very, very important — these Democrats are not running on anything like the socialist agenda that they’re pushing all over the media. In Ohio 12, this guy, O’Connor, for the most part didn’t even attack Trump! Now, go figure that. Now, the reason for that is this is a very heavy Republican district, and Trump won it going away two years ago.

It also has its share of seasoned citizens. So O’Connor does not attack Trump, which is all that’s gonna happen in the midterms. Once the midterms get here, that’s what it’s all gonna be about. The Democrats are gonna be attacking Trump left and right. They’re not gonna be running on their agenda. They are not going to be running on their issues. Now, you might think that’s crazy because even I have pointed out that in recent months they have gotten very confident. They’re taking the masks off. They’re not trying to hide who they are and what they think.

But when you get to elections, when you get down to actually campaigning for votes, they still are, or they still will, depending on where. And they really… Folks, they really thought they were gonna win Ohio 12. You could tell yesterday that that was the race that mattered, and the Drive-Bys will give you the tip-off if you just study what their laser-like focused on. And it was this one, Ohio 12. And they really thought this was gonna be a flat-out, straight-out win.

They put a lot of money into this race and they spent a lot of money getting out the vote. Some people I heard earlier today said it was 90% Democrat turnout. I haven’t validated that. I haven’t confirmed it. But it’s floating around out there. I think, “With 90% turnout, they should have won in a landslide where the Republican turnout was barely 50%?” But it was explained to me, “Well, the district is so heavily Republican.”

See, that’s why the Drive-Bys are claiming their moral victory. But, again, you can’t compare turnouts from a presidential year to… It’s not even a midterm. This is a special election in August. The number of people out of town or not paying attention, and this is where the Drive-Bys are going to be making a mistake in mis-assuming their strength.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look at this AP headline: “Primary Night Takeaways: Democratic Optimism, Women Advance.” I’m looking at Snerdley. He said, “You better believe it. You better believe it. There’s reason for the Democrats to be optimistic. Damn straight.” Okay. All right. “Democrats did not walk away with a clear win Tuesday night, but they didn’t have to.” No, no. The Democrats never have to win. The Democrats just have to show well enough where the media can say that it’s the same thing as winning.

“They essentially battled Republicans to a draw in a central Ohio –” What do you mean, a draw? Look, I know what they’re trying to say here, but there are no draws. There is a winner and loser, and there’s gonna be, eventually, a winner and loser.

Here’s where we are with Ohio 12. There’s no recount yet. There are 8,000 ballots that haven’t been counted. There are provisional ballots, and there are absentees. So the numbers are that of the 8,000 outstanding, that the Democrats are gonna have to win 60% of them to get to win the one-half-point margin here where the automatic recount is triggered.

Do you think the Democrats are gonna get 60% of ’em? Some people do because, yes, it was early voting, the absentees and the provisionals, and that’s the Democrats, the Democrats are the only ones that ever vote early because they care, and they’re motivated, and they’re inspired, and they are really, really fired up, and the Republicans don’t care about anything. And so, yeah. (interruption) Can they cheat? Can they cheat. I don’t know. Did they use the Russians in the recount or not? Anyway, that’s the AP’s take-away on this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Scott, Jacksonville, Florida. Great to have you, sir. How are you?

CALLER: “Happy birthday to me” mega dittos from your No. 1 listener in Jacksonville, Florida.

RUSH: Great to have you, sir.

CALLER: You know, Rush, I’ve been with you since your Rush to Excellence Tour in Orlando. It’s been a long ride and I love it.

RUSH: I remember that.

CALLER: So do I. Remember that joke that you told — and I won’t say it — about the person who got the job at the end? Anyway, if the Russians are so good at swaying the results of an election, why such a nail-biter in Ohio 12? I mean, is Cambridge Analytica that detailed to say, “Hey, we better not blow this out”?

RUSH: Yeah, I think the Russians probably wanted to disguise their activity. If there had been a blowout, that might have been a little suspicious. The Democrats don’t want anybody thinking the Russians helped ’em, and so the Green Party candidate in there with about a thousand or 1,200 votes (chuckling) happens to be close to the margin of difference here. So the Democrats are running around thinking the Green Party candidate is the Russians.

I don’t think the Russians want a blowout here yet.

Remember, the Russians want to disguise and camouflage their meddling here. They would rather not have it be confirmed as something obviously happening. They want it to remain dubious and mysterious. I appreciate the call. Let’s hit sound bites here as promised. We’re gonna start here with No. 8. We have a… I just want you to hear this from the Drive-Bys. We have a montage of many Drive-Bys talking about how Ohio 12 was a “moral victory” for the Democrats — and the fact that it was close is the only thing that matters.

FREDO CUOMO: …the fact that it’s close is so interesting.

DANA BASH: Just the fact that we’re having this discussion…

CHRIS CILLIZZA: The fact that it is this close, Republicans have to deal with, basically, a tie, very close to a tie, a slight — slight, slight, slight — win.

MARIA CARDONA: The fact that we’re even talking about this, I do think, is overall a win for Democrats.

JOHN KING: This is a moral victory for the Democrats. The fact that they’re this close is a moral victory for the Democrats.

DON LEMON: This was a moral victory for Democrats.

RUSH: That is Don Lemon there, “the dumbest man on TV.” That’s the last voice that you heard. How many of them said, “The fact that we’re discussing this…”? Dana Bash says, “Just the fact that we’re discussing it…” You mean you wouldn’t be discussing it if Balderson had won by two or three or five points? What are you talking about? (impression) “The fact that we’re discussing this means that it’s a Democrat win! The fact that we’re discussing this means that it’s a Democrat moral victory.

“The fact that we’re discussing this, the fact that it was so close means it’s a moral victory for the Democrats.” This is Gloria Borger, also at CNN last night with Don Lemon. Question: “The president is calling it for Troy Balderson. We’re not calling it now.” This is CNN saying (summarized), “We’re not calling this race yet. Trump did, but we’re not. It’s too close to call. Lot of things that could go into this. It looks likely that Balderson’s gonna win. What’s up here, Gloria?”

BORGER: Of course Donald Trump is taking credit but I want to say who else should take credit for this victory — if it is a victory — and that’s John Kasich. Because John Kasich’s the guy, if Balderson wins, who brought out those suburban women who don’t like Donald Trump in Delaware County, and those, uhhhh, moderate Republicans.

RUSH: Well, now, there’s some news. Did you know that women this Delaware County don’t like Trump? (interruption) Well, because he talked ’em, remember? We had a sound bite from Kasich yesterday. He was talking to women. He talked to two women.

Don’t you remember? You might not have ’cause you’re screening calls. We had a sound bite from Kasich yesterday where he said that he was talking to women. And so Gloria Borger says that John Kasich brought out the suburban women in Delaware County who do not like Trump, and Kasich brought out those moderate Republicans who don’t like Trump. Here’s F. Chuck Todd on the Today show today predicting what it all means.

TODD: Democrats I think are now heavy favorites to take control of the House. I think the question really is the size. Is it 30 seats, 40 seats, 50 seats. They have a night like this, like they did in Ohio, they could win 40 to 60 seats. The Republican Governor John Kasich thinks the president actually did more to turn out suburban voters against the Republican candidate. Here you brought the President in for the sole reason to stir up his base and the sort of, the anti-Trump vote turned out at higher rate than the pro-Trump vote. If that is a harbinger for November, watch out.

RUSH: Well, now, this is another interesting take. So Trump rolls into town and actually inspired the anti-Trump vote. F. Chuck Todd. Now we’re talking 60 seats, folks. I mean, the Republicans won 63 — I think that’s the number — in 2010. And nobody saw that coming, by the way. Nobody. The Tea Party, they were pooh-poohing it, doesn’t matter, it’s fake, it’s fraud. Nobody saw that. The Republicans didn’t see it coming. They thought Obama was popular, Obamacare and all this, but they didn’t see it.

Now they’re predicting the Democrats are gonna win by 60 seats. Here you bring the president in for the sole reason to stir up his base, and he instead stirs up the anti-Trump vote that turned out at a higher rate than the pro-Trump vote. And Kasich thinks that, according to F. Chuck, Kasich thinks the president did more to turn out suburban voters against Balderson. Here’s Balderson himself last night in Newark, Ohio.

BALDERSON: I’d like to thank President Trump. (cheers) Mr. President coming to town, I’d also like to take the time to thank Vice President Pence. Tonight I’m going to promise to you that I’m going to work relentlessly, relentlessly for this 12th congressional district. (cheers) America is on the right path, and we’re gonna keep it going that way. (cheers) It’s time to get at work. Over the next three months, I’m gonna do everything I can to keep America great again.

RUSH: Well, you better have fun these next three months, because after that you’re toast. F. Chuck Todd says you and 59 others are heading to the highway out of town. Mr. Snerdley, let me ask you a question. For those of you that know, Snerdley is very alarmed over the fact that these races the Republicans won were very close in places he doesn’t think they need. Do you think the Democrats are gonna win 60 seats?

Do you think the Democrats are gonna win 20? They need to win 23 to take control. You think there’s gonna be a blue wave, 23, 25 seats? He thinks it’s possible. Okay. So we have one traitor here on the staff. It’s good to identify them. Just kidding, of course. Just kidding. Danny O’Connor, the Democrat, on CNN talking about last night.

JOHN BERMAN: Some people who’ll look back and say, “Well, you have said you will not support Nancy Pelosi.” What does it tell you that support for Nancy Pelosi is so toxic among some, not all, but some voters?

O’CONNOR: Well, it tells me the folks are ready for a new generation of leadership. I’m running to be an independent voice in Washington. I think a difference between me and my opponent is he’s going to do whatever Washington, D.C. tells him to do. I’m someone who’s going to be an independent voice

RUSH: Ha. I have no doubt that Dan O’Connor thinks that. Dan, you need to go talk to Luis Gutierrez and find out how it works. Luis Gutierrez from Chicago. I think he did a 60 Minute interview. He was scheduled to appear in The Limbaugh Letter and canceled. He was gonna do an interview with me, and he canceled it. He went on 60 Minutes and told the truth.

(imitating Gutierrez) “Yeah, I was elected. I was gonna go in and be my own man, and then they brought me into the leadership office. And they said, ‘You like being here? Is it fun so far?’ ‘Oh, yeah. Yeah.’ ‘You want to stay here?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘You’re gonna vote like we tell you. You’re gonna vote like we tell you, not your district. You want to be reelected, you’ll vote the way we tell you. You want to get funds and money for your reelection, you’ll vote the way we tell you. You are not your own man. You do what we tell you to do, and everything’s gonna be fine. If you don’t, you’re gonna be here one term and you’re gone.'” And the same thing will happen to Danny O’Connor. And it’ll be Pelosi telling him that.