RUSH: I’m gonna go back to something Vice President Pence said, because it’s important. And I asked him his reaction to Senator Lindsey Graham. Senator Graham is on television saying that if the president caves to the Democrats on this, if there is any indication of any capitulation or caving, if there is any result that translates or looks like a Democrat victory, Lindsey Graham is saying that’s the end of our party, the Republican Party. That will be the end of the Republican Party as an electoral force for 20 years.

I guess his meaning is that Republican voters will be so distraught and so fed up that they’ll vanish. That will be the end of it. And Vice President Pence’s response to this was — and I asked him point-blank, “Do you agree with that? Are you looking at it this way?” He said, “We’re not even looking at this with a political eye,” Vice President Pence said. And I think this was sincere. He paused for a couple of seconds to gather his thoughts on this. And I know that he — my guess is he wasn’t expecting any kind of a question of that nature.

And he made the point that we’re not looking at this as a political issue. Now, everybody knows that it is, but I think this is an important point. They’re looking at it as an issue for what it is. We have a president keeping promises left and right. And isn’t it interesting to see how trivial Washington thinks that is? They’re counseling, “Come on, everybody breaks promises. If you’re just holding firm on this to be true to a promise, come on, get real,” they’re saying.

They’re so out of touch that a presidential candidate keeping his promises as president is considered small, irrelevant, quaint, and, furthermore, not productive. And yet with Trump it’s an article of faith! And he’s doing his best to keep as many of the promises he made. And he’s giving clear indications that he’s expending full effort to keeping promises. And he’s keeping some of the promises as he can. Those that require the assistance of Congress have been problematic because he can’t get the support of Congress on so many things, repealing, replacing Obamacare when he wanted to do it and this kind of thing.

But the political observation Graham made, there’s something to this. And whether they’re looking at this politically or not — and I know what Vice President Pence means. What he means is we’re looking at this issue as an issue above and beyond politics. This is a national security issue. It is an American societal and cultural issue. It is a law-and-order issue. And we’re not looking at it here from how do we beat the Democrats and score political points. We’re doing this to save the country, for crying out loud. And that is how people who elected Trump look at this.

Our country remains in a crisis! You know, for all of these people that still lament the election of Donald Trump, the alternative was simply unacceptable, Hillary Clinton and three more terms of Barack Obama policy. It was unacceptable. Bye-bye America, as founded. There was no alternative. And Trump remains it. And I thought he was very persuasive last night.

And I will say this. Donald Trump owns the stage in Trump rallies. There’s nobody that can do what he does. There’s nobody in politics that can even get close. Oval Office addresses, this is a first, prompter exclusively. He’s a different person. And I’m not saying — don’t misunderstand. Even with Trump not in his most favored format, he still made Pelosi and Schumer look like a couple of morticians.

He still made them look like they are the elite and arrogant, condescending out of touch establishment elites that they are. While in their minds they come across and think that they’re addressing a nation of people that respect them and look up to them and invest all hope in them. And I don’t think they have the slightest clue how they come off. It’s very important that you be able — you have to have empathy. You have to be able to understand how people see you when you are engaged in public speaking or public performance or what have you. And these two clearly do not have the ability.

And you know why they don’t have the ability to understand how they are seen? It’s ’cause they don’t care. There’s not a single thing they think can happen to them if you don’t like what they look like or say. They don’t care. Because what they say is what is. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant, because there’s nothing you can do to ’em. And there’s nothing you can do to change their minds.

So all of this was a perfunctory performance last night based on a false premise that Trump was gonna lie and make all kinds of mistakes and then we’re gonna go out and be able — and these people create this out of whole cloth. They’ve got this idea that Trump does nothing but lie and they’ve been living this lie themselves for all of these years. They are devoid reality. They are absent any reality whatsoever. They have created an alternative universe of media narrative after media narrative, a soap opera, if you will, they’ve created a character, Donald Trump, that doesn’t exist in reality.

But he does exist on cable news every day and every night. He does exist in the Democrat caucus. But it’s not the Donald Trump that people see. It’s not the Donald Trump who’s actually alive and acting as president and living his life. And it’s the most amazing disconnect.

These people haven’t the slightest ability to build a bond between themselves and the audience observing them. Chuck and Nancy had no hope. They had no hope of creating a bond. Nobody were Pelosi and Schumer fans last night as people who watch Trump are fans. You might have had partisans. You might have had Democrat voters and partisans hoping Chuck and Nancy really stuck it to Trump, but they’re not personally invested in Chuck and Nancy.

Chuck and Nancy don’t have that kind of relationship with their voters. Very few Democrats do. The Kennedys did, but nobody approaches it and gets close to the way Trump has. And that’s his strength, and that’s his power. And he said something last night that I thought, you could say this is what persuasion sounds like. He said — and we might have this in the audio sound bite roster. I’ll check. Well, let me look real quick. I got a couple of minutes. Let me find it.

Oh. Did you hear what Maggie Haberman of the failing New York Times is reporting? You know, yesterday, which is a tradition, Trump invited some so-called news anchors to come in for lunch. Any time there’s a State of the Union address or an address to the nation, the nation’s big anchors come in for lunch, and the president briefs them and discusses what’s gonna be talked about. Except Trump doesn’t open up. He fulfills the tradition, but doesn’t give ’em any heads up.

So Maggie Haberman wasn’t there. These things are supposed to be off the record. Maggie Haberman of the failing New York Times says she heard from somebody there that Trump let it be known he didn’t even want to do this last night. He didn’t care. He didn’t even care about the wall. He didn’t want to do this speech last night, but his communications people told him he had to do it. So that’s what she’s out there tweeting and telling people. That Trump didn’t even really want to do it.

I’ll tell you who didn’t want to do it was Chuck and Nancy. They might have been looking forward to doing it, but then when Trump didn’t follow the script and tell a bunch of lies and go off script, they didn’t know what to do. So they were stuck looking at like the morticians that they are.

So, yeah, it’s gonna be out there, “Trump didn’t even really want to do this.” Translation: Trump’s heart really isn’t in this. He’s just doing this because tribal chieftain Rush Limbaugh’s telling him to do it or his communications people are telling him to do it or Sean Hannity’s telling him. But he doesn’t really want to, he doesn’t care about the wall. That’s what they’re gonna be doing the rest of the day.

And I think it’s all fake news. The AP has a story that the GOP Congress is now starting to crack, and Drudge’s headlined it above the fold on the Drudge Report page: GOP Congress starting to crack, they’re going wobbly, they’re getting nervous. Well, that’s what they always do. They always get nervous. They’ve been nervous before the shutdown started.

But the implication is that Trump is losing his support, that Trump is going to be increasingly isolated in this shutdown, that nobody in Washington… It’s all fake news! I don’t believe it! You can’t believe it when you see Lindsey Graham out there talking the way he’s talking and warning people. Now, let me see. Where are the Trump bites? Let’s see. Yeah. Grab sound bite 14. I thought this was one of the most persuasive moments in Trump’s address last night…

THE PRESIDENT: Some have suggested a barrier is immoral. Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences, and gates around their homes? They don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside. The only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized.

RUSH: Now, that was effective. And it’s gonna be effective to people, those who saw it, who are hearing about how Trump wants a wall ’cause he hates people because he’s a racist. Of course, Trump is saying, “No, people build walls, not because they hate people the other side. It’s ’cause they love their families! They love people on the inside!” Except… The president couldn’t say this, can’t say this, but I can.

I think over half the leftists who do build walls do so in part ’cause they hate the people on the outside. They don’t want any part of the rabble! They don’t want any part of the common population getting anywhere near them. Part and parcel of being an elite is condescending to everybody else, thinking you’re better than everybody else, not wanting to be touched by people who are inferior. So to the leftists and so forth that are instructing these personal walls around their businesses and around their homes and around their estates?

(chuckles) It clearly is because they love the people on the inside and want to protect them, but it’s also because they want nothing to do people on the outside. Did you also hear Vice President Pence make clear what’s happening because of the open border, that we have drug cartels basically leading, promoting, conducting all of these operations of human trafficking and drug interdiction and so forth? Who is it that’s enabling this? It’s the Democrat Party!

It’s no different than when the Democrats refused to oppose the Soviet Union establishing a client base in Nicaragua. They were de facto supporting the communists. The same party, the same people — the Democrats — are supporting the drug cartels in their efforts to corrupt the United States and our culture by not doing anything to stop them! By keeping the border open, knowing full well what’s coming in across the border.

How about this fake excuse: “Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about! Drugs are not coming in the border. They’re coming through ports of entry.” Uh, would you people read what his legislation is? He knows full well where the drugs are coming in, and his proposal for the wall is not just for the wall. It is to interdict drugs at the port of entry. This is how weak these people have become.

To try to say Trump lied or Trump was wrong when he said that drugs are coming in from the border, “They’re not; they’re coming through ports of entry”? Does it deny the fact that illegal drugs have an easy pipeline into the country? Is it true that Trump wants to stop it or not? This is the kind of “fact checking” that went on last night that’s just nonsensical. These people are making fools of themselves. Now, it may well be that we have to tell people that the Democrats are making fools of themselves, but that’s what we’re here to do.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: his is during the signing event for the anti-human trafficking bill. This is probably happening right as Vice President Pence was appearing on the program. This is what President Trump had to say.

THE PRESIDENT: I’ll say it in front of some of our Democrat friends here: I would love to see a big immigration bill where we really take care of the situation. I know you want to. Everybody wants to. Who wouldn’t want to? Right now, we have a problem. We have to take care of this, and it’s quicker and easier to do this individually. But we would like to see real immigration reform in this country ’cause we need it. Maybe this will turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

RUSH: Okay. What does that mean? I’ll tell you. I think the president is saying he wants to work with Congress; he’ll do everything he can. You know what’s on the table here is amnesty for the DREAMers. You know that at some point, it’s gonna surface. But that’s still down the road. Everybody knows that the real goal for the left is amnesty for the DREAMers and DACA and so forth. But Trump’s gotta win this battle first, and he’s making it clear he’s more than willing to work with Congress. But if, after all of these efforts they bomb out on, he’ll go the national emergency route.

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RUSH: Oxford, Ohio. This is Bill. Glad you waited, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh. Giga dittos from the United States Navy, retired F-14 Tomcat community. I will get to my point.

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Did you fly the F-14?

CALLER: No. I was a maintainer that worked on the radar and weapons delivery systems.

RUSH: That’s impressive. That really is. I’m glad you’re in the audience. Thank you for calling. How are you doing?

CALLER: I am doing better than I deserve.

RUSH: That’s true for all of us, probably.

CALLER: To get to my point, Mr. Snerdley says he doesn’t do analogies, but I wanted to provide one for you. Maybe you can confirm or deny it. The movie Heartbreak Ridge with Clint Eastwood, Gunnery Sergeant Highway, he was in charge of the reconn platoon. And in my opinion Gunnery Sergeant Highway is Trump, or Trump is Gunnery Sergeant Highway and reconn platoon is the Republicans. They did not have a leader. And now Trump is that leader, and he’s dragging them to victory kicking and screaming. Pardon me. I’m a little bit nervous.

RUSH: Why are you nervous? You work on F-14 Tomcat radars, for crying out loud. Nobody else could do that.

CALLER: Well, a lot of high school graduates can do it. Anyways, when I look at the Republican Party, you look at the so-called leadership, you look at McConnell, not a leader, Boehner, not a leader, Ryan, McCarthy, Bush 41, Bush 43, none of them were leaders. The most recent leader we can name of the Republican Party would either be Reagan or Gingrich, period.

RUSH: Right. And, look, part and parcel of what you’re talking about, leader is somebody that’s standing up to and trying to defeat the opposition. That’s what we’ve not had.

CALLER: Exactly. And the Republican Party kind of wanders around the woods trying to figure out what they should do, and all they see is the media, and they see the accolades that the Democrats get from the media. So they have a conflict between their convictions and their desire to be appreciated or approved.

RUSH: Well, in your analogy with Heartbreak Ridge, there’s no question here that Trump is a leader, both elected and natural. And you’re right. I mean, there haven’t been a whole lot of these guys around on our side in a while.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. President Trump went up to Capitol Hill today, had lunch, I think, with the congressional Republicans. That’s right. And he spoke with reporters about border security when this thing was over. It might have been at the beginning of it. I’m not sure. The reporter said, “Why don’t you just declare a national emergency?”

THE PRESIDENT: I may do that at some point. If Chuck and Nancy, who I’m meeting with I believe in a little while, if they don’t agree to the fact that our country has really got problems with crime, with drugs, with a lot of other things that come through our southern border, so much of it comes through the southern border. You look at heroin, 90% through the southern border, so much, so many problems. And if they can’t get that through or if they feel that politically — I don’t know why it’s good politically. You know, I don’t care politically. I’m doing what’s right for the country. But I’ll tell you, it’s a very bad political issue for the Democrats. The Republicans are totally unified.

RUSH: He just doesn’t stop here, folks, and he’s not caving to any of these narratives. “Why don’t you just declare a national emergency! You boob!” And Trump comes out with the answer, and then the piece de resistance, it’s a very bad political issue for the Democrats. By the way, it is! Have you seen the polling? I mean, the media’s filled with a bunch of garbage today about more and more people are starting to blame Trump for this shutdown. Nowhere near a lot.

And there hasn’t been any change in the poll that 93% of the American people think it is a major, major problem that needs to be addressed, the open border aspect down there. The Democrats are on the wrong side of this, if you want to look at it politically. And they’re on the wrong side of it morally, more importantly.