RUSH: The Mueller report is in. Do you know that the Democrat Party…? Are you ready for this? We’re in the midst of the presidential campaign of 2020. The Democrats are trying to choose their nominee. Everybody assumes it’s Biden. Trump’s out there saying, “Biden?” What happened to Biden anyway? This the best? We got 350 million people in the country, and the best the Democrat Party can do is Joe Biden?

The Democrat Party… More than 20 Democrat lawmakers are planning a marathon-style reading of the Mueller report tomorrow, and I guess CNN will cover it and then do a town hall afterwards? The Democrats are going to read, out loud, the 448-page Mueller report. It’s gonna take ’em 12 hours to do this.

The time they’re gonna waste doing this? You know what the Democrats are doing? I’m convinced the Democrats don’t have the slightest idea how to win the presidency — they don’t — and they don’t know what they’re doing. They are seeking guidance. So they’re doing all this crazy stuff. The Green New Deal. All this other cockamamie stuff. They’re throwing it up against the wall to see what sticks.

They’re throwing it out there just to see what their base reacts to the most favorably and then build a campaign based on it. And I think that’s part and parcel of what this is. They think their base is outraged; the Mueller report obviously says that Trump colluded. Except that it doesn’t. So they’re gonna read it, 12 hours. Meanwhile, what is Trump doing? Trump is normalizing trade relations with China, and we have even more on that today to update you on.

And how about this? This… I hate to say this. I actually hate to acknowledge and admit this but I have to ’cause it happened out there. Thomas “Loopy” Friedman of the New York Times was on CNBC today and totally agreed with Trump on China. Totally, 100%. He said Trump’s the only guy who could do this and that it has to be done. And then he basically echoed things in his own words that I’ve been saying all week about this, about the 30-year trade imbalance, why it happened, how it’s got to stop. The only thing none of these people… Bannon was on, too.

Bannon was good. He was on. Steve Bannon was on with “Loopy” Friedman. The only thing these guys don’t explain is why and how it was allowed to get to this point for 30 years. And that’s what you get from me. Because I have told you. And I’ll remind you again. And it’s crucial to understandings the Trump presidency. It’s crucial to understanding what Trump is trying to do. It’s crucial to understanding — intellectually and seriously — the concept of making America great again. So Trump’s out there doing that.

He’s working on lowering drug costs, stopping surprise medical charges. He’s dealing with Iran. He’s getting the Pentagon to give him money for the border. Lindsey Grahamnesty has a new legislation bill to present here on immigration. Trump is trying to stop drugs from pouring in, trying to fix the China trade mess. I mean, it started out China — what were the original Chinese imports, what were they? Little toys, and fireworks.

You know, stuff that nobody was threatened by. But now the ChiComs are into computers and high-tech and intellectual property, artificial intelligence. And they have to steal much of that tech from us in order to put it into their own product. Now we gotta start drawing the line. This is the kind of stuff Trump is working on. What are these guys gonna do? They’re gonna spend 12 hours reading the Mueller report. Trump is having great big fun, energetic, and positive rallies.

More people are unable to get in than those who are permitted in because of crowd size, and the Democrats are going to read the Mueller report, 448 pages, 12 hours. There’s always a story at TheHill.com today that the road to the Democrat nomination goes right through MSNBC. It’s being called a Rachel Maddow primary. Right there, folks, evidence we’ve got nothing to worry about. If that’s what they think they have to do — if the eventual Democrat winner has to gain the approval of MSNBC and its audience — then I’m not suggesting you get overconfident and think things are over, but that’s certainly…

That’s not the route to victory for these people. I don’t want to speak too loudly about this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay. The president’s approval rating. Now, this is from Real Clear Politics. This is the Poll of Polls. This is what the polling aficionados rely on most. “Trump’s Average Approval Ratings Skyrocket to Highest Point in Years — The president’s average approval rating currently sits at 45%, according to Real Clear Politics, which is based on a compilation of polls from April 26 to May 13. The 45% mark is Trump’s highest RCP polling average since February 2017,” which was shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

Now, you might think, “Well, 45%? Rush, come on. That’s not gonna matter ’til he gets over 50%.” Unh-uh. Wrong, folks. In all polling, what people tell you is the trend line is what matters. But you’ve gotta look at this 45% against the effort to beat it down, and it has been unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Ninety-two to 94% of all mainstream media coverage of President Trump before and after he was elected is negative.

We’ve had a phony investigation that was actually a silent coupe designed to run him out of office. What it was designed to do was drive his public approval numbers down to the twenties or thirties so that he would have to be leaving on his own, have to resign as opposed to being impeached. That’s what the objective was. I mean, there’s no real way to overturn the election results of 2016, which was the objective. The way you do it is you force the winner of that election out.

They thought they could get his numbers down to the twenties or thirties with this never-ending effort of smothering this country with negative news, lies, fake news about Trump colluding with Russia, being a traitor, being a Russian agent. The fact that he’s at 45% and expanding — the fact that the economy is roaring, the fact that he is staying focused on the job — that 45% has good point represent one of the most depressing polling numbers the enemies and opponents of Trump have ever seen.

They have launched everything at him, every weapon in their arsenal that has successfully been used in the past to damage or politically kill Republicans that the Democrats and the media wanted to get rid of. He has survived them all and thrived — and they’re out of weapons. They don’t know what to do. Now they’re gonna read the Mueller report live for 12 hours? They’re gonna read all 448 pages? What do they think this is gonna accomplish? Who do they think is gonna sit around and watch this?

I mean, this is what they have been reduced to. “A Gallup poll published last week showed that Trump’s approval rating is at 46%. That’s higher than the approval ratings Obama had at the same point during his first term.” At the other end of the political spectrum, get this: The bottom is falling out for Crazy Bernie — and from his primary support base, young people. It was young people that made Bernie Sanders’ campaign in 2016. By the way, speaking of 2016, can I ask you a question?

If you go back to the Democrat National Committee convention, Democrat convention 2016, there’s Obama, and he’s doing a keynote speech and he’s roaming the stage, and he says to everybody watching in the assembled crowd… Bill Clinton’s out there, and he looks at Bill Clinton and he says (impression), “Bill, we got to admit it. She’s much more qualified than you or I ever were, Buddy. She may be the most qualified person ever to run for the president.”

That’s what Barack Obama said. Well, if that’s true, then why are they not begging her to run again? Has somebody come along since? Are you trying to tell me that Joe Biden is a better candidate than the best person ever to seek the office? That’s what they said about Hillary in 2016. I know what you’re saying. “C’mon, Rush. Everybody knows that was just BS.” Well, I’m gonna call ’em on it. They said it!

That’s how far they had to go, they thought, to give her any kind of boost or credibility, because they knew that on her own she didn’t have the ability to connect with people like that. Hillary Clinton didn’t have the ability to make people think that she was supremely qualified. They had to say so. When you have to tell somebody how qualified somebody is, it’s obviously not speaking for itself. But if she was that qualified, if she’s better than Bill Clinton, better than Barack Obama…?

How much did they have to pay him to get him to say that that night at the convention? Why aren’t they seeking her out again? Nothing has changed other than she lost the first time around, but Beto O’Rourke lost and it enhanced his resume. Mark Cuban… Why does Mark Cuban make news? Can somebody explain to me why, when Mark Cuban says something, it makes news? He’s owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Is it because he’s a Never Trumper and hates Trump and so Mark Cuban’s out… (interruption) Oh, he’s on Shark Tank. Okay. He’s a TV personality.

Okay. So he’s out there. He’s saying that there isn’t a Democrat running right now that can beat Trump. No way, no how. It might Mark Cuban running as an independent, is the only way maybe Trump can lose. A lot of people, by the way, are saying that there isn’t a Democrat out there. But what’s happening to Crazy Bernie is an interesting case study. “Bernie Sanders has seen his support drop sharply among young voters,” Millennials.

“They powered his campaign in 2016.” This is a Morning Consult poll, and as far as, you know, polling people are concerned, this one’s good. Morning Consult has credibility. “The latest poll from Morning Consult finds that [Crazy Bernie]’s support among people between 18 and 29 has dropped from 45% in March to 33% today. Sanders’ support with youngest voters who propelled a surprising challenge to Hillary Clinton in 2016, has steadily declined in the poll since he topped out at 46% in late February.”

Now, this would indicate that the decline is not due to Biden’s entry in the race. If Crazy Bernie’s decline in the polls dates back, can be traced back that far, that’s before Biden made it official. Now, Biden’s picked up some of the youth vote, but why are people abandoning Crazy Bernie? Well, you’ve heard my theory. Back in 2016, we were smack-dab in the midst of the redefined new American economy — an America in decline, an America whose best days had been seen.

Obama and his team were telling us, “That 1% economic growth is about what we should expect, and that jobs lost in the great Midwest, the Upper Midwest, they’re not coming back. No matter what Donald Trump says, those jobs are not coming back. Trump doesn’t have a magic wand. It isn’t gonna happen.” So here’s Crazy Bernie coming along and basically has a program where it doesn’t matter whether you have a job or not ’cause Crazy Bernie’s gonna give you everything.

Crazy Bernie’s gonna give you free college. Crazy Bernie’s gonna give you free health care. Crazy Bernie’s going to fix everything. You don’t even need a job, ’cause everything else is gonna be paid for. Back then, all these young people were sitting in the basements of their parents’ homes Twittering and Facebooking and whatever they were doing and getting jazzed over Crazy Bernie and his socialist agenda.

Well, now things are markedly different. The economy is roaring, and if you want to work, you can get a job — and wages are up. There are 1.5 million more job openings right now than there are people to fill those jobs. I think there’s another factor that… I don’t know. Somebody may have mentioned it. I think the fact that Hillary Clinton is not in the race is hurting Crazy Bernie. I don’t think Hillary Clinton was anywhere near as popular as the Democrats believed.

I don’t think Hillary Clinton was ever gonna be elected president. I don’t think she had captivated… Look, they had to rig the Democrat primaries on the superdelegate selection process to even make sure Hillary got the nomination! Crazy Bernie knew, and he stood by and let it happen. He knew that they were rigging the primaries. He’s winning state after state, but she’s getting the majority of the delegates, the superdelegates.

Well, you take Hillary Clinton out of it — and for the longest time, Biden was not official. He was just a possibility. Now you’ve got 16 people, including Crazy Bernie, to divvy up the support that Hillary was getting. But I think a lot of people made the mistake of assuming that Crazy Bernie was getting a lot of support because people personally loved and connected with Crazy Bernie. I don’t think that was ever the case. I think a lot of it was people that didn’t like Hillary, didn’t want anything to do with Hillary, wanted the Clintons gone from Democrat Party.

Because what’s changed? Nothing has changed. Bernie’s still got the same agenda, the same program. He’s still the same lovable, cuddly old guy who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. There’s nothing different about Bernie Sanders. He’s a couple years older, but big whoop. Who isn’t? And it’s not Biden. Biden didn’t start taking anything away from Crazy Bernie. Biden wasn’t officially in the race when Bernie started losing support.

There’s nobody else out there. None of the other Democrats are trending upwardly in a great way. It was just a flatline on the Democrat side until Biden announced. There’s a lot of analysis as to, “Why is the Biden doing so well? This guy’s never won anything. This guy’s run for president and never even got close. What is all this?” Some of the so-called smart money on the Democrat side is saying, “This is great. What it really proves is that the Democrat Party is not all that liberal. The Democrat Party is not socialist.

“The Democrat Party loves mainstream, moderate guys, and the proof of that is that when one of them gets in the race, he becomes the frontrunner. That’s Joe Biden,” and that’s what they’re trying to tell themselves. They’re essentially saying, “This party doesn’t really like Cortez. This party doesn’t like Rashida Tlaib. This party is not big into Ilhan Omar. This party is not that madcap, leftist, socialist bunch,” and Biden rising to the top is what they say is evidence of that.

I gotta take a break. I’m a little long here. But the bottom line of this is — and it’s true today. It might not be true in a year, so you can’t take this to the bank as far as 2016’s concerned. Right now, the Democrat Party doesn’t know where they’re going and who they want to go there with. They are in a world of hurt. Everything they thought was guaranteed — Trump being forced out of office or impeached, Trump’s popularity in the twenties, people hating Trump and loving them? None of it has worked out, and now the people responsible for trying to make that all happen are themselves being investigated.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Trump late yesterday afternoon in Hackberry, Louisiana, talking about Bite Me.

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know what the hell happened to Biden. What happened to him? I’m looking, I say, “That doesn’t look like the guy I knew. What happened to him?” And Bernie? You know, Bernie’s crazy!

AUDIENCE: (applause)

THE PRESIDENT: But Bernie’s got a lot more energy than Biden, so you never know. So gonna be one of these people. Pocahontas, I think, is probably out.

AUDIENCE: (laughter)

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you got some beauties there — 350 million people, and that’s the best we could do.

RUSH: By the way, speaking of, Fauxcahontas, Elizabeth Warren. She made a big deal… She was on The View, and apparently Fox News invited her to appear for a town hall, and she told ’em, “No. I’m not gonna appear on your network.” Of course, she thinks that she’s currying favor with the base. This is where these people are. I’m telling you, these Democrats don’t know what they believe. They don’t know what they’re supposed to believe. I mean, they do. I’m not saying this right.

They’re hard-core leftists. But they are… They’re abandoning what they believe in favor of trying to find out what their lunatic base thinks and then echoing it. So Elizabeth Warren is convinced that base Democrat voters hate Fox News, and want Fox News ripped to shreds, and want Fox News shut down and want Fox News all kinds of pain to happen to ’em. So she says, “I’m not gonna appear on Fox News,” expecting massive nationwide applause. “Way to go, Elizabeth. You tell ’em.”

So Fauxcahontas appears on The View with Maude Behar and all the rest of them, and they started chiding her for not appearing on Fox. They told her (summarized), “You’re being kind of stupid. You’re not gonna take advantage of that audience that you would have access to?” They all think… By the way, this is how schizophrenic these people are. Day in and day out, they hate Fox News. They’re devoted to Fox News being destroyed. They can’t stand it! Yet when Fauxcahontas refuses a town hall, they jump on her for not taking advantage of the audience –which tells us what?

It tells us what we already know. They are jealous as they can be of Fox News, and every damn one of them wishes they had a network that had anywhere near that kind of influence and audience reach. They just are incessantly jealous and envious, and that transfers into supposed hate. They think Fox News ought not exist — and yet, given a chance, they would all accept a gig as a Democrat strategist or analyst on the Fox News Channel like Donna Brazile has.

These people are so… They have been so discombobulated by Donald Trump and losing the 2016 election. They went from thinking they had it in the bag with a landslide, and they haven’t recovered, and I don’t think they’re getting close to recovering. I think they are descending further into the depths of confusion and rancor and near insanity in some cases.