RUSH: Mayor Pete did his Fox News town hall. He ended up getting a standing ovation from the Fox News town hall audience. Donald Trump, the president, was not amused. A lot of people were shocked and surprised. I wasn’t. In fact, my friends, I’m actually feeling a little guilty. Mayor Pete may not even be happening were it not for me, and that’s a heck of a thing to have to admit.
Let me tell the story for you. I had a friend in town for a member-guest golf tournament, my guest is in town, and this guest is in the news business. The Democrats were doing a bunch of town halls at South by Southwest in Austin, and I think this was either a Friday or Saturday night. And my guest said, “We gotta watch ’em.”
“I gotta watch it. Come on. It will be fun! You gotta watch with me.”
“I don’t want to watch.”
“You got to. I have to.”
I’m a good host, so I turn it on. And the two Democrats that we saw were Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, who basically had one reason for running for president. She wants to serve. In fact, we played a drinking game. Every time she mentioned serve, serving, service. Gulp, gulp, gulp. So we were well lubricated by the time Mayor Pete’s turn came.
So here comes Mayor Pete, and I vaguely was familiar with the guy, but I didn’t know much about him other than the fact that he was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana and he’s young and he’s gay and he has a husband and he likes to kiss the husband in front of cameras. And I said, “Okay. Well, this could be good.”
So we’re watching this. Well, let me just play for you what I said the next day, the following program after watching. This is March 12th on this program.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Keep a sharp eye out for Mayor Pete. Keep an eye on this guy. He is gonna make mincemeat of all the rest of these people. When his comes to face these people in debate, if he gets that far, keep an eye on Mayor Pete of South Bend. It’s all I’m gonna say. This guy was articulate for what he believes. He was personable. He had an answer for everything. There was no, “And, y’know, I… Like, uhhhh,” and there was no radicalism. Some things that he believes about Trump are typically crazy, but keep an eye out for Mayor Pete. He’s 37. Keep an eye out for Mayor Pete.
RUSH: And I went on to add that this guy is excellent at masking his radicalism, almost as good as Obama. And I say this back on March 12th, and now look. And it energized. I have never been credited for this; don’t misunderstand. Nobody has acknowledged this. It’s just one of these things I know.
If I hadn’t called people’s attention to Mayor Pete — I mean, he would have eventually been noticed, don’t misunderstand. (interruption) What do you mean it was a political story? Oh, Politico. Politico. That’s right. Politico did do a story acknowledging that I was one of the first to call attention to Mayor Pete. So some of this may be, I don’t know fault, but it may be because of me. All right, it’s my fault.
So, anyway, let’s now go to Mayor Pete. This is on the Fox News Channel. It’s last Sunday night before The Game of Thrones finale. Do you know how many people would not have agreed to appear precisely because it was right before the Game of Thrones finale? But Mayor Pete was fearless. Game of Thrones, game of shmones, doesn’t matter to him if he’s got a chance to be on Fox News, he’s gonna take it.
Chris Wallace was the moderator and Mayor Pete got a standing O from the Fox News crowd. It shocked Chris Wallace. But Chris Wallace should not have been shocked. If he had listened and heard my first analysis of Mayor Pete, then none of this would have surprised him. Here is the first bite we have from him.
BUTTIGIEG: If it’s hard to figure out what’s going on right now, it’s because we are living on one of those blank pages in between chapters in American history. And what comes next could be ugly or it could be amazing. And I believe running for office is an act of hope, and so is voting for somebody, and supporting somebody and volunteering for somebody. I hope you’ll join me in making sure that that next era is better than any that we’ve had so far.
WALLACE: Thank you, mayor, and thank you… (Wallace pauses as people start standing) Wow, a standing ovation.
BUTTIGIEG: All right!
RUSH: Wallace, “Wow, a standing ovation.” He wasn’t expecting this, but it happened. So that’s just the one bite. That was near the end of the town hall. It’s an indication of how smooth Mayor Pete here is. “If it’s hard to figure out what’s going on right now, it’s because we are living on one of those blank pages in between chapters in American history.”
What blank page? Show me a blank page in American history. Where is one? There’s no blank page. He’s talking about textbooks where you might end a chapter with a blank page before the next. It’s very, very, very clever. It comes across as erudite, really the kind of thing that appeals to Millennials, what comes next could be ugly or it could be amazing. That’s true any time you open a door. Not just in American history.
Any time you go to the bathroom, any time you go to the movies, doesn’t matter what you do, that’s the case. But one more bite before — nope. Nope. Let’s take the break. We’re up against it on time. But I have Mayor Pete being reacted to by Brit Hume when we come back.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. Let’s quickly hit Brit Hume here analyzing Mayor Pete. See if it sounds familiar.
HUME: Pete Buttigieg is the most impressive by far candidate in terms of just raw political talent in the Democratic field, and he may be the most impressive candidate I’ve seen since the emergence of Barack Obama.
RUSH: What did I tell you?
HUME: He is as fluid as he can be.
RUSH: Yeah?
HUME: He seems to have something to say about nearly every issue.
RUSH: Right.
HUME: He seems comfortable on the big stage, articulate, you know, even humorous. You know, he stakes out positions that I think are well outside the mainstream on a number of issues.
RUSH: Okay. That’s enough. That’s enough. ‘Cause I’m squeezed for time. I want to move on. I want to show you an example here of Mayor Pete’s smoothness and how he masks complete radical beliefs. Here is Mayor Pete talking about the killing of a baby after it’s born and making it sound completely reasonable and acceptable.
BUTTIGIEG: Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in that situation. We’re talking about women who have perhaps chosen a name, women who have purchased a crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice. And the bottom line is, as horrible as that choice is, that woman, that family may seek spiritual guidance, they may seek medical guidance. That decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made.
RUSH: Now, the question was, “You’re saying that you would be okay with a woman well into the third trimester deciding to abort her pregnancy. It’s not a hypothetical, 6,000 women a year get abortions in the third trimester.” That answer, basically, “Yep! I’m perfectly fine with it.” But notice how he masks and covers the genuine radical belief with all of these flowery, sympathetic, very, very heart tugging circumstances that he doesn’t know are present, just automatically attaches them.
The bottom line is to convey to Democrat voters, particularly women, “I don’t have any problem with abortion any time, anywhere.” This is how he chooses to say it. This is a radical, radical belief, but that didn’t sound radical in the slightest. That’s why this guy is a quintessential politician and one of the reasons a lot of people don’t like politics, actually.
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