RUSH: Boy, I’ll bet you’ve been waiting for this hour, folks, to find out what’s going on, what to think of things, and how to feel about it, and your patience is about to be rewarded. Great to have you with us as always. It’s a brand-new week of broadcast excellence hosted by me, Rush Limbaugh, a household name in all four corners of the world. It’s a delight to have you here. Our telephone number, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.

It’s going to be real interesting for me today to find out how many of you are mad at President Trump for his tweet and then the double down tweet on the four Democrat congresswomen. And I know some of you are going to be mad. I mean, the law of averages, some of you are going to be mad.

“Why did Trump do it?” There’s a bunch of theories going around that — well, theories, opinion going around about how badly Trump stepped in it here. One theory holds that the Democrats have this internecine war going, and that they’re self-destructing and you’ve got these young Squad members taking shots at Pelosi and that the Democrat Party is disunified and unraveling and then Trump comes along and unifies them.

“Why did Trump have to do it? For crying out loud, when your enemy is self-destructing the thing to do is to stand aside, get out of the way and let it happen.” How many of you think that was the case? The reason I ask is, it’s true that the Democratic Party has got a circular firing squad going on, but I don’t know how many people really know it. I know wonkville knows it. I know all of the blogosphere and the media and all of them know it, but the Democrat Party media is not highlighting just how bad it is. I’m gonna do that for you today. I’m gonna tell you how bad it is. They are not reporting how bad it is.

My point is, I don’t know how many people, the general population, really know how bad the Democrat Party circular firing squad is, you know, being led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aimed at Pelosi, that she’s got her squad members joining fire with her.

There’s another train of thought or school of thought that says, “Trump, why did you do it, for crying out loud? You just ignited the media. The media’s turned on you.” So if you are of that point of view, how many of you are really mad at the media and not Trump? Well, wrong way to put it. How many of you are upset because what Trump did seems to be lacking in understanding of how the media would react and are turning around and making him a target?

The reason I ask this — I’m gonna refresh your memory with a – (interruption) Well, now, hang on. Look, I’m not through presenting options and my staff’s already blowing up. Just hang on a minute. I can’t do it all in the first five minutes. Remember that famous dinner party I had back during the John McCain, Sarah Palin days? And these two people showed up that were friends of people that had been invited. They themselves had not been invited, but the people asked if they could bring a couple friends and I said it’s not a good idea but I relented ’cause I’m a nice guy. And I am naive tending toward optimist.

They show up. And these two guys promptly started telling me how we had to throw Palin overboard. “She’s worthless, she’s destroying us, we gotta get rid of her.”

I said, “What? Why?” “Well, because the media’s ripping here.”

I said, “You guys want the media to pick who our nominees are? You want the media to determine whether we’re gonna support somebody or not?”

“Well, yeah, if the media’s destroying her, we can’t defend her, we can’t protect her.”

I said, “So you basically want to turn over candidate selection, issue selection, to the media? You want to be able to determine whether you’re gonna support something based on how badly or how little the media criticizes?”

“Well, yeah. We can’t overcome the media.”

So in the same vein, how many of you, you’re really mad at Trump but you’re not mad at the substance, you’re mad because Trump enabled the media, and you’re sick and tired of the media doing what they’re doing and you wish Trump would stop feeding them this stuff? You don’t really disagree with the substance of what he said. In fact, you may really agree with him. You’re just saying, “Why the hell did you have to say it,” right?

Okay. So that encompasses some of the staff on the other side of the glass. Well, I’m sorry, but if we haven’t learned by now that trying to tailor what we think and what we do and what we don’t do and what we don’t say we think and what policies and issues we do or do not put forward because of the media’s reaction to it, then we may as well surrender, we may as well just cave, because the media’s never gonna be on our side.

The news reporting’s all over the place. “Donald Trump’s racist tweets, Donald Trump’s xenophobic tweets, Donald Trump rotten, horrible scumbag. Donald Trump racist, Donald Trump blatant xenophobe.” Donald Trump did not mention race once in these tweets. “Rush, it doesn’t matter. The media says he did, and that’s all that matters.”

Well, look. If you’re gonna let the media get away with lying every time they report something, then there’s nothing we could ever do or say. Trump did not mention race. Trump did not even mention color! Trump did not mention people of color! Trump did not tell anybody to go home! He said, “Go home and fix it and come back and show us how it’s done”! These are the people who are constantly threatening or offering to leave if they lose elections, and they never do leave.

He told ’em to come back after they fixed the countries of their national origin. Only one was not born in America, of the four that Trump was targeting, three of them were born here. But it is obvious these women do not like this country. And if you don’t understand that, just stand by, because I’m going to share with you some of the things these babes are saying and have been saying. (interruption) What, are you telling me not to defend Trump? I’m not defending Trump. We’re in the midst of another fake news cycle here! All I’m gonna try to do is bring a little truth to it! It’s all fake news. And it’s really rooted in the fact, when they can’t deal with a Trump truth bomb, they go hysterically nuts.

The Never Trumpers on our side fall right in line. And it’s almost a replay, not quite exact, but it’s pretty close to when Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy in June of 2015. Remember the reaction to that when he said we got too many rapists and purse snatchers and muggers and murderers coming in from Mexico? “You can’t say that.”

The bottom line is, folks, that whenever anybody of any stature on our side criticizes a Democrat, it’s automatically racism. It’s automatically xenophobia. It’s automatically bigotry. It’s automatically homophobia. It’s automatically all the cliches. They don’t even listen.

I want to share with you the two Trump tweets. “So interesting to see progressive Democrat congresswomen who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt, inept anywhere in the world, if they even have a functioning government at all, now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful nation on earth, how our government’s to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came, then come back and show us how it’s done. These places need your help badly. You can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements.”

So, in addition to confronting them on the substance of things — and if you’re not aware, just hang on, because these women in question all hate Israel, number one. You want to talk about xenophobia and anti- this. These people are anti-Semites in ways that define the term. It goes without saying these people don’t like America. What have the last two to three weeks been all about?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now let me go to the second Trump tweet when he found out everybody was aghast and appalled, he doubled down. Next tweet: “When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said.” Trump said, “So many people are angry at them & their horrible & disgusting actions!”

[AFP]: “In his initial attack on Sunday, Trump said congresswomen he did not name came from corrupt, poorly managed countries to which they should return,” and it’s like clockwork. Everybody reacts to this predictably and identically. No matter where you tune, no matter what publication you log into and read, “Trump’s a racist, Trump’s a sexist, Trump’s a misogynist, Trump’s a bigot, Trump’s a homophobe, Trump’s a xenophobe, you name it,” with nobody even taking the time… This is such a knee-jerk reaction.

Nobody’s even taking the time to… Even if they’re gonna blow it to smithereens later, even if they’re gonna react to it, nobody’s even taking the time to seriously examine it or analyze it. There’s just the knee-jerk reaction, and then that happens, and then Trump supporters start beating their heads against the wall. “Why did he have to do it! For crying out loud (unintelligible griping), this is so frustrating,” because what you’re tired of is the media ripping Trump, and you think that someday that’s gonna end.

And I’m here to tell you, it isn’t going to end.

One way you could look at this is Trump being consistent and not changing. There’s all kinds of people out there on our side saying, “Oh, my God. Trump did the worst thing he could do! He has unified the Democrats!” Folks, the Democrats are already unified against Trump. I don’t care about this circular firing squad they’ve got going on. They’re unified against Trump. When it comes to the 2020 election, there isn’t gonna be any circular fire squad. Now, there will be up until then, and who knows how much damage they’re gonna do to each other on the Democrat side in the interim.

But they’re always gonna be unified against Trump.

There’s nothing that’s gonna bust up that unity.

People are living in fantasyland if you think that something can be done, that Trump could adopt a demeanor or behavior that might have some Democrats actually turn up to support him in 2020. Come on, folks. That’s simply not gonna happen. Let me take a brief time-out here as we’re off and running on the EIB Network. We have coming up today sound bites to support all of this. I’m gonna go through the detail here of the internecine battle going on in the Democrat Party between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Squad and the rest of the party leadership, ’cause I don’t think people really have been told by the Drive-By Media the extent of this.

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RUSH: At the very least, you know what you can say is that Donald Trump is helping define the Democrat Party, and in that sense, what Trump is doing here… Whether this is an intended consequence or not, the fact is that Trump is pushing the Democrats and the Drive-Bys into staunchly defending the most radical haters this country has at the moment. These people — and it’s not just these four women in the Squad. It’s the entire Democrat Party. Trump is forcing them to come out and defend. Make no mistake about the fact the American people are fully aware of what’s going on on the Democrat side regarding their anti-Americanism.

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RUSH: I have a really nifty alternative theory of what Trump is doing here, and I’m gonna share it with you in mere moments. I first, however, want to share with you Lindsey Grahamnesty’s tweets. Not tweets. Lindsey Grahamnesty was on Fox this morning. Let me check the audio sound bite. Hang on just a second here, folks, ’cause if I’ve got the sound bites here, we’ll use ’em. If not, no big deal. You don’t have to go get ’em. If they’re not here, that’s not… (interruption) Okay. We don’t have them. Great. I’ll read this to you.

Lindsey Graham today… (interruption) Would you hit my off button in there for just a…? (silence) Thank you very much. Lindsey Graham today: “We all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of Communists, they hate Israel, they hate our own Country, they’re calling the guards along our Border (the Border Patrol Agents) Concentration Camp Guards, they accuse people who support Israel as doing it for the Benjamin’s,” meaning for the money.

“[T]hey they are Anti-Semitic, they are Anti-America, we don’t need to know anything about them personally, talk about their policies. I think they are American citizens who are duly elected that are running on an agenda that is disgusting, that the American people will reject.” Lindsey Graham was urging Trump not to make this personal. That was his way of supporting it while distancing himself from it. Don’t go after ’em personally, Lindsey Graham was saying. It never works.

“What does it mean for America to have free Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants, no criminalization of coming into our Country – See how that works for controlling Immigration! They talk about Israel like they’re a bunch of thugs, not victims of the entire region. They wanted to impeach President Trump on DAY ONE. Make them the face of the future of the Democrat Party, you will destroy the Democrat Party. Their policies will destroy our Country!” That’s Lindsey Graham today, and he’s exactly right.

I think there are more people aware of this than anybody in the Drive-By Media would ever contemplate. I think for as long as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been on the scene (and even before that), I think there are so many millions of Americans who are fed up with the anti-American diatribe that has become readily identified with the Democrat Party policy. It is anti-American, it’s anti-American founding, it’s anti-American exceptionalism, it’s anti-American greatness. For crying out loud, Jay Inslee, who is the former governor of the state of Washington… Do you know what he said over the weekend? He promised…

Just to show you how infantile these people are. In a lame attempt to get noticed and capitalize off a brief/miniature pop culture moment, Jay Inslee promised to interview Megan Rapinoe as his secretary of state if he’s the Democrat nominee. I’m here to tell you: A woman in purple hair running around wanting to represent America and doing so and winning the World Cup, and then taking every opportunity to make herself out to be some gigantic victim of this country because she’s gay?

And then to run around and say — before she was even invited — that she wouldn’t go to the White House because Trump doesn’t like people like her? Trump doesn’t make people like her feel comfortable? Trump has never said a thing about gay people! He doesn’t care. It’s not part of his daily existence. That’s not how he sees people. He has never said a word about it. But yet there she is putting words in his mouth, putting thoughts in this mouth, trashing the country — acting like she’s some never-ending, gigantic victim. And here comes some lame Democrat candidate that will never see the nomination (impression), “I’m gonna make her my secretary of state. I think she may have what it takes.”

I’m telling you, when people see this, and even if they don’t hear what Inslee said, just the fact…

Folks, I can tell you that this Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt… (chuckles) I’m so hamstrung because we’ve made a decision not to announce any numbers here because we’re not finished. We’ve gotten… (sigh) Well, let me just tell you, if this is any sign of how irritated the people of this country are, then it is huge out there, and I think Lindsey Graham’s exactly right. These people operate every day with the approval of the mainstream media. These people believe their own polls, where Hillary’s gonna win in a landslide or whoever the Democrat this year is gonna win in a landslide 2020.

They believe this stuff. So here comes Megan Rapinoe or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or any of these other people, and the media loves them, and they treat them with kid gloves, and they make ’em big time stars and these people end up believing their own press. And they are not aware of how much animus they are creating for themselves because they live in this alternative reality where people unlike them are a relative few and a minority and don’t deserve to be dealt with, counted, talked to. They despise us; they hate us; they think they’re the majority.

They think all of America agrees with them except for some rare exceptions, and it’s the other way around. The major sentiment in this country is not anti-America. The primary sentiment here is not anti-Constitution. The primary sentiment is not that America sucks. The primary sentiment is that American citizens are not victims of a bigoted government. That is not the majority of opinion in this country among the people who make it work.

And yet these people, because of the fawning media coverage they get, end up having this anti-American stuff applauded, validated. They end up thinking they’re big stars. They end up thinking they’re in the majority and when they fade away ’cause nobody has ever cared in the first place, they’re left dumbstruck. They do not represent the majority of thinking. The fact of the matter is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her squad members, they are communists. They hate Israel, they do not like the United States, and everybody’s paying attention to them knows this.

They think they’re winning big time friends. They think they’re creating a majority talking like this. This is going to be adapted to my upcoming theory here, so hang on. We’re not running concentration camps. I’ve got a great sound bite coming up. Thomas Homan literally wiping the floor with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she tries to impugn him for separating families at the border. He makes it obvious she doesn’t know diddly-squat about what anybody at the border does. You may have seen it or heard about it, but it’s coming here in just a moment to back all of this up.

Calling the people at the border concentration camp guards? Saying people who support Israel do it for “the Benjamins”? (I guess that’s trying to be hip.) Concentration camps? Do you think the American people hear this and just slough it off? They are not sloughing it off. Graham again: “[T]hey are Anti-Semitic, they are Anti-America, we don’t need to know anything about them personally, talk about their policies. … What does it mean for America to have free health care for illegals?” Do you think this just happens in a vacuum?

In a Democrat debate, “How many of you believe in free health care for illegal immigrants?” Twenty hands go up. You think the American people just watch this and chuckle and slough it off? No, they actively oppose it. They’re motivated and inspired to stand up against it and oppose it, and yet the Democrats — in a lunacy-type way — think they’re building a majority with this kind of thing? The disconnect and the out-of-touch divide is something I’ve never seen in my life. I mean, remember the sixties? Radical leftists were bombing college campuses and businesses and banks.

Times have changed, but the radicals haven’t. Their targets have changed. Their targets have expanded. Instead of bombing colleges and banks, they’re now taking down the American flag, and they’re hoisting the flag of their home countries. You think people don’t notice this? Other radicals are calling themselves Antifa. They are in fact violent fascists. Others lie about detention centers, concentration camps. You think Trump notices any of this? I know you notice it, and I know it irritates the heck out of you. (interruption) Inslee is the current governor.

Well, too bad for them. Did I say former? (interruption) Okay. I stand corrected. So here is an alternative theory for what Trump is actually doing. The briefing opinion is that Trump screwed up here because the Democrats are having this internecine battle, a circular fire squad led by Cortez and her squad aiming for Pelosi and others in the Democrat leadership, and this has led people to believe that the Democrat Party is not unified.

And I’m here to tell you that they may not be unified now, but when it comes time to get into gear on the 2010 election, they’re going to be unified because they all hate Trump. They will at least be unified in that regard. I don’t expect that the battle for power in the Democrat Party is gonna subside. I don’t think it’s gonna fade away, but it will take second place to the presidential election. They’re going to be unified. But I think Trump may have seen it differently, and here is the alternative theory for you to chew on.

I think Trump and maybe some of his advisers in the White House are looking at this rift developing between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, her squad, and Pelosi. And again, look, I’m not trying to tease you here, but I’ve got a whole Stack of things to bring you up to speed to let you know just how bad it is ’cause I know the Drive-Bys are not reporting the dire details of this split. And some of it’s hilarious.

I think Trump sees it as dangerous. He’s out there defending Pelosi. Stop and think about that for a minute. He’s defending Pelosi. He’s known Pelosi a long time. She’s not a racist. Cortez and her gang are accusing Pelosi even of being a racist because they think she’s attacking them, and they are women of color! So it automatically makes, in their crazy worldview, Pelosi a racist as well.

So I think Trump sees this rift developing between Pelosi and the Democrat leadership and these new communists on the left led by Cortez, and I think he wants them back together again. I don’t think Trump likes the rift. I think Trump wants the Democrat Party to become known as the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Green New Deal socialism party. I think he wants to hang that label around all of them, and for that to happen they have to be unified.

In other words, Trump wants Pelosi and the Democrat leadership to adopt the socialism and communism of Cortez and her Squad and whoever else in her little movement is pushing it. That’s what Trump wants, ’cause that can’t lose. Trump cannot lose running against the Democrat Party, which is openly socialist, openly communist, led by young, aspiring anti-Americans. I don’t think he likes the rift. I think he wanted to meant the rift, he wanted ’em put back together again because he’s salivating running against the Democrat Party as a modern-day Communist Party or socialism party in America.

So he tweets what he tweets, and the results were totally predictable. And now the Democrats claim that their rift has been healed, and they’re out there claiming Trump has unified the Democrats. Trump really screwed up, they say. He really unified the Democrats. Well, what if that’s exactly what Trump wanted with the unification being that Cortez and her Squad will now define what the Democrat Party is? Put that in the hopper and think about it.

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RUSH: We do have Lindsey Graham. It’s just I missed it when I was racing through here. It’s audio sound bite number 14. He was on Fox & Friends with Ainsley Earhardt. Question: “A lot of election polls, that if the election were tomorrow, the president would not win. What does he need to ensure to have a win?”

GRAHAM: Make sure it’s not tomorrow. (laughing) No, he’s gonna win. If he’ll just — Mr. President, you’re gonna win. Just knock it down a notch.

KILMEADE: In what way?

GRAHAM: Well, we all know that AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists. They hate Israel. They hate our own country. They’re calling the guards along our border, the Border Patrol agents, concentration camp guards. They accuse people who support Israel of doing it for the Benjamins. They’re anti-Semitic. They’re anti-America. Don’t get down. Aim higher. We don’t need to know anything about them personally. Talk about their policies. I think they’re American citizens who are duly elected that are running on an agenda that is disgusting, that the American people will reject.

RUSH: So that’s Lindsey Graham. That’s how he said it. Those are the things that I actually read moments ago. Wanted you to hear it from the horse’s mouth.