RUSH: This is A.B. Stoddard. This is last night, Special Report with Bret Baier, the All-Star Panel. And also on with Bret Baier and A.B. Stoddard, there were other people on there, but the bite is just her. He said, “A.B. Stoddard, there was talk that perhaps this House background check bill could have some kind of chance, that the president might actually be open to this. It doesn’t sound like, A.B., that it’s gonna be moving forward. Any ideas why?”
STODDARD: No, I mean, the president was going to be the person to keep this going into September. He knows it’s a political liability for him. The polling shows that 90% of Americans don’t think these background checks are strong enough, but then when you go to – I couldn’t believe the margins for banning semiautomatic weapons, and I couldn’t believe the margins for voluntary buyback and other things – this has really changed.
Now, maybe that’s not going to show up at the polls next year, but I think Republicans are worried and I think that President Trump wanted to do something on this, and he got scared about the things that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and others were saying about the fact that his base would revolt.
RUSH: So somehow I enter this fray again that the president was gonna do this. He was gonna expand the background checks, except there were some things that I said. I’m trying to think. Did I say anything about this? I mean, did I issue the — I’m serious, ’cause I can’t remember. Did I issue the equivalent of a warning? “Mr. President, don’t do this.” Did I do that? I’ve done that on immigration. DiFi and the comprehensive immigration, I remember — and there was one other that I did, but I don’t think on this.
I don’t know what Ann Coulter has said about it, but I think for people like A.B. Stoddard I just become the placeholder for whoever – (interruption) some callers might have? I did. I said, wait. I always say wait. I say, don’t go to the bank on the first reaction Trump has after one of these events. Well, if some caller said it I can’t be held responsible for that. But I don’t even remember that happening.
Well, no. I just think I’ve become a placeholder for, “Somebody’s talking to Trump. ‘Cause Trump says things on this that were right, and then somebody got to Trump.” And who’s the somebody? “Rush Limbaugh, the vile figure on the radio that we all hate because he makes so much more money than we do.” Or some such other silly. Don’t discount that. It just gnaws at them, folks.
But I did not warn the president over this. Not on this program. I didn’t do it. If I did it, somebody gonna find that transcript. This is the kind of thing that I would remember. And if I had done it — I’ll tell you, if I had warned it, “You better not do it, you do not know, your base –” I’ve done this on immigration, I will admit it. But if I’d a done this on this background check business and then the president pulls back, I’d a been in here praising him for listening to me, and I didn’t do that. No.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So now CNN’s up there saying Trump backtracks on payroll tax cut after just 24 hours. Why do you think that is? I think he throws things out for the heck of it sometimes, but I think he’s ultimately serious about — but these people start talking, “Trump wanting to cut taxes to avoid recession!” There is no recession. He is taking the narrative away from them by taking the payroll tax cut off the table now. But it’s never off the table permanently. He never throws it away.
But now they’re trying to say that Trump is erratic, Trump is silly, Trump is stupid, Trump’s disorganized, Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, Trump’s dangerous. It’s tiring, CNN and all the rest of you. You’ve worn everybody out with this.