RUSH: Meanwhile, Plugs has put a lid on his campaign again today! At 9:30 this morning, they put a lid on it. I think they’re up to like 40% of this month Biden has had a lid on his campaign.

Well, nobody can figure out why, other than my suggestion (which seems to have been adopted by the conventional wisdom crowd), and that is they really, really, really are prepping him for the debate — really just going all-in on debate prep. (chuckles) I have my doubts. I think these people are of the mind… They’re believing their polling data, and they’re thinking, “There’s no way that we’re gonna lose this thing unless we do something to screw up.

“So we’re gonna keep the guy in the basement so that we can’t screw up, so he can’t blow it and we’re gonna do what we can to make sure he gets at least one debate.” You know what’s gonna happen, don’t you? You know what’s gonna happen? (interruption) No. Well, yeah, he’ll screw it up. But sometime between now and the debate… Two scenarios.

Sometime between now and the debate, they’re gonna announce that somebody near Biden has tested positive for COVID-19 and he has to quarantine. Can’t go to the debate. Can’t do the debate. Somebody on the staff, somebody nearby — maybe it wasn’t in the staff, but somebody that they won’t have to produce — has tested positive, and poor Plugs!

Poor Plugs was in close contact. (sniveling) “And, as such, for the safety of America and for the safety of the campaign, uh, uh, Vice President Biden must quarantine for the next 10 to 14 days.” And that’s how they renege on the debates. The second scenario is they go ahead and do the debate, and they’re hoping and praying — oh, folks, hoping and praying — that he can do one.

Just get one debate in there, not screw it up, and then, after that debate, then say, “Uh-oh! Somebody close by has contracted COVID-19. The vice president was in close proximity. He needs to quarantine,” thereby eliminating any other debates. What do you think of that, Mr. Snerdley? You hadn’t…? (interruption) You hadn’t thought of that, had you? (interruption) Yeah, you wait. You wait.

Something like that’s gonna happen.

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RUSH: Well, I got some people pushing back. Everybody knows more than I do. So I announce a theory that Plugs might find his way out of the debates by claiming that somebody nearby has contracted COVID-19, that Plugs came within close proximity and must now quarantine — because of his frailties, his age, whatever they give as the reason for it — and thereby renege and get out of doing the debate or having to do it as a no-show.

And then I got people saying, “No! Rush, no! No. No. No. They have spent so much time talking about the steps that Biden goes to to protect himself, like putting a lid on a campaign every morning at 8:30 or 9. There are stories all over the place, Rush, about the steps the campaign is taking to make sure that Plugs does not get COVID. That can’t now come around and say, ‘Somebody close by has acquired it and he may, and so we gotta quarantine.'”

You think that would stop them? If somebody figures Plugs can’t do this… They’ve probably already got that figured out. I guarantee… I’m gonna go out on a limb. I still… What is the day today? This is the twenty… (interruption) You can help me with nothing. (interruption) What’s the date today? Can somebody tell me what the date is? (interruption)

Okay, this is September 24th, and the debate is Tuesday. (interruption) All right. I still don’t think that debate’s gonna happen. I’ll go out on a limb and I’ll put it on the record right now, that debate’s not gonna happen. (interruption) Look, why change now? That’s been my assertion, that’s been my prediction, that’s been my belief for months, and I’m not gonna change it now. (interruption)

Not afraid of being wrong if that’s what eventuates.

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RUSH: This is Ruby in South Dakota. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Hell, Rush. And, first of all, prayers for you and Kathryn. But, you know, I agree with you that I think Biden’s gonna try to get out of this debate and maybe stay home or hidden, wherever he’s at. But I think Trump should be prepared to go where Biden is and have the debate there. And they can both be tested and keep their social distance and the questionnaires can be Zoomed in.

RUSH: So you think I’m right that Biden will try to skip out on the debate?

CALLER: Oh, absolutely. I’ve kind of thought that all along as well.

RUSH: Okay. So then you think that Trump ought to just not let him get away with that. Trump needs to go wherever Biden is and —

CALLER: Yep.

RUSH: — try to get as close as he can with cameras following him around so that the debate can happen, so that Trump can show that he wants this debate to happen, he’s not running away from it himself?

CALLER: Yes. Absolutely. And he can also make sure that Biden’s not using teleprompter answers.

RUSH: Wait a minute. If Biden doesn’t show up for the debate, how would there be teleprompter answers?

CALLER: Well, I’m saying if Biden is in his basement and he thinks that — well, I guess it would be a moot point, but if Trump is where Biden is for the debate —

RUSH: That’s not gonna happen.

CALLER: Then —

RUSH: Look, okay, let’s say Biden’s in his basement. They’re not gonna let Trump in there.

CALLER: You don’t think so?

RUSH: No. No. Biden would run to the bathroom if Trump shows up at his house.

CALLER: Well, I thought maybe if Trump was tested and —

RUSH: If Biden is trying to skip out on the debate, why would he say, “Oh, President Trump, you came to my house? Fine, let’s have the debate in my basement.” I don’t understand the — Biden doesn’t —

CALLER: The logic?

RUSH: Just because Trump shows up, Biden would agree to do the debate?

CALLER: Well, then what excuse would Biden have to get out of the debate if Trump is demanding to have the debate like planned?

RUSH: I’ve already said that he has to quarantine because somebody close to the campaign has tested positive and Plugs, in order to be safe, has quarantine. I mean, he’s right in the middle of the most vulnerable demographic group for COVID-19. He’s elderly. He’s got some pre-existing conditions. And if somebody close to the campaign has tested positive and has COVID-19 and he came in contact with them, he’s gotta quarantine. Trump’s not — nobody’s gonna get close to him. He’s not just gonna say, “Screw it. I’m not doing the debate.” They’ve gotta have a reason. I offered that as the reason.

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RUSH: Now, folks, I need to tell you some things, folks, about the current lay of the land and how I’m thinking about it. I could be wrong, obviously, but I really am starting to get more and more confident, especially every day when the Biden campaign announces they’re putting a lid on campaign operations that day, 9:30, 10 o’clock in the morning. So Biden’s going into nocturnal vampire mode before noon every day.

He does not have the enthusiasm. There isn’t any enthusiasm for him. He’s got nothing even close to what Trump has in terms of connection with his voters and enthusiasm on the part of those voters. What Biden has is a D next to his name. And he’s relying on that and what they hope are huge negatives associated with Trump. But he doesn’t have any enthusiasm coming his way. And he doesn’t have the enthusiasm himself to go out and get the lackadaisical voter, the voter that’s paying scant attention to things.

I think Trump is going to be able, before the election, to announce another foreign policy achievement. I don’t know what it is. And I think if he nominates Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court, great optics there, and they will attack her, even though they have vetted her once before. Remember, it was Dianne Feinstein who said the dogma lives loudly with you or something, the dogma speaks loudly, meaning her Catholicism.

Dianne Feinstein was saying to Amy Coney Barrett, well, your Catholic religious beliefs, holy smokes. Man, you really believe that stuff. That’s what she was saying. They’ll go after her again on that. They will attack her. The fact that she can withstand it still doesn’t change my mind about whether she should have to go through it. But based on her first hearings that I saw, she’s kind, she’s soft-spoken. She’s just opposite of — like Elizabeth Warren is shrewish. Hillary Clinton is whiny. Amy Coney Barrett is kind, soft-spoken, reasonable, takes a lot of to knock her off of her game.

And I’m telling you, the only question now is how they get Biden out of the debate. And I will repeat, I don’t believe that Biden is going to show up. I know the debate is next Tuesday. I’m on the record from day one saying I don’t think they’re gonna happen, or I don’t think Biden’s gonna show up. No reason to change it. It’d be the simplest thing in the world for me to come in and say, “Folks, I guess I could say I was wrong.” I thought the debate would be canceled long before now. But I’m still gonna stick with my original prediction. And, by the way, because I believe it, not because I think I have to. Not because I think I owe it to everybody in terms of honesty, playing the role of straight shooter.

I literally don’t think that this debate is gonna happen. They can’t let it happen. There is an alternative to my theory. I think one of the reasons they’re putting a lid on the campaign is that they are putting him through rigorous coaching. And I think their fervent hope is that he can debate and survive it. If he can survive the first debate, then they will declare victory and claim no more debates are necessary because of Trump’s cheating or Trump’s mean-spirited attitude, Trump is unprofessional, Trump is unpresidential, Vice President Biden refuses to subject himself any more. One debate is enough. They’ll try that, if he does the debate and manages to survive it.

But I’m telling you, I will not be surprised if at some point they claim that he’s been exposed to COVID and has to quarantine, some magical staffer, some magical eager donor, somebody will turn up sick, somebody who will have been in relatively close contact with Plugs, and this will require Plugs to quarantine, maybe offer to do the debate on Zoom. We shall see. Won’t be long before we find out.

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RUSH: You know, there’s one other explanation for what could be going on with Biden and with him announcing the lid on the campaign every morning at 9:30 am. I mean, I think last Saturday they closed it down at 8:30 Saturday morning. You know what could be going on? I mentioned some time ago, within the last 10 days, that there is a trait, a personality characteristic of people suffering from dementia, and it has a name. Call ’em sundowners. And it is because that some people with dementia begin to really worsen around sunset. So the name is sundowners. Not everybody, but many.

So it could be — you know, the debate starts 9 o’clock. We never see Plugs at 9 o’clock at night, short of the Democrat convention. And we don’t know how much of that was live or taped. Do we? (interruption) We don’t. So it could well be that they are trying to change the internal body clock so that Biden is not affected by sundowneritis when the debate comes on Tuesday. That’s a possibility. And, by the way, I’m throwing this stuff out. I’m not trying to be funny. I’m not trying to be, in a disguised way, a clever put-down. None of that.

I’m just trying to explain what actually could be going on. ‘Cause it’s odd. It is odd for like days in a row now to announce when you’re, what, six weeks away, you shut down the campaign every day? And, by the way, where’s Kamala? Where’s she? She’s not even out there. I’ve had some people say, “Well, Rush, come on. The answer to that’s easy. They’re afraid she’s gonna overshadow Plugs.” Come on, folks. That can be what it is. If she overshadows Plugs it’s a positive. It’s not what it is. There are things about her they’ve gotta hide just like Biden’s list of judicial nominees. They don’t dare make that list public. They don’t dare. It’s gonna have communist, socialist radicals all over it. And that’s what Kamala Harris is. Man, I’ve never seen a vice presidential nominee as invisible as that one is. Ditto. Never see a nominee himself this invisible.

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RUSH: The New York Times: “Five Things Biden and His Allies Should Be Worried About.” I meant to get to this today, but I didn’t have time.