Everyone Dumps on Trump Debate

RUSH: This is George Will yesterday on the roundtable of ABC's This Week. They were talking about Trump and Herman Cain. It's George Will.

WILL: Between now and 2016 both parties have to do some serious thought as to whether they can develop some filter to prevent this process -- particularly with mad proliferation of debates -- from being hijacked by charlatans, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurial charlatans who simply --

WILL: Well, the one who dropped out, Mr. Cain, who used this as a book tour in a fundamentally disrespectful approach to the selection of presidents. Now we have a December 27 debate proposed that would be moderated by Donald Trump. Surely it is time for these candidates to do something presidential. Stand up and say, "We're not gonna be hijacked and participate in that."

RUSH: All right. Now, what is your initial reaction to that? 'Cause I have a bit of an alternative view. Cain's out of the race, so we can "MoveOn.org" from that. Whether he was doing a book tour, trying to up his speech fees, get a cable TV gig, what have you, some people say, "The system worked. George ought to not be as panicked as he is. System worked." No, it didn't, because system did not get rid of Obama. The "system" didn't inform anybody who Obama really was. So now the next thing is, "Okay, you Republican candidates, when you gonna get some gonads? When are you gonna stand up and say, 'Enough of the circus?' All these debates are bad enough but now you're gonna have one moderated by Trump?"

Well, the alternative view is, "When are you Republicans gonna stand up and stop letting all these liberal media outfits moderate your debate? When are you Republican candidates gonna stand up and finally assert that the media is not gonna pick which one of you wins this nomination?" Ergo, what's so bad about Trump moderating a debate or me or anybody else? Why must these debates be moderated by the Wolf Blitzers and the MSNBC's of the world for them to have any credibility? Why must these Republican debates be moderated by people who have one objective, and that's to see that whoever wins this nomination loses? Let me put it a better way: Why should these Republican candidates repeatedly subject themselves to debates moderated by people whose only objective is to see Obama win?

That's my take on this. I've got no brief for Trump; don't misunderstand. But I don't find this as reprehensible as George Will does. I'm more alarmed that we have to put up with never-ending debates moderated by people who have as their express purpose the reelection of Barack Obama and the defeat of any of these Republican nominees. Now, I know the other side of this is, "Hey, Rush, the media is what it is. It isn't going to change," and I agree with that. I tell people who... (sigh) I get so sick of it. Folks, you can't believe. I'm surprised I can do this show with a smile. I am so surrounded by negativism, you can't believe it. (sigh) I went to dinner with some friends last night and I actually started pounding the table, I got so mad. I hadn't seen 'em in a while and they asked me what's going on.

I said, "I can't escape the negativism. Where I go, every meal, every e-mail I open is, 'The media's killing us! What are you gonna do about it? The media this, the media is that.'" The media is who they are. I understand this. The media is who they are. "The media is not gonna change and so, Rush, having these Republicans participate in debates moderated by these people is good preparation for when they win the White House." I understand that thinking. They gotta be deal with this media. The media is hostile; the media is always gonna be hostile to Republicans. I understand that. But at the same time, it'd be nice, these Republicans stood up and said, "Let's do a debate moderated by some friends just like Obama gets to do."

Every debate Obama's gonna be in, every moderator is gonna be one of his friends, every moderator is gonna be oriented towards his reelection, and every moderator is gonna be oriented towards our defeat. These are Republican debates. This is a Republican primary process where, ostensibly, every Republican is trying to put their best foot forward. So this cuts both ways, as far as I'm concerned. You can sit there and lament that Trump's gonna be moderating a debate but I can also lament the fact that every other debate we've had has been moderatored by somebody who wants to kill whoever wins this nomination on our side. Moving on. Trump is not happy, obviously. This morning on Fox News Channel they had a discussion about the presidential race. Gretchen Carlson said, "You say that you may throw your hat in the ring again. Is this the way to keep your name alive, sell some books, or are you really serious?"

TRUMP: It's gonna be a long season, I predict. But I'll be endorsing somebody, and I hope that person wins -- and if that person doesn't win, then I guess I'm a free agent because as you know the show ends at a certain period of time which is in May, and I'm a free agent; I can do whatever I want. You know, people don't really that if you have a show you can't run because of equal time situations, and you're not allowed to run -- which I think is a terrible law.

RUSH: Right. He's talking about his Apprentice show that ends in May, and he can't do anything on that show without having it come back to him equal time and so forth. I'm looking for something. Somebody's written a hilarious piece here. Did I put it at the top of the stack? Somebody has written a hilarious piece that said whatever Republican that's gone by to visit Trump has ended up dropping out of sight afterwards. (laughing) Newt's going today (laughing) and every Republican that's gone in and paid tribute to Trump has seen their numbers plummet shortly after. It's a humor piece. We'll see what happens to Newt after he goes and visits trump. Anyway, the next question was from Clayton Morris: "Let's talk about the debate, Donald, because you took a lot of heat this weekend from entrenched conservatives -- George Will among them -- who said we need to get away from people like you moderating debates, this party is being hijacked by entrepreneurial charlatans like you and Herman Cain; basically saying he thought your idea moderating a debate was absurd. What do you say to people like that this morning?

TRUMP: He makes so many wrong predictions that if you just follow his predictions you'll find out he shouldn't even be doing what he does. I think we'll have tremendous viewership. We'll probably get the highest ratings on the debate, which is important when we're trying to get a message out.

RUSH: What is the network that this is on? Is it the ION network or the EON network? Don't bother looking it up. Well, I never heard of the network when I saw what it was on. That's why I can't remember what it is, but its December 27, two days after Christmas, and Trump is predicting record ratings for this debate. "George Will's third-rate, shouldn't be doing what he's doing." Now Karl Rove dumps on trump also on Fox & Friends today. Gretchen Carlson said to Karl Rove, "Okay, we had Trump on earlier today. He's hosting this debate on December 27th. Two of the candidates have said they're not gonna take part: Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. If you, Karl, were advising a candidate, would you advise him to take part in this debate?"

ROVE: They're all gonna get stuck going to his debate but it's really odd. It's on a cable network that is not well viewed, and it's gonna be a giant ego trip -- and anybody who thinks that Donald Trump is gonna be the equivalent of Bret Baier or any one of the other moderates we've had is kidding themselves.

ROVE: If you're gonna be a candidate, be a candidate. Don't make it contingent upon whether your show is renewed or not. How trivial is that? How does it trivialize the most important decision that we Americans have which is who we're gonna elect as our president?

RUSH: Oh, now we're worried about trivializing the presidential race, or trivializing the election. So, anyway, here we have Will, George Will dumping all over Trump and Cain. Trump comes back and says George Will is "third-rate. Look at his predictions. He doesn't know what he's talking about; shouldn't be doing what he's doing." Karl Rove comes back and says if anybody think's Trump's gonna be equivalent of somebody who knows what they're doing that, they have another think coming. So they went back to Trump. (laughing) They called him! Here's what he said.

TRUMP: Karl Rove gave us George Bush, and George Bush crashed and burned -- and because of that we have Obama. And, you know, Karl Rove... I mean the problem that this, frankly, that the Republicans, they have to get rid of the Karl Roves and they need fresh blood because Karl Rove is gonna lead them into doom. Believe me.

RUSH: All right, so here we have... (laughing) Here we have Barack Obama floundering, polls that are under -- worse than -- Jimmy Carter, and look what's going on on the Republican side here! Look what's happening here? George Will goes after Trump and Cain. Trump goes after Will. Then Rove goes after Trump, then they call Trump back at Fox & Friends and Trump goes back after Rove. Look, Rove gave us Bush, and Bush gave us Obama and be these guys don't know what they're doing! They're taking the Republican Party down the hill in a hand basket. If we stick with guys like Rove, we're being led into doom.

We're not through. Then on MSNBC, The Daily Rundown today, Chuck Todd interviewed Trump. Todd says, "You wanted to respond to the poll that says more Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire say that your endorsement in the Republican primary would make 'em less likely to support that candidate." So F. Chuck Todd says: Hey, Trump, we got polling data here that says anybody you endorse, Republican voters say they will be less likely to support.

TRUMP: Let me just first start by saying that I was watching the show for about two minutes and you said Donald Trump wanted to respond to a poll. Well, I didn't even know what poll you're talking about, number one, Chuck. Number two, I didn't call you. You called me about 40 times --

TRUMP: -- trying to get me on the show so your statement is false. You said quote, "Donald Trump wanted to respond to a poll." Well, I didn't want to respond. Your people called my office about 40 times asking me to go onto the show so it's dishonest what you're saying, Chuck. I wish you would just sort of say it like it is. I think you'd do better. I actually think you'd be getting better ratings by doing that. I'm doing NBC a favor by going onto your show.

RUSH: That's Donald Trump taking it to F. Chuck. You know, this is a typical media ploy. I saw an example of it. I was watching a football became a couple years ago, and I don't want to embarrass the announcer crew; they're just football guys, but one of them got all excited. "Hey, look who's walked in here and asked to say hello! Why, it's Dick Vermeil, the former coach of the St. Louis Rams," and Vermeil sat down, " I didn't ask to come in here. You guys invited me. I was on my way somewhere else; somebody stopped me in the hall," and the guy said (stammering), "Well, well, well, well, well... Okay. We're still glad to have you here," and went on with the question. Vermeil answered the question, and got up and proceeded on down the hall. So apparently MSNBC said Trump called 'em and wanted to talk about this poll when they've been calling Trump and they wanted him to answer this poll which he didn't know about.

Trump is an NBCer. He says, "Chuck, I'm trying to help you. You'll get better ratings if you listen to me." (laughing)

RUSH: Do I have to do everything? I just got an e-mail during the break and I read e-mails during the break. (I told you I read 'em and I do read 'em.) "So, Rush, you tell us all this, what does in between? What does it mean? What does all this to mean? Trump, Rove, George, what does it all mean?" All right, notice who is on the attack. Donald Trump is minding his own business. He's agreed to moderate a debate on something called the ION network two days after Christmas, right? Just that little thing has set off time bombs within the Republican establishment, and they're all out attacking Donald Trump for moderating a debate. Simply for moderating a debate, they're out attacking Trump. So Trump, being who he is, is going on television and making phone calls and defending himself.

Donald Trump is defending himself. We're not used to this on the Republican side. Our guys usually send over, grab the ankles, and say, "Here, hit me again. I'm not gonna sully the debate by defending myself," and Trump doesn't bend over, grab the ankles. So Trump's now defending himself. Why? Because the establishment Republicans and the Democrats are attacking him. They're ganging up on him -- as they ganged up on Sarah Palin, as they ganged up on Christine O'Donnell, as they ganged up on Sharron Angle -- and, dare I say, as they're ganging up on Tim Tebow. Not the Republican establishment, but their equivalent in the sports media. You see what's going on with Tebow is the same thing going on here. Before Tebow got the starting job as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, everybody who claims to know their salt in football said he can't succeed.

"He's horrible, horrible mechanics, college offense, doesn't have a prayer!" He better fail or they look like fools. He had better fail or they look like fools, and so the media investment is in Tebow failing. In the midst of winning five games in a row. It's the same thing with Palin, folks. They told us she wasn't too stupid, too dumb. They had to make sure she failed so that they don't look like idiots. Ergo, it's Trump's turn now. They're ganging up on Trump. The Republican establishment and the Democrats together are ganging up on Trump as they ganged up on Palin, as they ganged up on O'Donnell and Angle, as the sports media's ganging up on Tebow -- and (sigh), in limited ways, they gang up on me. But I'm just saying how this works. I don't care about me.

But you see, people are fighting back now. Trump is fighting back. What Trump is saying is, "Hey, Chuck Todd! Hey, Karl Rove! You are not in charge of this election or any other election. Hey, Chuck? You're an old time Democrat staffer. You don't get to tell me what to do on your show." That's what Trump is doing here. He's simply fighting back. The Republican establishment -- which contains elements of what you and I think of as the conservative media -- are trying to beat back anyone who threatens Romney in any way, shape, manner, or form. It's just that simple. That's what I make of this. Trump didn't start anything; he just agreed to moderate a debate! And all hell broke loose.

It took about five minutes and the Sunday shows were organized around it! It's on some network nobody's ever heard of, except me, the ION network. It's channel 305 on DirecTV, FYI; but I don't have cable so I don't know if your cable system has it and I don't know what channel it would be on your cable system. But the Tea Party is like Trump; they don't care what the Washington socialite, inside-the-Beltway Republicans and Democrats have to say. The Tea Party's the conservative movement. By the way, Newt and Trump have announced -- where is it? -- apprenticeships. Newt and Trump have announced apprenticeships for ten needy kids in New York City to help teach them the work ethic in America. Now, stop and think of that. We need a program, a special program to teach ten kids the work ethic, 'cause if you work and earn money, you are the enemy in America today.

I’ve noticed a change in FOX News, haven’t you? They have been pushing Gingrich for months before he actually declared huis candididacy. I would not put Gingrich in the category of conservatism.

And we’ve had to suffer the likes of the establishment’s Karl Rove on a daily basis. Sean Hannity shows signs of being muzzled. It is as though the lights have been dimmed in that sudio. Truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

I fear the loss of our freedom of speech. The shadow of control is drifting over our part of the globe. Has ayone else notced?

I know the article was based on ABC.

One can expect a liberal point of view on ABC. But FOX NEWS was the one channel even remotrely conservativea, and they often feature George Will and Donald Trump, too.

There seems to be a plethiora of negative evenrs ocurring in this country. I can’t help but be refletive to try ro map out what our future will bring to my chilren, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Rove is just a contributer to FOX News, that does not mean they all agree with him. Everyone is free to make his or her decision. I for one will not let anyone tell me who to vote for. And btw the left has started their dirty campaign against Gingrich and it looks like you are falling for it. Which is a shame

...I also don’t think it will do anything one way or another for the candidates....

Actually, I disagree with you. If Trump is ok, why not attend a debate sponsored by the "enquirer" or "Play boy" (I love the girls, don't take me wrong) but I am sure you get my point.

We want to convince the Country, the World... don't you think that the stage where these important conversations should the proper venue?.. With a little dignity, etc.

Now, as far as CNN MSNBC and all the lefties... well, someone should investigate and negotiate the debates as well, and if they don't think it meets the standards, they should not do it. There are plenty of people and organizations who would love to hold these debates done in the proper way as the Huckabee just did it. I LIKED the format... it was serious, substantive, interesting and even dignified... so why do we need the lefties?... At least for the Republican process.

I would like to see Rush Limbaugh or townhall.com or other fairly conservative organizations hold them, etc.

I do not fall for anything. I have known his record for 30 years. I have always done my own thinking. It would be nice to hear from you with no personal offending omments included.

I have not read or heard anything new in what they are saying about the Grinch I have never liked him or imagined him as president of any country.

“TRUMP does not give the GOP credibility in my opinion. On the contrary, it trivializes the political process and lowers the importance of these debates.”

I’m not a fan of Trump, but your post reminded me of how Paul and Huntsman won’t attend a debate with Trump as moderator, but have attended every debate with the leftist media as moderators.

Realizing that’s not the point you were making, but I just had to vent about the disingenuousness of Paul and Huntsman, and your post gave me an opportunity to do that. Sorry. :)

Sigh. These are private citizens, including Trump. As a conservative I figure they are free to do what they want. If someone wants Trump to moderate his debate, that' s his privilege. If you don't like it don't watch. Is it better to have leftwing media gotcha-scum like we have seen so far? I don't think so.

If you want Rush to moderate a debate, go try and get him to do it. Better have deep pockets though. Until that day happens I'll take Trump over Woof Blitzer and that other weenie who got his head handed to him by Newt.

...."Politicians dancing with the starts" or something like that...

Like the bartender said to the mechanic when he walked in with a pair of jumper cables around his neck..."You can drink here but don't start anything."

Straw arguments and false choices and phantom conflicts by you here — no one said anything about Trump operating outside of what his freedoms as a private citizen are - so you are offbase with that criticism.

No one ever said the lib weenie media types are appropriate choices either - so you make a straw argument there.

And then you said “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” Screw you. If you don’t like my comment, DONT READ IT.

No your point is a good one, and germane. Anyone calling for a dignified process now is way too late. That ship sailed long, long ago. In 2008 I watched the 'rat debates and dubbed them "idiots on parade." It sort of stuck.

But the same thing can be said for the series of republican cattle calls this year. Eight candidates getting ten minutes apiece more or less and supposed to give substantive answers to subtle and complex issues. Fat chance for anything remotely dignified in those food fights.

Smirk-faced moderators arguing with the debaters and jumping into the fray, grown men and women sniping at each other like schoolyard rivals--and some people still wonder why Sarah Palin got her hat and went back home. She was the smartest of the bunch.

Trump offers to add some sizzle and excitement to otherwise scripted and meaningless affairs. Is he a conservative? An opportunist? Who knows. He isn't running for anything, so who cares. More power to him.

Fine Chief. So go get Rush to do it. No you don't want to arrest Trump you just want to tell him what to do and not do. Tell Trump he shouldn't do it. You know better right?

And you know his secret inner motivations. I admit I missed the class in mindreading that you must have taken.

What's this deal of having to be down on someone, even if it's a private citizen. Trump may be only a fellow traveler who would like to see Obama knocked off--that's more than half the rinos can say. Better have him on our side than his.

All he is is a free American doing his thing. I still don't get what you object to about that.

Wow, you have a thing for Trump don’t you. It’s almost a hero worship kind of a thing and it has you in a school girl tizzy to the point that you can’t keep your thinking straight.

I never questioned Trumps “right” to do this - not at all. He has 100% right to do it - and I have 100% right to say that I think it’s foolish because I do indeed doubt Trumps motives. And this is not “secret inner motivations’ - this is applied observational psychology. Trump is about Trump, period.

Trump is also only slightly more conservative than the liberal media types who normally do the debates - and he has an even bigger ego. Yes, he goes after Obama hard now but he’s kissed O’s butt in the past and he’s a big fan of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi as well.

If you continue to swoon over Trump and be fooled by him, go ahead. That is your right and it is his right.

It is my right to call you both out.

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