Rush Limbaugh: We are at a tipping point
'Hannity' goes one-on-one with the radio host. Rush Limbaugh: We don't want people winning elections based on mobs and violence.
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," October 18, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Welcome to "Hannity."
And we are coming to you from South Florida, at the EIB southern command headquarters where for the full hour tonight, I'll sit down with radio legend, Rush Limbaugh, for wide-ranging interview on everything that is at stake in November. With just 19 days until the single most important midterm elections in our lifetime, the fate of the Senate, the House, all hangs in the balance.
So, it is up to you to send a message to the Democratic Party that mob rule is not acceptable in the U.S. And tonight, we'll set the stage. We'll break down multiple key races, preview what will happen. God forbid, if Pelosi's speaker, Schumer is the Senate majority leader, and they take the reins of government.
Now, my interview with Rush is coming up. You're not going to want to miss a second.
First, it's time for a special Florida edition of our opening monologue.
(MUSIC)
HANNITY: Less than three weeks until the single most important midterm elections in our lifetime. Democrats, the destroy Trump media, continue their all-out smear campaign against the president and his supporters, and clearly, they're not backing down. Instead of calling for civility, civil discourse, Democratic leaders continue cheerleading for this dangerous mob- like behavior. When two people in Minnesota punched and attacked, we had representatives, Republicans, hit, over all of this.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.
REP. MAXINE WATER, D-CALIF.: If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get up and you create a crowd, and you pushback on them, and you tell them they are not welcome anymore, anywhere.
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J.: Please, don't just come here today and then go home, go to the Hill today. Get up and please get up in the face of some Congress people.
ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Michelle always says that, you know, when they go low, we go high. No, no. When they go low, we kick them.
ELLEN DEGENERES, TV HOST: If you had to be stuck in an elevator with either President Trump, Mike Pence, or Jeff Sessions, who would it be?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: Does one of us have to come out alive?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I've been very clear on this program, if this type of rhetoric continues, it is not going to end well.
So, tonight, the political climate is at a fever pitch. We've seen violent protests in major cities all across the country, Portland, New York. We have seen women, violent assaults against them. Two local Republican candidates in Minnesota, a Democratic operative arrested in Nevada, for battery against a GOP campaign manager, that operative has now been fired.
Senator Susan Collins and her staff repeatedly have been threatened, and a package was sent to Susan Collins' house, well, purportedly containing the chemical ricin. Other Republicans have been stalked, harassed, all over the country, run out of restaurants, chased down in airports, and much more. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTERS: We believe survivors! We believe survivors! We believe survivors!
PROTESTERS: We call on you to end family separation!
Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: This kind of a mob-like behavior has got to stop before somebody gets hurt, as Rand Paul has said, or worse. Violence, intimidation, unacceptable in this country. Our problems -- well, you have a chance to solve the problems at the ballot box in 19 days.
That's why I'm down here in Florida, because Rush and I both believe we're in a political climate, unlike any other time in recent history, and guess what? There has never been a greater urgency to speak out collectively, to continue the agenda that has been working for two years, or reverse course.
Fundamental principles we believe in, due process, presumption of innocence, that's at play. The economy is in play. Peace and prosperity, national security is in play. The country is at a tipping point in more ways than we can even begin.
So, without further ado, we are in the studio of Rush Limbaugh.
First, I want to congratulate you. Thirty years, talk radio, the king of talk radio, and going stronger than ever.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: It's amazing, it really is. You know, I'm enjoying it as much as I ever have, if not more so. I get more thrills from it. I get more satisfaction from it, than I've ever had.
If you would've told me 30 years ago, or even 40, when I was dreaming of all this, that by the time I reached 65, that it would be more competitive than ever, that I would be more involved -- I thought 65, well, you got nothing left to prove. You phone it in, you take it easy, go to the beach, do a couple hours a week, and that's it, like Johnny Carson did.
I can't imagine not doing this. And I think largely because of -- as you just laid out, we are seriously at a tipping point. I don't know -- I worry -- I don't know how many people actually are aware of how close we are to losing our country as founded. There's always going to be in America but what is it going to be? And it really is at stake.
I've been trying in I don't how many ways to explain to my audience why it is different now than it was 15 years ago, or 20. And I do it by trying to analyze who the left is. What they have become. I am naive in many ways.
HANNITY: I might take a little objection to Rush being naive. You --
LIMBAUGH: Well, you tell me if this is naive.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: I look at what happened during the Kavanaugh hearing. You just described ricin and the stuff to Susan Collins. We looked at the literal mob behavior that was inspired, bought and paid for, by the Democrat Party. The media encourages it.
In my naive world, that behavior would secure the biggest landslide defeat a political party has ever had. In a sane world, where decent people are the majority, that would be rejected out of hand. It wouldn't even be considered relevant. And the people of this country would want to get rid of that as quickly as they could.
But yet, it may be close to 50 percent of the country. I don't think it is, and I hope not. But the fact that it continues to survive, I have evolved a bunch of theories to explain it. And I really think -- by the way, interrupt any time with questions.
HANNITY: No, you are doing great.
LIMBAUGH: I really think that all of this -- the vast majority of it, still, Sean, revolves around one of the age-old arguments that left versus right has had, that is role of government in our lives.
Now, the people on the left, I read some of what Jim Garrity at "National Review," about a month ago now, and it just struck me, because I think it is dead on. I'm going to paraphrase what he said. He said, what has happened, in his view -- I endorse this even more than he does. I think it is a bigger point than he made it.
These people on the left that you've described, the mob behavior, is really a series of psychological disorders that have taken over politics. We have politicized psychological disorders to the pointing out that they have become the objective of the Democrat Party. Solving all of these disparate, separate psychological disorders, having the government do it, basically determine outcomes.
And get even with oppressors, the founding majority of the country. That's what we are dealing with. If we don't define this properly, we are never going to be able to oppose it. If we consider the stuff legit, which it isn't, that kind of behavior is not legitimate.
We do not want a country based on that kind -- we don't want people winning elections based on mobs and violence. Think if that happens. If they win the election based on this kind of behavior --
HANNITY: We'll get more of it.
LIMBAUGH: Exactly right.
HANNITY: But here's --
LIMBAUGH: What do decent people do? Decent people do not spend all day trying to figure out how to battle this. Decent people are living their lives. We've got perversion, indecency, corruption, up against what used to be called normalcy.
HANNITY: You've got -- Hillary Clinton -- we can't be civil unless you give us power back. Eric Holder, well, they go low, we kick them.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: Maxine waters, if you see them, create a crowd. You know, go tell them, follow them into department stores and grocery stores and gas stations. You are not wanted anywhere anymore.
And we saw Pam Bondi, Secretary Nielsen, and we saw Sarah Sanders, Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, Mitch McConnell, I think Rand is right. Somebody is going to get hurt here, in the end, because -- look, I blame the people for their actions, but there is certainly marching orders here. Confront, attack, get in their faces --
LIMBAUGH: All of it is marching orders.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: All of it is bought and paid for. Look at this caravan. Supposed -- where is it? Honduras, Guatemala, doesn't matter. Somebody is paying for this.
Where are these people going to the bathroom? Who is feeding them? I mean, 2,000, 4,000 people, kids, and that's the magic. And they put the children in there.
We must accept them. We can't send them away, it's so horrible. Trump is separating -- it is all designed and it's all designed to flood the zone during the election.
We've got this, we've got worried about the Fed raising interest rates to try to jam down the economy, way over there, guess what just happened? Robert Mueller is about ready to submit his report. Well, Justice Department rules and guidelines say they should not do it to impact the results of an election.
But that didn't -- Comey did, didn't he? He was doing everything he could to help Hillary, people don't understand this, but that's what he'd been doing.
So, these things are all planned and they're all getting focused leading up to the election. People ask me, what can I do? I want to do more than vote. Right now, that is the answer.
HANNITY: Vote.
LIMBAUGH: I mean, people -- I know people think their vote is not enough, but it is. Turnout is everything. And the left -- this is almost an identical scenario to 2016.
They think, Sean, they really do -- and some of this is hope, but they think a lot of Americans that voted for Trump regret it. A lot of people can't out to show and apologize for their mistake of voting for Trump. They can't wait to go out there and apologize to the Democrat Party.
The fact of the matter is, since Barack Obama, the Democrat Party has been losing elections. Starting in 2010, midterm, state party, all the way up to 2016, the Democrat Party has lost 1,200 seats, national, state, local. You have to count all the way down to the dog catcher, they have lost. They have the least amount of electoral political power in Washington since the '20s.
Where is this blue wave? Where's the evidence that people can't wait to vote Democrat? The evidence is they are doing the exact opposite.
Trump is out there continuing to do the things he did that won him the election in 2016, all of these rallies. They have been unable to get rid of him. They have thrown everything at Trump that usually gets rid t of Republican opponents, and nothing has worked.
And they're just frustrated as they can be, and I think they are so overplaying this, and they are going way beyond the bounds of anywhere near propriety. But they think most Americans want to be encouraged to do mob- like behavior, getting people's faces. I don't think we have lost the country to that extent that that wins elections.
HANNITY: How big an impact -- Kavanaugh, to me, was a tipping point, because they were exposed. I think most people fundamentally believe in the rule of law, the Constitution, due process, presumption of innocence. There was none of that. It was accusation, I believe it.
LIMBAUGH: Look how close they were to getting away with that, though.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: You and I watched this from a different perspective than I think a lot of people. Sadly, there are still a lot of people that only get their news from what we call the mainstream media. If Donald Trump -- President Trump had not, at that rally, exposed Christine --
HANNITY: No corroboration.
LIMBAUGH: None! The four people she says where there, no, we weren't. She didn't know what, where, when, why. So, Trump tells people this, and they get mad at Trump for mocking her.
Trump didn't mock her. To mock her, he would have to impersonate her. Which I can do, but I will not.
HANNITY: You are showing great restraint.
LIMBAUGH: Great restraint. He didn't mock her, he exposed her to a bunch of Americans who didn't know, because the mainstream media had not reported all of the holes in her story.
So, Trump does, and in getting Trump, they end up reporting what Trump said. That was the tipping point, plus what Kavanaugh did to save himself.
But you're right, presumption of innocence gone. They were close to killing that by intimidating Republican on that committee. But it didn't work again because I believe the president came in and saved the day.
HANNITY: Look, I don't have a crystal ball. I always thought and believed in my heart the media is wrong, Trump can win. You can see it, you can feel it.
I don't know who is going to run against Obama in '08. You saw the crowds, you saw the enthusiasm, in that case, I think it was a lot of hype and no change, typical left-wing policies. You predicted to me that it would fail, and it did fail.
But something is different. President Trump -- you could see building momentum. And now, we got these midterms. I'm looking at let's -- Florida, they could pick up a Senate seat. I think you could pick one up in Missouri. I think you will hold Nevada. I think you will win in Arizona, North Dakota, Indiana, all potential pickups.
Where I would worry about more is the House, I don't have a feel.
LIMBAUGH: It is hard, so many seats there. So many variables, and vagaries when you get to it.
But let's look at this in the macro way. Let's compare this -- you want to go to 2008 -- let's go back to 2016. I know you were, early on, very confident that Trump was going to win. I thought -- my staff here will tell me that two days -- when I first saw the first polling after Trump and Melania went down the escalator, I said, he is the nominee. It is going to happen, I felt it.
You know why? Because I know the bond, I saw those rallies. I saw the bond that Trump had with his voters.
The media didn't create that. He did. I did versions of that when my show started traveling around, 48 weekends a year for the first two years, trying to get my radio show established. And I saw similar a success track.
And nobody can blow up that bond that Trump voters have, but Washington establishment, to this day, does not understand Donald Trump. They don't understand his voters, and they are not curious to find out why. They just resent it.
And they are still operating under the same rules they operated under in 2016, and the parallels are identical here. They think in 2016, Hillary is going to win. Massive landslide, measuring the curtains, Hillary's planning all of these things. The deep state guys back then are confident nobody is going to ever know what they did, their jobs and careers will be safe. Strzok and all of these clowns, McCabe, safe.
Then, Trump comes along and wins. They are shocked, they are stunned, they couldn't believe it. Same thing now, they think they have won the House a month ago. It's in the can. They are just waiting for the calendar and the days to go by, when all of their own point data shows the so-called generic ballot blue wave shrinking and shrinking.
HANNITY: Dramatically.
LIMBAUGH: Now you find less confidence in all of the reporting about the blue wave, so now we have the caravan, they tried Kavanaugh. Look at all of the October surprises. Feinstein tried one.
Pocahontas ,Elizabeth Warren, how about this, folks. We used to be judged by the content of our character. Now it is the content of our DNA. Is that what the Democrat Party -- talk about bastardizing Martin Luther King.
She bombs out. Feinstein bombs out.
HANNITY: Right.
LIMBAUGH: And so, all of these -- all four were attempted, were purposed, to blow Trump up, and he just keeps beating them back. And they don't know how to deal with it. They get more and more frustrated, more and more angry. That's what we're seeing.
HANNITY: Some nights at the end of the show, we'll take a clip from, your Dittocam, and run it. Kind of the kicker to the show. My audience loves to see you, thanks for doing the show. They love having you, as do I.
What if they win? What if the Democrats win? You love that question.
LIMBAUGH: Well, the problem here is, I am on television, and I'm really trying to be persuasive, I don't want to dramatize it. I do not want to lie to people and I don't want to fill people with phony, manipulative, emotional things.
But it might serve to answer that question to go back -- what if Hillary had won in 2016? Stop and think of that. There wouldn't be a roaring economy. There wouldn't have been any tax cuts, there would not have been rollback on regulations, no squaring of the deal with NATO. There wouldn't have been any read on trade deals.
The Obama administration told the American people, get used to it, there is a new American economy, and it is flat line or in decline. America's past, we didn't really deserve that. America was founded by a white patriarchy set itself up for itself, people discriminated against, but those days are over.
So, now, the days behind us, we didn't deserve those anyway. We don't deserve to be a superpower. We have a flat line economy.
We were told -- Obama is out there in Indiana telling these people their jobs are never coming back. And some in the audience, "Mr. Trump says" and Obama says, what is he going to do, wave a magic wand?
Look what happened, we got the jobs back. It can be done. They don't even want to make America great. They resent the whole idea of America becoming great.
They resent the idea of America as a superpower, running the world for good. We're the good guys. They don't think so.
(CROSSTAK)
HANNITY: If -- and the investigation --
LIMBAUGH: If he hadn't won, Sean, I shudder to think, with Hillary Clinton in the White House and all of her cronies in all the cabinet positions, and the validation of all of these odd ball, weird, perverted, left-wing behaviors becoming more and more normalized, and politics and government role being to address their grievances -- we have become a country of nothing but a bunch of victims constantly angry, demanding that somebody do something about it, instead of all of us -- as we used to do -- using self- reliance and our own initiatives and our guts and handling life ourselves
HANNITY: Stay there. We'll take a break. We're just getting started.
LIMBAUGH: Not moving.
HANNITY: We'll continue. More with Rush Limbaugh, with us for the full hour. We are at his southern command headquarters, EIB Network. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. As we continue, southern command, Rush Limbaugh EIB headquarters, this is it. This is where you do your show.
LIMBAUGH: It really is.
HANNITY: Every day.
LIMBAUGH: There is an ordinance in Palm Beach, you cannot work from your home -- and so, which is fine, it is the case, so we built this, and it is like a living room, home office.
Can I do one thing personal? Every time I am on your show, people ask me what this is. I get emails, what is this?
HANNITY: Right, your calculator implant.
LIMBAUGH: Well, yes, it's a direct aligned to the West Wing is what it is.
(LAUGHTER)
LIMBAUGH: No, these are cochlear implants. I'm deaf, I am 100 percent deaf, and I can only hear bionically with these.
Very quickly, the human ear has 35,000 hair cells each, they determine and the sensitivity of the human hearing. I don't have it. Mine are dead, they laid down and died. Autoimmune.
So I have eight man-made, biological electrodes -- bionic electrodes that try to do what 35,000 hair cells do. And it's a miraculous thing. If this had happened -- if I lost my hearing 15 years before I did, it would have been the end of my career, because the tech had not been invented. It is really fortunate, and I look at it as something to be extremely grateful.
HANNITY: I remember in the interim time -- not to get too distracted, we got a lot to talk about. I do radio, as you do. I do not know how it's possible. It's like most people in radio, DJs, talk shows, I am cranking that thing up. And dramatic hearing loss after 30 years.
LIMBAUGH: I did three months totally deaf, I couldn't get surgery done because I had an infection. So, three months. So, you rely on how your voice feels.
HANNITY: Right.
LIMBAUGH: And you have to consciously tell yourself, don't -- when you can't hear, you speak up.
HANNITY: Right.
LIMBAUGH: You have to tell yourself -- I asked of them, asked the doctors, if I don't do this, can I speak normally for the rest of my life? They said no. If you can't hear yourself speak, you will end up sounding like someone who has not heard before, so that you have to do the implants.
But that's what they are. They were really a career saver.
HANNITY: Thank God, you are still here and going strong, 30th anniversary, which was a big deal. For those of us that followed behind you, it's a big deal because you did forge a path for all of us. And we all owe you a debt of gratitude.
That's why, really, I wanted to be here. Explain the Trump phenomenon. Maybe we have a more unique perspective because we both knew him way before he ever thought about running.
LIMBAUGH: Right. I don't think it is hard to understand the Trump phenomenon at all. If you are not poison -- I use that as an exaggeration -- if you are not affected by inside the Beltway or Washington establishment thinking, understanding Trump is easy.
It's elite versus real people. It's somebody that is fearless and willing to fight against the things that no Republican has been willing to fight against or defend. He's got an engaging personality.
He doesn't offend people -- the left thinks he does because they act offended, but Trump just makes people laugh. They can't get over the fact that he is likable because they hate him. They despise him. I saw today - - are we allowed to mention competing cable networks? Because you dominate everything. They're just a bunch of --
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: Little Brian Stelter over on CNN.
HANNITY: Humpty-dumpty.
LIMBAUGH: It's what you call him.
HANNITY: That is what I call him. Humpty-dumpty.
LIMBAUGH: He has actually been somewhat nice to me, there are exceptions to it. But complaining that the president is talking too much, the president is in the media too much. This is a guy demand free access -- because he is polluting the air. He is lying, he's distorting, and he's not giving us enough time to catch up with him and to correct him. That's just keep going.
President Trump, he is dominating these people. He is frustrating them. They've lost their monopoly. The Elizabeth Warren thing, the Pocahontas, proves they cannot shape public opinion anymore via narrative, and they are frustrated as they can be about that.
HANNITY: He doesn't need them.
LIMBAUGH: No. Part of the process -- part what is going on here, I believe, all of this -- I do call it abnormality. We are up against psychological disorder, abnormality, that is disguised as political issues.
HANNITY: We talk about the media -- it has never been this abusively biased.
LIMBAUGH: Well, it's not even biased. They're so far beyond biased. These people are part of the agenda.
I think they run it. I think they are the people that orchestrate it, run it, in fact, even give some marching orders to each other. The point is, Trump has just got them bamboozled. I think part and parcel of what they are doing is trying to demonstrate to themselves they still have the power to shape public opinion via narrative. And it's causing all of these people on the left to get more and more and more extreme.
And I'm just relying on the fact that average, ordinary Americans, like you and I are, are as repulsed as you and I are by this behavior that they are engaging in, the demands they are making on decent, god-fearing, America- loving people. We are not the problem. And yet we are portrayed as the problem. We're the enemy to these people.
It's really scary. What happens when we lose, go back and look -- if we lose 2016, if they get the House, well, I'm just going to tell you, whatever Trump wants to do is going to stop. It's going to be paralyzed. It's going to be nothing but in every House committee that is relevant, inspections, investigations, subpoenas. They are going to go back and try to get Kavanaugh thrown out.
It is going to be nothing but two years to get even with Trump for having the audacity to win. And the business of the nation is going to be brought to a screeching halt.
In the meantime, they are going to try to get rid of the tax cuts. They're not going to succeed at any of this because the Senate is still going to be in the hands of Mitch McConnell, I especially him colonel. He moves so slow, but his speed he is really getting good.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: He had a good run for what he--
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: And in the judicial.
HANNITY: He did not on Gorsuch and on Kavanaugh, he's great.
LIMBAUGH: But I still think Trump -- that's and whom I have come in terms of the politics of this, I still have implicit trust. I think Trump knows what he is doing.
HANNITY: Here's my question. We've had all the success in two years. Obama, economically, the first president that never met 3 percent of GDP growth in history.
LIMBAUGH: He didn't want to. This is the key.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It didn't happen.
LIMBAUGH: America doesn't deserve that.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: America is so oppressive, so mean to minorities. America doesn't deserve super power status. This is why I wanted Obama to fail. In his view, in the Alinsky view, in the American left's view, America is flawed, America is the problem in the world. America doesn't deserve--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: The apologies.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: But economically 13 million more Americans on food stamps, eight million more in poverty.
LIMBAUGH: That's good. That mean more people voting Democrat, more people depending on government. They want that, Sean.
HANNITY: We have 14 states, record low unemployment. We had lowest unemployment since '69.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: A million more jobs than people on unemployment.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: Look at who is benefiting. African-American unemployment, lowest ever. Hispanic unemployment, Asian unemployment, women in the workplace unemployment, all of these success, you are saying, stops if they get the House.
LIMBAUGH: That's -- let me ask you a simple question. Why? You just -- you heard him just go through these statistics. The facts of the economic advancement. We've got more jobs than there are job openings.
HANNITY: A million.
LIMBAUGH: We got a million more jobs than there are openings. That hasn't happened since 2017. Who was president then? It wasn't Obama. The things you just heard, Sean go through, the Democrats are angry at all of it. Why are they happy?
Folks, we are in a roaring economy. More people than ever can get the job they want, they are getting raises. There are being bonus. We have people free to start their own businesses. The economy in every other aspect of life in America is on the upswing, and a political party and its voters are mad about it. Why? Why couldn't you be happy? The answer is very simple.
If it happens as a result of individual aptitude and application instead of government making it happen, they are going to oppose it. This the greatest threat, economic activity, economic growth, self-sufficiency, self- reliance, people learning that the old rules of working hard and applying yourself pay off, biggest threat to the American left in the Democrat Party that there could be.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this.
LIMBAUGH: Why aren't they happy about this? I mean, everybody ought to be- -
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Because they lose their power.
LIMBAUGH: Of course.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Here's what I want to ask.
LIMBAUGH: A question answers itself.
HANNITY: You have been a leader in the conservative movement in America--
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: I don't know.
HANNITY: No.
LIMBAUGH: I don't know.
HANNITY: Number one--
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: The conservative--
HANNITY: -- there's audience sustained and bigger.
LIMBAUGH: The conservative movement is led by never-Trumpers.
HANNITY: Well, look, OK.
LIMBAUGH: In their minds--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: If they had their way, where would we be? No here. Hillary.
LIMBAUGH: Hillary -- Hillary would be president if they had their way.
HANNITY: So here's my question. You knew well in fact, if you believe Goldwater was a wave, if you believe Reagan was a wave -- meaning the advancement of conservativism. If you believe Newton the contract was a wave--
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: -- where does Donald Trump -- I look at his policies. I've always been a conservative. I never change my views. I say it differently, new circumstances, but my fundamental core beliefs have never changed. Nor have yours.
All of these people have said he is not a conservative. Where? Besides trade, and I don't even think trade -- he never planned a trade war.
LIMBAUGH: He is implementing.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: Look, I know these people, I got to know them in 30 years going to--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: William Buckley loves you.
LIMBAUGH: Buckley, well, I will tell you a story about him in a minute where he would be. I thought you are going to ask me where he would be on Trump. But the answer to that is pretty simple.
But they don't like Trump because of his manners. They -- Trump is implementing issues that these people have devoted their lives to seeing passed, and they oppose it and they are running away from it. It must never have been about the issues. It must be about the proper manners and making sure we don't offend our liberal friends in Washington so forth and all of that.
So Trump does all of that. I can't abide this, this is so offensive to me, I can't do this. dunk. And so, meanwhile--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You're right.
LIMBAUGH: -- everything that's happening is making America great, exactly as conservatives said it would, and they don't want to be on the bus.
HANNITY: He -- I say, and I say to people and I said, what? He governs as strong a conservative as we've seen in our lifetime.
LIMBAUGH: Yes, he does. But I don't think the divide in America is left and right so much. We're still there.
HANNITY: Conservative principles.
LIMBAUGH: Conservative principles it just--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Judges, tax cuts, regulation, border security.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: Peace through strength.
LIMBAUGH: It's what kind of a country that the traditions of the founding are, are we going to go Marxist leftist? I mean, that's what this is about. We don't have in common with them, Sean. I hear all these people who still say we need to cross the aisle so that we can cooperate so that show the government -- what do we have in common?
What, name something we have in common with any of the people acting to destroy Kavanaugh? Where is the middle ground to compromise with them on Kavanaugh. They didn't even want to deny him -- allow him due process.
HANNITY: Zero. And no corroboration.
LIMBAUGH: They wanted to destroy his life. And his family, his career, his past, his future, and they tell us, they are the party of compassion.
HANNITY: We've seen before, we've senn that Bork, Clarence Thomas.
LIMBAUGH: You see it every day.
HANNITY: In every election year.
LIMBAUGH: We see it every say.
HANNITY: And now every day.
LIMBAUGH: Donald Trump -- I'm sure you have taken your hits.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I want to ask you about this.
LIMBAUGH: You've taken your hits--
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: We see it's everybody -- that anybody that they determine is an effective messenger of anything they disagree with, they are going to target.
HANNITY: We could do 10 hours except, you have to start getting paid. Rush is going to hate a question I'm going to ask him in a few minutes. He's going to hate me and never let me back in the studio. So we'll get back to that. Much more with Rush right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: Welcome back to Hannity. We are coming to you live from EIB Southern Command, that means Rush Limbaugh is our guest for the full hour.
I never thought in my lifetime, my mother was a prison guard. My dad was a family court probation -- Irish family, Rush. You know, a lot of NYPD cops.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: Two guys were deity, FBI in my family. I never thought FBI top officials, the people we give the powerful tools of intelligence to, would turn, not only on the American people. Lies at be told, FISA court frauds would be taken, it exonerates somebody that we know was guilty. But then use those tools and her bought and paid for Russian information to destroy the president that should have lost, according to Peter Strzok, 100 million to zero.
LIMBAUGH: Right.
HANNITY: Did you ever think you'd see that?
LIMBAUGH: Well, honestly, no, I have the same attitude about law enforcement in general.
HANNITY: yes, you do.
LIMBAUGH: I've gotten to know some top-tier FBI people over the course of my life. Who, themselves now are appalled by this. The scope of this -- you have described this perfectly, the scope of this, when you stop and think of what happened here. That the top tier of the Obama Department of Justice -- do not leave him out of this.
And everybody there, all of these people, Strzok, and Lisa Page, and McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Comey, this was a concerted effort to deny Donald Trump the presidency. They had to get Hillary exonerated, first. That is why they looked in a way in the e-mail scandal and the server.
They had to get her elected. That would save their jobs, save their careers, and we wouldn't know any of this that we know had she been elected. They got scared when they saw that Trump was not going to be defeated in a landslide.
The very process of using government intelligence agencies -- this is nothing for people to have seen this, how anyone can vote for Democrats after seeing what has happened here, the one person that really meddled with the Russians, the one person that really colluded, the one person that really rigged an election, none other than Madame Hillary.
HANNITY: What an irony.
LIMBAUGH: I mean, it's stunning here. And Trump hasn't done zilch, and Mueller has been looking. He got no limits on money or scope, he has been looking for two years. Zero.
HANNITY: It doesn't exist. But it did -- imagine this. She, first, there was no bigger obstruction case. If Rush Limbaugh had subpoenaed your computers and your e-mails, and you deleted them, you acid wash your hard drive with bleach bit, yet have somebody that works here for you busted up your devices with hammers. I promise you, you would have gone to jail.
LIMBAUGH: Easily.
HANNITY: Easily. Slam-dunk case of obstruction. Exoneration written to me- -
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: But far less than the dealing with the FBI, right. But they had to exonerate her, Sean. I mean, she was the Democrat nominee. She was the one guaranteeing their positions and their careers by virtue of her winning. They had to exonerate her. They could not on July 5th with Comey or in late October, they could not convict her or even charge her with anything.
They did not want to affect the outcome of an election, while they are in the midst of literally doing that very thing. But it's stunning, Hillary Clinton cheats, Hillary Clinton, Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, Michael Steele or Christopher Steele, the whole thing is designed, opposition research, they create this document, and it is turned over as legitimate intelligence to the FISA court. They may have been on it, too. I haven't seen a lot of anger coming out of them.
HANNITY: Great point.
LIMBAUGH: And it is used to destroy Donald Trump and his campaign, then his transition, then his presidency much like they tried to destroy Kavanaugh. It cannot -- it cannot triumph. It simply cannot be allowed to triumph.
HANNITY: If it's allowed we have a dual justice system.
LIMBAUGH: We already do.
HANNITY: We already do.
LIMBAUGH: We got a two-tier justice system.
HANNITY: It's like we have a one-tier tax system where, you know, the top 20 percent pretty much pay lower bill. Let me ask you about this Khashoggi. You saw Tom Friedman today.
LIMBAUGH: Yes. Well, he made, Friedman made a good point about this.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: And I got to acknowledge good points when they are made. I think this is precarious time for the Trump administration because the left is trying to use this Khashoggi death, tie it to Trump. They are trying to get Trump blame for everything.
HANNITY: If he cured cancer, Rush, they would still be mad at him.
LIMBAUGH: For destroying the livelihood of how many people in the medical field.
HANNITY: They would find a reason.
LIMBAUGH: The thing about Mohammed bin Salman, the thing he was doing that had everybody really exciting, the important thing he was doing, was supposedly reforming militant Islam. He was getting rid of the Wahhabi influence, which is where terrorist Islam comes from.
The Saudi royal family is Islam. They are in charge of Mecca, and they determine what Islam is going to be. If it's going to be terrorist Islam, Wahhabi Islam the royal family Makes it happen. Well, Bin Salman is tired of being dependent on petrol dollars. He wants all this investment from Hollywood to tech. He wants to build a new city and, in the process, he's got to reform it. It looks like he let women drive, he's going to get rid of violent militant Islam and deemphasized Wahhabi.
And now that's all good. The death is probably one of the most important things the Saudi royal family can do for the world, is to deemphasized the militant aspects of Islam. Then this Khashoggi things comes along, and it looks like there isn't any real reform. You criticize the state and they kill you, so forth.
It's a -- I hope Trump and his team do it right on this because there are lay in and weight. If he goes--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It's a trap.
LIMBAUGH: - if he goes too far in what they think is exonerating he Saudis for oil deals or business deals or arms deals that are important to America.
HANNITY: Can I -- didn't the Clintons take $25 million from the Saudis for their foundation?
LIMBAUGH: Absolutely, it is a deal -- it's a two-way street.
HANNITY: Where was the Benghazi outrage?
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: Exactly.
HANNITY: Except for conservatives.
LIMBAUGH: I asked that the other day.
HANNITY: Yes.
LIMBAUGH: Where's all the concern for four dead Americans in Benghazi? But I just want to tell you one thing here, folks, trying to tell you that there is recorded evidence of the murder and the dismemberment and the dispatchment of the body, because it was recorded on his Apple watch. Khashoggi's apple watch.
I'm here to tell you, that is not technological possibly -- technologically possible. There are three ways a watch can transmit data. LTE, which is cellular, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. Apple has not activated LTE in Turkey. That's the longest range. The only way this guy had it to transmit data from his watch to his phone would be Bluetooth. His car, his wife south -- fiance, really, I don't think it's possible from them to be a recording of what happened.
HANNITY: We got to take a break. The question you're going to hate, number one and you--
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: I've never hated a question. I've rescinded some because they're stupid but I've--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Great. He's already accused my question to be stupid.
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: No. Drive by it is, stupid question. I didn't want stupid.
HANNITY: It might be. But I think an important one, and your predictions for 19 days.
LIMBAUGH: OK.
HANNITY: More with Rush Limbaugh as we continue. His Southern Command EIB headquarters, Rush for the full hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: As we continue with Rush Limbaugh. So, the first question you are going to hate, I was here last time.
LIMBAUGH: Yes.
HANNITY: I try never to bug you -- you don't like TV. You love this -- it is a golden mic, we'll get a shot of it behind you. Your radio audience is bigger, more massive today than it's ever been because of all the options and ways people can look.
LIMBAUGH: It is amazing too. That's true.
HANNITY: It's crazy, right?
LIMBAUGH: Yes.
HANNITY: So, my question is, I said, Rush, do one hour a month on TV. Just you, in the studio, do one hour every other week. Do one every quarter. You think I am a pain in the ass, you can say it.
LIMBAUGH: No, no, I'm flattered. I'm flattered. I just -- I've been there, I've done--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: One hour a month.
LIMBAUGH: One hour. But look at, there is already a controversy. Something I said earlier has already been wiped. You will--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: It's wiped clean.
LIMBAUGH: -- you will never know, folks, because it was not deemed appropriate. It was not profanity, it was not offensive, but it has been wiped.
HANNITY: I will never hear the end of this now ever.
HANNITY: No, it's good.
HANNITY: They are going to want to know.
(CROSSTALK)
LIMBAUGH: Outtakes will show up somewhere.
HANNITY: No, they won't. No, they won't.
LIMBAUGH: Somebody at Fox would, Sean.
HANNITY: I've got it. It's happening. Here is my next thing.
LIMBAUGH: Yes.
HANNITY: I look at 19 days, I'm thinking, my gut, heart, mind, soul, I want to win. I'm not sick of winning. I hope, I think we are going to pick up some big seats in the Senate. Hoping on the House. Two far questions. Predictions, and what do you say to people that so respect what you have to say about this election in 19 days?
LIMBAUGH: I still say that I think there are things that have yet to happen that are going to determine outcomes in some races that we don't know. So it's still very hard to predict. Kavanaugh feedback reaction was 100 percent positive for Republicans, the Democrats really blew that.
But 435 of these things -- I don't know. I just rely on hope -- which is again, naive, I don't have survey data. I don't trust it. It hasn't been right consistently enough for me. And the people doing these surveys desperately want Trump gone. I don't know how they can take that out of their work. I don't believe in pure objectivity, so I distrust.
HANNITY: If I put you on the spot with predictions.
LIMBAUGH: We hold the House and we increase the Senate. And because I think that's justice. I think that's justice. I think the Democrat Party deserves to lose in the single biggest electoral landslide defeat in my lifetime--
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: And you--
LIMBAUGH: -- because of the actions they've taken just in the last month.
HANNITY: Prove enough. And you'll think about maybe an hour a quarter?
LIMBAUGH: I've never stop thinking about it. I'll think about it.
HANNITY: You'll think about it.
LIMBAUGH: Can do it right here?
HANNITY: Right here.
LIMBAUGH: Right here.
HANNITY: Great to see you, thank you so much. Rush Limbaugh. All right. We'll wrap things up from Russia's studio when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HANNITY: All right. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left this evening and I want to thank a lot of people, they have a great crew here -- Rush Limbaugh, his crew for giving us the time to do the full hour tonight.
Don't forget set your DVR, don't miss an episode. We're always fair and balanced, we're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled. Stay tuned. Laura Ingraham takes it away. She's in the swamp, the sewer D.C. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
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