GOP Establishment Looks Third Party

Wednesday - April 27, 2016

RUSH: Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard was on America's Election Headquarters on the Fox News Channel last night doing analysis of what all had happened.  Megyn Kelly said, "Somebody said that Indiana is the Alamo for Ted Cruz.  Steve, what are your thoughts?  If Cruz loses Indiana, is the race over?"

HAYES:  I think then you will start to hear... If Ted Cruz loses Indiana, I think then you will start to hear more talk about a potential independent bid, about a third party, about other ways outside of the Republican primary to stop Donald Trump.

RUSH:  Now, do not discount this.  Hayes is not in the Trump camp.  Hayes, and there's some others, Jonah Goldberg and some others.  This is not a criticism.  Don't anybody start firing off notes.  I'm just telling you, they're not Trumpists. They're not excited about it. They think Trump's just the end to everything, a disaster, don't understand it.  So when Hayes says that the GOP establishment is toying with the idea of a third-party candidate, don't doubt him, is my point. 

I know a lot of you Trump people, 'cause I hear from you, you think -- folks, maybe you don't know this.  I don't know what percentage, but a significant percentage of Trump supporters only care about one thing, and that's beating Hillary, and they are convinced that Trump's the only guy.  They might not agree with anything Trump does, but they hate Hillary, don't want any part of Hillary, and they don't think anybody else can beat her.  Okay? 

Now, the Republican establishment thinks the exact opposite.  They think that Hillary will clean Trump's clock.  The Republican establishment is convinced and many conservative intellectuals are convinced that Hillary will win in a landslide.  They're out there, they're looking at Trump's negatives, they're looking at Trump's unfavorables, they're looking at Trump's numbers with women, and they're saying, "My God, even if these polls are wrong by 10 points, it's still a disaster.  It's  a disaster!"  And that's why the GOP's thinking third party, 'cause they just can't, in good conscience, align behind the guy.  That's what Hayes' point is.  Well, polling data's what it is.  You know, you throw it out at your own peril. 

But over there is Mrs. Clinton and her negatives are right up there with Trump's.  Mrs. Clinton is not this universally loved and adored Democrat candidate that crosses all kinds of political boundaries.  She's not.  But many in the Republican Party still can't get past the idea that because her name is Clinton and there's a D next to her name, it makes her invincible. 

I reject that, but there a lot of people that don't.  So for those of you Trumpists who think that this is easy, I mean, he's the only guy that can beat Hillary, doesn't matter, the GOP establishment thinks the exact opposite. 

This is Jim in Fairfax, Virginia.  Jim, I'm glad you waited.  Welcome to the program.  Hi.

CALLER:  Thanks, Rush.  I'm a confessed former Trump supporter, and I just want to acknowledge that there is a category of people that did back Trump that kind of drifted away, and I'm definitely one of those.  In fact, I have a newborn and about five months ago I bought him a Make America Great baby hat which I never put on him 'cause of my loss of support, and I'm --

RUSH:  Why are you drifting away from Trump?

CALLER:  Well, I think it's more than a drift.  I'm very conservative.  I listen to you a lot, I listen to Fox a lot, and I'm anti-politician.  I think we need to recycle, we need term limits. And I think when he came in with the "they're all do nothing. They don't do what they say. They're all talk, no action." I was intrigued.  And I think more and more he smears everybody.  You're either with him or you're smeared by him. 

He smears Cruz. If you're gonna call someone a liar every day for five months, you can't expect the support of their people.  If you're gonna call people bimbos who I respect and say we should leave NATO and say Republicans want people dead in the streets, well, some Republicans --

RUSH:  Wait a minute.  Whoa, whoa, whoa.  You go from bimbo, Lyin' Ted, then throw NATO in there?

CALLER:  Yeah, it's a mix.  His policies and his personal have pushed me away.  I think if his policies were dead on, I'd maybe put up with the personal stuff more.  But I think he's wrong on both.  And speaking from just my kind of anecdotal world, I have a middle-of-the-road, moderate spouse who is not political, doesn't like that I listen to politics all the time, but if Trump gets the nomination, she's gonna go poll for Hillary.  And she doesn't even like Hillary.

RUSH:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CALLER:  She's gonna get demolished.  And one last thing, one last point, Rush.  You know, they keep saying, well, Reagan had high negatives, right?  But back then there was no Twitter. There wasn't reality TV. No one knew Reagan.  And as they got to know him, they liked him.

RUSH:  Well, now, wait, wait, wait.  That's not true, either.  Reagan's negatives, there's a bunch of people trying to draw a favorable comparison of Trump and Reagan.  Reagan's negatives were not in the neighborhood of Trump's.  That's a manufactured little bit of news to try to diminish the importance of the disapprovals, the negatives, Trump has by saying, "Well, hey, you know, Reagan had 'em."  He didn't in any way, shape, manner, or form. 

But, you know, I know the spouse bit. I tell you, I know a bunch of guys whose wives love Trump.  And every time he insults somebody, they just get the biggest kick out of it.  They laugh at it, they think it's funny, they think it's refreshing, particularly if they happen to agree with it.  They don't find it offensive at all.  So it all adds up.  I don't think anybody knows what's gonna happen. Part of what is making all this attractive to a lot of people is that it's really hard to handicap it.