The Big Voice On The Right Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday that he was in utter “awe” of Donald Trump for his “brilliant” and “masterful” hijacking of the Democratic National Convention — the likes of which he has “never” seen by a presidential candidate in his lifetime.
In a “freewheeling, no-holds-barred, no-controls-on-the-media” press conference, explained the radio host, Trump managed to once again put himself at the center of the news cycle, eclipsing what was the biggest night yet of the DNC, and, in so doing, left the media “jumping out of their seats like they were jacks-in-the-box.” Not only did Trump ignore the unspoken rule of political decorum that you allow the other party to have the spotlight during their convention, he was able to do so in a way that forced the media to talk about something they hoped was behind them: the Clinton email scandal.
“I really don’t believe that I have ever seen what I just saw,” Limbaugh began. “I’ve been thinking. I’ve been trying to dig deep into the dark crevices of my memory, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen what I just saw. Donald Trump just hijacked the Democrat convention after the biggest night of that convention so far. Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, just concluded … a freewheeling, no-holds-barred, no-controls-on-the-media, ‘Whatever you want to ask me, ask me,’ press conference the day after the supposedly biggest event yet in the Democrat National Convention. He just totally hijacked it, and he was brilliant.”
Graphic via RushLimbaugh.com
Limbaugh underscored that what Trump did so “masterfully” in the presser, Hillary could never pull off.
“This was the Trump from last fall,” said the inimitable radio show host. “He was confident, he was hilarious, he was taking no BS from anyone in the media. He was challenging Hillary to do the same thing and calling her out, saying she hasn’t done a press conference in over a year. And she can’t do what Trump did today. Hillary Clinton intellectually, personality-wise, is not capable. She’s not capable of doing what Donald Trump did today.”
The move, Limbaugh explained, was unprecedented, both parties having always obeyed the implicit rule that they must stand back while the other party takes center stage.
“I have never seen a Republican presidential nominee even get involved in the Democrat convention,” he said. “My experience is that the playbook in the professional, insider world of politics is that when one party is having its convention, the other party goes silent. They don’t run any ads, they don’t do any press conferences, they don’t do any appearances — or very few. It’s a courtesy. It’s a courtesy and tradition, I guess, that’s been extended. … But what Trump did today, I have never seen in my lifetime: A Republican presidential nominee go out and do a 10-minute, 30-minute, much less one-hour press conference and just refuting everything he’s heard at the Democrat convention to date. He just blew it up.”
The most significant moment from the presser was Trump’s comments on Russia hacking Clinton’s emails, which Limbaugh praised for successfully setting off “explosions” in newsrooms across the country and forcing the media to bring up a topic they desperately wanted to ignore. In what Limbaugh called a “classic demonstration that he has a performer’s ego and understands how to deploy it,” Trump “teased” and “titillated” the media, saying, “I kept waiting. There was a chapter in that story I recall and I wanted to hear about it. I kept waiting for it and waiting for it; I never heard that chapter.”
The media, who knew exactly what he was getting at, finally asked him about Russia: “‘Mr. Trump! Mr. Trump! Do you have a relationship with the Russians? Do you have any relationship to the hack? Are you…? Are you…? Are you having any relationship with Russians?’ Trump said, ‘I don’t have any investments in Russia. I sold a guy a house. I sold a Russian oligarch a house in Palm Beach. I bought the place for $40 million and I flipped it for $100 million. It was a great deal, but I don’t have any investments.’ But then he said, ‘I really hope the Russians can find Hillary’s emails.'”
Limbaugh was paraphrasing the instantly infamous quote from Trump, who said, “It would be interesting to see, I will tell you this, Russia, if you’re listening I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” (He’s since said that he was just “being saracastic.”)
“And you should have seen the explosion in the aftermath on cable networks of the roundtable discussions, particularly on CNN,” said Limbaugh. “They could barely keep everybody on camera. They were jumping out of their seats like they were jacks-in-the-box. … They don’t know how to deal with this. … The Democrats and the media, they’ve never had to deal with anything like this.”
For more on Trump’s “explosion”-inducing press conference, check out Daily Wire editor-in-chief’s discussion of the media’s hypocritical response.
Transcript via RushLimbaugh.com.
