Limbaugh on Shutdown: "Trump Can Win This If He Hangs On," Public Opinion Will Shift To His Side

Rush Limbaugh opened the Wednesday broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program by encouraging President Trump to "hang in there" and not go "wobbly" on the shutdown. Limbaugh predicted that there will be a shift in public opinion "and the vast majority of the American people are gonna end up with him on this." "I'm just gonna tell you, folks, if President Trump can hang in there, if he can hang in there and not go wobbly, he can win this," Limbaugh started his Wednesday show. "It’s gonna be a few more weeks. There are gonna be a lot of risks. There are gonna be a lot of temptations to drop the ball and cave. I don’t mean cave, there’s gonna be a lot of temptation to make a deal. But he can win this if he just hangs in there." Transcript, <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/01/16/we-elected-a-disrupter-just-hang-in-there-mr-president/">via Rush Limbaugh</a>: <blockquote>RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST: I mentioned earlier, ladies and gentlemen, CNN’s trying to scare the hell out of people that airplanes are gonna start falling out of the sky. Here’s how it happened. We’re up to audio sound bite No. 7. CNN’s Newsroom is the name of the show. The host here is Jim Sciutto. Not to be confused with Jim Acosta. But, I mean, they probably share the same brain. They’ve got the National Air Traffic Controllers Association Executive Vice President Trish Gilbert on there. <i>Question: “Is there any reason why people flying should be concerned that there’s not enough man and womanpower to keep a plane safe as they are flying?” GILBERT: Each day that this shutdown continues, the situation gets worse and worse. Uhh, there are several complicated, complex layers in our system to assure that it maintains the critical safety components that we all rely on when we fly. What we don’t want to see is a catastrophic event occur and for us to come to you and say, “We told you that controllers are working longer hours.” Now they don’t have their support staff! They’re going to work unpaid, so they’re not sleeping at night. They’re looking for other jobs. Maybe they’re driving Uber before or after their shift. This is unacceptable.</i> RUSH: They’re what? “[T]hey’re driving Uber before and after their shift. This is unacceptable.” So, you see, it’s not safe to fly the friendly skies of “Ignited.” It’s not safe out there. Air traffic controllers are having to drive Ubers and so forth in their spare time. I happen to think this is the height of irresponsibility, and I’m just gonna tell you point-blank: Donald Trump can win this if he hangs on. It’s gonna be few more weeks. It’s gonna be risky. But I actually, folks, really believe that if he hangs on and continues down this road, at some point there’s gonna be a shift in public opinion and the vast majority of the American people are gonna end up with him on this — if he hangs in there. He’s got a good start. There’s all kinds of really good, long overdue things happening that we’ve wanted to happen. Like 95% of the EPA furloughed? A lot of nonessential government workers on furlough? This is exactly what we’ve wanted: The deemphasis of government, the shrinking of government, the illustration of the (pfft!) redundancy in the number of people and policies and so forth. The idea that people can function, that their lives can go on even in the midst of a partial government shutdown. If he can just hang on a few more weeks. There’s one more on this. Poppy Harlow, the infobabe at CNN, following up on the dire warning that we’re just days away from airplanes falling out of the sky… <i>HARLOW: (solemnly) Would you say, Trish, that flying is less safe today than it was a month ago GILBERT: I would say it is less safe today than it was a month ago, absolutely. We do not have the professionals on the job. We are working with bare-bones crews! This is a horrible game of chicken that we’re in the middle of — HARLOW: (grunts) GILBERT: — and we need to get out of it today. HARLOW: You said it all. You said flying is less safe now than it was a month ago! That is something every American and every member of Congress and in the White House should be thinking a lot about!</i> RUSH: I don’t think a plane crash would upset these people, do you? I know it’s a heck of a thing to say, but I don’t know. This is… Trump was elected to interrupt. We have major disruption of all kinds of things that have not been good for the people of this country. It’s a really great start. It’s gonna be hard because this is the kind of stuff that’s gonna be in the media over and over and over and over again: People dying, people having to choose between insulin and their mortgage, people running out of food, people running out of gas. The horror stories are gonna intensify, they’re never gonna end, and largely most of them are gonna be exaggerated or made up. Pelosi here trying to cancel a State of the Union? That is one of the greatest opportunities that she has presented. She’s gonna close the House chamber, tell Trump, “It’s just not… We don’t have enough security to do this. Let’s come up with a different date when the shut down’s over.” Trump should just find an alternative place if she’s not gonna host it, if the House is not gonna invite him and welcome him in. He can go do it anywhere he wants, and he can call it whatever he wants. But he can give the State of the Union, and he can do it with a friendly crowd rather than a bunch of freshman Democrats protesting and mooning him probably and hanging up a bunch of protest signs in the House chamber, shouting at him. Who needs any of that?</blockquote> <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/01/16/we-elected-a-disrupter-just-hang-in-there-mr-president/">Continue reading here</a>.