RUSH: Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day, Rush Limbaugh and the EIB Network.

Yes, that’s right. The Hillary campaign worked with the media in order to set up a phony Astroturf, anti-Trump protest ostensibly by military people outside Trump Tower. As soon as the Hillary campaign saw the Washington Post false report — remember, that’s what got all this started — Washington Post false report: Trump hasn’t raised anywhere near what he’s claiming. Trump’s exaggerating. Trump hasn’t raised 6 million. Trump hasn’t donated 6 million. Trump may have raised it, he may be holding onto it, it hasn’t arrived at the military charities, blah, blah. That’s the story.

The Hillary campaign saw it. Soon as they saw it, the Hillary campaign hired a bunch of rent-a-mobsters, Astroturfers, if you will, to pretend to be veterans and to protest in front of Trump Tower. The media knew this. The media knew it was all made up. And, in fact, of all places, the Daily Beast, which is not the Daily Caller. The Daily Beast is on the left side of the aisle. “Hillary Clinton’s Camp Set Up Veterans Against Trump Protest.”

It starts: “It was a perfect opportunity to hold the presumptive GOP nominee’s feet to the fire for his broken promise to raise $6 million for vets. But this was no spontaneous protest. It seemed like an outpouring of veteran anger against Donald Trump: over a dozen former service members protesting outside Trump Tower.

“But the reality was more complicated. The protest was actually a coordinated effort, led in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to embarrass her Republican rival for his failed efforts to raise money for veterans,” a claim made by the Washington Post. “It only looked like a grassroots demonstration.”

By the way, this is an exact description of Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street was totally made up in response to the Tea Party. Made up, press had knowledge of it, media had knowledge of it, it was totally made up, made to look like the same kind of spontaneous uprising the Tea Party actually is.

“A spokesman for the demonstrators insisted they had no affiliation with any campaign. Later he said the protesters had reached out to the Clinton campaign for press contacts, but that’s all. Then the activist finally admitted that, yes, the Clinton campaign had helped organize the protest. It all started over the weekend, after The Washington Post broke the news that Trump had not raised the $6 million for veterans groups he promised earlier this year.” It was $5.6 million.

“The Trump campaign’s admission followed months of silence to reporter questions on where the money had gone, since millions had been unaccounted for. The Clinton campaign swiftly organized a conference call for Saturday, led by the Clinton campaign’s veterans and military families outreach director, Jonathan Murray. According to one of the people on that call, participants were told that the Clinton campaign should not be seen viewed as behind the organizer of the protest.”

The protest was yesterday outside Trump Tower. “Marine veteran and Clinton supporter Alexander McCoy served as a spokesman for the demonstrators — and went to great lengths to hide the Clinton campaign’s involvement with organizing the demonstration.”

Nothing is real anymore. Nothing’s real. Nothing is what it seems to be. Everything’s managed, everything’s PR, everything’s buzz. Everything. Trump is not. Trump is, for better or worse, real. There’s nothing real about Mrs. Clinton. There is nothing real about her campaign. There’s nothing real about these things that are stage managed and produced for public consumption.

It goes back to this, folks. And it underscores one of the points that I’m making. You know, in every equation there are two sides. And you’ll have to excuse me. I’m going to use my own experiences here as a means of illustrating my point. You know, I occasionally get hit by the Drive-By Media as well. In fact, recently there have been a couple things out about how it’s all over for me. It’s just all over, just like it’s all over for Apple. It’s all over for Apple, it’s all over for me, it’s just all over.

And the reason is that, despite every effort the left has made to — oh, what’s the phrase? — take me out, to minimize me, every effort the left has made has been defeated. They have thrown I don’t know how many people up as talk show host competitors, starting with Mario Cuomo, then this guy in Texas, Jim Hightower, and then Gary Hart took a shot at it. And then Air America, an entire network, and none of them exist anymore.

And so then, you know, let’s throw in some Republicans. They threw Mike Huckabee in, he lasted just a little over a year. The point is, there have been countless efforts to destroy this program, take me out. But they haven’t succeeded. And, as such, I don’t have any real competition. And so the media can’t hype competition. They’ve tried. They’ve hyped everybody that’s been thrown up to wipe me out, and it’s all fizzled out. So the only hope they’ve got is to focus on me, to take me out, to write crap, lies, all kinds of properly unsourced biased research and so forth.

But it’s little different with Trump, although it’s somewhat similar. He does have competition. His competition is Hillary Clinton. And they are desperate for her to win, but she can’t compete. She can’t compete. She’s deadly dull walking. You heard of dead man walking; she’s deadly dull walking. She is a walking, talking embodiment of corruption and phoniness. And the more exposure she gets, the more her poll numbers plunge. The more exposure she gets, the more it’s clear she can’t put Crazy Bernie away. The more exposure Bernie and his insane policies and supporters get, which is a disaster for the Democrats. That’s why they put their debates on Saturday night so nobody would see them.

And the result of all of this, all meaningful spotlight is on Trump, by necessity. In terms of media coverage, there’s nothing to gain covering Hillary. She is his competitor. But it’s like he has no competition. Now, don’t misunderstand; he’s got competition because there’s all kinds of people that are gonna vote for anybody with a D next to their name when the election comes. I’m talking about press coverage. I’m talking about the way you and I know that the express purpose of the media is to get Democrats elected to the White House. This year, no exception, although they are conflicted. Because Trump has meant so much to their bottom line, to their name recognition, to their egos, to their ratings, you name it.

They want Trump to always be around. But at the end of the day they still want Hillary elected. But she can’t do it on her own. In terms of media coverage, Trump doesn’t have any competition. She is no competition for Trump. If Trump were a radio show and Hillary were a radio show, he would be me, and she would be Air America. Which is what I mean. So the press is doing exactly to her what they did to Air America: Build ’em up, cut down Trump, do everything they can to cut down Trump, build her up, because, in their minds, the competition is unfair. It’s always gonna be unfair when the Democrat is seen lacking.

So Mrs. Clinton is having all kinds of trouble on her own, is a disaster for the Democrats. Bernie Sanders is a disaster for the Democrats. They’re thanking their lucky stars that that debate between Trump and Bernie didn’t happen, because, had it happened, Bernie would have given away the game. Bernie would have not masked or camouflaged what Democrats really think. Don’t doubt me. Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz and the rest of that hierarchy in the Democrat Party are thanking their lucky stars that that Bernie-Trump debate never, ever happened.

Now, back to Trump for a second. His foibles, his eccentricities, his outrages, his shoot from the hip and let it stick where it sticks behavior, they are the stuff of 24/7 media coverage because he’s interesting, he’s compelling, he’s dramatic, he’s a ratings grabber. And, B, the Drive-Bys are invested in Democrats winning. The Democrats in the race are such subpar candidates that ratings go down when coverage of them goes up. In fact, part of Trump’s schtick now is to make fun of Hillary’s penchant for screeching on the stump.

So now every time she’s on the stage, the only thing people listen for is the screeching, because Trump, unlike any other Republican, has pointed it out. And so when she does a presser, that’s what she’s waiting to hear. Not what she says about issues. The Drive-Bys know this. And they’re frustrated in the media, since Trump doesn’t have any competition. Voting, yes. In the election he does, because whoever is the nominee has got a D by their name is gonna get a lot of votes. Please understand what I’m talking about. I’m talking about media.

I’m talking about the way media deals with Democrats and conservatives and liberals and Republicans and so forth. They view Trump as having no competition in the pop culture media, in the entertainment media, in the day-to-day coverage of the campaign, he’s got no competition. They have to be it. They can’t just let Hillary go out there and provide it, ’cause she doesn’t. You know, Trump’s now made her into “Crooked Hillary” and whatever else is going on, and the pictures that now get published of her in her Mao suit make her look like Kim Jong-un.

And then the screeching. Everybody’s out there waiting for the screeching begin. (screeching Hillary impression) That’s what everybody’s waiting to hear now. Because Trump has pointed it out to the low-information crowd that that’s what she does. And wait ’til Trump sees Clinton Cash! I hope there’s a plan, a schedule for Trump to sit down and watch Clinton Cash. (chuckling) That will create multiple new lines of attack — legitimate attack — on the corruption that is Clinton Cash. The money raised, don’t forget, is $21 million.

Figure this out: Here’s one of the most boring, dryball, dull, uninteresting people in the world getting $21 million in two years for making speeches? The world’s greatest entertainers don’t get that! They don’t get anywhere close to that! So what in the world is she getting it for? Why is she getting that much, and what in the name of Sam Hill does she say in these speeches? So all of that’s what the media has got to somehow find a way to discard, take out of the occasion.

Bottom line: No one really cares what Hillary Clinton is saying because what she says is never interesting. It’s only how badly she says it, and she’s plainly self-conscious about it, meaning Trump is living rent-free in her head. So, the job now is for everybody to explain to everybody else what she stands for, because she’s not gonna be honest about it. She can’t be! She can’t be. If she were to be honest about it, she’d have to just literally trounce Obama each and every day, on the economy and a number of other things that she can’t do being of the same party.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Michael in Eugene, Oregon, you’re first on the EIB Network. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Yeah, I was just wondering what would Trump say if Hillary or another candidate were to give $6 million to a group like, let’s say, Black Lives Matter? I would assume that he’d say, “Oh, well, they’re trying to buy their votes.” You know, I mean, isn’t that what Donald Trump is doing with the veterans?

RUSH: I don’t know. Am I trying to buy the leukemia vote every year? Am I trying to buy leukemia listeners by raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society?

CALLER: I’m just saying isn’t that what Donald Trump would accuse them of?

RUSH: I don’t have any idea. My guess is Trump would say if Hillary gave $6 million to Black Lives Matter, that she must be in trouble with the African-American votes probably what he would say.

CALLER: Right. So she needs to improve her status with the African (mumbles) by donating money to ’em, and therefore it’s like influencing their vote, I would think.

RUSH: Yeah, but Trump wasn’t in any trouble with veterans. He had no problem with veterans. He wasn’t —

CALLER: Well, actually he did. In 2013, he wrote a letter to the New York Daily News reporter that Trump has a long-decades war on New York’s disabled veterans on streets peddlers — you know, on their food booths. He wrote a letter to… (snickers) Oh, who did he write a letter to here? Then Mayor Bloomberg about the ambience of Fifth Avenue, and he was saying that the veterans that had food booths down there — which are legal and… you know… And it was under a rule that they were… um… um… eligible for discounted, you know, discounted, uhhh, rates because of the service to their country, he complained that they were destroying the ambience of the high… uh… you know…

RUSH: Well, I don’t know anything about that. Maybe if you want them moved, it’s no different than Mayor David Dinkins sweeping all of the homeless off the street during the Democrat convention in 1992. He swept ’em down to the Battery area, and told ’em to walk back after the convention was over, because the homeless were dirtying the image of the Democrat Party going into their convention.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, our last caller’s example, if Hillary Clinton had given Black Lives Matter $6 million? I don’t think there’s any risk of that. I think Hillary Clinton doesn’t give money to anybody. In that world, Hillary Clinton is a total taker. Hillary Clinton’s not a donor. So that would never happen, Hillary Clinton giving anybody money. Bank on it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, no, no, no. The people that protested against Trump outside Trump Tower, they were military people. They were just bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign. They were vets. They were not made-up vets. They were not actors in that sense. It’s just had they not been bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign, they wouldn’t have been there, is the only point.

The Clinton campaign saw the Washington Post story, said, a-ha, and they astroturfed Trump Tower. David Axelrod technique. They paid a bunch of people to show up and act like they were mad at Donald Trump, but it would not have happened had the Clinton campaign not paid for it.

I guess Hillary is getting nervous. She’s pulled up stakes wherever she is and is on her way to California ’cause it’s so tight out there in the California Democrat primary. Governor Moonbeam Brown has endorsed Hillary, as though that’ll make any difference. The idea that she can’t put Crazy Bernie away — thing is, she can’t put Bernie out of her misery is what’s really happening here. So we’ll have to keep a sharp eye.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Robert in Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina. Great to have you with us, sir.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s my honor, sir, to speak with you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: My point is, I believe that Donald Trump is dominating the news media because people see him as, and I believe he is a natural leader, and I think people are gravitating at this point towards those who are natural leaders. I believe that Hillary Clinton is the antithesis of a natural leader, and I think they see strength and a way ahead with Donald Trump. I spent 32 years in the Navy, Rush, and I can spot a natural leader a mile away. I can also spot somebody who is not comfortable being placed in a leadership position.

RUSH: Amen. You are so right about that.

CALLER: Yes, sir.

RUSH: I’ve seen it drive people crazy. I have seen it literally give people inferiority complexes that they are natural leaders and they don’t want any part of it, and people gravitate to them and they don’t want that. And it confuses them. And so, yeah, you’re right about that aspect of them. I think you’re right, too, that Hillary doesn’t have a shred of it. She’s not capable. She’s a commander. She demands acquaintance —

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: — but she does not inspire anybody to want to take a step in her direction.

CALLER: That’s why the media doesn’t want to cover her news events or whatever they might be, because there’s nothing there for people to hang onto. People don’t gain confidence in listening to her. Donald Trump, whatever you think of him, at least he’s out there and confident in the leadership position that he and the voters at this point have put him in. I want somebody in the White House who’s going to be confident in being there, not somebody in the White House who’s going to be nervous about being there, and I think that’s a very distinct difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

RUSH: I think that’s a good point. Trump is obviously not somebody who feels the need to, with humility, subordinate himself to others. He’s not somebody who thinks that he has to downplay himself in order to be polite or whatever. He likes who he is, he’s proud of being who he is, and he likes being himself. And that makes somebody a… I think in this day and age, that alone could do it, in terms of defining a leader.