rush limbaugh lives in fear of his trump-supporting audience. so rush cannot allow himself to be caught saying anything negative about donald trump. and so when rush discussed the softening the villain this this story was not a politician reversing his decision. the villain was rush's old reliable villain, what he calls the drive-by news media. >> okay, so trump is apparently softening his position on immigration. that's what the drive-bys are saying. trump is now saying, well, i don't know about deportation. well, we're going to talk about it. well, some of these are really good people. well -- and the drive-bys are just ecstatic because they think trump is totally reversing himself. and they think trump is totally reversing himself on his number one issue, the only reason he has support, they think he's committing suicide. >> and then rush reached for another perennial villain to his audience. hillary clinton. to explain to his audience why the softening doesn't matter. >> trump supporters don't care what he does or what he says because there i

that caller if rush were that impactful in this crazy year when rush limbaugh said that ted cruz was ace then ted cruz would have won the nomination. look the trump people rush is absolutely right. the trump people are lock step with trump, and the people who aren't with trump, i think they're going to be with trump. but right now, like this caller they're having a very hard time. >> the other thing is you tell me brent. i mean there's no question rush is incredibly powerful and incredibly successful. but he -- he's not omnipotent and he's not all -- you know he can't do it all. i know rush rather well. back in 2008, he was behind john mccain. back in 2012, he was behind mitt romney. it didn't carry them over the finish line. you know i mean i think some in the republican party want to demonize let's say rush or hannity or whoever it is for getting behind trump or not condemning trump just the same as you know, it's happening the other way as well. people want to condemn the never trumpers for not getting behind a party nominee who is obviously extremely controversial. >> and if rush

richard, do you agree with rush limbaugh? or is this unfair?i don't agree with rush limbaugh on much of anything. here's what i agree with. there's a time and a place for everything, okay? when colin kaepernick signed with the team, there were certain rules and presumably he took his paycheck and went by him or he didn't. where i disagree is donald trump's reaction which is always looking through trying to pit blacks against whites and see through things on a crass racial prism, it would never, ever dawn on donald trump to actually address what colin kaepernick said which is why the weekly standard talked about outreach to the black community as being cartoonish. i understand rush's point. deirdre: hold the thought. we have donald trump's reaction, here's his comment. >> i think it's a terrible thing, and, you know, maybe you should find a country that works better for him. let him try. it won't happen. deirdre: so fred, by donald trump's standards, that was a muted thoughtful response, many people say, even his critics say, you know what? if h

you cannot listen to rush limbaugh if you want to win. here it is. i want to give this to you. mbaugh started off his show laughing supposedly uncontrollably at trump's shifting position on deportation. let's take a listen. >> first they tried marco rubio. then he tried the gang of eight. they tried jeb bush. they tried any number of people to convince -- they tried me. they sent emissaries to the southern command. they tried everybody they can think of to try to convince the republican base to support some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants. i'm sorry. who knew -- i know it frustrates you to hear me. i'm sorry. regain my composure. who knew that it would be donald trump to come on and convert the gop base to supporting amnesty. >> well, there's an attractive performance. paul singer, who is the "they" he's talking about? they went to jeb bush, they went to this candidate, they got to -- who are the "they" he's talking about? this conspiratorial posse of people, who are they? >> we can't focus all our time talking about donald trump's changing of policy issues because rememb

rush limbaugh yesterday came on and said he should back off on the attacks to the press, and rush limbaugh pretty much made his career attacking the press. charlie: the reason he should do that is because it's counterproductive? guest: it makes leaders look weak. charlie: that's an interesting rush limbaugh insight. guest: if you're attacking the press, you're losing. the other thing that interests me about him, how much is he intoxicated by the enthusiasm of his -- guest: very much so. if the room is really rambunctious, if they are responding to his words, that's when he goes off message. roar.ts to hear their at his core, he's an entertainer. he has coveted headlines and coveted attention. we saw this when he was coming up in the real estate market in and when he1980's, got his own tv show on "the apprentice." he enjoys being the center of attention. been a bit like a reality show. he has gone in, and if the crowd is not responding to a message, usually a more policy oriented message, he pivots quickly to find something they respond to. that's when we first heard him saying, bomb the he

two rush limbaugh. he can read polls even if donald trump can't. he's preparing, the polls indicate will happen on election day unless voters have a big change of heart in mind about donald trump and hillary clinton. >> now you're seeing what happens when you go after the media, it doesn't work. no matter how unbalanced, no matter how unfair, no matter a bunch of cheaters they are, no matter what a bunch of creeps they are, it never works going after them if you are the candidate. it makes you look small, besides despite what many people think the media isn't on the ballot. >> rush limbaugh needs to hold on to his audience, the audience who he did not lead to support trump but who he followed in their support of their trump. he violated all of his so-called principles of conservetism in supporting donald trump. that's what they wanted and he never defies his audience. but rush is going to need you, an i told you so, the day after the election in order to be the all-knowing genius in the eyes of his fans. so rush has to be able to say, i told you do

rush limbaugh celebrating 28 years on radio. that's huge. here is what he said about it. >> i actually feel blessed to have been able to do my lifelong dream. i wanted to be on the radio from age 8. and not only i have been blessed to be able to do it, but i truly have been blessed by having people like you as the audience because it's people like you that have made it all happen. >> and rush's streak as the king of radio won't be ending any time soon. rush announcing he has renewed radio contract and staying on to host his number one program for four more years. congratulations to rush limbaugh. another incredible record. one that will actually never be broken, i don't think. and that's my off-the-record comment tonight. and live twitter voting results on your screen right now. do you think the election is rigged against either candidate? 82% say yes. 81% say yes. 19% say. no don't forget to vote on twitter every night. that's all for now. see you tomorrow night right here at 7:00 p.m. eastern. up next "the o'reilly factor." good night from

and i'm going to channel my inner rush limbaugh. i heard rush i believe it was yesterday morning.ush said it is amazing to him that first they started with the gang of eight. and then they tried jeb bush. and the person to bring amnesty to the base of the republican party -- >> rush limbaugh laughed when he brought that point up. >> i quoted rush limbaugh. >> you heard sarah palin tee that up. she warns of an erosion of support. it's too early to see it in the numbers. is that a risk here? if not to have them vote, say, for hillary clinton, maybe not to show up at the polls? >> it is certainly a risk when you have people like sarah palin, when you have people, ann coulter initially was on twitter saying, well, maybe it's not that bad. she said she's not leaving him. you is had people who are immigration hard-liners such as congressman steve king of iowa who recently endorsed trump. he had been a cruz person, say he think this could be problematic. and another hard-liner essentially said bluntly he thinks trump blew the election. i think that's an overstatement. i think a lot of tr

in fact i think it was rush limbaugh that referred to me as a "pointy headed intellectual that didn't know the first thing about the marketplace." >> hinojosa: and what do you say to that? i mean, were you taken aback a little bit by the criticism when you were just saying, "look, i'm a social scientist, i conducted experiments..." you know, the jam problem. people may have heard about the jam problem, which is your experiment of putting jams in a supermarket, and whether or not people would choose a preferred jam, and if they had too many choices, they ended up perhaps not ending up buying one of the jams. but if you gave them three choices, then they would usually say, "out of these three, i can see which one i like, and i think i'm going to go buy it." >> yeah. i mean, to be honest with you, when i first ran the experiment, i didn't have an agenda. i didn't have a particular ideology that i was trying to promote. i just ran the study, and i was just as surprised as anybody else was. and then when rush limbaugh went out there and critiqued me, and a lot of people kind of got scared

. >> hunter, is rush limbaugh correct?i have spent the last couple of days talking to trump campaign officials about their war on the media, and they really think it is going to work for them. and they point to really historically low approval ratings that the media has among the american public. they're sort of engaged in this weird dialogue with the media where they're sending out these media bias offender e-mails regularly and they're just going to their press list. >> liz, hunter is certainly correct. the approval ratings for a lot of the press is really low. it's something that makes me feel bad about myself. >> are you willing to take responsibility for it tonight, ari? >> i think that's part of the healing process is owning the problem, but also understanding my own self-loathing is my fault. look, you can score a point or two, but you don't win a national election over saying that somebody over there was unfair to you. >> yeah, and i feel sick to my stomach, but i agree with rush limbaugh. every second you're fight

i do agree with rush limbaugh.itical correctness within the nfl and i do follow football. i can't wait until football sunday starts. martha: you and me both. >> political correctness, when you think about how they're like, kid gloves, treating colin kaepernick, but think about when the players in dallas wanted to honor the slain police officers with a decal on their helmets and they were he denied that right to do so. there was a huge dynamic here and i think the nfl really needs to impose a code of policy, code of conduct, for the players to stand for the national anthem. martha: i think rush spoke out about the point that you made as well. let's listen to that. here we go. >> the dallas cowboys were denied by the national football league their request to put a sticker on their helmet this is season to honor the five police officers killed in dallas. so the cowboys can't do that. too provocative but kaepernick can do whatever he is doing to plaudits, to acclaim, to cheers. martha: pretty unbelievable that you can'

mark: across the fruited plain, that is what we call a rush limbaugh classic. u need to take the tone with a fine grain of salt worried our suspicion and experience a just that mr. limbaugh is saying this because he recognizes there is more than a peppercorn of truth in all this. for example, these are the news reports you are seeing on tv. >> trump today doubling and tripling his claims that president obama and hillary clinton are the founder of isis. . mark: that may not be the right question to ask. tromp responded with this widely read tweet. like fall president obama and clinton the founder of isis. they don't get sarcasm? trump, the first presidential candidate's campaign is largely based on sarcasm. trumpight help explain 2016, could i be any lower in the polls? the polls are so bad that donald inmp himself even conceded at least one state that he is concerned big league. >> i have a tremendous problem in utah. is anyone here from utah? i did not think so. we are having a problem. mark: a quick piece of advice, maybe don't refer to these united states as

rush limbaugh, for one, found the whole thing hilarious. >> who knew that it would be donald trump to come along and convert the gop base to supporting amnesty on the same week ann coulter's book comes out? poor ann! >> back with benjy sarlin, who's been covering immigration for a very long time. so, i mean, i guess to take a macro view, we should be clear, there is no policy on the hardest part of immigration policy, the hardest part is what to do with 11 million people, the most contentious, right. and there's no policy there. people talk about a flip flop, this or not, it's just unclear that he's thought about it. >> it's like he's just working out the entire debate that the party went through in a wrenching process over years in like a few days and realizing all the limitations of each option. well, i just realized it's difficult to deport all these people and some people are upset about it. what if we tried to let some people stay? and then you hear rumblings. what if we did it without citizenship? then you hear a murmur. >> all of these are things that have been floated by the o

. >> let me ask dana to respond to rush limbaugh.ush limbaugh. >> black lives matter plans to shut down graceland, elvis presley's home. this is graceland week. i think black lives matter is almost approaching unionized gang status now. they're going to go into an event that's peaceful and try to cause trouble. >> black lives matter is not in milwaukee. rush seems to think it's like a contagion. >> right. i don't think that's unreasonable necessarily, especially because of social media. i dug a little deeper today. i get frustrated thinking -- like yesterday we we were saying how do we talk about this? a couple of things i found that were interesting. omar jawar, hope i got that name right, he started urban specialist. he did a bunch of interviews after the dallas shootings, police shootings that happen ed i guess, last month. one thing that he was talking about was local solutions and this problem is not going to be solved on talk radio, cable news but that really diving deep into these communities is what could solve it. they also

. >> rush limbaugh had this to say about it. >> i don't think the vast majority of trump supporters care about deporting 11 million people. i think they care about stopping any further illegal immigration, so they believe the wall. they think the wall -- even if the wall is symbolic, they believe that trump is serious about bringing the status quo to a screeching halt. >> stewart stevens, there's rush limbaugh to talking to trump supporters every day saying they don't care about any of the specifics, really, not even the wall. they just care that he sound tougher on this than hillary clinton. >> look the whole thing is just a confusing mess. remember donald trump put out a written statement at a time when he was not putting out many written statements calling for a total and complete on muslims hchl he said that was until the government could figure out what was going on. if he's against that, now and he's rejecting the idea of a muslim ban, which is a religious test, does that mean the government has figured out what was going on. it's all very confusing. the idea of deporting these peo

. >> rush limbaugh is saying he never took trump seriously in the first place. >> doing a disservicel of us republican primary voters who didn't vote for trump that are struggling who are not to vote for trump. when you diminish the impact of the single policy that he ridiculed all oh candidates for over a year. >> in the first place, i don't think trump has changed that much from what em. i never took him serious highway this. >> but 30 million -- or 15 or 10 million did. >> and they still don't care. my point, they still don't care. they're going to stick with him no matter what. >> this is why trump will get annihilated. >> he said we will hear more details on trump's man's on addressing illegal immigration in the speech tonight chug what trump manls fwoplans to do. >> you are going to hear many things from mr. trump today in his speech on immigration. one, no amnesty. he is going to build that wall that has been the center piece from day one. >> does he still man to round up and deport every illegal immigrant? >> you are going to hear how he will takes 11 million including some o

and, well, now it's rush limbaugh who is all fired up. his target in the media he says some in the media are not expect all our gold star families. hear from nearly two months away trump is saying our events are rigged. is he right? we will hear from rnc chair reince priebus straight ahead. with the xfinity tv app, now you can watch nbc's coverage of the rio olympic games live at home or on the go. >>> democrats don't care about certain parents of certain victims such as those who died in benghazi. mr. and mrs. khan are not the targets here. contrast this with what happened at the republican convention. are you aware of some of the comments made after pat smith, the republican version of the khans spoke? she was fact checked. the "the washington post" fact checked her. others in the media fact checked her. cindy sheehan been fact-checked? have the khans been fact-checked and then beyond chris matthews called her comments against hillary a gross accusation and said "i don't care what that woman felt." i don't care what pat smith felt after

and, well, now it's rush limbaugh who is all fired up. his target in the media he says some in the media are not expect all our gold star families. hear from nearly two months away trump is saying our events are rigged. is he right? we will hear from rnc chair reince priebus straight ahead. before taking his team to state for the first time... gilman: go get it, marcus. go get it. ...coach gilman used his cash rewards credit card from bank of america to earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. at places like the batting cages. ♪ [ crowd cheers ] 2% back at grocery stores and now at wholesale clubs. and 3% back on gas. which helped him give his players something extra. the cash rewards credit card from bank of america. more cash back for the things you buy most. the cash rewards credit card from bank of america. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla (apremilast). otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with o

if there was no rush limbaugh, we wouldn't even know the name sean hannity.adio experts will tell you he's not good at his job, but he has the good fortunate -- >> i have no independent opinion on this. i have never heard the show, but continue. >>> there are at least a couple ways to view the growing list of prominent republicans who say they will not vote for donald trump and may endorse hillary clinton. one is to stand in awe of how many republicans donald trump is repelling. 50 gop officials warn donald trump will put the nation's security at risk, in a letter writing "none of los vote for donald trump." but mr. trump noted the signatories as the argue detect in the invasion of iraq. john negroponte has endorsed hillary clinton, or as charlie pierce put it "why is hillary clinton bragging about this endorsement"? still with us, our panel. joan, on one level, we're trying to win, you want as many people as possible. >> right. >> at another level, there is this move among the most hawkish neo conservative elements of the conservative foreign policy communit

i think his name is rush limbaugh. >> who knew! who knew that it would be donald trump to come off and convert the gop base to supporting amnesty. >> he said -- rush said as part of that, give me a minute to regain my composure. this one -- to your point, a lot of nominees do this. but on this one issue, the base thought this is the one issue on which we know trump. let him say what he wants about this and say what he wants about that. on this one -- but i mean, he was like hysterical there. >> it is hilarious. ever since the day after the 2012 election when mitt romney lost, republicans have been talking about the need to get right on immigration. and they've been talking about the need to figure out a plan for the 11 million people. this isn't just a side issue in the immigration debate. this is actually very central to working on this problem. and the idea that you had candidates in this race like jeb bush, like marco rubio at a certain point, who actually had looked for policy positions that could get republicans right, and als

rush limbaugh is going, who would have thought he would have brought on amnesty.ou have the author of "in trump we trust," who said immigration would be the policy he stood most by. here he is evolving. >> mercedes and katie, quick thoughts, very fast, on the economy. the economic fallout of the new, softer stance. >> well, it doesn't jive with his argument that we need more americans to have jobs. the fact is that illegal immigrants take away jobs from hispanics in mostly minority communities. if he says the illegal immigrants stay here, how is he going to square that with saying we need more americans to do jobs in america rather than the people who are here illegally? >> you have to boost the economy. if you have a 1.1% gdp growth like we're seeing time and time again, especially in the last quarter, you realize that there needs to be substance stial ecoc growth. provide more jobs for americans in our country. >> i think that he hasn't really been talking about the economy. i think if he were to focus on that and wrap it in the issue of immigration, perhaps tha

rush limbaugh had a great suggestion about this to test the willingness of my friend basil and others, let them come but then give them a path to citizenship but they can't vote for 25 years or so. that would be an interesting proposition to see what the reaction is. >> you say people come into the country but not have the right to vote? >> yeah. for 25 years. so if they come illegally, right, that they don't get the right to vote in america for 25 years. >> you're saying they come in illegally. basil, what's your response? >> i have no response to that. that doesn't sound like a legitimate or reasonable -- >> a-ha. >> policy strategy. and that to me, i think that's the cornerstone of this discussion which is that what is going to be a legitimate policy to engage the families that are here currently. and to me, i don't think donald trump has engaged these families or activists in this field in a way that is meaningful, because whatever he says today, my guess is come election day we'll see another flip-flop, maybe two or three times over. and better yet, in the unlikely event, in my o

it's rush limbaugh, it's governor sarah palin, it's other people who want donald trump to w win, who are saying, wow, it sounds like he's really backing away from this deportation force, removing 11 million. and right now, governor, you're not saying, you're not pledging that there will be a removal of all undocumented immigrants. you're not saying that. >> no, what i'm saying, jake, and what i said to you a minute ago, and i want to be very clear, there'll be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship -- >> right. >> people who want to gain legal status, will have to leave the country. >> but what about the millions in this country right now? what happens to them? >> i think donald trump will articulate what we do with the people who are here -- >> we, he already has articulated -- >> -- >> but i promise you, donald trump are more concerned about american citizens, who are here legally, who are struggling in this economy. you have a dad in ohio who's working two jobs and mom has a side job and they're trying to make ends meet and they haven't seen their real personal income com

rush limbaugh referred as you well remember to sandra fluke as a slut.s it any surprise then you hear in the course of this campaign donald trump talk about megyn kelly having blood coming out of her "wherever." or another experience that i remember was glenn beck making reference to barack obama as a quote, unquote, racist with a deep-seated hatred of white people. is it any doubt then that you're going to hear candidate trump say out on the huftings -- the risk and the peril that the obama presidency has presented to america? i see it all as connected. they have cultivated a reseptember i haveness to this type of tonality and speech. you can reply because i know you disagree. >> of course. those are disconnected. i don't understand how it is you go and pull comments from different individuals over a period of many years and say, well, this comment was bad or i didn't like this, this comment was bad, this comment was bad, therefore, that's what the gop has become. i mean, there are plenty of times when you could look at what's said on the left by all so

rush limbaugh stifled his laughter. >> first they tried marco rubio. they tried the gang of 8. they tried jeb bush. they tried any number of people. to convince -- they tried me. they tried everybody they could think of to try to convince the republican base to support some form of amnesty. who knew that it would be donald trump. to come forward and convert the gop base. to supporting amnesty. >> ann coulter, one of trump's most outspoken supporters is out with a new book called "in trul. we trust." she writes the following. there is nothing trump can do to be forgiven except change immigration policies, unquote. faced with that scenario, coulter has softened her own language. here is what she told the washington examiner in an interview published earlier today. >> mostly worries me rhetorically, the policy is, anyone who is here illegally is here illegally. does not have a right to be here. we will decide whether it is in our interest to let them stay or not. perhaps it is in our interest to let some of them stay. >> joining me now, congressman and supporter chris collins. con

don't think, rush limbaugh's reaction. i think you have probably seen this. let's play it for the audience. >> first they tried marco rubio. they tried the gang of eight. they tried jeb bush. they tried any number of people. to convince -- they tried me. they sent emissaries to the southern command. they tried everybody they could think of to try to convince the republican base to support some form of amnesty. for illegal immigrants. who knew that it would be donald trump to come out and convert the gop base? to supporting amnesty. on the same week ann coulter's book comes out. poor ann. >> so wanted to give you a chance to react to that. his point is that this is, quote, amnesty. the same policy that jeb bush and marco rubio and others had supported and had been in the bill that was voted down. >> yeah. this is a take off from my joke on "hardball" the night before saying the shortest book tour ever. if trump were coming out for amnesty, we call in the business a joke. that's a repetition of the joke. the next day. but no

rush limbaugh said yesterday he should back off from the attacks on the press and rush limbaugh made his career of attacking the press. >> rose: is it counterproductive. >> makes leaders look weak is what rush said. >> rose: that's an interesting insight. you should be able to take criticism from the press if you run. the interesting thing is how much is he intoxicated by the enthusiasm of his core. >> he feeds off the room. if the room is rambunctious, raucous, if they are responding to his words, that's when he goes off message. at his core he is an entertainer, someone with coveted headlines and attention. we saw this when he was coming up in the real estate market in the '80s and '90s and when he got his show "the apprentice." he enjoys attention. will that mean he won't be a good leader? there are arguments to that. but his campaign has been like a reality show. if the crowd is not responding to a message, usually a more policy-oriented message, then he pivots quickly to find something they respond to. that's when we first heard him saying bomb the hell out offi.s.i.s. that got

i think at the core if you listen to rush limbaugh shows or talk to different people on the right they still think trump is trump and he'll build the wall. but there is more reservation on that side. >> jeanne, clinton had her own troubles again this week. there was another story about the clinton foundation and her time at the state department and new questions raised over the appropriateness of that relationship. where are we on that? and how much is this affecting clinton with the way voters see her? >> right. this week started out to be one of hillary clinton's worst weeks. and they brilliantly changed everything at the end with the speech that they gave on race. and he gifted her with the mistakes he made on immigration. but at the beginning of the week, what we also saw was the release of her private calendar, her meetings that she had at the state department. and cross referencing them some of those meetings were with substantial donors to the clinton foundation. so ethical questions were being raised. if you made a big -- cut a big check to the foundation, did that buy you into

if there was no rush limbaugh, we wouldn't even know the name sean hannity.xperts will tell you he's not good at his job, but he has the good fortunate -- >> i have no independent opinion on this. i have never heard the show, but continue. >> i only tell you from what i heard from having been in that business before. so, i think sean hannity is basically aligning with a certain, you know, what he sees is going to be a strain going forward in the future. >> what i find fascinating is he's already engaged -- here's a guy who's already engaged whose -- >> they're setting it up! >> -- fault it's going to be! >> that's usually october behavior, you know? >> yes. this is august and the fights are all about -- >> they're already doing the back-stab -- >> who's going to be the one who stabbed who in the back and whose fault will -- it's really -- >> here's the thing. when you hear people talk about, trump may drop out. trump's not going to drop out, because trump wants to have the cameras there the day after he loses -- >> oh, my god, does he ever. to settle every sc

. >> reporter: even rush limbaugh found that quite strange. >> i'm used to candidates who know what their policy is and telling the audience what it is and trying to persuade the audience to understand it, agree with it, and help the candidate promote it. supporting amnesty. trump's national spokeswoman struggled to explain the change -- >> he hasn't changed his position on immigration, he has changed the words that he is saying. >> reporter: but trump is facing reality. he needs to reach out to hispanic voters, as hillary clinton has done, famously taking this moment and quickly putting it into an ad. >> and jon karl, donald trump says he's going to come out with a decision, quote, very soon on his immigration policy? david, but even today, trump had contra districtry things to say about what his position is, and it is now unclear, david, whether or not or when he is going to come out with that immigration plan. >> all right, jon karl live in washington. jon, as always, thanks. >>> overseas tonight, a race against time to find survivors of that deadly earthquake in italy. the first 48 ho