- The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday the key to the Republican National Convention will be giving President Trump a live audience to energize.

The talk-radio titan told listeners that going with the “playing it safe” blueprint on display at the Democratic National Convention for Joseph R. Biden will pay dividends on Election Day.

“They’ve scripted everything, and they put everything on a prompter and everybody is essentially just reading what they’re saying, including the people going around the country during the roll call last night,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “So what I think the Republicans have gotta do is make sure that some of it is live and make sure that there is a live audience of some kind to react to what is happening.”

Mr. Limbaugh said that a preponderance of prerecorded messages by Democrats have left viewers feeling as their convention is “missing something.”

“It’s missing various elements of excitement,” he continued. “It’s missing elements of drama. If you’re told that every speaker has recorded what they’re going to say a week ago or five days ago, then how much drama is there really going to be? If they’re recording it and writing it, they’re playing it safe for the most part.”

The conservative icon said that a smart strategy would be to find a way to deal with the pandemic’s restrictions on huge audiences while also playing to the president’s strengths.

“Trump feeds off a live audience,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “So whatever Trump’s involvement is, you know that there’s going to be some audience element somewhere, and I think they probably are watching what’s going on here and figuring out. … They’re seeing the mistakes that are being made.”

Republicans kick off their convention in North Carolina and various remote locations on Aug. 24.

• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.

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