Rush Transcripts...Nov. 15th

[mystery-ak]

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/


The Media Jumps the Shark! Rush Tells You What’s Really Going On

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: Yes, yes, yes. Here we are, my friends. Rush Limbaugh and EIB Network. It’s Open Line Friday. That means you get to talk about whatever you want to talk about, and I wonder what that is. We’ve got play by play of the news straight ahead, as we continue here to have more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.

I’m actually having fun today watching all of this, folks. The media doesn’t know what to do. Should they stay focused on Yovanovitch? Should they stay focused on Trump trying to intimidate her. How could she be intimidated when she didn’t even know about it? She wouldn’t have even known about the tweet until Schiff told — you know what Schiff should have done?

Just to show you how off his game Schiff is, the minute that Trump tweet hit, Schiff should have stopped everything. He should have called armed guards. He should have called in the Capitol Police to surround Marie Yovanovitch and escort her out of the hearing because her very life was now in danger. Oh, can you imagine if he had done that? But it didn’t occur to Schiff to do that because there isn’t really witness intimidation going on here.

I’m jumping the gun. Some of you may not know what this is about. Hang on, I’ll go back in time here a few seconds and fill you in. I’m watching this unfold. The media is in turbocharge spin cycle trying to prop up a disgruntled and unhappy debutante – uh, uh, bureaucrat. They have gone orgasmic over Marie Yovanovitch on CNN. They are saying that this is worse than Nixon. They are saying that it is worse than Clinton because those were domestic issues, and this is national security.

They have jumped the shark today, folks. Their ratings were a bomb on Wednesday. The ratings were less than they were for Comey’s testimony before Congress. They were lower than Mueller’s testimony when he showed up for his hearing. The media is filled with polling data from Gallup. They are so distressed. There’s nothing that’s happened that’s going to move Trump supporters away from him. That’s what this has always been about from day one, I’m talking three years ago, has been an effort to drive a wedge between Trump and his supporters.

And they are now wringing their hands together and lamenting “that nothing has happened so far that’s gonna make that happen. Oh, it’s just so disappointing.” And then the TV ratings, folks, let me tell you something. I have seen a breakdown of the ratings by network. That 13 million is total with ABC, CBS, NBC, and then the cable networks thrown in. ABC and NBC, a little over 1 million viewers. They broomed soap operas for this.

The American people have shown no interest in this at all, especially using comparative events and the ratings for prior events that were supposedly not anywhere near serious as this. “Why, this is impeachment. This is a potential removing of a president from his office.” And it just isn’t playing out the way they want.

And the impact this is having on the Democrat presidential candidates — you know what? I need to tell you something else. If you have been watching — and I’m going to include even Fox in this — if you’ve been watching Fox and their roundtable discussions today or anything else, I just want to tell you that what you’re going to hear on this program is nothing like what you’ve been hearing there. It is stunning the difference in my take of what has happened today versus everybody, it seems, everybody in media.

And my point in telling you this is not to be critical of them. I’m just trying to tell you that what you’re going to hear in terms of my analysis of this is not going to overlap much with what you are hearing throughout all of television and cable news media.

Roger Stone. They don’t know what to do. Yovanovitch or Roger Stone. Roger Stone, just found guilty, all seven charges. He’s the last mop-up from the Mueller investigation. Mueller had nothing, so he charges a bunch of ancillaries. All you need to know about Roger Stone, and there are some things, because I’m a nice guy, I’m not going to tell you. I’m not going to say.

Let’s just say the elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor and it hasn’t gone all the way to the top floor in a long time. Can you say an order of fries short of a happy meal? Can you say a hanger on? Can you say anybody that would do anything to make it look like he was in an inner circle? He’s found guilty on seven charges, and they are all process crimes. These crimes occurred during the investigation. Lying to Congress. Lying to investigators. Lying to the tree stump. Lying to the CNN cameras outside his House.

They are all process crimes. I’m not saying he didn’t do it, but the things he’s guilty of here would not have even been charged had there not been an investigation. He was not a key figure in anything having to do with the Trump campaign, Trump electoral strategy, literally nothing to do with anything. He had less to do than even people who were not employed in the Trump campaign.

But the media gets to link his name to Trump. “Roger Stone, major Trump aide, guilty, all seven charges.” That is the extent of the headline. They don’t care. “Trump associate, stone, guilty, seven counts.” That’s it. That’s the strength of the effort here, and this comes after Trump supposedly intimidated the witness, Marie Yovanovitch, by tweeting about her while she was testifying.

Here’s the headline from Mediaite: “Trump Attacks Marie Yovanovitch in Real-Time During Hearing.” Let me tell you who Marie Yovanovitch is. Let me tell you about her relationship to this entire impeachment process. She has absolutely nothing to do with anything this impeachment is about. She has nothing to do with quid pro quo, nothing to do with bribery. She is a witness to absolutely nothing except the fact that she was removed. She has no knowledge of the phone call on July 25th because she was ousted in May.

She is not a witness to anything. She was removed as ambassador in May. That’s months before Trump called Zelensky in July. That is months before Gordon Sondland supposedly told a Zelensky aide that Ukraine had to announce an investigation into Burisma to get aide. She’s not even a hearsay witness.

She is there — and I’m not making this up — she is there because she broke down and cried in her deposition, and it was said that that was very powerful. So they bring her out to testify today. Her entire complaint, Marie Yovanovitch, her entire complaint is that Trump was not going through regular channels in conducting foreign policy. Meaning, he was not using her, and he was not using the State Department channels that she wanted, preferred, and had worked for.

In essence, Trump was not using the Obama foreign policy apparatus. That is the complaint. Do not doubt me. That’s really, when you strip this all away, that’s what she’s upset about. That’s what Kent was upset about. That is what Taylor was upset about. We’ve got a guy going outside the regular channels.

The reason we have a guy going outside the regular channels is that there is a three-year and counting organized effort to get rid of him. I think Trump should be reelected for getting rid of people like Yovanovitch. For getting rid of people like he’s gotten rid of. These were people that were clogging up American foreign policy because they were Obama holdovers, and they were specifically attempting to undermine Trump foreign policy, which they are continuing to do today.

It has been said today and numerous times that a president can choose anybody to be ambassador, and he can dismiss anybody he wants at any time, that all of these diplomats serve at the pleasure of the president. This is absolutely true. This is being poo pooed today. Critics of Trump are saying that is a very flimsy excuse for Trump doing what he did. No, it’s not.

You have to put yourself in Donald Trump’s shoes every day, and it’s something I don’t think most people can do. Most people couldn’t survive in Donald Trump’s shoes for a week. He has been the target and the subject of a coordinated effort of the entirety of Washington, D.C. to ruin him.

It makes perfect sense that he would remove conspirators in this effort to try to get rid of him. It makes perfect sense that he would do this. It makes perfect sense that he would use people that don’t have ties to these other people, like Giuliani. It makes perfect sense that he would use his friends and people he trusts to both implement American foreign policy, his version of it. That’s what he was elected to do. And to run interference for him and to protect him from being undermined and sabotaged by these people.

Trump has been undermined and sabotaged from inside the Oval Office, the whistleblower, illegally leaking lies to the Washington post, New York Times. Illegally leaking transcripts of Trump’s phone calls. Trump knows he can’t trust any of these people. So he’s finding ways to do end-runs around them. We have Obama holdovers that are now being characterized as the greatest diplomats in the history of the country, and they are only interested in serving their country, blah, blah, blah, blah.

They are participating in a coup. There is a mutiny. It is ongoing. These hearings are part of it. There are massive abuses of power here that are not engaged in by Donald Trump. Whether you want to call it that or not. We have Adam Schiff running a disguised series of campaign ads. This isn’t even an impeachment inquiry. Pelosi’s admitted it. They haven’t voted on it yet. This is nothing more than part of the 2020 campaign.

The SEC needs to examine what is happening here because this is nothing more than a series of political ads that are being run under the guise of an impeachment hearing. So when Trump responds to it, as he did today with a tweet, I totally understand it. He’s been denied due process. They have not let him be present in any of these closed-door meetings or his representatives. They have not let his legal team get anywhere near this.

Trump is being told he has to stand aside and shut up while they mount case after case of bogus lies after bogus lies. He’s just got to sit there and do it because that’s what protocol dictates. Trump says, you know what? I don’t play it that way. I’m not going to sit by while you run a seek-and-destroy campaign on me. He never has sat idly by and let it happen.

My support for Donald Trump has never been greater than it is right now. It is paramountly obvious watching this. These people have to go. They are undermining the American people by attempting to undermine the man they elected as president. They are running continued efforts of sabotage, insubordination. It all adds up to a coup. We’re learning that they are ill-suited for their jobs, and that’s to put it in the mildest possible way.

You elected Donald Trump to drain the swamp. Well, dismissing people like Yovanovitch is what it looks like. Dismissing people like Kent, dismissing people like Taylor, dismissing everybody involved from the Obama holdover days trying to undermine Trump, getting rid of those people, dismissing them, this is what it looks like. It was never going to be clean. They were never going to sit by idly and just allow Trump to do this.

You want to Make America Great Again? You want to get people who believe in American greatness rather than American globalism? By the way, since when did Ukraine become the center of the universe? Is anybody asking this question? What is it about Ukraine? When did this place become the center of the universe? I’ll tell you why it is for Trump. It’s because it was Ukraine that the Democrats were working with to attempt to undermine his campaign, and it is that that he’s trying to get to the bottom of.

In his phone calls with Zelensky, the new president of Ukraine, talking about CrowdStrike, Trump is clearly trying to get to the bottom of the effort to overturn the 2016 presidential elections. To do that, he’s got to get rid and dismiss people who are running interference and trying to protect the people who were part of that effort. Yovanovitch is one of them.

But there hasn’t yet even been an impeachable event presented at these hearings. There hasn’t been an impeachable offense. As you will hear when we get to the audio sound bites, most of what Marie Yovanovitch has been asked, “How did you feel when — how did you feel — and how did that make you feel? Well, how did that make you feel? And what did you think when you felt that way?” Really? “And when you felt that way, what were your feelings about it?”

That’s basically what she’s being asked. And that’s how she’s answering. And, of course, in today’s touchie-feelie liberal world of political correctness, “I felt like our values were somehow not being upheld.” The magic liberal word. Obama uses it all the time. “These were not our values.” What are your values? Uber-liberalism are your values. It’s what we’re arguing against, what we’re fighting, that’s what we’re trying to defeat.

I know a lot of people don’t understand what’s happening here. I know a lot of people watching cable news are watching analysis of this from people who are in Washington and cannot help but be seduced by it. But watching this from outside, with as much objectivity and clarity as possible, it’s not complicated at all what’s going on here. Anyway, got to take a break. I’ll share with you how Trump intimidated the witness with a tweet right in the middle of her testimony, in just a moment when we get back. Oh, it’s fearful! It’s scary! It’s frightful!

[mystery-ak]

Who Is the Real Marie Yovanovitch and Why Is She Here?

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: So all these analysts on TV, Fox and CNN (impression), “Oh, man, after Trump’s tweet today, I don’t know where the Republicans are going to go. Trump has really, really put them in a box. The Republicans aren’t going to have any way of going at Yovanovitch. Oh my God! Oh my God!” They were never going to go at Yovanovitch. That’s not what they are going to do. They are going after the sham hearing. What Devin Nunes just did is classic.

Devin Nunes just got her to admit that she had nothing to do with the July 25th phone call. She’s never talked to Donald Trump in 2019. She was not involved in a meeting in Warsaw with Trump and somebody from Ukraine. He elicited from her that she is not a “fact witness” to anything here. She was not part of discussions surrounding the phone call. She was not part of discussions surrounding the delay of aid. This is their second witness… If you count Kent and Taylor as one witness, this is the second witness, and she was not involved in any of it.

Nunes said (summary), “I don’t even know what this is. This is more like what we should be doing. This woman is upset she got fired. This is a human resources issue. This isn’t impeachment. Some subcommittee on human resources at the State Department ought to be handling this.” Then he yielded time to Congresswoman Stefanik at which point Schiff pounded the gavel and told her she can’t ask any questions, that Nunes cannot delegate time to her, pass time to her, that only he and counsel can ask questions.

She tried to ask questions and Pencil Neck refused to let Stefanik ask any questions.

It was great TV.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Republican counsel is now asking questions of Yovanovitch, and he elicited from her that she wasn’t anywhere near the phone call on July 25th. She was let go in May. She was dismissed from her post in May. The phone call happened in July. For those of you in Rio Linda, that’s two months later.

So the Republican lawyer here asked her, “Well, how did you know about it?”

“Oh, George Kent told me.”

“What did George Kent tell you?”

She was stumbling and fumbling.

“What did George Kent tell you about the phone call?”

“As I understood it, the president was asking the new president… Oh, I don’t know. It was something about, um, um…”

Look, these people have told a bunch of lies to get here. Now, under oath, they can’t repeat them. Schiff lied about the characterization of Trump on this phone call saying, “He told the president of Ukraine to ‘dig up dirt, make up dirt. You keep doing it! You don’t call me back.’ He told him seven times,” and Schiff totally lied about the phone call.

All the other people have told themselves a similar lie, that Trump was so outrageous and so inappropriate on this phone call. But now, she wasn’t even on the phone call. She was let go two months before the phone call. She only knows about the phone call because one of the bow-tied witnesses from Wednesday told her about it.

“Well, what did he tell you about it?”

(mumbling)

“How did you feel about it?”

(mumbling) “It was really… I don’t know.”

Again, she wasn’t anywhere near it. She wasn’t even at her post when the phone call was made, and the phone call is why they are doing these hearings. What the whistleblower said about the phone call is why we’re here. She was not involved in discussions surrounding the phone call. She was not involved in discussions surrounding the delay of aid. The supposed delay of aid which was eventually fulfilled without any investigation.

So, let me tell you who Marie Yovanovitch is, because if you’ve watched cable TV today, you’ve had a picture painted. “Great public servant. Wonderful career. Epitome of perfection. A woman of impeccable integrity.” The same resume we get for every critic of Donald Trump, and she may have had a stellar career. Folks, I never heard of her before this. But I have, of course, now endeavored to find out who she is.

Trump is being blasted. He’s being criticized, he’s being impeached for daring to criticize her work, not her. Her work is being challenged, and that’s something in this group you don’t do. You don’t challenge their work. They are excellent. They are perfect. They are elites. They are the epitome of perfect diplomats. You don’t criticize their work. That is one of the greatest insults you can engage in is to criticize their work. There’s Trump: I don’t like the job they are doing. They are not going to be the right kind of people to implement what I want to do in Ukraine.

So he dismissed them. You just don’t do that.

So let’s review Marie Yovanovitch. Let’s put all politics aside. She was Obama’s ambassador to Ukraine. While she was ambassador to Ukraine, Ukraine became one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and its most corrupt company, Burisma, hired Hunter Biden. And she wasn’t outraged. She didn’t shed any tears. She wasn’t concerned at all about this corruption when she was ambassador under Obama. While she was ambassador under Obama, Ukraine was invaded by the Russians.

Crimea? Ukraine had one-third of their country stolen from them by Russia because Ukraine did not have any weapons of defense, because Ukraine had surrendered their weapons of defense demanded by the Obama administration. The Obama administration had a deal with them. If you’re attacked, we’ll come to your defense. We’ll defend you. Well, they were attacked. The Russians came in and annexed Crimea, and Obama didn’t lift a finger.

Ukraine had no way to defend against this. We talked about it when it happened. Marie Yovanovitch did not shed a single tear when this happened to her precious Ukraine, which at the time was one of the most corrupt countries in all of Eastern and Western Europe. Obama didn’t do anything. He refused to send any military aid because she was afraid that might anger Putin, and Yovanovitch did not complain. She was not distressed like she’s now totally distressed and nonplussed over Trump.

She was the ambassador, and Russia takes one-third of Ukraine without any effort to stop them. That’s her career in Ukraine. That’s what happened when she was there. And none of that bothered her. None of that distressed her. We’re not aware she shed a single tear. Because, well, it happened under Obama, which makes it perfectly fine and okay because Obama is brilliant and because Obama was a God and because Obama was a savior. Because Obama was whatever he was. So whatever Obama wanted was perfectly fine.

Obama went through channels. Obama did all this stuff that the elites expect to be done, and he did it the way they expect it to be done. So the results don’t even count. The substance of foreign policy doesn’t even matter. All that matters is the appearance, the “going through the right channels,” and the “adherence to the diplomatic code.” But when it comes to what Donald Trump is supposedly being impeached for, she doesn’t have an iota of involvement.

She has no facts. Nothing about it has she witnessed. Let me correct, she was not Obama’s ambassador when Russia invaded, but she was at the State Department when Russia invaded and Burisma hired Biden, and she was a Ukraine devotee. She wasn’t the ambassador, but she was the Ukraine devotee, and she was not distressed at all by any of this. And, of course, none of this has come up at all because this is all about Trump.

She was the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and European Affairs, which would have included Ukraine, but she was not the ambassador. So I need to make that correction. She was not the ambassador. But she was at the State Department in an area that oversaw Ukraine. The point is, she’s being portrayed here as a Ukraine expert, and she’s being portrayed as somebody totally distressed and upset by what Trump has done. All Trump did was get rid of her and some of her friends.

As Devin Nunes said, “It is a human resources issue. She’s upset she lost her job. This is not something for the impeachment committee.” But everybody in Washington thinks that she’s been a flawless and perfect witness. And I guess from their standpoint maybe she is.

My problem is that I just can’t avoid the substance of this stuff. And I automatically reject the premise or the premises of people I consider political opponents. In this case, the Democrats. In this case, the media. In this case, the people trying to undermine Donald Trump.

I refuse to accept the premise of these people at any point because I know what their objective is. Trump is simply getting rid of people like Yovanovitch because they refused to implement his foreign policy. They tried to bottle it up. They leak. They undermine. They sabotage.

Now, here’s what happened with Trump and the tweet during her testimony. This is the Mediaite version of the story. “President Donald Trump attacked former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in real time as she testified in the Trump impeachment inquiry, denigrating her career as a diplomat and asserting his ‘absolute right to appoint ambassadors.'”

As she was testifying, Trump tweeted this: “‘Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then let’s fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian president spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him.

“‘It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors. They call it “serving at the pleasure of the president.” The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than'” Obama did. “Yovanovitch was posted to Somalia early in her career as a diplomat, and received her first ambassadorship under George W. Bush.

“She was recalled from her post in Ukraine following a reported pressure campaign from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani,” who really who was the guy on trial today when this all started. So what’s Trump doing here? Trump is totally in character. There is no way this could be said to be witness intimidation because she didn’t even know Trump had tweeted it. Trump tweeted it. Schiff got word of it, brought the hearings to a stop and read the tweet and posted it. And then said, “How does that make you feel?”

“Wuh…?” (mewling)

“Do you feel intimidated?”

“Wuh, wuh.. (mewling) Strange, very strange.”

“Do you feel intimidated?”

“This is beyond the pale.”

What Schiff should have done. He should have called the Capitol Police. He should have called in the armed guards. Should have brought in armed cavalry to surround her and escort her out of there. If you’re going to say that the witness has been intimidated, the witness is afraid and in great fear, then go ahead and play it out. If he had been thinking he would have done that, but he didn’t. He then resumed with questioning.

But look at it from Trump’s perspective. He has been denied due process. There are secret hearings going on in a basement of the Capitol building that Schiff is running. There were going to be more of them this afternoon. When these hearings are over, Schiff is going to convene the secret meetings again, and more witnesses are gonna be brought in and Schiff will selectively leak what they say. There are no Republicans allowed in there, and there certainly are no legal representatives from the president allowed in there.

Trump is being denied due process. Forget court-of-law business. This is due process in the public arena. Schiff and his buddies in the media have sole possession of media narratives. They get to report and leak and lie and say whatever they want to say that these witnesses are saying about Trump. Trump is not going to sit idly by and be treated unfairly. He doesn’t care if he is altering the way things have always been done.

He doesn’t care if he’s outside the normal channels. He’s being set up here. They are running a sham. And they are running it in public with the media and Trump is simply not going to sit idly by and let himself be tarred and feathered, lied about, impugned, mischaracterized and all that. So that’s why he was responding here. This woman doesn’t know a thing. She had nothing to do with the so-called impeachable offenses that are on display here.

He knows that nobody is going to challenge her character or her credibility because she is a woman. So he decides to do it. (summarized) “Everywhere she went, things turned bad. Somalia, Ukraine. She’s got no complaint. I can fire anybody I want in the ambassadorial core. I appoint them.”

Every bit of this is right and now people are wringing their hands, “Oh, my God, this is bad. Trump, he’s going against protocol. This is horrible. This changes the nature of everything.” No, it’s just Trump being Trump. It’s why he got elected and there are people around the country cheering that he did this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is the sound bite. This is Devin Nunes suggesting that (summarized) “I don’t know what you’re doing here. This is more like a human resources complaint since you don’t have any knowledge of anything that we’re talking about here.”

NUNES: Were you involved in the proposed Trump-Zelensky — later Pence-Zelensky — meetings in Warsaw, Poland, on September 1st?

YOVANOVITCH: No, I was not.

NUNES: Did you ever talk to President Trump in 2019?

YOVANOVITCH: No, I have not.

NUNES: Mick Mulvaney?

YOVANOVITCH: No, I have not.

NUNES: Thank you, Ambassador. Uh, I’m not exactly sure what the ambassador is doing here today. This is the House Intelligence Committee that’s now turned into the House Impeachment Committee. This seems more appropriate for the Subcommittee on Human Resources at the Foreign Affairs Committee.

RUSH: That is exactly right. (summarized exchange) “This seems more like it’s intended for the Subcommittee on Human Resources at the Foreign Affairs Committee, because we’ve got an ambassador here that’s upset she was replaced” (sobbing) and she feels really bad about it! (wailing) “You didn’t talk to the president?” “No.” “You weren’t on the phone call?” “No.” “You never talked to Mulvaney?” “No.” “What about all of 2019.” “Nope!” “Then why are you here? Nothing against you, Madam Ambassador. Why are you here?”

To the phones we go. Springfield, Illinois. Karen, you’re first. It’s great to have you today on Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Mega Dittos, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I totally agree. What it looks like to me, she got the pink slip. She got invited to the exit interview after getting let go, and she goes to the exit interview. Instead of being a 10-, 15-minute wrap-up, he turned it into now, what, 12, 15 hours? That’s certainly not how the exit interview should go.

RUSH: Let me tell you why she’s there. I’ve mentioned this before, and a lot of you are going to think, “Oh, c’moooon, Rush.” This is why she’s there. In her deposition… Folks, they are looking for anybody from the ambassadorial core to back up Kent and Taylor that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing, that he presents a danger. That he’s irresponsible, blah, blah, blah, blah, that these are the seasoned veterans that are being ignored. She cried in her deposition. I don’t know what the question or answer was.

She cried. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, reported that she was so compelling. They are looking here for emotion. This woman could present herself as (sobbing) “physically damaged, mentally, emotionally damaged by what this brute Trump did.” That’s one of the reasons… She doesn’t have a single fact, folks. She doesn’t have a single fact. She doesn’t have a morsel of any knowledge having to do with any of the so-called charges here.

[mystery-ak]

I Have No Sympathy for Conspirators in the Coup Against Trump

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: So this was pretty good, too. I’m watching the Republican counsel interview Marie Yovanovitch, and he’s asked her (paraphrasing), “So the javelins, they were very important?” She said, “Oh, yes, yes! Very important for the defense of Ukraine.” “Can you explain why the Obama administration decided not to provide them?” “Oh, well, wuh, wuh, oh… I think their determination just had it made.” “But President Trump did provide them?” “Ah, gee, caught again, damn it.”

So when this previous hour ended and I stood up… I always stand up at the end of the hour. I was headed into the kitchen for some refreshments and to do some stuff, and just as I’m ready to unhook my audio IFB, Mr. Snerdley says, “You do realize that you are the only commentator in American media today who doesn’t find Marie Yovanovitch a sympathetic figure? You do realize this, don’t you?” I looked at Mr. Snerdley and I smiled.

I said, “Damn straight, I understand that.” Can I ask you, why did you make that observation before I react to it? (interruption) Oh, okay. Snerdley said, “Well, because it’s so stark. I’ve been watching cable news all day and I don’t care who they go to. Everybody talks about she’s ‘sympathetic’ here. She’s looking good there. You’re the only guy. You’re the only guy.”

I know, I know, I know. People on our side are talking about how she’s a sympathetic figure. Can I ask a question about this? Folks, somehow, I have escaped — thankfully so — what I consider to be the imposition of wimpiness on our culture. Somehow, I have. This woman, she is an ambassador. She’s part of the United States foreign service. She’s not a wallflower, okay? Why portray her as a wallflower? She’s an ambassador. She’s been standing up supposedly representing American interests against a bunch of thug dictators in Ukraine.

But beside that, I have stood by, and I have watched this culture soften and become touchy-feelie, and I guess on college campuses, that’s okay. And if you want to do that at work, that’s fine. When you’re talking about defending this country, we are a great nation at risk in a very dangerous world, and we need not look at this as an exercise for wallflowers. But what does it take? What is required for someone to be a sympathetic figure?

Now, I don’t use these terms loosely. If somebody is going to be said to be a sympathetic figure, that means something very specific to me. I’m the mayor of Realville. I am Mr. Literal. I’m not part of a Washington, D.C. crowd that makes judgments on people the way they come across on TV. I don’t know Marie Yovanovitch. All I know is that she’s part of the cabal trying to take out Donald Trump. Okay?

So what is it that makes her sympathetic? She served the nation for 30 years makes her sympathetic? No. “Sympathetic” means you feel sorry for her. It means you empathize with her, okay, what do you feel sorry for her about? What is it that makes you empathize with her? The use of the term “sympathetic” is loaded. It is calculated. It is designed to create an impression that this is a wronged, mistreated, violated woman. And she’s not.

Christine Blasey Ford was said to be a sympathetic figure, too, wasn’t she? Boy, she played the part better than Yovanovitch. And I don’t know if Yovanovitch has played a part. I think it’s being assigned to her. But Blasey Ford (doing impression), “Oh, I am terrified to be here. I was raped and left on the side of the road 50 years ago (sobbing) and still haven’t gotten over it. I want the guy who did it! I want the guy who did! I don’t remember who or where or how I got home.”

That is a sympathetic figure? (interruption) I’m exaggerating like Schiff exaggerates. It’s my show. I can do what I want to do. No, I’m being serious about this. They are attempting to run a coup on Donald Trump. There’s not a one of them that’s gonna get any sympathy from me, folks. I’m sorry. I’m not going to fall for it. I’m not going to play the game, and I’m not going to say so just to make it look like I’m sensitive so that you’ll listen to me later.

You know, half of the people on TV who don’t agree at all with what this woman is saying don’t have the guts to say it. They’ll start out by saying, “That’s a really sympathetic figure. Oh, really formidable! This woman, you can tell she’s devoted!” It’s all to make sure that they don’t get any criticism. It’s all about soft-selling it first to make yourself look like you’re sensitive and aware rather than getting to the nub of things.

But it is my impression, my belief that there need to be certain circumstances which have to exist in order for someone to be a sympathetic figure. Don’t you have to believe that somebody is really doing her dirty? Don’t you have to believe that someone is being really mean? Don’t you have to believe that she is being wronged and mistreated in order for her to be a sympathetic figure? If she’s a sympathetic figure, oh, it’s so bad what’s happening to her. What’s happening to her? She’s a star witness in an effort to overturn the 2016 presidential election. If Fox News wants to feel sorry for her for that, they are welcome to it.

Don’t you have to believe that some mean-spirited, predator-type brute is after her, trying to get her, trying to harm her, trying to punish her? Don’t you have to believe that she’s really, really being mistreated in order for her to be a sympathetic figure? “No, Rush, you don’t get it. That’s not what we mean by sympathetic.” Yes, that’s what sympathetic means. If you mean by using the word “sympathetic,” she looks so innocent, then say that.

But don’t tell me she’s sympathetic because there isn’t anything sympathetic here. If you want to say she looks innocent and harmless and honest, whatever, say that, but don’t use sympathy. Sympathy is designed to manipulate people’s emotions. It’s designed to use her to actually say something about Trump. That’s why I’m not going to fall for it. By calling her sympathetic, you are automatically agreeing that Trump is a mean-spirited S.O.B. predator who has mistreated her.

So I’m not going to fall for the notion that she’s sympathetic, just like I didn’t fall for the notion that Christine Blasey Ford was sympathetic. Christine Blasey Ford was used, and participated knowingly, in an attempt to derail the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh — who, by the way, was honored last night by The Federalist Society. You know what happened? He was the keynote speaker. The Federalist Society is a society of conservative judges and lawyers. Some of the finest lawyers and judges in the world are members of the Federalist Society.

Kavanaugh was the keynote speaker, and they were basically some of his biggest proponents. So he agreed to show up and be the keynote speaker. Rod Rosenstein was the only member who refused to stand and applaud when Kavanaugh was introduced. The only member. Rod Rosenstein, the guy who was going to wear a wire to try to entrap Donald Trump, probably saying mean things about Marie Yovanovitch.

A lot of people are going to say that Marie Yovanovitch is a sympathetic figure because it’s just the easiest way to show you support a woman. Why don’t you think Schiff isn’t going to let a woman question her? So Mrs. Stefanik, the Republican woman congresswoman, wants to ask her some questions. “Nunes can’t allocate any of his time to you.”

She doesn’t want another woman asking her questions because there goes the whole idea that there might be some sexism here. Because if Trump is involved, there has to be, right? Now, you might not think this is any big deal. I am an etymologist. I am a student of words. I am a student of the usage of words and how they are selectively used to manipulate the emotions of people.

It’s very easily done, very easy to do, and it is being done here. By declaring that she is a sympathetic figure, you’re automatically conferring upon her total credibility and honesty without examining what she’s saying. You’re giving her a pass by calling her a sympathetic figure. By saying she’s a sympathetic figure, you can’t challenge her. She gets a free pass. She’s a sympathetic figure. And yet, ladies and gentlemen, she was let go in May, two months before the phone call the whistle-blower lied about, two months before the phone call Schiff lied about.

She doesn’t know about the phone call. She doesn’t know about the javelins. She doesn’t know about Trump. She’s never spoken to Trump. She’s never spoken to Mick Mulvaney. She doesn’t know anything other than Rudy Giuliani is some rogue, outside the channels guy.

May I read to you from a transcript? I have here the first call with Trump. Zelensky, the new elected president about whom people are raving. He’s not corrupt like his predecessor. Zelensky said he agreed with the decision to recall ambassador Yovanovitch 100%.

Trump had told Zelensky, “Yeah, the former ambassador from the United States, the woman, she was bad news. People she was dealing with in Ukraine were bad news, so I just want to let you know that.” Zelensky responded by asking the president, quote, “I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us. It would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the ambassador to the United States from Ukraine…”

He went on to say, “I recall her name was Yovanovitch. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as she admired the previous president and she was on his side. She would not accept me as the new president…” Okay, this is not going to be brought out today by Schiff.

But Trump’s and our new ally in Ukraine — a new elected president, who had nothing to do with investigating Trump and trying to deny him the victory in 2016 — claimed that Ambassador Yovanovitch was not on his side, that Ambassador Yovanovitch preferred the previous corrupt president who had just been defeated in an election. He’s telling Trump that he’s glad to hear that Trump is going to move her out of the position because she was not being helpful to him. Well, it sounds to me like we had a rogue ambassador then.

We had a rogue ambassador who was trying to undermine the newly elected president of Ukraine, at least this is what he said to Trump on the phone call, and nobody yet is accusing the new president of Ukraine of committing an impeachable offense. I’ve got the transcript right here. He said, “I recall her name was Yovanovitch. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%.”

In other words, Trump, without even knowing what this president thought, acknowledged that Yovanovitch might not be the right woman for the job, is going to get rid of her. This guy says, “I’m glad you said that. Her attitude toward me was far from the best. She admired the previous president. She was on his side. She would not accept me as new president.” Wait a minute, now. See, I thought ambassadors, I thought really great diplomats… Is it her business who the Ukrainian people elect?

So she doesn’t like the new president so she’s sitting around maybe being an obstacle that the new president has to go through in dealings with the United States. And Trump doesn’t want any obstacles. He wants to make deals with this new guy. It is a new day. It’s a new Ukraine. It’s a new relationship.

He’s got an ambassador here who is unsympathetic and unsupportive of the new duly elected. She’s loyal to the guy who was defeated, the corrupt guy. So Trump says, “Okay, well, she’s gone.” Now we’re in an impeachment hearing here over what? She lost her job.

Again, the Republican counsel right before this hour started (paraphrasing), “Were the javelins very important?”

“Oh, yes, the javelins were crucial, very important for Ukraine to be able to defend itself.”

“Can you explain why the Obama administration did not provide them?”

“Uhhh, well, I think at that time the, uhhh, the decision…”

“But then the Trump administration ended up providing them?”

“Yeah, yeah. Caught again. Damn it!” (“Where are the Democrats helping me out here?” she’s saying to herself.) So I’m sorry, if I’m supposed to see her as a sympathetic figure, I don’t. If you want me to tell you she looks honest and sweet and harmless and, fine, I’ll go along with that. But sympathetic means something very specific.

It means somebody is doing her dirty. It means somebody is mistreating her. It means somebody is trying to get away with hurting her really badly and it’s making us feel very sorry for her. Well, I’m sorry. I don’t feel a lot of sympathy for this cabal that’s attempting to overturn the election in 2016. String me up.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is Schiff. This is Nunes attempting to… What’s the term? He’s “yielding back” some of his time to Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican, New York. This is when Pencil Neck would not allow that to happen.

NUNES: I know, Miss. Stefanik, you had a few quick questions for the ambassador. I yield to you, Miss. Stefanik.

STEFANIK: Thank you, Mr. Nunes.

SCHIFF: (banging gavel) The gentlewoman —

STEFANIK: Ambassador Yovanovitch, thank you for being here.

SCHIFF: The gentlewoman will suspend! The gentlewoman will suspend!

STEFANIK: What is the interruption for this time? It is our time.

SCHIFF: The gentlewoman will suspend! You’re not recognized!

NUNES: I just —

SCHIFF: Mr. Nunes, you are minority counsel —

NUNES: I just recognized Miss —

SCHIFF: Under the House Resolution 660, you’re not allowed to yield time except to minority counsel.

STEFANIK: The ranking member yielded time —

SCHIFF: The gentleman — gentleman —

STEFANIK: — to another —

SCHIFF: (sputtering) Nope! Nope! Nope!

STEFANIK: — member of Congress.

SCHIFF: No! (banging gavel) Nope! (banging gavel) that is not accurate.

STEFANIK: That is accurate.

NUNES: You’re gagging (chuckles) the young lady from New York?

STEFANIK: Ambassador Yovanovitch, I want to thank you —

SCHIFF: The gentlewoman will suspend!

STEFANIK: — for being here today.

SCHIFF: You are not recognized, uhh —

STEFANIK: This is the fifth time you have interrupted members of Congress —

SCHIFF: The gentlewoman (banging gavel) is not recognized!

STEFANIK: — duly elected members of Congress.

SCHIFF: The gentlewoman will suspend!

RUSH: So Schiff is the authoritarian. Now, these were the rules Schiff put in place. The Republicans are trying to demonstrate the unfairness of the rules. They know. Nunes knows he cannot yield his time to Stefanik. He makes Schiff bug out his eyes and look like the authoritarian figure that he is. “The gentlewoman will suspend!” It is all part of their effort to make this seem for what it is. It’s a one-sided sideshow disguised as an impeachment hearing.

Now, you all remember, ladies and gentlemen, some young girls were kidnapped in an African country by Boko Haram. What did Michelle Obama do? Michelle Obama came out and said, “We need to stop this. We need to do something about it.” She said, “You need to tweet #SaveOurGirls.” I said, “Well, that’s going to do a lot,” and, of course, I was attacked. I was attacked for having no heart. No. If a zillion people tweeted #SaveOurGirls, it wouldn’t matter to Boko Haram. It wouldn’t get them back. But, boy, it was sympathetic!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Eric in northern Arizona. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Thank you for taking my call.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: I think the Republicans are locked out of the sham that’s going on in Congress right now. We all know this is an organized coup. Why aren’t Schiff and Nadler and Pelosi being rounded up as traitors? Obviously, they are domestic enemies of the state. We are just validating it by even participating in this fiasco that’s going on.

RUSH: I get the point. The point is, that by showing up, we’re accepting the premise. The problem is, that if they walked out, then there would be no refutation whatsoever. Nunes and Jim Jordan on the last two days of hearings have made some really, really powerful points in opposition, and they have had, I think, a significant contribution to shaping the media narrative.

Remember, the first day of this on Wednesday was an absolute disaster and had the Republicans not about there and allowed this thing to go wherever it went with no opposition, no steerage, that would not have been good. I understand the premise of not accepting the premise. I understand the strategy, but for this there’s more of a necessity to blunt this. And I think they are doing a good job of it. Look, I got buried in the stack here much of the evidence of the low TV rating. It was 13 million viewers total among all of the networks.

It was paltry. It was not nearly enough to have any impact on public opinion of this issue at all, and the Democrats know it. There were fewer members of the country… The audience was smaller for this than for Comey’s testimony and much smaller than the audience for when Mueller showed up and admitted that he didn’t know what was in his own report. So as frustrating as it is, this is something they can’t avoid.

I watched this take place today, like everybody I was jotting down, making mental notes, thoughts. This really is a focus group. What we’re watching here, the American audience, the focus group, and these people are basically attempting to forge public opinion. They haven’t presented evidence of any impeachable offense. In fact, the first two witnesses were asked point-blank, “What is the impeachable offense of the phone call?”

They had nothing to say. There was dead silence. One of those witnesses (paraphrasing), “Well, I just want everybody to understand I’m not here for that. Well, I’m not here — I’m nonpartisan, and I have no interest in the outcome. That’s up for you people to decide.” So what the hell are you there for? If you’re not there, these are impeachment hearings, what the hell are you here for? “Uhhh, I don’t know, but I’m a diplomat. I’m not here for that. I don’t know about impeachable offenses. I couldn’t tell you.”

Well, you must have said something in the private deposition to make Schiff think that you had something that would sink Trump. I was watching the Democrat lawyer. His name is Goldman. He’s an MSNBC guy. Schiff actually hired somebody from MSNBC. Can you imagine if Devin Nunes hired Hannity or Laura Ingraham to come in and do the questioning? (laughing) Would that not be…?

Anyway, this lawyer, Goldman, the extent of his questioning of Yovanovitch — and it’s because they tried to portray her as a sympathetic figure. (paraphrasing) “How did you feel when Trump said…?” “I was devastated. Oh, was very threatened.” “And how did you feel when Trump called the prosecutor a good guy?” “Oh, I… I… That, that… Oh, so disappointed.” “And how did you feel when Trump said that about you?” “Oh, I — I…”

The answer is, I don’t care what anybody says about me. I’m a diplomat, for crying out loud. (doing impression) “I don’t know, it was very — I felt…” “How did you feel when Ukraine officials told you that Trump was going to have Rudy beat you up?”

It was silly. How did you feel? We’re in impeachment hearings and we’re asking a witness who was not even around any of the events that are responsible for this, was being asked how she felt?

[mystery-ak]

Will DOJ Treat Deep State Liars Just Like They Did Roger Stone?

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: Maui, Steve, great to have you on the program. How are you doing, sir?

CALLER: Good, how are you doing, Rush? Real quick. Roger Stone has just been found guilty on seven counts. Those include lying to Congress and witness tampering. Now, also, we have audio and visual evidence that Strzok, Lisa Page (bad phone connection) Clapper, Brennan, Comey and Mueller, have also been lying to Congress. Now, will the Durham investigation, do you believe, will indict — (unintelligible)

RUSH: I have to believe that there will be since it’s now a criminal investigation and there is a grand jury. The only reason to do a grand jury is you need indictments. I have to think they are coming. I don’t know where they are. I don’t know why it’s taking so long because you are exactly right. Everybody knows these guys lied to Congress. They lied to the FISA court. They lied to the president. They’ve lied everywhere. However, Roger Stone, he was convicted of all seven counts.

It’s really one count that was broken out to seven different counts to make it look like it was bad. Roger Stone was never the close confidant of Donald Trump that he might have thought he was or wanted to be. But everything Stone was convicted of today is a process crime, meaning, he’s convicted of things that happened during the investigation.

Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to investigators. This is what Stone was convicted of doing. Stone has always, I’ve got to be very careful here, folks, I must be real, real careful. I’m just telling you this has nothing to do with Trump. CNN had orgasms today trying to say it is the same thing as Trump being convicted. It’s not. It’s as peripheral as anybody can be. Don’t think a thing about it. Ignore the media hype about it.
RUSH: Maui, Steve, great to have you on the program. How are you doing, sir?

CALLER: Good, how are you doing, Rush? Real quick. Roger Stone has just been found guilty on seven counts. Those include lying to Congress and witness tampering. Now, also, we have audio and visual evidence that Strzok, Lisa Page (bad phone connection) Clapper, Brennan, Comey and Mueller, have also been lying to Congress. Now, will the Durham investigation, do you believe, will indict – (unintelligible)

RUSH: I have to believe that there will be since it’s now a criminal investigation and there is a grand jury. The only reason to do a grand jury is you need indictments. I have to think they are coming. I don’t know where they are. I don’t know why it’s taking so long because you are exactly right. Everybody knows these guys lied to Congress. They lied to the FISA court. They lied to the president. They’ve lied everywhere. However, Roger Stone, he was convicted of all seven counts.

It’s really one count that was broken out to seven different counts to make it look like it was bad. Roger Stone was never the close confidant of Donald Trump that he might have thought he was or wanted to be. But everything Stone was convicted of today is a process crime, meaning, he’s convicted of things that happened during the investigation.

Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to investigators. This is what Stone was convicted of doing. Stone has always… I’ve got to be very careful here, folks. I must be real, real careful. I’m just telling you this has nothing to do with Trump. CNN had orgasms today trying to say it is the same thing as Trump being convicted. It’s not. It’s as peripheral as anybody can be. Don’t think a thing about it. Ignore the media hype about it.

[mystery-ak]

Trump Was Elected to Upend the Establishment

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: Susan from Carson City, Nevada. Great to have you on Open Line Friday. Hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush, so much. What an honor. Our family just loves you. I have a kind of three-part question, actually. Looking ahead five years from now, after President Trump’s second term, I’m wondering, Rush, if you think it’s inevitable that a Democrat will totally unravel and destroy everything good that Donald Trump has done for America and the world. And what might Trump do or already be doing to kind of keep it all more permanent?

RUSH: It’s actually a good question. I’ll tell you why it’s a good question, because Trump has been able to unravel much of what Obama did. If you ever asked yourself why, let me tell you why. The reason Trump has been able to unravel much of what Obama did is because much of what Obama did was via executive order, not via legislation, not via treaty.

It’s really tough to unravel legislation. That becomes statutory law. But presidential executive orders… Like intending… There was no official signatory to the Paris accord. There was no official vote. Nobody signed an Iran deal. It was easy to cancel those things.

But look at the trouble Trump had in trying to get rid of Obamacare. We still haven’t fully done it because it was legislation. So the answer to your question is, Trump’s trade deals, you’re worried about the Democrats unraveling it, if he can make it, sanctioned, authorized trade deals, then the Democrats are going to have to undo existing trade deals like Trump had to undo NAFTA and redo it. That’s how you do it. Best case.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is Matt in New Milford, Connecticut. Welcome, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. You are like the godfather of the modern conservative movement. I love your show.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate that.

CALLER: You’re welcome. I just wanted to make a comment and then hear what you had to say about it. Basically, the reason that they are trying to impeach Trump is because lots of people say they can’t accept the election of 2016. But I think it’s something different. I think that these people, these Washington lifer bureaucrats, lifers in the House like Schiff and Pelosi, they are failures. They failed this country and the American people rose up in 2016 and elected Donald Trump because their way, the status quo, failed.

In this Ukraine situation, Trump is throwing the status quo away, out the door. They can’t stand it because they’ve rigged the status quo to line their own pockets and benefit themselves. So they got to get him out of there. And they are trying their hardest and they’re gonna find anybody who has been a lifer to back them up on it. It’s really about them not being able to admit that they have failed the country and they are failures in their career. Thanks, Rush. I’ll listen to what you have to say.

RUSH: Thank you very much. That is very shrewd. I think there’s part of that that’s right on the money. I don’t think these people can possibly admit their failures. I don’t think these people have the humility. I don’t think they judge success and failure the way you and I do. In fact, I know that they don’t.

How in the world could you, for example, say that our existing immigration policy is a success? How could you say that the existing trade policy with China is a success? And yet the people who did it think that they are brilliant, and they think that it is state of the art, and that they think it is a proper representation of American interests.

It’s kind of like defining “smart.” There’s a lot of really ignorant people in terms of common sense who think they are brilliant. And, look, the part of them that you nailed is there is an existing system. The entire establishment — and this is human nature. By the way, we talk about the deep state, do you know that your town council has a deep state? These bureaucracies exist everywhere. Let’s take a look at your town. Let’s say you elect a mayor, and let’s say that your mayor has a city council. You elect the mayor. You get a city council. But those people all have staff, and the staff has been there before these people that have been elected, and they are going to be there after the elected people are gone.

The mayor will serve four years, eight years. People working in the mayor’s office are going to be there 20 years. So even as tiny in comparison your city government has its own version of what is being called a deep state, and that is people who are unelected in the zoning department – do you know, I’ve lived in places where there is a town organization where you have to get approval to use a certain color paint on your house. You have to run architectural plans by a bunch of bureaucrats who are never elected, and they get their jollies telling people what they can’t do.

They’ve got their system set up. They personally benefit from it. By the time you start talking federal arrangements like this, we’re talking about networking where you get your kids into college, and you get your kids’ jobs out of college, either on Wall Street or in government, whatever, and this whole little system here has been in existence for I don’t know how long. And everybody — and I mean everybody — before Trump came along, recognized the existence and acknowledged it.

Look at what happened to George Bush and weapons of mass destruction. Can I bring this up? Based on what we know now about how elements of the intelligence community have been running this coup, elements of the intelligence community from the National Security Council, the state department, the military, go back and think about weapons of mass destruction. Who was it that assured everybody there were Saddam Hussein weapons of mass destruction? Why, it was the intelligence community.

I will bet you — and I don’t know. I’m just idly speculating here (which is dangerous, I know). But I bet you there were Democrats and lifers in that community who were livid after the Florida recount and after the Supreme Court shut down the recount, livid that Al Gore didn’t win. Livid bunch of career leftists. They are all over the place, just livid, just hating George W. Bush. We know they hated George W. Bush. We know the media. We know the Democrat Party. Who’s to say that there isn’t this kind of sabotage going on?

Look at Lois Lerner and the IRS. So the caller is right. This network of people exists, and anybody that’s going to come in and up-end it and challenge it like Donald Trump is, is going to become archenemy number one, and this person is going to try to be destroyed, rendered ineffective. So I don’t think it’s so much that people like Adam Schiff know that as Democrat members of Congress they have failed and that Trump has come in and is showing himself to be a big success.

I think it’s more that Trump in their world has the potential to upend. They think life is wired, folks. How else to put it? Life is wired. Their kids’ futures are guaranteed. Their futures are guaranteed. Their kids’ admission to whatever university, guaranteed. If they play ball. If they play the game the right way. If they follow the accepted norms. Now, here comes some outside ogre who is not interested. He is merit based. This is why I’m sympathetic to the caller’s theory: Merit based is big enemy to bureaucracy.

Merit based is a huge, huge problem for process and systems-oriented people, because merit has nothing to do with whether they keep their job. Merit has nothing to do with whether they get promotions. Merit has nothing to do with it. It’s other things. Trump comes in and looks at Ukraine, this is a mess, he says. These people are screwing this up left and right. I got to change this. I got to change that. I’m going to change the way we’re doing this. I’m going to change the way we deal with immigration. I’m gonna change the way we deal with the ChiComs.

And these people who spent their careers and their families before them spent their careers putting this system in place, this order, feel abjectly threatened. And so the way they go about protecting themselves is to claim that Trump represents an existential threat to norms and to channels, and to the way it’s always been done. But that’s exactly what he was elected to do. He was elected to shake all this up. People are tired of not being listened to.

They are tired of being told they live in a representative republic and they get tired of being told during campaigns that this is going to happen if we win and their candidate wins and nothing ever happens. There was a large protest vote. And rather than the establishment getting the message and realizing, “You know what? We better change.”

They don’t acknowledge the will of the people. That’s not part of the deal. The will of the people? That’s a myth. That’s what the people think. We really run this country. We run foreign policy. People don’t know enough about it. Their elections can’t possibly be informed. This is the attitude. It’s not one of failure. They are not capable of thinking of themselves as failures. They have no humility.

[mystery-ak]

Meanwhile, Ukraine Releases Records of Hunter Biden Payments

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: By the way, folks, Ukrainian officials yesterday released records of every Hunter Biden payment from Burisma holdings in Ukraine. There were 38 payments. This is information from the Ukrainian government.

There were 38 payments of $83,300 every month paid to Hunter Biden. That totaled $3.165 million. All of this was paid to Hunter Biden from Burisma while his dad was vice president. Democrats don’t want anybody talking about that, don’t want anybody referencing that. Millions of dollars in payment to Hunter Biden. This is what Trump wanted, in part, investigated.

I watch this stuff, and I rely on my faith in the American people to be able to weed through this. I know that it’s going to affect some. But they are not securing enough audience, because this is boring. Boring. There’s nothing. There’s no drama here. There’s no bombshell news. The woman doesn’t know anything. All she has is how she feels, and that’s because she’s a sympathetic figure.

 

[mystery-ak]

My Take on the Steelers-Browns Brawl

Nov 15, 2019



RUSH: I got a note here from Pennsylvania: “Please sometime today address the Steelers and Browns from last night.” Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll make sure I do that. Remind me about that. I turned that game off in the second half. Folks, I can’t believe it. I had other things I wanted to watch on TV. I turned off the Pittsburgh Steelers at halftime for a host of reasons. I thought the referees lost control of the game. I thought the Browns were head-hunting and getting away with it.

The cheap shot hits on JuJu Smith-Schuster. One Steeler player got hit and was bleeding from his ear after a hit to the head. The referee, that guy got ejected. But I didn’t see until today, you know, I didn’t get one e-mail last night. “Rush, did you see what happened?” I didn’t know about it until I got up today. I didn’t know that that had happened. See, everybody assumes I know everything, so nobody sends me anything anymore. I’m sure you thought I was watching it. No, I gave up in the first half.

I’m watching a great BBC show right now. It’s eight episodes. I said, “You know what? I’m going to go to episode three here at halftime, and if it bores me, I’ll go back to the game,” and it didn’t bore me. (interruption) The name of it? I’ll tell you the name of it in just a minute.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: On the Steelers/Browns, Myles Garrett has been suspended for the remainder of the season at a minimum, the NFL says. Todd Gurley, the former offensive coordinator for the Browns for the first eight games last year has come back and said of the new coach (paraphrasing), “It’s his fault, Freddie’s fault.” Everybody’s talking about Freddie Kitchens, the head coach, for creating this culture.

The game was over. The Steelers had lost. The timing of this, the reasons for this remain really, really curious to me, but, look, I don’t have enough time to get fully into this, because I’ve been requested to comment on it. I know what that means, so I need to wait and give this a little bit more time than I have left.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, the Steelers and Browns. I’ve not seen anything like it. I can’t recall. When I finally saw tape of it today, I can’t recall ever seeing anything like it. I’m sure by now everybody knows: Myles Garrett number 95, defensive end — who is having a great year for the Browns. He is a pass rush specialist and he does pretty well against the run. There’s eight seconds left in the game. The Steelers are down two touchdowns. There’s no way the Steelers are going to win. Mason Rudolph has looked horrible all night.

The Steelers never got in sync. The Steelers lost a couple of wide receivers to vicious hits. JuJu Smith-Schuster was one, out with a concussion. Another Steelers player was hit — and this one was flagged. He was hit so hard; he was bleeding from his ear. So it looked to me like that this was a headhunter game from the outset. Now, the Steelers and Browns have had a rivalry going back decades, but it hasn’t really been much of a rivalry because the Browns haven’t beaten the Steelers maybe once or twice in 20 years.

So there hasn’t been much of a rivalry to it, and the current crop of players haven’t been playing each other long. Both teams are relatively young. It was curious. “What in the world is this?” Now, there’s a theory in pro football — well, football in general — about coaching. You either coach it or you let it happen. Meaning, your players. You either coach their behavior or (when it happens) you allow it to happen. In other words, players only do what coaches either teach or tolerate. The Browns are among the most penalized teams in the NFL and particularly for personal fouls, 15-yarders, vicious hits, this kind of stuff.

So the theory is, they are being coached — and the head coach is Freddie Kitchens. He’s never done it before. He was the offensive coordinator for basically the last half of last year. Because of their performance last year, he got the head coach job this year having never done it before. The Browns… Odell Beckham showing up one game wearing $150,000 watch and the league has to tell him, “Take it off.” He shows up next week in clown shoes and forced to change shoes. The theory is the coach is either coaching this or letting it happen.

Meaning: On this team, there doesn’t appear to be any discipline whatsoever. So with eight seconds left in the game, Mason Rudolph is sacked for like the nineteenth time of the game by Myles Garrett. Some scuffle ensues that we don’t really see much of; then the next thing we see is this gigantic brawl and Myles Garrett rips Mason Rudolph’s helmet off his head and beats him upside the head with it! Maurkice Pouncey, number 53, the center for the Steelers storms in at Garrett.

I’ll tell you this: In NFL locker rooms all day today and last night, Maurkice Pouncey — number 53, center for the Pittsburgh Steelers — is the toast of every locker room in this league. He went in there and he laid it on Myles Garrett. He has been suspended three games himself for his actions in coming to the aid and defense of his quarterback. Folks, this was so bad. If this had happened on the street — if somebody had been beaten with a weapon of the size and weight of an NFL helmet — that person would be in jail.

There are others who are urging the Steelers to file criminal charges against the Browns. It is said that Mason Rudolph’s agent is considering criminal charges against Myles Garrett, number 95 of the Cleveland Browns. It was so bad, I was fully expecting… When I watched the video, I was fully expecting to see police officers on the field to break this up. Every NFL team has security. If you pay any attention, they wear either yellow windbreakers or… They’re usually yellow and they surround the field, and they are there.

They never watch the game. Their eyes are constantly on the crowd. They are there to make sure that the crowd doesn’t storm the field, or the crowd doesn’t start throwing things, weapons or whatever they might have. I fully expected the security staff at that end zone to come out and get in the melee but they didn’t. I think the referees lost control of the game because it was filled with questionable hits that were unnecessary throughout the game — and as I say, yeah, you have the rivalry Steelers/Browns, but these players… Nothing was on the line in this game.

Neither of these teams is going anywhere this season. So it’s inexplicable, and I would love to know what set Myles Garrett off. This is not common. I would love to know what happened. Garrett has not said what it was. All he said is the usual, “That’s not who I am. That’s not who I was. Uh, I lost my cool. It will never happen again.” Blah, blah, blah. Something set him off. Something had to happen. I don’t know if Rudolph said something.

I don’t know if the scrum that happened before this that Rudolph had tried to get Garrett’s helmet in his hands. Something happened, and I would really love to know what it is because I think knowing that will explain what happened. Because it’s not rivalry. It isn’t. The game was over, and the Browns had no chance. There was no chance they were going to lose the game. There was no way, and literally no reason for this. There had not been any action by the Steelers during the game to cause pent-up frustration and reciprocity.

If anything, it had been the Browns who had been behaving during the game in a way that would warrant the Steelers doing something in a retaliatory mission like this. So it’s really curious to me what happened — and something happened. Something set Garrett off. Something. I’m a Steelers’ fan. But ever since I saw… You know, the Browns are on Hard Knocks on HBO. I think it was last season. The Browns have become my second favorite team.

I’ve really been hoping that they would do well — and I really did, folks. I had the highest hopes for Freddie Kitchens. I hoped the guy who had never done it before could come in and do the job. I really hoped that a guy who had never been a head coach before could come in and build on the successes of last year. But it hasn’t happened. The Browns have underperformed. They have come nowhere near meeting expectations. I’m not even talking about the preseason. The preseason hype was…

When they traded for Odell Beckham, that’s when everybody lost it. “Oh, my God, this team is in it for the Super Bowl,” and they haven’t performed anywhere near a Super Bowl. They haven’t performed anywhere near their potential this year. They’ve had some of the craziest, stupidest play calling in the red zone. They’ve had lousy red zone performance. They had the potential for an unstoppable offense and it never has materialized. Maybe that’s some of the frustration, but they were winning this game last night.

The game was in the bag. It was over. So the NFL has suspended Myles Garrett, minimum the rest of the season. I think the Browns need to cut him. They cut a player yesterday, Antonio Callaway, who was a rookie last year. He was arrested for marijuana possession last year during the preseason. They stuck with him. They gave him a chance. He served a little bit of a suspension, came back, and he had a halfway decent year last year.

Then he started showing up late for games this year and missing the meetings. He’s got a ten-game suspension. League announced a ten-game suspension for substance abuse, so he obviously found his way back to the weed — and the Browns cut him before the game yesterday. They’ve got enough wide receivers; they could cut Antonio Callaway. If they are going to cut Callaway for being late and for having problems with substance abuse, then I don’t know how they don’t cut Myles Garrett.

Something has got to happen here, because you should have seen the tweets of NFL players watching the game. To a man, none of them have ever seen anything like it. So is it a trend? Is it an indication of where the league is going? I don’t know. That’s why I would really like to know what sparked this. “Well, Rush, it was a series of things that happened during the course of the game and it all just kind of blew up with one final stroke of the pen or whatever.”

No, no. There’s got to be something more than just the simple progression of perceived injustices during the game. There’s much more to this than that. You go back to the old adage of coaching: You either coach it or you let it happen. And the Browns, one of their big problems has been a total lack of discipline on the field, and they have been allowed to get away with it. There has to be something here that caused this — and they’d better find out.

If we’re never told what it is, they better find out what it was, because I don’t think it’s… My guess is it’s not something just specific to this game. I hope that’s all it is. I hope I’m wrong about that. But I wouldn’t have a problem with a lifetime ban. They have got to make sure this is not the beginning of any kind of trend. This has to be shut down, and there can be no doubt about the intolerance. They’ve already got a problem in this game with perceptions on the part of fans about what’s going on out there on the field.

So they’ve got to get a handle on this and quickly.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, Mason Rudolph is going to be fine as well. Number 2, the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers because, and I kept asking, what is it that precipitated this? Apparently, I saw just a brief flash of a couple of seconds of this. Myles Garrett sacks Mason Rudolph and it was like the twenty-first sack of the game.

Rudolph spent the game being sacked. He was trying to rip Myles Garrett’s helmet off when they were scuffling there on the ground. I think that’s what started it. I think that’s what set Garrett off. So Mason Rudolph is at least going to get a fine. I don’t know about a suspension, but those are the rumblings coming out of the league.