Romney's Presidential Response to TerrorSeptember 12, 2012
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH But remember now, it's Romney who's really not behaving properly here. Let's listen to Romney. This is this morning in Jacksonville. Audio sound bite number four is where we're starting here as I cue the broadcast engineer. It's the first of three bites that we have.
ROMNEY: This attack on American individuals and embassies is outrageous. It's disgusting. It breaks the hearts of all of us who think of these people who have served, during their lives, the cause of freedom and justice and honor. We mourn their loss and join together in prayer that the spirit of the Almighty might comfort the families of those who have been so brutally slain.
RUSH: Well, so Romney called the acts of violence "outrageous" and "disgusting." Obama didn't use those words when he talked about it. Obama didn't get anywhere near describing what happened that way. Here's more from Romney...
ROMNEY: The embassy in Cairo put out a statement after their grounds had been breached; protesters were inside the grounds. They reiterated that statement after the breach. I think it's a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values; that instead -- when our grounds are being attacked and being breached -- that the first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of the sovereignty of our nation. An apology for America's values is never the right course.
RUSH: No. That's what this statement is, and they stood by it later. Embassy Cairo stood by it. The White House threw them under the bus. They said (summarized), "Oh, that's not us. They spoke on their own. We didn't, uh... We didn't say that." They took it back. Then after that, Embassy Cairo said, "Well, maybe, but we stand by the fact that we don't like Americans saying things that hurt the feelings of Muslims." They stood by it.
I don't have time to read this to you, but I also read this last night. Militant Islamists got into tweet chats with people inside our embassy, and the militant Islamists were saying, "Look, you are justifying what we did," and the people inside our embassy were not disagreeing with them. The militant Islamists are doing tweet chats with people inside our embassy, whoever issued the statement. Again, I can't read it to you. It's not structured in a way that makes sense to read it. Maybe we can link to it at the website.
Here is one more from Romney...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5f0IC3tWyUROMNEY: The White House also issued a statement saying it tried to distance itself from those comments and said they were not reflecting of their views. I had the exact same reaction. These views were inappropriate. They were the wrong course to take. It's their administration. Their administration spoke. The president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth, but also for the words that come from his ambassadors, from his administration, from his embassies, from his State Department. The statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology, and I think was a severe miscalculation.
RUSH: It wasn't "akin" to an apology; it was an apology -- and it was an apology before the fact. It was an apology before the fact. Folks, I'm gonna tell you something else. This action yesterday did not happen because of a movie, and it did not happen because of a preacher in Gainesville or anywhere else. That was simply the excuse. These Islamists know what they're doing, and they know what we'll fall for, and they know what this administration will fall for and guzzle up. This administration is eager to blame this country and people who live in this country, and the militant Islamists know it.
They were coordinating this for 9/11.
There was coordination on this long before word of this movie hit. That has nothing to do with it, in the real world.
You know it and I know it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Well, here's the latest news on the attacks on our embassy and consulate in Egypt and Libya. "Intelligence experts and US government officials are starting to view the attack in Libya that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi as a coordinated attack. Sources have said they believe it was a planned operation and have pointed out several developments that seem to support the possibility."
Nooooo! Really?
You mean it just wasn't spontaneous 'cause of what happened in Egypt? The hell, you say! We don't need a news report to tell us what's going on! We are dealing with Islamic supremacists who believe that their way is the only way (that's what the "supremacist" angle is), and that way is Sharia. And if you don't abide by it, then the Koran gives them license to do whatever to you.
We sit around and we kid ourselves if we want actually try to make ourselves believe that this wouldn'ta happened if some American wasn't making a movie, that this wouldn'ta happened if some preacher in Gainesville weren't mouthing off. This administration has agents that want you to believe that, that this would not-a happened. The Arab Spring, what was it supposed to be? The outbreak of democracy. It was the coming to fruition of the democracy project. Oh, yeah! It was spreading democracy to the Middle East.
The Muslim Brotherhood? We were told, "Yeah, they're the good guys. We have a good relationship with the Muslim Bros. They're like the corner bakery in the neighborhood." We actually have people in this administration who believe that. Meanwhile, again (and not to be too repetitive), all of this is Mitt Romney's fault. All of this happened, this embarrassing statement from our embassy, and they shift the blame to whether or not Romney is right or even allowed to criticize Obama.
And that's because Romney looked presidential.
You know what I was prepared to do today? I spent a lot of time on something last night. I was starting to get frustrated, angry, whatever. I really thought when Romney picked Ryan, that that signaled a huge shift in campaign strategy and direction, and I thought it meant, "They're going for the gold, and they're gonna be hard hitting, and they're gonna tie Obama to his record, and they're gonna make ideology a part of the campaign," and I was wrong.I was prepared to come in here and read them the riot act and tell them what they need to do to revive this campaign.
We ought to be 15 points ahead.
You know, it's one thing to look at the polls and say, "Oh, wow, Obama's lost his bounce," and so forth. Look, I've tried to keep on the straight and narrow here and keep everything in perspective by not going off the deep end or not getting artificially falsely positive as I discussed yesterday. We ought to be leading here by ten points, 15 points. Obama ought not be in this race, and there could be a way to make that happen even with the media. But he's gonna have to be tied to his record.
This notion that he's a nice guy in over his head has gotta go. It just has to go. The fear of tying Obama to the gas price, to the lack of oil production, to the coming financial collapse? We simply have to! It's got to happen. We cannot win this otherwise. I don't think we can win this if our objective is to give wavering Obama voters permission to vote against him.
We tried the McCain way.
We've tried the Republican establishment way.
We've tried the way that doesn't anger the moderates, and that doesn't tick off the independents. We've tried that and it never works. The last two landslide conservative presidential wins were Ronald Reagan. What's important about that is not so much I'm hearkening back to Reagan and trying to turn Romney into one, 'cause that's not possible. That's not what I'm doing. But the point is, it's conservatism that triumphs.
Do you know what somebody said to me the other day?
"Rush, there's something you're forgetting."
I said, "Yeah, what's that?"
"Well, the makeup of the population, demographics in 1980 and '84 were quite different than they are today."
"Oh, yeah? How?"
"Well, look at the white population in 1980 and '84. What was it, Rush? It was about 90% of the country, and now it's 74%. That's a huge difference."
I said, "What does that matter?"
"Well, conservatism can't be the focal point of the campaign."
"What, are only white people conservative?" I asked. "That's where you people are off the rails. Only white people can be conservatives? Is that what you're thinking?" These are Romneyites. Not part of the campaign, just Romney supporters who are afraid of angering the independents. "You think only white people are conservative? You think Reagan's appeal was racial? You sound like a Democrat and think Reagan won because some ancient adherence to the Southern Strategy!
"Reagan won because he was real. He believed in America. He told people he was gonna make it great again come out of a disastrous four years of Jimmy Carter and Watergate before that. He did it optimistically and he did it harmlessly, but he tied Jimmy Carter to that performance of his. He made it clear that the country was in dire straits because of Jimmy Carter." That's what Romney has to do. We can't leave it up to people to figure it out.
We can't rely on the American people to see it for themselves just because they're living it. There are some factors that can't be denied. Yes, he's the first black president. Yes, that's historical. Yes, the Bradley Effect is still in play. Yes, people still want to vote for him 'cause he's black because it inoculates them from the charge of racism. All of that is still in play, but we've got serious circumstances that face this country. Our future is dire, and you and I all know it. We're looking at a coming financial collapse of this country.
This cannot go on. It can be stopped, however.
Anyway, I was all prepared to do perhaps two monologues on this today. And I might yet still get into it, touch on it. But the situation on the ground, as they say, has changed a little bit, what with this series of events in the Middle East. Because today Romney is the only guy looking presidential. Romney's the only guy who looks like he understands what went wrong, what went right, and what shouldn't be happening now.
Romney looks like he's the only adult in the room. And, as such, everybody has their crosshairs trained on him, and I don't think that it'd be productive to get into what I would consider to be campaign advice. But I'm gonna do it at some point (out of a desire to help). I don't understand the reluctance... Well, as I say... (sigh) I'm too literal. I do understand the reluctance to be critical of Obama. But I don't understand it at the same time.
I understand why they are, but I don't understand the fear, and I don't understand being governed by the fear of tying Obama to his record. I don't understand it why. These... (sigh) These are supposedly the best of the best. These are the professionals, the best professionals Republican Party has to offer. (Supposedly.) I don't understand what they're afraid of. I mean, I do but I don't. This is my contradiction: I do but I don't. I understand what they're afraid of.
I think they're fools for being afraid. I don't know why they actually are. I don't know why they can't look at history and see that the Steve Schmidt/John McCain way of running a campaign didn't work. You look at 2010. I keep going back to 2010 in my mind, the midterms. What happened? It was huge landslide, ladies and gentlemen, and it was a landslide all the way down the ballot. Local Democrats lost. They lost over 700 seats all over the country, from Congress all the way down to town council.
I mean, it was a shellacking.
And there wasn't a Republican candidate that anybody was voting for. There wasn't any presidential race going on. What was it? Well, it was the Tea Party, but people were voting against Obama as fast as they could and everything he stood for. They were voting against stimulus. They were voting against health care. They were voting to stop what was happening. Because the first two years, 2009-2010, Obama could not be stopped. Republicans didn't have the votes anywhere to stop him.
So theoretically, had they played their cards right, they could have had anything they wanted. Nobody could have stopped 'em. The American people saw that, and in 2010 finally the votes were on the Republican side of the House because of those elections. In the midterm elections, the Republicans took back control of the House of Representatives. It was major. And why the Romney people don't see what happened two years ago and want to build on that -- figure out what it was that happened and build on it -- rather than go back and rerun the McCain campaign? (sigh)
But there's a time and a place for everything, and today is actually a day to praise Romney for his guts and his courage for coming out, knowing full well what was gonna happen to him, sounding presidential, acting presidential. We even got Republican strategists, my friends, and consultants, even on Fox, who were condemning him for doing what he did, saying, "Well, there's only one president, you know, politics ends at the water's edge." The cliches just keep on coming. "Sometimes saying nothing is better than saying anything."
And every time I hear this, I do, I hearken back to 1980, and now with what happened in the Middle East yesterday, we've got some similarities to 1979. In fact, the Republicans back then were not holding back. They tied Carter to his record. Every day they tied Carter to his record, over and over and over again. Romney didn't even have to act presidential today. He just came off that way. A couple more sound bites. I think we're up to number five, if I'm right. Yeah. This is the reporters. Unidentified reporter said, "The statement last night was very roughly worded. Do you regret the tone at all given what we know now?"
ROMNEY: The embassy in Cairo put out a statement after their grounds had been breached. Protesters were inside the grounds. They reiterated that statement after the breach. I think it's a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values. That instead, when our grounds are being attacked and being breached, that the first response in the United States must be outrage at the breach of the sovereignty of our nation, and apology for America's values is never the right course.
RUSH: And that's what Embassy Cairo did. Again, they apologized before anything had happened. They apologized preemptively. For those of you in Rio Linda, it's before it happened. Remember, after 9/11 it wasn't long, maybe a month after 9/11, Bush State Department, career State Department people wanted to do a forum to find out why they hate us. In other words, what have we done to make them attack us like they did? It was our fault. Our State Department. You can't convince me we don't have people in the State Department in Cairo in that embassy who actually thought that if we put out an apology for this guy doing the movie, without naming him, and for the preacher, Terry Jones, without naming him, if we put out an apology, that will mollify 'em and they won't attack.
That's the direct result of kids going to school being taught conflict resolution. We had people in our embassy issuing an apology statement. A, they think this country's wrong. They're apologizing for Americans exercising their own rights of free speech. And the purpose of the apology, I'm convinced, they thought the militant Islamists would say, "Oooh, America's sorry, they're on our side; okay, we won't attack." I'm convinced. And now, finally, the bright lights have gone off and intelligence experts and government officials are starting, it says here now, starting to view the attack in Libya that killed the ambassador there, Chris Stevens, as a coordinated attack. Yes. I wonder what their first clue was.
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RUSH: Charleston, South Carolina. Daniel, is that right? Great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Yes, sir, it is. It's an honor to speak to you, sir.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: Hey, I wanted to make a comment regarding the politics stops at the water's edge. I think Obama's a little bit hypocritical to criticize Romney over that, considering during his '08 campaign he made a so-called landmark trip around Europe and several other countries, making all sorts of promises and trying to be as presidential as possible before he was even elected.
RUSH: That's very, very true. I want to be very precise about something. Obama himself has not said anything about Romney saying things and acting presidential. Obama's agents are doing that. The media, David Gregory, Joe Klein, all of the press that was gathered with Romney in Jacksonville. They're the ones who are saying it. Obama is relying on his agents, but you're exactly right. In the 2008 campaign, there was Barack Obama in Berlin. (imitating Obama) "Citizens of Berlin, I am your future world leader." No question that's what he was doing. He was acting presidential.
Remember the story we got during the economic crisis when McCain suspended his campaign and everybody headed to the White House for a meeting. President Bush, McCain was in there, Obama was in there, chairman of Federal Reserve, figure out what they were gonna do. And the media put out the story that the oh-so-competent and the oh-so-capable Barack Obama finally, after a while, couldn't take it anymore and just took over the meeting and if it weren't for Obama, nothing woulda happened in that meeting. Everybody was dillydallying around, but there was Obama, he took control. Bush didn't know what he was doing. McCain didn't know what he was doing. Obama took control and we had a policy. It was perfectly fine for Obama to be acting presidential when he was just a candidate. That's a good reminder, Daniel.
This is Bo in Grafton, Wisconsin. Nice to have you. Thank you for waiting and welcome to the big program.
CALLER: Thank you Mr. Limbaugh. I appreciate it. It's really an honor to speak with you.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: You've been quite an inspiration to all of us.
RUSH: I appreciate that. I really do.
CALLER: The question is, how did the embassy know that the reason for the attack was a YouTube video? Did someone call the office while they were climbing the wall? I mean, were they chanting "YouTube infidel" as they were climbing the wall?
RUSH: This is an excellent question. The US embassy in Cairo. How did they know, why were they apologizing for the actions of Americans which hurt the feelings of militant Islamists before anything happened? That's a great question. Being charitable, we could say, "Well, Embassy Cairo felt confident that militant Islamists were gonna hear about this video and were gonna go batty about it." But it's still a good question. How did the embassy know that would be the reason given for the attack? An excellent question. I'm glad you called, Bo. Thank you very much.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: From CNN: "A pro-al Qaeda group responsible for a previous armed assault on the US Consulate in Benghazi is the chief suspect in Tuesday's attack that killed the US ambassador to Libya, sources tracking militant Islamist groups in eastern Libya say. They also note that the attack immediately followed a call from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri for revenge for the death in June of a senior Libyan member of the terror group Abu Yahya al-Libi."
So Libya was the result of a call by Zawahiri for action. It had nothing to do with the movie. It had nothing to do with the preacher. Now, I don't know if you saw the Obama press availability that took place around 11 a.m., sometime between 10:30 and 11. When Obama finished, somebody in the press corps shouted, "Is this an act of war?" Obama didn't answer. He turned his back on the press "corpse" (as he would say), put his arm around part of Mrs. Clinton (as much as he could), and they walked back into the Oval Office.
Now, why shouldn't we be able to get answers to simple questions?
"Is this an act of war?"
Was what happened in Libya, the killing of our ambassador, an act of war? Don't forget this central element: Our ambassador was taken, according to procedure, to a supposedly secure location when the attack started. But our "friends" -- our friends in Libya who transported our ambassador -- then told the mob where he was, and that's how the mob was able to go kill him and commit the acts of violence on the additional three. So somebody shouts to the president, "Is this an act of war?"
Obama just turns around, walks away, and doesn't answer. Why shouldn't we be able to get answers to simple questions from this president? Remember The Daily Caller guy a few months ago who dared to call out a question when Obama was about to end one of these appearances? The media was standing there. They attacked him and chased him all the way down to Washington Monument. I forget the guy's name. It was a Daily Caller guy.
He asked a question, and the media turned on him for being disrespectful to the president, for being disrespectful to The One. Meanwhile, Romney is out there answering questions, and the media is ganging up on him. It's a great example of the corruption that exists in the media in this country. Now they're tweeting. I mentioned to you earlier that David Gregory, the host of Meet the Press and others, are tweeting. They're piling on. They're not questioning how this could happen, the reaction, statements, the confusion.
No, no!
They're all focused on how inappropriate it is to them that Romney dared to talk about any of this. They don't care. There hasn't been one question of Obama about this. He goes out, gives his little statement; he and Hillary walk away. Not one question! Well, the media shouted one question: "Is this an act of war?" He hasn't answered one question about it. Romney has, and Romney is the enemy. Romney's the guy that's gotta be taken out. By the way, Romney's response was basically the same as the vast majority of Americans who love this country.
What Romney said is: What the hell kind of statement is our government issuing once again, apologizing for our country, apologizing for our way of life, apologizing for our free speech? That's what that statement from the Embassy Cairo yesterday was: An advance apology before anything had ever happened! We don't owe anybody an apology for who we are. We don't owe anybody an apology for our First Amendment. We don't owe anybody an apology because we have free speech.
I thought Romney's comments are quintessentially American, and the Obama administration's reaction here was not. Their first reaction was to go after Romney, not go after the attackers -- and, of course, that told the media which way to go. When the White House and the campaign came out and attack Romney, that's the signal to the media: "Okay, that's where we want you to go. You hit Romney." And they did.
Romney took questions. Go back to the audio sound bites. This in Jacksonville, Florida. CBS correspondent Jan Crawford said, "Governor Romney, do you think, coming so soon after the events really had unfolded overnight was appropriate?" Do you think you're appropriate here, Governor Romney, speaking out so soon? Do you think it's appropriate for you, sir, "to be weighing in on this as the crisis is unfolding in real time?"
ROMNEY: The White House also issued a statement saying it tried to distance itself from those comments and said they were not reflecting of their views. I had the exact same reaction. These views were inappropriate; they were the wrong course to take. It's their administration. Their administration spoke. The president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth, but also from the words that come from his ambassadors, from his administration, from his embassies, from his State Department, and the statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology and I think was a severe miscalculation.
RUSH: And he went on to explain why it is appropriate to criticize Obama now...
ROMNEY: We have a campaign for the presidency of the United States and they're speaking about the different courses we would each take with regards to the challenges that the world faces. The president and I, for instance, have differences of opinion with regards to Israel and our policies there. With regards to Iran, with regards to Afghanistan, with regards to Syria. We have many places of distinction and differences. It's also important for me -- just as it was for the White House last night, by the way -- to say that the statements were inappropriate and, in my view, a disgraceful statement on the part of our administration to apologize for American values.
RUSH: Damn straight. Another unidentified reporter asked, "Governor, can you talk about why specifically you're better qualified than President Obama?"
ROMNEY: My foreign policy has three fundamental branches. First, confidence in our cause; a recognition that the principles America was based upon are not something we shrink from or apologize for. The second is clarity in our purpose. Which is that when we have a foreign policy objective, we describe it honestly and clearly to the American people, the Congress, and to the people of the world. And number three, is resolve in our might that in those rare circumstances where we decide it's essential for us to apply military might, that we do so with overwhelming force, that we do so in the clarity of a mission, understanding the nature of the US interests involved, understanding when the mission would be complete.
RUSH: That’s exactly the way it used to be. There nothing vague about it. There's nothing "jumping the gun" about it. That is a simple statement and articulation of the way it's always been in American foreign policy, and what's different and perverted and corrupt is our foreign policy today. I defy anybody to explain it. I defy you. Do you know what our foreign policy is? "We have this charismatic, messianic guy that you love so much that you're not gonna mess with him."
Of course, look what's happening around the world, in regards to militant Islam and the United States. We've got a rank amateur. With all due respect, in terms of experience, we have a rank amateur, and the bad guys of the world are laughing themselves to sleep every night talking about the clear road they've got. Can you imagine a guy like Zawahiri? Here's Zawahiri in his cave in Pakistan or wherever, and he sees that Obama's embassy apologizes for its country before anything happens?
Zawahiri is saying, "I wish Sheik Bin Laden were alive to see this! The United States, the evil Satan -- the big, bad mama -- is apologizing to us in advance of anything we might do!" That might even make him want to have a glass of champagne, and those guys don't consume adult beverages (that anybody knows about). Folks, this is a joke. Can you imagine the Muslim Brotherhood? They're sitting around saying, "Do you realize how easy this was? We have some people raise hell in Tahrir Square. We got this idiot CNN reporter out there asking people what they think of Obama.
Meanwhile, we're getting rid of Mubarak, sending him to the insane asylum in a hospital bed. We're taking over the country and Obama's praising us as the neighborhood grocery store owners. This is the easiest takeover in the history of the world. And then they're laughing about what's going on in Iran. They're laughing about what's going on in Syria, while all of their crosshairs are aimed at Israel, who Obama doesn't have time for. Obama's sitting here thinking the world thinks he's The Messiah, the world thinks he's the smartest, greatest guy that's ever been around. He sits there living this illusion that everybody thinks of him the way he thinks of himself. In the meantime, everybody's laughing at him -- and don't think they're not -- when our statement department issues an apology for American citizens before anything has happened.
Yeah, here it is again. "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo." This on the website. It's official. "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals --" that's Americans, is what they mean. "-- to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims." Now, I can't get past that, just to read the rest of this. "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.
"Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy," except the Catholic Church and abortion. "We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others," except for Catholics in America. We will not only hurt their feelings, we will make them violate their most sacred religious beliefs, under threat of government punishment.
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