RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you’re very much aware, I never make this program about me. Everybody else does that. I never do. But I have to tell you, remember way, way, way, way back when this Benghazi thing first come up, I compared it to Watergate, and I said it was worse than Watergate. Nobody died in Watergate. That is now popping up all over the place out there, people comparing this Benghazi thing to Watergate.
You know, here we’ve got four dead Americans and we still do not have an explanation for this, and it’s morphed into a sex scandal involving socialites and who knows whatever else. And of course it’s titillating, it’s a great distraction, but it isn’t getting us any answers to anything that really matters in terms of national security. Of course, the big question, what the president knew and when did he know it. 
The reason I’m leading with this is just a few minutes ago Senator McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, the senator from New Hampshire, had a press conference in which they called for a select Senate committee to investigate what happened at Benghazi. I saw Lindsey Graham, he was on Greta last night, and he made the same pitch. Now, remember, the Republicans are in the minority on this, a request for select committee to find out what happened. He said, (paraphrasing) “Well, we don’t want the House committee doing this and the Senate committee doing this, and some other committee. There’s three different ways you could go with this.” He said, “Let’s pool our resources. Let’s have one select committee of members of the House and Senate, both parties, and let’s dig into this.”
So far not one Democrat has reacted to this proposal, not one Democrat has reacted to the idea, and it was fascinating to listen to the questions that Grahamnesty and Kelly Ayotte and McCain got today. Well, I overuse the word fascinating. It wasn’t fascinating. In fact, it was utterly predictable. Now, the reporters were not miked, so I had to sit here and I had to jack up my audio potentiometer to full gain. The volume control. I have a first-class radio telephone license with the FCC. I know what a potentiometer is. That’s what we insiders call the volume control. I jacked up my potentiometer to full gain. That means all the way up. And even at that, because of my hearing disability, I was having trouble hearing, but I heard enough.
It was funny, actually. Most of the questions from the news media were pooh-poohing the need for this. The media, “What are you talking about worse than Watergate? What are you talking about? Come on, you guys, this is just –” I mean, they didn’t say this, but it was sour grapes. “You guys are just trying to still stick it to our wonderful president with your stupid little committee here. You guys just can’t accept the reality that you lost.” They didn’t say that, but that was the tone of this. And I remember the days, folks, when the media used to be curious about this kind of stuff, and when there are Republican presidents, of course, they are.
When there’s a Republican president and there’s a picture of a bunch of terrorists being made to position themselves in a pyramid in their underwear, then all hell breaks loose and we need 15 committees, and we need the attorney general, and we need the New York Times, and everybody investigate, how the hell that could happen. And we got rumors of flushing the Koran down a toilet at Club Gitmo. We gotta stop everything and pursue that. But four dead Americans in Benghazi. And, by the way, these senators are pretty good. They keep focusing on Susan Rice, how they’re gonna do everything they can to oppose her nomination to be secretary of state. They won’t be able to stop it, but they’re gonna make a big show of it.
Kelly Ayotte made the point, you don’t go on five shows unless you ask to appear on them. It’s not like she’s minding her own business and got the phone calls from all five network Sunday morning shows saying, “Hey, can you, come on?” If you’re on all five, you’re calling and you’re asking, and that means you’ve got something you want to say. And what did she say? She said it was a video. And these guys, Grahamnesty and McCain — McCain actually got mad. Somebody asked him a question, I only caught a little bit of it, McCain said, (imitating McCain) “With all due respect, that’s the dumbest question I’ve ever heard. We’re talking about socialites here, we’re — four dead Americans. Socialites. Which — what — what –” and then the guy interrupted him, and McCain said, “You want to hear what I say? You want me to answer the question, or do you just want to keep talking? It’s your choice. You tell me.”
So I cranked up the potentiometer even more. I’m really trying to hear what’s going on with this. ‘Cause it’s not often that you see McCain jump down the throat of a media person. Normally he’s jumping out a different orifice. This guy was jumping down this guy’s throat. Brian’s in there, “Oh, no, he didn’t say that, did he? We got 35 seconds to delete this.” Stick with it. Everything’s cool. I remember when the news media used to be curious about these kind of things, but they never are when there’s a Democrat president.
Now, these reporters, again, they didn’t mic themselves so people watching this could faintly hear a voice, but it was hard to hear the question. But apparently somebody compared Susan Rice’s statements blaming the videos to Condoleezza Rice being wrong about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. I kid you not. One of the reporters said, “Come on, you guys, so Susan Rice got it wrong about the video. What about Condi and weapons of mass destruction?” I mean, they’re still running the campaign. They are still doing everything they can to dismiss, to depress, to defeat Republicans. It was comical to watch this. It’s gotten to the point now that it’s just patently absurd.
I don’t know what people are expecting with this administration and with the media, but it’s gonna get worse than it has ever been. You just need to steel yourself for that. Anyway, this is what passes for hard hitting investigative journalism in Washington these days. They make a point about Susan Rice, “You don’t go on five shows unless you ask to be there.” And all three of these senators made it clear that Susan Rice was dead wrong, either she had been informed and didn’t know what she was saying was wrong or she was lying. They didn’t say lying, they said misleading on purpose.
And the media sprang to Susan Rice’s defense. And then a reporter objected to the Benghazi attack being compared to Watergate. I mean these guys are up there making their pitch here for a select committee to look into this, and at every point they make the media is arguing with them. Why not compare them? This is Watergate! I mean, what was the driving question of Watergate?
“What did the president know and when did he know it?”
Is that not the driving question of this? Not just “what did he know and when did he know it?” about Benghazi, but what did he know and when did he know it about Petraeus and his affair? It’s becoming harder and harder to believe that nobody told Obama, but they’re steadfastly maintaining that story. Little Jay Carney was out there again yesterday saying, “Well, you gotta check with the FBI. I don’t know what their procedures are for informing people.”
“You mean president didn’t know?”
“No, he didn’t know. He didn’t care. He was playing golf! He was in Las Vegas at a fundraiser. Why should the president know about this? He was having an affair. It’s what we Democrats do. Why are you so hot to trot about this?”
“Well, Petraeus is a Republican.”
“Well, maybe he was a Republican with Bush but he’s Obama’s CIA guy so he’s not really Republican anymore. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Since he’s Obama’s CIA director you could say Petraeus is Democrat now.”
“Oh, does that mean he’s entitled to have an affair?”
“Well, it doesn’t matter to us. Nobody told us about it. It isn’t any big deal. What national security secrets were released, that this babe down in Tampa thinks she’s a consul general? Well, what’s the harm?”
(laughing) Did you hear about this? (interruption) No. No. Well, she’s off the reservation, but you have to ask yourself a question here. Jill Kelley, the Tampa Bay socialite, apparently didn’t like all the media camped outside on her front yard at one of the two foreclosed properties. Now, apparently somebody at MacDill… You know, she had some sort of relationship with the military there. Groupie-like is what it was. I mean, every institution has these people, and they named her an honorary consul general.
They gave her a little paper that came out of a fax machine that says “honorary consul general.” Probably she believes it. She calls 911 and says, “By the way, I’m an honorary consul general. Do you think you can get the diplomatic corps on this to help out?” And she was dead serious! Of course the 911 guy said, “Uh, uh, sure. Right on. We’ll take care of that.” She says, “I have inviolability.” She means, “I’m not violate-able because I’m a consul general.”
You know, that reminds me. James Brown was once given the ceremonial title “The Ambassador of Soul.” Nixon might have done it or somebody at the UN, I don’t know, back in James Brown’s heyday. His wife, some weeks later, was caught doing 80 in a 50-mile-an-hour zone near Augusta in Georgia, and they pulled her over. She said, “I have diplomatic immunity. My husband’s The Ambassador of Soul,” and she meant it.” (laughing)
So, anyway, the media at this press conference today is objecting to the comparison of Benghazi to Watergate. Now, Watergate was about some third-rate burglary. It did not involve the deaths of four Americans, including a US ambassador. That did not happen in Watergate. Nobody died at Watergate. Now, Petraeus is going to testify… Is today Wednesday or Thursday? Wednesday. Petraeus is testifying Friday? Or tomorrow? No, don’t look it up. It doesn’t matter.
He’s either testifying today or tomorrow. Folks, by the way, there’s all kinds of hope that what Petraeus is gonna do is say, “Well, Benghazi was not about the video. Benghazi was not about what the president says.” Folks, if you think that Petraeus is gonna go tell a different story… Krauthammer, by the way, I’ll play a sound bite from him. Krauthammer made the claim that we alluded to on the program yesterday that the regime is holding this scandal over Petraeus’ head for favorable Benghazi testimony.
And we speculated yesterday that that may be happening. And then, what was it? Jack Keane, who’s this Fox general guy, a consultant. He’s one of their strategerists. He’s one of their many experts, and apparently he was one of Petraeus’ mentors. And they asked him today, “What do you think? What do you think Petraeus is gonna say on Friday?”
And, by the way, it’s closed-door testimony so we’re not gonna find out what he said. It’s closed door. We’re not gonna find out what he says. But General Keane said, “No, I don’t expect him to say anything other than what he said. He’s a man of integrity.” Well, what’s he said? “It was the video.” Folks, this is the kind of thing, if you think Petraeus is gonna go in… I don’t know that we’ll ever find out, or any time soon.
But if you think Petraeus is gonna go in and say, “The White House told me to say that it was the video but I went over there and I did my own investigation and I found out that video had nothing to do with it…” If you think that’s gonna be his testimony, you still haven’t got your arms around who we’re dealing with here, in Obama and the Democrats and the media and that whole complex.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ve got a couple sound bites from the press conference. McCain and Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham had their press conference, and I got a couple of sound bites, 21 and 22. And here’s one of the questions. It was very tough to hear this. “To what degree, if any, do you think the resignation of General Petraeus will impact the work that you can do, and by invoking Watergate and Iran-Contra, does that affect how people will view the process that you’re trying to effect here?”
MCCAIN: Watergate, nobody died; and Iran-Contra, nobody died. I think it’s very clear that there will be some resistance. There was resistance to the 9/11 Commission that Senator Lieberman and I had the resolution on. There was resistance to Watergate commission. There was resistance to Iran-Contra. The party in power never likes to have a select committee. But I’m hopeful that the American people will demand it, and I am guardedly optimistic that they will achieve that goal. The families deserve it, among other people.
RUSH: He’s guardedly optimistic. Do you really think that the Democrats are gonna agree to a select committee on this? There’s no way. Folks, again, they’re circling the wagons around Obama here. There is not gonna be one kernel of truth of what happened in Benghazi come out of any of this. It ain’t going to happen. I mean, within two weeks of Obama being reelected, do you think they’re gonna open the doors and the floodgates for people to go in and get to Obama? Isn’t gonna happen.
Next question. “Senator, do you think there’s potentially a greater national security threat in apparently thousands of pages of classified documents ending up on the personal computer of a Tampa socialite who’s a friend of the head of the CIA, of secret covert e-mail accounts involving the head of the CIA and a top general in Afghanistan and the fact that the FBI agent stepped out of the chain of command apparently, went to a House Republican leader rather than anybody else. You put all that together, do you think that’s a potential greater national security threat than what you’re talking about in Benghazi?”
MCCAIN: Well, I say with great respect, that’s one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever heard.
REPORTER: (unintelligible)
MCCAIN: Okay? There’s four dead Americans. There’s four dead Americans. Not a socialite, not a socialite.
REPORTER: (unintelligible)
MCCAIN: I’m answering your question, okay? Do you want me to answer your question or you want to interrupt? Which do you want?
REPORTER: (unintelligible)
MCCAIN: Okay. There’s four dead Americans. The lives of other Americans were put in jeopardy. This is a matter of four dead Americans. I think that the other issue raised is very serious, and I think it deserves a thorough and complete investigation.
RUSH: Okay, stop, stop, stop, stop. Here what’s happening. McCain, Grahamnesty, Ayotte, want a select committee into Benghazi of the House and Senate. Put ’em all together; let’s get to the bottom of this. There are four dead Americans. The media guy said, “Wait a minute! You really think that is more important than finding out about Petraeus and the affair and the e-mails between the general and the socialite?”
And McCain said (impression), “With all due respect, that’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard. Nobody died this Petraeus thing! Nobody died.” But the media really tried to say, “Benghazi is chump change compared to what happened here. You’re just trying to distract from it!”