RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, we talk about the mainstream media on this program a lot. I oftentimes talk in a very celebratory manner about how we busted up the media monopoly. In 1988 when this program started, this was the only national media program that featured an alternative point of view: Conservatism. Everywhere else it was identical.
It was the same. You had the three networks and you had the big newspapers and the magazines. The only cable network was CNN. Starting in 1988, the success of this program then bred additional radio talk shows — then Fox News, then the blogosphere — to the point their monopoly is gone. They don’t have the monopoly. But they still have, sadly, an incredible amount of power.
I think people… Not that you do, but I think there’s some people on our side of the aisle who, because their monopoly’s gone, don’t take quite as seriously as they should the real benefit to Obama of having these people in the tank for him. It’s huge. Well, I’m here to tell you that if this media was in any way what they pretend to be — if they were objective — Obama wouldn’t be anywhere near where he is. Really.
There are people in this country — and they vote, and there are sizeable number of them — who still only watch the three network nightly newscasts and only read the newspapers. That’s it. They do not avail themselves of the New Media, what I call “partisan media.” I don’t mean that in derogatory way, but we obviously have a point of view here. So I’d call myself “partisan media.” They don’t pay attention to it. Some don’t even know it exists. So I’d call myself partisan media.
They don’t pay attention to it. Some don’t even know it exists. If they do, they don’t, for whatever reason, want any part of it, or the left either. They think that the Drive-By Media is it, still fair, balanced, the whole thing, and it’s their Bible, and there are a lot of them. And I’m telling you it is a huge advantage for Obama. It’s major. So when something happens there that goes against Obama, it has the potential to be just as huge as all the support, and that’s what this CNN interview is. The CNN interview with the mother of one of slain Americans in Benghazi is a powerful thing, and it’s the kind of thing if it would happen every day — and there’s opportunities for it every day. If this media were not in the tank for Obama and hadn’t been all along, it would be an entirely different world that we live in. It would be an entirely different country.
I always like to say I’m doing the job they used to do, which is true. You get more sides of an issue presented to you on this show than you do in the mainstream media. But, by the same token, if they weren’t doing what they’re doing, market-wise there wouldn’t be a place for me. So I’m kinda torn. When we come back we’ll start with the audio sound bites of this mother of the slain American, and you realize this thing aired on CNN. That is gonna have far much more impact than if it aired on Fox.
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RUSH: Folks, this is very hard to listen to. It’s tear-jerking. It’s also gonna make you mad. It’s going to infuriate you. This is last night on Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN. He interviewed Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, computer specialist killed at the US consulate in Benghazi. Anderson Cooper said, “Who told you that they would give you information about Sean’s death?”
SMITH: Obama told me. Hillary promised me. They promised me. I told them, “Please, tell me what happened, just tell me what happened.” I told them, “Please, don’t give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff.” And I still don’t know. In fact, today I just heard something more that he died of smoke inhalation. I look at TV and I see bloody handprints on walls thinking, my God, is that my son’s? They haven’t told me anything. They’re still studying it, and the things that they are telling me are just outright lies. That Susan Rice, she talked to me personally, and she said, “This is the way it was, it was because of this film that came out.”
RUSH: They’re purposely lying to this mother. Their son died because of this movie. Their son did not die because of a movie. He died because of a terror attack that our consulate was not prepared for. It’s no more complicated than that. Who is this woman, Pat Smith? She’s an American. Her son is killed in action. She’s a real woman. You know, these people, Obama, Susan Rice, everybody, the political class, the elites, whatever they want, they can have. The House dining room, Senate dining room, get whatever they want, doesn’t cost much. Health care, they don’t have to worry about it. Take an Air Force plane to fly home, Air Force One, what have you.
These are people that get thrilled in life over things that the political class in this country takes for granted. The political class probably makes fun of going to McDonald’s or Olive Garden. To these people it might be a treat. These are real Americans. I mean, this woman, who knows what her economic circumstances are. But her son’s dead, killed in action because this government did not care enough or wasn’t smart enough to take adequate security precautions at an embassy on 9/11. When family sees its son or daughter go off to the military, the one thing that they always trust is that their country’s looking out for ’em, that their government’s personally invested because they so appreciate the gesture, the volunteering that takes place when people join the military.
These are real people. Their lives are not glamorous. They’re probably very hard right now, most people’s lives are. They don’t have time to be worried about focus groups and how they look on television and whether or not they were polite enough in the debate or whatever. The political class lives in an entirely different universe, and it’s one of privilege and entitlement compared to the people who make this country work and to the people who have as members of their family volunteers who join the military, to defend and protect everybody else. All this woman wants to know — she’s not asking for anything. She just wants to know what happened. Why is her son dead? How did it happen? And they still have the gall to tell her it’s a video.
She knows that she’s not getting the truth from Hillary, from Obama, from Susan Rice. This, to me, is horrible. I have sympathy for this woman. I also have empathy, and I feel anger for people just like her. I don’t think many in the political class, and clearly the elites in the Washington-New York-Boston corridor, I don’t think they know what people’s lives are like. I don’t think they know what people go through. I don’t think all this compassion and concern they claim to have, I don’t see any evidence of it. Anderson Cooper then said, “Susan Rice told you personally she thought it was the result of the video, of the protest?”
SMITH: Oh, absolutely. In fact, all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this, and he says, “Trust me, I will tell you what happened,” and so far he’s told me nothing, nothing at all. And I want to know. I cried on Obama’s shoulder, and then he kind of looked off into the distance, so that was worthless to me. I want to know, for God’s sakes, or for Allah’s sake or whoever’s sake is there.
RUSH: What happened to her son? She can’t get a straight answer. When they tell her something, she knows it isn’t true. It’s all political with these people. Anyway, this on CNN, this matters. This doesn’t happen on CNN or anywhere else in the mainstream media very much. Do not discount the impact this has, and we’ve got more of it, so sit tight.
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RUSH: I want to go back to the top. I’m gonna play all three of these sound bites, Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, computer specialist killed at the US consulate in Benghazi along with our ambassador. She was on CNN last night, and what she said is infuriating. The administration will not tell her what happened to her son. The administration is lying. They continue to blame what happened to him on a video.
Folks, it’s simple unacceptable.
This kind of stuff really bothers me. I’m struggling to try to explain to you why, but it has to do with the fact that I don’t think that these people have a genuine and true appreciation or understanding for people like the Smiths. In fact, most of the people in this country. We’re sitting here just north of an economic depression, and as far as the media and Obama is concerned, the world still is about him. Everything’s about him.
It’s about his debate performance and why it was so bad. It’s about Biden tonight. Everything’s about them. The media makes everything about them. The media makes everything about Obama. They all together get together and make everything about them. They think they’re the most important things in the world. They think they’re the sun and everybody else revolves around them, when they’re nothing without people like this family.
They’re nothing.
They couldn’t do what this family does and has done, and people like them.
You can call them “the silent majority,” whatever. I call them “the people that make the country work,” the people that are not seeking fame. They’re not trying to get noticed. They’re doing everything they can to play by the rules that they have believed from generation to generation to generation are right thing to do. How to succeed in life. How to raise kids. Knowing that nobody’s perfect.
But they’re out there doing, in many cases, the work that most people wouldn’t do. They volunteer for duty that most people don’t volunteer for, and I think they’re taken for granted by way too many people in our upper echelon elites. Let me try to explain this if I can. I’ll get personal. I’ve been very lucky. Economically, I’ve been blessed and more fortunate than I ever dreamed or anybody in my family ever thought possible.
I try every day to make sure that I don’t take any of it for granted, in my own way. Like my job. I’m working harder at it than ever. I haven’t yet phoned it in. The reasons are personal, but it’s also that I have a proper work ethic. A lot of it is audience expectations. People are investing a lot of time and money in this program. They’re owed respect. I like sharing my passions with people. I like sharing the things that I love with people.
Particularly those that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to have some of the things that I have. I’ve got a prize closet back there that’s filled with Apple stuff. I’ve got some iPhone 5s that I’m waiting for the right time to give away. I’ve got some computers and iPads and so forth, and you’ve heard me give them away here. You know, every time — every time — we give one of these away, the people that receive them are just blown away, happy, appreciative.
That’s what makes it all worth it. A lot of the people would never have any of this stuff. They can’t afford it, not in this economy. Most people cannot do the things Obama can do or anybody in the political class or even I can do. Yet, they’re the ones — many of them are you, in this audience. You’re the ones that really make the country work. I’m still… I don’t know the word.
I’m in awe or impressed or affected deeply when I see how something that, to me, could very easily be taken for granted means everything to somebody else. It means everything to ’em. I’ll give you an example. We had one of our tea contest winners, the people that won of the contest sweepstakes. They came to watch the program for a day, and that night a bunch of tea staff took ’em to dinner at a local restaurant.
That was not part of the deal. I was not gonna go to that, ’cause I can’t hear at those things, and it’d be frustrating for everybody. But I dropped in, and there were eight of them there, eight couples, and I had eight iPhones left. So I grabbed the eight iPhones, and I went over there, and I gave ’em the iPhones, and they started — a couple, three or four of them — started crying.
To me it was easy as heck to give away that iPhone. It was no sweat off my back. But to see how they appreciate it… I don’t know, folks. It’s one of the things that keeps me grounded. And I don’t think… How can you lie to a mother whose son has been killed in service to you, your administration, your country? How can you do that? How can you be so cavalier as to treat even that as just the next thing in a series of political events that you want to try to massage to your benefit?
I don’t understand the callousness of that. I can’t relate to the… “Callousness” isn’t the word. I don’t know what the word is. But to not even see the humanity of people, to just see a political opportunity here? Here we have somebody, a guy who volunteered to defend his country. He’s at a consulate on 9/11. He’s not adequately protected, not allowed to be armed. The administration has tried to secure his safety and the ambassador with locally hired “bodyguards.”
And the job application says it gives preference to “same-sex domestic partners.” So if you engage in same-sex behavior or marriage, that’s fine. You can still apply. But they’re not even professionals. They’re just local, quote/unquote, “bodyguards.” It’s 9/11, the anniversary of 9/11, and you don’t ramp up for it? And then all hell breaks loose. Your ambassador dies and three other Americans with him.
And you start this cheap explanation that it was a video that made it happen when there was no evidence of it. And after everybody knows there’s no evidence, you continue to tell the mother of one of the four dead Americans that it was a video? You lie to her face? Believe me, folks, I just can’t relate to this. The cynicism! This woman is nothing? I don’t know that they see it that way, but they’d better not.
They’d better not look at this woman or her son as nothing. They wouldn’t be where they are without people like this. Yeah. There were bigger things at stake. By the way, this does not stop at Obama. I don’t mean to be just indicting Obama here. I think the entire political class is so distant from the way most people in this country really live, I don’t think they have the foggiest idea. They’re just pawns to be moved around on the chessboard, and, “Who can we give what to secure their vote?”
I mean, it’s the most cynical view of people, and these are the people around us who we are told have all the compassion, and they’re the ones we are told really care. They care. How do you lie like this? I’m gonna play these sound bites pretty much back-to-back. It’s Pat Smith, and it’s her son who died next to the ambassador in Libya. Anderson Cooper was talking to her last night on CNN. First question: “Who told you that they would give you information about your son’s death?”
SMITH: Obama told me. Hillary promised me. They promised me. I told them, “Please, tell me what happened, just tell me what happened.” I told them, “Please, don’t give me any baloney that comes through with this political stuff.” And I still don’t know. In fact, today I just heard something more that he died of smoke inhalation. I look at TV and I see bloody handprints on walls thinking, my God, is that my son’s? They haven’t told me anything. They’re still studying it, and the things that they are telling me are just outright lies. That Susan Rice, she talked to me personally, and she said, “This is the way it was, it was because of this film that came out.”
RUSH: Anderson Cooper says, “So [Susan Rice] told you personally that she thought it was a result of the video, of the protest?”
SMITH: Oh, absolutely. In fact, all of them did. All of them did. Leon Panetta actually took my face in his hands like this, and he says, “Trust me, I will tell you what happened,” and so far he’s told me nothing, nothing at all. And I want to know. I cried on Obama’s shoulder, and then he kind of looked off into the distance, so that was worthless to me. I want to know, for God’s sakes, or for Allah’s sake or whoever’s sake is there.
RUSH: What is this Obama “look[ing] off into the distance”? What, was he trying to find a camera, or was he posing for a camera like Bill Clinton did on the way in to Ron Brown’s memorial? He was laughing and yukking it up with some preacher from Pennsylvania and sees the camera and starts crying within a half a step. Anderson Cooper can’t believe what he’s hearing here. He says, “You deserve answers, Ms. Smith.”
SMITH: I think so. I believe I do. I believe it. It’s my son. I told Obama personally, I said, “Look, I had him for his first 17 years, and then he went into the service, then you got him.” And I won’t say it the way I said it, but I said, “You screwed up. You didn’t do a good job. I lost my son.” And they said, “We’ll get back to you. I promise, I promise you, I will get back to you.” Or “trust me.” I like that one the best of all. “Trust me. I will let you know.” Well, I don’t trust you anymore. I’m not gonna say you lied to me, but you didn’t tell me, and you knew.
RUSH: That’s the thing. They know what happened, and they won’t tell her because they can’t afford for it to get out and be in conflict with the political story that they’ve told, which is the video. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama blamed a video while the caskets carrying the bodies of the four dead were laying right next to ’em in that hangar in Dover, Delaware. They lied even with the caskets five feet away, that it was a video that did it. I don’t know what it says, but obviously there’s not a whole lot of respect for this woman among the people she’s talking to in the administration.
But to me, folks, it’s unacceptable. You heard her. It’s my son! Seventeen years. Was he a hero? Did he die for a purpose that helped America? Do you know the kind of things this woman wants to know? She doesn’t want to hear that he was defenseless, wasn’t properly secured. The ambassador’s family’s gotta be the same way, but they’re probably more attuned to playing the political game.
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RUSH: I think Obama went to bed early the night of the attack, because he had to get up the next day and jet off to Vegas. He had to go to a fundraiser in Las Vegas and then double back and appear on Letterman and then do a fundraiser with Jay-Z. And Pat Smith still doesn’t know what happened to her son in Benghazi. But gotta make sure Obama gets to his fundraising, make sure all that stuff happens. And how did the appearance on Letterman go? You think he did okay on Letterman? Boy, really looked good there. How about that fundraiser with Jay-Z? Boy, Obama, he’s got that racial angle covered, doesn’t he? That guy’s smart.