RUSH: Folks, in a normal and sane world, Adam Schiff would have just stepped in it. We got the sound bite coming. I got a note saying that Schiff just said — and he’s doing his opening argument here as House manager number 1. He said, “We cannot trust the ballot box.” Now, where do you start with this?

Well, you start with Russia and these people still trying to convince people that Trump colluded with Russia and stole the 2016 election and is already working with Putin via Ukraine to steal the 2020 election. This is their case. That’s why Trump’s gotta go now. Trump’s gotta go now even before they convict him. They made a play in the last couple days to get Trump thrown out of office now even before any conviction because he’s threatening the 2020 election.

So Schiff just said, “We cannot trust the ballot box.” Ladies and gentlemen, there is not a shred of evidence that the election in 2016 was tampered with in any way, shape, manner, or form by Russia.

In all of the indictments that Robert Mueller handed down — listen to me on this. People have forgotten, it’s so long ago and it’s such a crowded, crowded news arena now — when Robert Mueller announced the indictments of the 11 Russian cyber troll farmers for doing, you know, chicanery on Facebook and all this other stuff, in the announcement of that indictment, Rosenstein, very last thing he said so that nobody would hear it, “There’s nothing in these indictments that shows one vote was changed because of the actions of the accused. There is nothing in these indictments that suggests the outcome all of a single election was changed because of the actions of those indicted in this indictment.”

They went out of their way to make everybody understand the Russians had no impact on votes, vote counting, vote tabulation, nothing. And yet the Democrat Party persists in lying to the American people. I told you that these people ought to be held accountable. They have done more to corrupt the honor and integrity of American elections than anything the Russians could have done had they succeeded.

The Democrats have made sure everybody doubts every election result they lose. When they lose, the Russians did it, Trump did it, what have you. They’re already accusing Trump of tampering with the 2020 election. Tell me, how would that happen? I don’t even want to go there. It’s patently absurd.

Schiff is lying through his teeth and now telling people — if I’m a Republican senator and I’m listening to this stuff I want to throw this guy out, somebody pound the gavel, say, “Why are we sitting here listening to this tripe?” We can’t trust the ballot box because of a phone call with Ukraine? I mean, it’s even ridiculous to assess this in specificity like this: “We can’t trust the ballot box.” Good Lord. There are a lot of uninformed people out there that are gonna be when they hear this. My God. Folks, this is the height of irresponsibility.

And why is it happening? These are the people that tell us how unhealthy it is to hate, how damaging it is to hate people, how unproductive. They have nothing but hate. They have hate for Trump, and it’s irrational, compounded. It’s impossible to properly categorize it for people. I’ll tell you something else Schiff did. Everything that these Democrats are saying can be refuted with fact. And here is another one.

Schiff was talking at some point in the last 20 minutes about how important the aid Trump withheld from Ukraine is. It was deplorable. It was horrible. It was mean. It was risky what Trump did. Because Ukraine needs that aid to protect itself from Russia. But, of course, Trump, being in the back pocket of Russia, doesn’t want Ukraine to be able to protect itself. This is what Schiff is saying and implying. Talking about how important the aid to Ukraine was and how mean and how inexcusable it was of Trump to delay it.

Okay. Let’s go to back to Ukraine before Trump. Let’s go to back to Ukraine during the eight years of Barack Obama. The reason Ukraine does not have a significant military apparatus is because we forced them to get rid of it, the Obama administration. And in exchange for Ukraine doing that, we signed a pact or a treaty pledging to come to their defense should they be attacked and unable to defend themselves.

You know what? They were attacked. Russia attacked Crimea, part of Ukraine, and literally took it. Russia came in, Vladimir Putin, while Obama was president, and annexed, took, Ukraine. We offer not one shred of help. We didn’t offer any assistance. We didn’t abide by the treaty or the pact that we had signed. And here’s this lying little scum ball telling everybody how endangered Ukraine was because of Trump.

Who gave them the aid? They got the military aid that Trump promised and they ended up getting more than we had promised to give them. It was withheld for a matter of days, but they got it. They did not get any aid from Obama or Adam Schiff or the Democrats during the Obama eight years. They didn’t get any assistance. We didn’t follow through on a commitment we had made.

Barack Obama practically made sure that Vladimir Putin could come in and take part of Ukraine. And these people have the gall to go to the floor of the United States Senate today and claim that Donald Trump, by delaying aid, endangered our good buddy and ally, Ukraine, and put them at great risk. They got their aid. They got more than they were planning on getting.

We have a new relationship with Ukraine. Ukraine has always been a corrupt place, Eastern Bloc, communist related. It’s corruption. It’s communism. Got a reform president. Trump wants to make sure that they’re not gonna continue the same kind of corruption before giving the money. None of this is anything but smart.

Our foreign policy with Ukraine, the way Trump handled it, is nothing but smart if you consider the United States as good guys. But besides that, Adam Schiff knows full well we sold out Ukraine during Obama, that we let Putin take Crimea. And yet here he is trying to tell people how important the aid that Trump denied was to the security of Ukraine.

It’s Adam Schiff and Barack Obama and the Democrat Party which did not step up, did not step forward and help Ukraine at all, didn’t even lift a finger when Russia and Putin came and annexed Crimea.

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RUSH: Here’s the Schiff sound bites, audio sound bite number 23. And this is during his opening argument. Let’s go ahead and listen to this and see if it’s exactly as it was told to me.

SCHIFF: An attempt to use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election for precisely this reason, the president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won.

RUSH: He actually said it. The son of a… actually said it. “An attempt to use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election for precisely this reason, the president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box.” Meaning we can’t wait for the American people to decide because you people don’t know enough to throw the guy out. The Democrats have to be in charge of this. Your vote doesn’t count anymore.

I’m telling you, folks — do not doubt me — they are digging a grave. I know it’s tough to see it that way because the Drive-By Media heralds them and makes ’em look like heroes.

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RUSH: Listen to this again, July 13th, 2018, after 11 Russians had been indicted by Mueller.

ROSENSTEIN: There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There’s no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.

RUSH: That after the indictment of 12 Russians for hacking the Democrat National Committee. Schiff is so full of it, folks, the guy could probably float. I don’t know.

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RUSH: This is great. Schiff is now playing sound bites of Trump during the impeachment trial like we would play them on this program. He just played a sound bite of Trump trying to illustrate that Trump is trying to corrupt our politics by urging China to investigate the Bidens the way Ukraine is. I mean, there’s some corruption that happened over there, China ought to investigate him too.

And of course these guys act like, “Give me the vapors, give me the vapors, Trump is trying to interfere in the elections, now he’s trying to interfere in the Chinese elections. Trump is horrible.” This is so pathetic, these people are so damn pathetic, it’s alternately painful and comical to watch.

We’re gonna start at number 8 in order, but before that number 27 because I referenced this, or earlier I talked about one of the things that Schiff — Schiff was just wring his hands, talking about how Trump had imperiled our great friends in Ukraine, he refused to give them aid and made them very, very vulnerable to evils in Russia and so forth. When in fact it was the Obama administration that let Russia take Crimea. Here is Schiff making that point.

SCHIFF: President Trump undermined the integrity of our free and fair elections by pressing a foreign power to influence our most sacred right as citizens. Our right to freely choose our leaders. And he threatened our national security by withholding critical aid from a partner on the front lines of war with Russia, an aggressor that has threatened peace and stability on an entire continent. In so doing the president sacrificed not only the security of our European allies, but also our nation’s core national security interests.

RUSH: I mean, folks, “President Trump undermined the integrity of our free and fair elections by pressing a foreign power to influence our most sacred right as citizens.” Let me present to you the other option. Let’s say that we have a president who actually loves his country. Donald Trump loves America, cares about it, believes in it as the good guys and one of the agents of good for the world.

Donald Trump, folks, has been the most investigated president in my lifetime. He may in fact be the cleanest, in terms of genuine scandal or corruption politician in our lifetimes in Washington. I’m not saying this to stir anybody up. There’s nobody more investigated, and they haven’t found him — you could go after the way he talks or the way he cracks jokes, he’s he’s just so out of bounds — “Hey, Russia, could you find Hillary’s emails?”

But in terms of legitimate scandals, corruption, crime, they don’t have anything. Here’s Trump, and he knows that Biden — folks, if it ever comes out how corrupt — and Biden’s just one of countless lifetime Washingtonians. Joe Biden doesn’t have any money. Joe Biden has never made any money other than a senator’s salary. But here’s his brother getting $54 million in guaranteed loans. Here’s his son making $83 million here, $34 million over there. How? He’s not alone. It’s typical.

So the guy’s running for president on the Democrat side. What if he’s corrupt as the day is long? He’s asking Zelensky to find out about it, to announce an investigation. What if Biden is ultimately blackmailable by some of these unsavory people in Ukraine or in Europe, wouldn’t that be something that would be worth knowing?

No, these people look at Trump as he must really be afraid of Biden trying to get Ukraine to take Biden out. It’s never been what this was about. It was about trying to find out what role Ukraine played in helping sabotage the Trump campaign. So here comes Schiff: “President Trump undermining the integrity of our free and fair elections.” Here, grab sound bite number 24 again. This is Rod Rosenstein. Here it is, July 13th, 2018.

ROSENSTEIN: There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There’s no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.

RUSH: That the indictment of Russians in the Russia investigation. No allegation in the indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. Trump’s an American citizen. No allegation that this conspiracy, whatever these clowns were doing on Facebook, changed the vote count or affected any election result. And yet here is Schiff: Trump undermined the integrity of our free and fair elections by pressing a foreign power to influence our most sacred right as citizens.

That’s what Schiff is doing. Schiff is attempting to influence your most sacred right, i.e., to vote. “Threatened our national security, withholding critical aid from a partner on the front lines in the war with Russia.” No, Schiff. You and Obama did that. Ukraine got their aide, and they got more than they bargained for.

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RUSH: So it happened in hour five last night. This is Pencil Neck — took ’em five hours into their debate over the rules last night. This is Adam Schiff accusing Trump of withholding Ukraine aid to help Putin steal the 2020 election.

SCHIFF: This is the first time aid has been withheld by a president of the United States to coerce an ally at war to help him cheat in the next election. When the Ukrainians learned and the Russians learned that the president of the United States did not have his back, was withholding this aid, what message do you think that sent to Vladimir Putin? What message you think it sent to Vladimir Putin when Donald Trump wouldn’t let Vladimir Zelensky, our ally, in the door at the White House but would let the Russian foreign minister? What message does that send?

RUSH: This guy is not altogether sane. I think this guy is rivaling Antonio Brown to me in being just off center. It’s not the first time aid has been withheld by a president. Obama shut them out of aid while Russia came in and took part of Ukraine, called Crimea.

Are you getting tired of me saying this yet? “When the Ukrainians learned and the Russians learned the president did not have his back, was withholding this aid –” they got their aid! In a matter of days, they got the aid.

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RUSH: All right. I have one more Schiff sound bite for you, then we’ll go back to the phones. It is obvious now that Adam Schiff is using the Senate to spread his own personal political conspiracy theories to whoever, his base or whoever. Now, I… Folks, I don’t know. If I were a United States senator, particularly a Republican, I’d be feeling a little hoodwinked by now. My Senate… It’s not Schiff’s. The Democrats have commandeered the Senate.

They have come in and they have… Under the guise of impeachment, they have commandeered the Senate and are using it to campaign against Donald Trump — and there’s nobody to stop them! They’ve got 24 hours to keep doing this. Adam Schiff just played the soundbite of Donald Trump telling the joke about, “Hey, Russia if you can find Hillary’s emails, maybe it would be cool,” as though this is some sort of real crime. He is recycling three-year old stuff about a phone call with Ukraine? Here it is in three, two, one…

SCHIFF: Mueller and his team found that, quote, “the Russian government perceived that it would benefit from a Trump presidency and work to secure that outcome.” They also found that the Trump campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts. And just as he solicited help from Ukraine in 2019, in 2016 then-candidate Trump also solicited help from Russia in his election effort. As you will recall, at a rally in Florida, he said the following.

THE PRESIDENT: Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.

RUSH: They are seriously… (laughing) It’s like they’re playing the quote from Trump about, “I’m president. I can do anything” when he’s talking about firing Mueller, playing it out of context. Of course, it… Folks, it’s entire possible. These people are so off that they might believe Trump was actually… I can’t… They have so little sense of humor, and you can’t make fun of them. You can’t mock ’em. You can’t saterize them. You can’t do parodies on them. But this is just…

That’s in 2016. It’s 3-1/2 years when they’re doing this, repeating this stuff — 3-1/2 years — and I’m telling you, if I’m in the Senate… Who knows what they’re thinking, but it’s obvious the Senate has been hoodwinked here, and the Nancy Pelosi House managers have taken over the Senate for whatever length of time here, under a false premise: Impeaching Donald Trump. It’s not that at all. It’s what it looked like, what they’re saying it is, but it isn’t. They are just venting. They’re getting rid of all of their hatred.

This is all the stuff about Trump that they hate, that they can’t stop and that they can’t beat.

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RUSH: I tell you something else that’s happening in this trial. And, you know, even that’s a very elastic description. You talk about fair this or that. The Democrats, Schiff, other managers, they are accusing Trump of things that are not in their articles of impeachment. They’re accusing Trump of things that are not in the indictment. Like Russian collusion. That’s not what Trump’s being impeached for. And like Trump’s supposed call for Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.

In a fair trial, 90% of what Schiff is talking about would be thrown out. He wouldn’t be permitted to be saying any of this, but that’s why this isn’t a trial in a court. And that’s why this whole assertion that it be fair is absurd anyway. There isn’t anything fair about this from the moment it began. The ultimate fairness in this would be that it is not happening. It shouldn’t be happening.

But now these guys are playing video of Trump from two and a half years ago, three and a half years, that has nothing to do with the two articles of impeachment. I want these legal beagles on TV, these legal analysts to weigh in on that, I want to hear what they say. “Well, of course, Rush, the Senate and the House, they set their own rules. They can do what they want to do.” Of course they can.

But that’s why if I’m a Senator, if I’m a turtle, if I’m Romney, I’m sitting there, I’m livid that I have been suckered into having the Senate taken over by these little namby-pambies in the House for the pure politicization — this Senate has been turned into the Democrat National Committee. It has become a branch office. If I’m the chief justice I gotta be sitting there saying what the hell, except he hates Trump so he probably doesn’t have a problem with this.

You know what’d be great? If Trump’s lawyers would play the audio of Schiff being punked by those two comedians claiming to be Ukrainians with nude photos of Trump and how Schiff fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Wouldn’t that be funny? “Why, you can’t do that, Rush. That’s not responding to things in the –” There’s nothing in these articles. Abuse of power, whatever, they’re so far beyond what the articles of impeachment are.

This is every complaint they have ever had about Trump being aired ostensibly in a trial. If there is anybody with any gonads, they would shut this down and expose this for what this is right now. How do you people in the United States — here’s the chief justice talking about, “This is the most serious deliberative body, greatest deliberative body in the history of humanity.” Yeah, it’s been turned into the Democrat National Committee. It’s been turned into the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee. It’s been turned into a branch office of Planned Parenthood and every other donor the Democrat Party has.

The ultimate corruption of the United States Senate and leave it to Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, the Round Mound of the Gavel, Jerry Nadler, to pull this off.

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RUSH: Okay. I have to do a mea culpa. I said Monday when I got back here I was gonna be here all week. But I’m not gonna be here tomorrow, folks. I’ve got a super-secret thing that has come up, and it’s one of these deals that can only be done during the time the show is on. And you know what? I almost said I don’t want to do this anyway if it’s gonna be more of this Adam Schiff show. But I can’t say that to you because that’s why I’m here to deal with this rotgut so that you don’t.

But I’ll be back on Friday as we resume normalcy. Schiff can sit there, he can lie, as committee chair, he can lie and he can satire and parody supposedly Trump’s transcript of the phone call. And it’s fine, nothing happens, and he can take a parody of Trump talking about, “Hey, Russia, can you find Hillary’s email” and be impeached for it.

Schiff can take a phone call from a couple comedians punking him on having nude photos of Trump. Nothing happens to Schiff. The double standard here. But the converting of the Senate to the Democrat National Committee, when’s somebody gonna stop it?