RUSH: So there was a little snafu yesterday in Gainesville, which is the home of the University of Florida. A student there ‘was Tasered and arrested after trying to ask U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., about the 2004 election and other subjects during a campus forum.’ You may have seen the video on YouTube and a couple of other places. The kid just rushes the microphone, starts asking Kerry questions. The room’s not very populated. When I watched the video of this, I was a little surprised. It’s not overflowing; it’s not packed; there are a lot of empty seats in there. This kid starts firing his questions away, and in the midst of all this the cops come down and start roughing up the kid. The kid is a journalism major. The cops manhandle the guy. They walk him up the aisle, the kid starts shouting, ‘What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What have I done?’ And Kerry doesn’t do anything.
Kerry, a former professional protester, seeing someone protest right in front of his eyes, with four cops coming down and eventually Tasering the guy, just stands there and is telling a few jokes, (paraphrasing) ‘No, no, no, let the guy go. Let me answer his very important question.’ So while all this is going on, Kerry answers the question about what he didn’t do in 2004. The kid wanted to know, ‘Why didn’t you contest the vote count in Ohio?’ (Kerry impression) ‘It’s a very important question. I’ll answer that question.’ While the kid’s being Tasered, Kerry’s answering the question. This is a little bit of audio from the incident.
RUSH: They Tasered him. He’s writhing on the floor, and Kerry doesn’t do a thing about this. Now there’s a massive protest planned today for the University of Florida. This is hilarious, in a sense, because Kerry just stands there and doesn’t do anything. I’ll tell you, the kid wants to know what he did. The kid’s name is Andrew, Andrew Meyer, 21. It was okay if he asked about the Florida recount. It’s okay if he asked about Ohio and the contested election, or lack of, Kerry contesting it in 2004. By the way, Kerry answered that. He said, (paraphrasing) ‘We didn’t have the evidence. There was no evidence. We would love to but we didn’t have any evidence, didn’t want to put the country through it.’ He asked about the impeachment of George W. Bush. All that was fine. When he asked: ‘Are you a member of Skull and Bones with George W. Bush?’ that’s when everything started happening. That’s when the cops show up. That’s when the Taser gun comes out. Andrew, the one thing you shouldn’t have done, buddy, was ask about Skull and Bones. (Laughing.) If he would have asked about swift boats, Kerry might have come down and Tasered him. I don’t know. These people on the left, these Democrats, I guarantee you, this is a Daily Kos kid, this is a MoveOn.org kid, is something, and this is what the Democrats fear from their own side.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We’ll start in Lake City, Florida. This is Mary. Nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi there.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I love you, Rush. (giggles)
RUSH: I appreciate that. Thank you.
CALLER: I just wanted to make a comment about the University of Florida incident.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: My son goes to school there, and actually his father works for the Gainesville Police Department. The reason I think everybody’s in such an uproar and they’re going to do the protesting today, from what I understand, is they are objecting to the fact that he got Tasered after he was handcuffed.
CALLER: Oh, I understand, and I’m definitely not a Kerry advocate, but the University of Florida paid to have him there, not the journalism student, and the reason why they Tasered him is a lot of times when people are handcuffed, they still won’t be still, and they hurt themselves. (laughs) So I think they were well within their rights to do what they did.
RUSH: Well, that’s good. Instead of letting them hurt themselves, we’ll hurt ’em.
CALLER: Exactly.
RUSH: (stifling laughter)
CALLER: I mean, I think he’s probably from the — what do they call that, uh, Jackass thing they had on TV? I think he wanted his five minutes of, you know —
RUSH: Who knows?
CALLER: — notoriety.
RUSH: You know, we can only guess about the motive of a typical, immature, childish, college punk student and speculate on his motives. It looked to me like he just genuinely had some questions. It also looked like he wasn’t too interested in Kerry’s answers. It looked like he was maybe trying to monopolize the thing. But even at that, folks, you have to understand this. (interruption) Well, he might have been auditioning for the Washington press corps. He might have been auditioning for exactly what happened, a lot of attention and so forth. But the thing that continually struck me, aside from literally how few people were in attendance — at what looked like the school cafeteria, by the way. I know it wasn’t, but that’s what it looked like. Here’s John Kerry. John Kerry is a professional protester! He has made his bones. He has been down for the struggle. He has thrown his medals (well, copies of his medals) over the fence at the White House. He has testified as a protester before Congress. So here he is faced with his legacy, and he stands up there and basically is cracking a couple jokes while the kid’s being hustled out and not saying, ‘Hey, let that man go! He’s entitled to be here! This is a democracy. I want to hear what he has to say.’ Instead of doing anything like that… Well, he did say once, ‘It’s a very important question, and I’m going to answer that.’ But while this kid is being roughed up and Tasered by the authorities, Kerry is up there just basically ignoring the whole thing and telling jokes. I thought it was very insensitive, from one protester to another. Kerry has apparently lost the ability to relate, or maybe it is that in his mind privately, ‘I’m John Kerry, and this doesn’t happen to me.’ I know it’s a Skull and Bones question. That’s something. You go there, and you do it at your own risk.