RUSH: I don’t know how many of you fall into this camp, but there are a lot of people who think what Trump did yesterday was horrible, by the way he treated CNN, by calling them “fake news,” by refusing to take their question.
They think it was not presidential.
They think it needs to change, that it’s a sign of political amateurism. And I have a different take on it. See, there’s no doubt in my mind this is an adversarial relationship. For any of us who are not liberal Democrats dealing with the media is, by definition — and it’s always the case — adversarial. If they’re gonna disrespect Trump, if they are showing up every day with the effort, the objective to entrap Trump, why should he help them? Why should they be rewarded? Where is it written that just because they’re the media they are automatically granted respect?
Why do they not have to earn it? And I don’t mean respect by never challenging or just bowing down and agreeing with everything. But you have to admit, we all understand the relationship media has with Republicans. They want to destroy us! There’s no comity to it. There’s no goodwill about it. If these people… If one of the networks is responsible for trying to sell a pack of lies for the purpose of destroying Donald Trump, why is he obligated to take their question? Now, some of you might say, “It’s not a matter of that Rush.
“He’s president-elect. He’s gonna be president. He’s bigger than all these people. He’s got to take their questions. He’s got to. He can’t just diss them the way he did.” Well, I understand that thinking. It has been the thinking since the beginning of time, at least since the beginning of our country that presidents… In fact, the theory is that the more power a public figure has, the more deference he shows to the media, because the media is ostensibly just keeping powerful people accountable. But we know that that’s not what the media is, anymore!
The media is there to grease the skids of whoever the Democrats are. The media is there advancing the Democrat Party agenda. Why do you have to make it easy for them to trip you up, to harm you, to perhaps destroy you? Let me give you another example. I want to take you back to 2009. Obama has been elected, and I am sure many of you will remember seeing and hearing about — either from your friends or maybe obscure places that you visited on the internet — stories about how Obama was continuing to smoke dope in the White House.
You could see stories about how Obama had a drinking problem, how Obama was gay, the stories that Obama didn’t write his book, that Bill Ayers wrote his books, that Obama’s a phony, that Michelle (My Belle) Obama was not everything she was. You remember all these stories, right? (interruption) No, no. I’m not talking about the birther thing. I’m talking about even the more obscure things that were out there. Various degrees of truth and fiction abound. They’re all over the place, and we on the right have our own underground just like the left does, too.
I think theirs is worse and more extreme, but you remember these stories out there. I can remember getting emails, “Why don’t you talk about the fact that Obama didn’t write his books? Why don’t you talk about?” All of this stuff. “Why aren’t you mentioning that Obama is still smoking dope?” That’s the point; we didn’t. We didn’t, Fox News didn’t, nobody, quote, unquote, in the conservative media that you consider upstanding, respectful, authoritative, we didn’t do it. It remained out there. It remained on the fringes. It remained obscure.
We didn’t touch it. I know I didn’t, and I know for a fact the vast majority didn’t because it never entered the conservative mainstream. It was all over a bunch of websites, some obscure, some distant, some wacko, but it was there. The difference is that now that Trump is elected, those same kinds of stories about Trump are out there. The difference is, the media just ran one of them, that Trump hires prostitutes to urinate on beds in hotels where Obama has slept. That’s the kind of stuff that was out there that we didn’t touch — I’ll say I — I didn’t touch.
And, by the way, there’s more than what I’m mentioning. I mean, some of the stuff was the same kind of stuff that was out there about Bill Clinton. You just, you know where the line is. You know what to ignore and what to comment on. They have no such boundaries, as evidenced by what happened yesterday. And I’m convinced that whatever other obscure stories there are, rumors that are started by fringe left-wing websites, I guarantee all it’s gonna take for one of them to enter the news is for just one supposed respected left-wing website to mention it.
That’s what happened yesterday. What happened was CNN, when they found out that the intelligence community might have prepared this dossier, that’s all they needed, they ran with what they knew for the last seven months could not be proven. They had everything that they reported yesterday, everybody in the Drive-Bys has had this for months, and not a shred of it could be verified. But once somebody sourcing for CNN in the intel community said, “Hey, there might be –” CNN runs with it.
What happened next was BuzzFeed, “Well, okay, it’s out there, so Katie, bar the door.” They published the entire 35 pages, and they admit when they do it that none of it’s confirmable, none of it has been verified, we don’t know if a single word of this is true, but you have a right to know. They do what we don’t do. We recognize what our fringe kook stuff is and it stays out there. They are gonna use it.
Now, that is why I’m asking, why in the world should Trump or anybody else show those people respect? Why shouldn’t they pay a price for what everybody knows they’re doing? They’re trying to destroy his presidency. We know it, and they know it. And they have been trying to find a way to do so even before he won. After he has won they’re continuing with this whole lamebrain narrative that the Russians hacked the election.
TheHill.com: “Remedy for Russian Meddling Should Be New Election.” Do not doubt me. They’re not gonna give this up. And anything they can find out there since the Access Hollywood video didn’t do it, they thought this would, this 35-page dossier with the golden showers, which, by the way, I’m given now to understand you can actually order from some high-priced prostitution firms. I had never heard of ’em until yesterday, but apparently everybody on the left is intimately familiar with golden showers.
I’m just telling you, all this fringe stuff they’re gonna use. They concoct ways to get it from the fringe into the mainstream, while sitting there telling us, “You birther people, you’re just a bunch of phonies. You can’t accept it, so you make up this birther stuff.” Big difference. Now Trump is paying hookers to pee on hotel beds, Trump does this, Trump does that; they can’t wait to use any and all of it. So why should they be shown respect? In any other avenue of life, if you’re working with somebody, if you’re Trump and you got a vendor, contractor working for you saying this stuff, he’s gone, right?
You, in your personal life, somebody treats you this way, says this stuff about you, what, you show them respect, you continue to give them an opening to deal with you this way? Why should Trump? “Well, he’s president, Mr. Limbaugh. It’s a big difference. This is not personal.” Damn right, it’s personal, that’s the point, it’s personal. “Well, there are better ways to do it than to shut ’em down and tell ’em no and say they’re fake news.” Why? They are fake news. The fact that they’re fake news — The Daily Show was fake news. The left thought it was real. The whole concept of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, fake news! They thought it was real.
Our biggest trouble with these people — nah, it’s hard to say our biggest trouble. One of the insoluble, ongoing areas where there will be never be any common understanding is these people have no sense of humor when they are the butt of the joke. Remember Trump telling the joke, “Maybe the Russians could find Hillary’s emails and maybe if they do they can alert the media ’cause you guys seem so desperate to find –” Trump was mocking the fact that they weren’t trying to find the emails.
So Trump says, “Maybe the Russians can find,” ’cause the media’s already obsessed with the Russians, so Trump says, “Maybe the Russians could find them.” He’s mocking them, he’s ramming it right down their throat, he’s telling a joke, they don’t see anything funny, and that has now become Trump begged the Russians to hack the election.
That’s what this Hill.com story is based on. Since Trump asked the Russians to hack the election, maybe we should do it again. They have no sense of humor when they are part of the joke, and it’s gonna be one of the biggest ongoing divides that we have. They don’t have a sense of humor anyway. Do you ever see any of them even smiling?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Bob in Coronado, California, make it quick. How you doing, sir.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, happy birthday. I hope you’re having a nice premier cigar for your birthday.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Yes.
CALLER: Hey, I called one other time and I told you that I believed the Trump rally was more exciting than an NFL playoff game, and my point that I wanted to make is, what happened yesterday at the press conference, to me, was a Trump rally. It was unscripted. It gave me the fix I needed to. I think the people in the Midwest just stood up and cheered like they did at a Trump rally.
RUSH: Wait a minute, what do you need a fix for? You starting to go wobbly on us now?
CALLER: No, I’m just having a little withdrawal, and I’m thinking, you know, he’s the president and I love that, but it’s like I just needed to hear him wave the finger.
RUSH: Oh, you needed Trump to be Trump. You needed to Trump to go out there and rally the troops.
CALLER: Yeah. To get the biggest cheer at a rally, Trump, when he was really looking for a cheer, he would just say, “And those people in the press, they’re horrible or whatever,” and the place — you know, I’ve been to two rallies, and the place would explode.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: You know, and I think that’s what I missed, and it was so reassuring to see that he still has the mojo, he can go back —
RUSH: Of course. You’re worried, you’re worried that you’re not gonna get what you got in the campaign. I could sense it when you said you’re in withdrawal out there. No, I think get ready. I mean, he’s president-elect. There is a standard decorum that we may have even blown to smithereens so far. But it’s gonna be fine. Mark my words. You’re gonna be fed very frequently.
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RUSH: Thomas in Huron, Ohio. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hi. I have it on speakerphone because I have trouble hearing. But many dittos. I’m a longtime listener.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Ever since November 8th it’s been Christmas every day in my house, between my wife and myself, and we still have the Christmas tree up, and I want to tell you, it was a super gift when Trump talked to the CNN reporter the way he did. You know, I thought to myself, this guy is going to respond. He’s gonna do in response retribution, is what it amounts to, to anybody that false news or whatever it is.
I was so happy at that moment because I haven’t seen that ever, and I’m 74 years old. I got a lot of pretext, you know, on what people do and what people don’t, and I’m also an ex-policeman, and I can tell when people are lying or trying to, you know, change the story or slant it or whatever it is, you know, in their favor or against somebody. But that was just great. And I agree with everything that you said about this. I also think McCain’s fingerprints are all over this.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, they are.
CALLER: I mean, it’s obvious, you know, that he did. He finally admitted, “Well, I turned it over to the FBI. I didn’t know whether it was true or not.” Yeah, right.
RUSH: He’s just being a good citizen.
CALLER: Just a good citizen, right.
RUSH: I’m just doing what any good citizen would do. I found this story that Trump has prostitutes urinating on somebody’s bed, I said I gotta give this to the FBI, anybody would.
CALLER: Yeah, this is so ridiculous, but anyhow, I’ve been frustrated for eight years and now I’m elated for the time that has happened since November 8th —
RUSH: When do you normally take the Christmas tree down out there, Thomas?
CALLER: Well, she got the ornaments off today, but the lights are still on.
RUSH: Way to go. I like that. It’s still January. I like that.
CALLER: Yeah, oh, yeah. We keep it up sometimes a long time. Christmas is pretty meaningful around our house.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: You know, I mean, we got three children, they’re all adults now. It makes for complications in trying to celebrate Christmas when and where and with whom.
RUSH: Just be thankful they’re out of the house, Thomas, I mean, it all evens out.
CALLER: (laughing) Well, that’s okay in one way, you know.
RUSH: I know. I know.
CALLER: And we have grandchildren, and we love them dearly.
RUSH: Right. Once they become self-sufficient they can come back any time they want, right?
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: Exactly. Thomas, I appreciate it. Keep that tree up at least through Sunday for the Steelers game. It’s the one o’clock game on Sunday. That tree is gonna be good luck.