RUSH: Now, the media had their big nerd prom on Saturday night, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Trump wasn’t there. He was in Pennsylvania doing a rally — a sold out, overflowing crowd  — where he specifically targeted the media. And the media specifically targeted him. You know what’s funny?

They had a banner at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner protecting or something the First Amendment, and these people want to act like Donald Trump poses the single greatest threat to freedom of the press and free speech than anybody ever has since the country was founded. And it is an absolute joke! Barack Hussein Obama did more to curtail press freedom than any president in this nation’s history, and they looked the other way. They couldn’t care less because they’re in the same camp. There’s not one bit of criticism…

Well, I take it back. Some reporters have, in isolated examples, referenced how Obama hated the media, disrespect the media, and it hurt their feelings. They were Obama’s gang! They wanted to be on Obama’s team. They wanted to Obama to think they were on the team. They hoped Obama thought of them as equals. And Obama is like every other progressive leader; the press is just a bunch of tools to be used. If you have to patronize ’em, patronize ’em. But they’re not your friends. You only want to make them think that you are.

He tried to intimidate any number of reporters. AP… What he did to the Associated Press, and they looked the other way at it? And James Rosen of Fox News. The intimidation tactics — and yet here they are with that banner, “Protecting free speech,” or “the First Amendment” or whatever. I can tell you this: I have never had the Drive-By Media defend my First Amendment rights, and I’m in the media. I’ve never once had them defend them. In fact, just the exact opposite. I’m in that part of the media that these media we’re talking about would stamp out if they could.

If they could, they would deny me my First Amendment rights. And if they could they’d deny Fox News its First Amendment rights. So this bunch of hypocrites gathers up there and be acts like they’re being put upon by Donald Trump. This gigantic breathing monster’s about to destroy them! So they did a little dinner party Saturday night praising each other and talking about how worthwhile they are and how important they are and how cherished and all that they are. It was an exercise in narcissism. Here’s a story from the AP:

“Absent Glitter and Trump, Journalists Honor Press Freedom. Prominent Washington journalists, if not Hollywood stars, celebrated the First Amendment during the [nerd prom], an event that lacked the glitter,” lacked glitter? “of past years because of the absence of the president of the United States”? It lacked glitter because Hollywood stars didn’t show up! This ought to depress these people in the media. They’re not enough to attract Hollywood stars.

So Trump’s not there, the president isn’t there, and so no A-list Hollywood people showed up. No A-list sports celebrities showed up. So it turns out the Drive-By Media is not big enough to attract A-list celebrities to its nerd prom. They can’t do it on their own. The A-listers couldn’t be bothered to show up if Trump wasn’t gonna be there. And the reason that they didn’t show up is ’cause their pinata wasn’t gonna show up. If their punching bag, i.e., Trump wasn’t gonna be there, why should they be bothered to be there?

“The stars of the night were Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who recounted what they learned about journalism from their reporting for The Washington Post that helped lead to President Richard Nixon’s resignation more than 40 years ago.” I don’t remember where I saw this. Some female sportswriter has written a piece. She’s leaving the business and she’s going to some journalism think tank or school or some such thing. She writes about how hard it was when she first had to go into a male locker room and how she had a jockstrap thrown at her and how she had to suffer all kinds of indignities.

Her piece is a paeon to journalism and it’s wonderful, and it’s greatness, and its importance, and its relevance. And you know what every example she cites is? It’s how they’ve destroyed this person or that person or that business or this entity, how they exposed this hypocrite there. It was incredible to me. This woman writing of the virtues of journalism and how wonderful it is and how important it is, and her resume and her example of the greatness of journalism is a list of people and things that journalism has destroyed, in their world, taken down or exposed or what have you.

That’s why I’ve always said, if you work for the Wabash Gazette and you want to work for the Washington Post, learn to destroy people that live in Wabash. And they’ll notice you. So here, they’re honoring Woodward and Bernstein for taking out Nixon 40 years ago, as examples of great journalism. Yes, this is what we do. And this is why we’re important. And this is why they’re great. And this is all the pretext for what they’re trying to do now, is take out Trump.

What I thought was hilarious about this in addition to all this stuff, the headliner, the entertainment headliner was somebody named Hasan Minhaj, or Minhaj. I don’t know how he pronounces it. He’s at the Daily Show. Is this the only show that liberals can go find comedians from, the comedy network, Comedy Central? What could be more appropriate than having a fake news anchorman from a fake news show from a comedy network headline the White House Correspondents’ Dinner? How prophetic.

Anyway, we go to the audio sound bites. Here’s Trump. First we’re gonna start with Trump on Face the Nation yesterday. John Dickerson, a massively left-wing progressive, is hosting the show and interviewing Trump. Question: “Did President Obama give you any advice that was helpful?”

THE PRESIDENT: He was very nice to me, but after that we’ve had some difficulties, so it doesn’t matter. You know, words are less important to me than deeds. You saw what happened with surveillance and everybody saw what happened with surveillance.

DICKERSON: Difficulties how?

THE PRESIDENT: I thought that — well, you saw what happened with surveillance, and I think that was inappropriate, but —

DICKERSON: What does that mean, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: You can figure that out yourself.

DICKERSON: Well, I — the reason I asked is you said he — you called him sick and bad.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, you can figure it out yourself.

RUSH: (imitating Dickerson) “We love Obama, Obama’s our savior, Obama’s our God. You called him sick and bad, what do you mean? Who the hell do you think you are, you orange headed buffoon. You called him sick. What do you mean by that, sir? What do you mean?”

“You figure it out.”

Dickerson then said, “You stand by that sick and bad claim?” He’s our savior. Obama’s the greatest thing that ever happened to the world. And you stick by that sick and bad stuff?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t stand by anything. You can take it the way you want. I think our side’s been proven very strongly, and everybody’s talking about it. And, frankly, it should be discussed. I think that is a very big surveillance of our citizens. I think it’s a very big topic, and it’s a topic that should be number one, and we should find out what the hell is going on.

DICKERSON: You’re the president of the United States. You said he was sick and bad because he —

THE PRESIDENT: You can take it any way you want.

DICKERSON: But I’m asking you, because you don’t want it to be fake news. (cross-talk) You’re President Trump.

THE PRESIDENT: You don’t have to ask me.

DICKERSON: Why not?

THE PRESIDENT: Because I have my own opinions; you can have your own opinions.

DICKERSON: But I want to know your opinions. You’re the president of the United States.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, that’s enough. Thank you. That you very much.

RUSH: He walked out, ’cause all the guy wanted to talk about was Obama. (imitating Dickerson and Trump exchange) “You called Obama’s sick and bad, we love Obama, you can’t say that, you can’t say that, why do you say that?”

“You figure it out. The guy was surveilling America, surveilling everyone, surveilling me, surveilling Hillary. You figure it out.”

“Well, if he was surveilling everybody they deserved to be surveilled. That’s what we think of Obama. He could do no wrong.”

“Well, then I got no time for you, go ahead, I’m outta here.”

Before that happened however, we’re gonna jump back to an earlier part of the interview. Dickerson said, “You said in an interview with Reuters that you thought being president would be easier than it is. Why?”

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it’s a tough job, but I’ve had a lot of tough jobs. I think actually I’ve been very consistent. You know, it’s very funny when the fake media goes out, which we call the mainstream media, which sometimes I must say is you —

DICKERSON: You mean me personally or —

THE PRESIDENT: Your show, I love your show, I call it Deface the Nation, but, you know, your show is sometimes not exactly correct.

RUSH: Yeah, you personally, I love your show, Deface the Nation, Slay the Nation, what have you. You don’t see that happen much. Of course, they’re always gonna hate the guy. That isn’t gonna change, although this White House Correspondents’ Dinner proved they can’t do without Donald Trump. They may not want to admit it, but they are living and dying with Trump. They need Trump for coverage. They need Trump to keep ’em energized and motivated.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me read to you a little from the New York Times story on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Ready for this? “Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, seated on the dais, reminded the room of journalism’s power. … The event ‘was a line-in-the-sand night, to an extent I didn’t expect,’ E. J. Dionne, a longtime Washington chronicler, said in the ballroom afterward. He added that ‘having Woodward and Bernstein sends another message’ — that journalists can, under the right circumstances, topple a presidency.”

Well, what then are we to conclude? That the presence of Woodward and Bernstein, a line in the sand, meant that the objective is to take out Trump. If you’re gonna bring out the last pair that took down a president and celebrate them as the definition of modern journalism, then I think what we had Saturday night was a direct threat to the presidency of Donald Trump issued by the Drive-By Media. What else could it have been? I mean, E. J. Dionne Jr. is a Washington Post columnist. I think he’s now over at some think tank and still writes for the Washington Post now and then.

But, I mean, if this is a line in the sand, I mean, that’s the kind of thing Obama did to Assad. These guys kind of mean their line in the sand, Woodward and Bernstein. Anyway, Trump reacted to it at his really in Pennsylvania. We’ll have some audio sound bites. And then David “Rodham” Gergen was appalled.

Now, the Drive-Bys can have at their convention, they can directly threaten Trump’s presidency, that’s fine, but Trump, if he dares defend himself, that is so unpresidential, it is a problem, it’s a great threat. Gergen was appalled, we’ve never seen anything like this from a sitting president.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A couple of sound bites. Here’s Trump at this rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Saturday night, deciding that it’s time to rate the media’s first hundred days.

THE PRESIDENT: Let’s rate the media’s 100 days. Should we do that? Because, as you know, they are a disgrace. According to a Morning Consult poll, more than half of Americans say the media is out of touch with everyday Americans, and they’ve proven it. According to Media Research Center, 89% of the media’s coverage of our administration has been negative and purposefully negative. And perhaps that’s because, according to the Center for Public Integrity, 96% of journalists who made donations in the last election gave them to our opponent. Does anybody remember who our opponent was?

RUSH: We edited the applause. It was never-ending. You heard the raucous — even when he’s speaking people were cheering. This went on and on and on. That’s just the capper sound bite. David Gergen thought this was appalling. He thought it was the most divisive speech an American president has ever given.

GERGEN: This was the most divisive speech I’ve ever heard from a sitting American president. He played to his base, and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or oppose him, he treated them basically as, “I don’t care. I don’t give a damn what you think, ’cause you’re frankly like the enemy. You’re like the enemy with the press.” I thought it was a deeply disturbing speech.

RUSH: Deeply, deeply disturbing speech. Carl Bernstein, half of the duo that took down Richard Nixon, which proves the media can do it again, he thought Trump’s speech was the most venomous by a president in the last 50 years.

BERNSTEIN: This is part of an attitude, regardless of whether they’re really going to seek such a change, and the attitude was expressed in Trump’s speech last night, which is the most venomous speech by an American president that I have heard in more than 50 years of reporting. Venomous towards the press, venomous towards legitimate political opponents, and it was a road map of a venomous state of mind that ought to concern all Americans of goodwill, particularly Republicans.

RUSH: You know how these media — they exempt themselves from this behavior. Venomous? Do they read what they write? Do they watch each other’s TV shows? If you want to see venom, take a look at the way they cover Trump.