RUSH: He has told the Democrats and the media just enough for them to continue their narrative that Trump’s scum and a pig and violated the law, and he has given the Republicans enough ammo to take the position Trump didn’t do anything. In other words, nothing is gonna change here. When this is all over, nobody in media is gonna say, “You know what? We blew it!” Even though CNN… CNN’s gone pathological — total, total pathological — on this. And they’re gonna be pathological tomorrow, and they’re gonna be pathological tonight, because nothing today is going to result in the media or the Democrats gulping and saying, “Gee, we got this wrong.”
It’s not… I mean, the evidence is there that they got it wrong. But the way Comey’s explaining it to them as though he is Sigmund Freud, able to read minds. All he has to do is just throw them some crumbs here to keep their narrative going, and that’s what he’s done, and he’s done some of that for the Republicans as well. But given that… I mean, after having said that I could eliminate all discussion on this today because there’s really nothing more to tell you. But that’s not what we’re gonna do.
We’re still gonna break it down for you because it is I, El Rushbo, able to read the stitches on the fastball even now after all these many years. There are some fascinating revelations that happened today, and it’s sad that they’re not gonna change anything. Let me give you two basic things here that should end this but they won’t. James Comey admitted under oath — and we had it yesterday in the prerelease of his testimony — that Donald Trump did not ask him to stop the Russian investigation. Therefore, there is no obstruction of justice.
Furthermore, President Trump acknowledged that Comey might have a legitimate investigation of other people who perhaps did collude with the Russians. When Trump was talking about “the satellites,” he means other people, and he acknowledged to Comey that, if there’s evidence somebody did something, we gotta go find it. So he was in no way attempting to stop the investigation. He wasn’t trying to shape it. He wasn’t trying to misdirect it, redirect it, and Comey admitted so today.
The other thing that we have learned that ought to eliminate all of this is that Comey affirmed what was in his prerelease testimony yesterday, that Donald Trump was not a target and never has been a target of the Russian collusion investigation. Trump told the truth, even though Comey says he’s a liar. Comey came across as a whining, cowardly guy during some of his testimony here. But he admitted that he told Trump three times that Trump was not a target of the investigation.
Donald Trump was understandably unhappy that Comey would not make this public. Donald Trump believed that if Comey would simply say that Trump is not a target here, that it would free Trump from the distractions and allow him to focus (and his regime to focus) on the agenda at hand. Comey had also cleared Hillary Clinton in this July 5th press conference which everybody saw, including Trump. Comey goes out there and lists her crimes and lists her violations of statute and then says, “But there’s no intent.
“We couldn’t find that she intended to break the law, and therefore no reasonable prosecutor would proceed,” and then he closed the investigation. Now, the Russian investigation has not been closed. Comey said — and this is really thin. Comey said he talked about it with colleagues. And it’s really strange too. Some things he did tell colleagues and other things he didn’t, like when Trump asked him alone in the Oval Office — when Trump cleared the room — Comey says he got very frightened. He got very scared.
This was unusual. He didn’t know what was going to happen, and so after the meeting he didn’t tell anybody what Trump had said, even though he was highly suspicious. Why didn’t he resign if it was that bad? Why didn’t he tell anybody when he came out of the Oval Office? Why did he get out of there alive and unbruised if he was so afraid of Trump and being alone in the room with him? Comey said that the reason he didn’t say publicly that Trump was not a target is because they had to leave room to change their minds.
They had to leave open the possibility that Trump would become a target. They didn’t want to be in the position of having to correct the record. What a bogus — absolutely bogus — reason given for not announcing that the president was not a target. There’s another thing we’ve learned here. This is… It’s hard to take one thing here and say it stands above all others in things that surprise and shock me, but this one’s pretty close to the top if not the top: This damn fake, phony, made-up-out-of-thin-air Russian dossier.
Well, it actually wasn’t Russian. It was written by an MI6 British agent, this totally made-up series of allegations, the golden shower dossier. This is the one where Trump supposedly rented a hotel room in Moscow used by Barack and Moochelle Obama, and he hired some prostitutes to come in there and urinate on the bed (i.e., the golden shower). We’ve learned that Comey took that seriously. We have learned prior to today that that dunderhead, John Brennan, Obama’s CIA director, took it seriously, that he thought it formed the basis of a legit investigation.
This is the dossier that BuzzFeed published in toto, having to admit nobody could confirm anything in it because none of it was true. BuzzFeed says, “But we think you, the American people, need to see this just to see this kind of stuff that’s out there.” That’s not why they did it. And so we have two of the preeminent intel and investigative agencies in our country — Comey at the FBI, Brennan at the CIA — acknowledging that a bogus, fake, totally unlegit/illegitimate document formed the basis for all of this that comprises this silly soap opera that we’ve been subjected to as a nation for the last nine months.
That’s got to be at the top of the list of things that boggles the mind the most. I also think this. I think, after listening to Comey today — and this has been an experience for me. The guy’s admitted that maybe he didn’t have enough courage to stand up to Trump. He maybe was a little scared. The guy runs the freaking FBI! He’s the FBI director! At any rate, this entire thing I think is rooted in the fact that Donald Trump speaks a foreign language from what is spoken in Washington. Trump shows up in Washington, and he speaks the way he speaks.
He can be New York tough guy. He can be standard, ordinary, everyday American male. But one thing Trump is not is precise and careful and defensive and politically correct, and everybody in Washington is. Everybody in Washington speaks completely on the defensive. Everybody in Washington has a bit of victimhood in them, and so the way they speak in many ways is designed to evoke sympathy, but you don’t have a lot of tough talkers in that town.
That’s why when you encounter one they stand out so much. So Trump shows up, he invites Comey into the Oval Office, and Comey starts quaking in his boots (hyperventilating), “What does he want? What does he want? What does…? Oh, God! Oh, God!” And Trump says (paraphrased), “I hope you can let this Flynn thing go.” And what does Comey hear? Well, you’ll hear in the audio sound bites. Comey heard all kinds of things that Trump didn’t say. That’s why Comey says, “Well, not with his words, Senator. No, not — not in his words.”
Well, what the hell else was going on in there? Are you a mind reader? Look, I’m serious, folks. (interruption) What? I think they speak different languages. Comey is admitting he has to try to read minds here to understand what Trump is saying. So you have an admitted coward and somebody who’s admittedly afraid to be alone in a room with the guy now trying to tell us what Trump really meant. I don’t think — and Donald Trump Jr. has tweeted this. I don’t think anybody who’s ever talked to Donald Trump has ever not understood what the guy means.
If there’s one guy that hits you between the eyes with what he wants, means, and says, it’s Donald J. Trump. There’s no beating around the bush with the guy. I’ll didn’t you have another example of this. When Trump makes the joke about, “Hey, Russians, maybe you could find Hillary’s 30,000 emails, and when you find ’em, would you hand them to the media,” do you realize all of Washington thought that he was urging the Russians to hack Democrat computers. And he was cracking a joke.
He was mocking them. He was laughing at them. He was making fun of their hand-wringing, girlie now-type attitude that a lot of Washington, D.C., men seem to possess: Afraid of everything, afraid of this, politically correct fear. So Trump says, “Hey, Russia, maybe you can find the email,” and they have no idea. They actually thought he was encouraging… They’ve lost sense of humor. They don’t understand satire and parody. It’s hopeless. Comedy on the left has become hate. If American leftist comedians are not saying hateful things, then nobody’s gonna think they’re any good or funny.
Marco Rubio. I have been somewhat disappointed in the squishiness of Republican senators in this hearing today, and then I had to catch myself and realize they don’t like Trump. They have no brief for Trump. Half of them are running around salivating over President Pence. There are already news stories about that. Of all the Republican senators who could have sat this one out — of all the Republican senators who could have done their best to help Comey undermine Trump — it would have been Marco Rubio, based on the campaign.
You know, Trump went after “Little Marco” pretty famously. Marco Rubio… It took him awhile to get there, but Marco Rubio in the last 30 seconds to full minute of his questioning of Comey did the best of anything I’ve heard yet come from any Republican on the committee. Richard Burr, the chairman (impression), “Uh, Mr. Comey? Uh, you know what? We’re glad you’re heeeere, uh, and we appreciate that you come — and we’ll be in our closed session.” I said, “Is this how it’s gonna be?” That’s our chairman, Richard Burr from North Carolina.
(impression) “Mr. Comey, did, uh…? Did the president ever liiiie to you?” Why does nobody entertain the possibility Comey might be lying? You know, Comey is protected. No matter what Comey says, everybody just accepting it as gospel. But again, I have to remind you: None of this matters. Even if we have a bunch of leftists listening today, anything I’ve said here is not gonna change their minds. It’s just gonna make them hate me more. The narrative isn’t gonna change. CNN! Look at their graphic: “Trump administration lied about me and FBI: Comey.”
That, by the way, is one of the first things Comey said: His feelings were hurt. (impression) “I feeling really hurt. The president lied about me, he lied about the FBI, and I just want to say: You agents of the FBI, I have never been honored more and I have never been happier and I have never been more proud to work with a great bunch of people like you! And it really hurt my feel when the president lied about me and lied about you!” (scoffs) Save me! What is this, Boys Nation? What are we, a bunch of 16-year-olds here?
Anyway, CNN has been running that graphic. That’s the big news to them, that Comey said that “the Trump administration lied about me and the FBI.” That’s what I mean. CNN, as far as they’re concerned, no need to change anything here because Comey admitted that Trump lied, period. Doesn’t matter about what. So we have audio sound bites. We’re gonna make… We’re gonna do this, folks, understand this. But I’m just telling you that Trump has been fully exonerated of everything you think, based on the media, he did. He has been fully exonerated — and damn it, it’s not gonna change anything.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Marco Rubio made another great point as he was wrapping up his question-and-answer period with James Comey. He said to the former FBI director, “You know, it seems like everything from your office leaked except the fact that the president was not under investigation.” Now, stop. Isn’t that not dead on? Everything — and whatever has been made up — has been leaked about this investigation — every damn aspect of it — except that the president was never a target. Of all the things, that never leaked.
What does that tell you? That tells you that all of these leaks were studied, they were tactical, they were strategic, they were timed, and they were intended and purposeful. Because the one leaked bit of information that would have thrown all of this upside down is: “The president’s not a target.” Imagine if that had leaked back in December, back in November. Where would we be today if that had leaked? You know the Flynn investigation? You know what this is about? This is gonna make you even angrier.
They don’t have any evidence on Flynn. They’re going after Flynn for lying to prosecutors. They’re going after Flynn on a process charge. That’s what they’re trying to set up. Now, it’s a felony to lie to investigators. I’m not… Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to exonerate Flynn. My point is, since late last year, they have been trying — “they,” the Washington establishment and the media. They have been attempting to get you and me and everybody to believe that Michael Flynn sold out this country.
That Michael Flynn was talking to the Russians about things he shouldn’t have been saying and doing, and he was making promises to the Russians that he shouldn’t have been promising, and it was all in furtherance of the fact that Trump and the Russians were in fact colluding and Flynn was one of the agents of that. It’s what they want you to believe. They don’t have any evidence of any of that! Even after unmasking Flynn with all of these phone calls that he was discovered to be on with wiretaps of the Russian ambassador, they have no hard evidence of actual behavioral, criminal conduct by Michael Flynn.
They’re still in pursuit of what is called “a process crime,” the same thing that sent Martha Stewart to jail. I’ll tell you one other thing as you continue to watch this. You will note that during the question-and-answer period with all these senators, occasionally a question will be asked, and Comey will say, “Senator, I can’t address that in open session. Senator, I must reserve that for our closed session later today.”
I’ve seen every instance of that this morning, and I’m gonna tell you what I think. I think those answers provide further exoneration of Trump and his people, and that is why Comey does not want to provide those answers in public, because the answers to those questions — and mostly they’re coming from Democrats, some Republicans. But mostly they are questions to which the answers are helpful to Trump. So when Comey says, “I’m sorry, Senator. I really can’t address that in open session,” I want you to think that that’s probably the reason why.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’m just gonna keep repeating this. The bottom line: James Comey said that Donald Trump did not ask him to stop the Russian investigation. James Comey said that Trump told the truth, that three times Comey told him that Trump was not part of investigation. No obstruction of justice and no attempt by Trump to shape this investigation one way or the other. There is no reason why we are even here. No legal reason.
Everything that you have imagined, everything you’ve been led to believe, everything you’ve supposed about this is not true. Trump was never the target; therefore, Trump never was thought to be personally colluding with the Russians. Did not happen! Comey would not make this public for obvious reasons. Comey also said Trump did not ask him to stop the Russian investigation. Comey also admitted that. He said the president “hoped” he would let the Flynn thing go.
Now, only in Washington where a bunch of girlie boys happen to rule the roost would somebody saying, “I hope you let this go” be a demand. What kind of wimp must you be to be talking to somebody, “I hope you let this go,” “Oh, no! He’s threatening me! Oh, no!” No, he said, “I hope you let this go, man. You know, there’s really nothing to it. I hope you can see…” Where else but in this town does somebody saying, “I hope you let this go” be considered a threat?