RUSH: No, no, no, no, no, I have a different take. I have a totally different take. Well, I just don’t see the doom and gloom. Everybody else does, but I don’t.
JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!
RUSH: I’m sorry. I’m looking at a couple of really weird people on TV, they caught my attention. Anyway, greetings. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Great to have you. It is Open Line Friday. That means that you get to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. Monday through Thursday, the program is about what I care about. On Friday, I give you a shot at it. It’s 800-282-2882. The email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.
I get emails from friends, I get messages from friends, I get green bubble text messages from friends, I get panicked phone calls from friends, “My gosh, Rush, when is it gonna end? This just can’t continue like this! I’ve never seen anything like it! I mean, at some point, don’t we have to admit we cannot beat these people and just kind of throw in the towel? This just can’t go on!”
People are reacting to the media. People are reacting to the independent counsel and all of the congressional investigations, the never-ending, oppressive, try-to-destroy-him coverage of Trump. Then we have the mainstream liberal Democrat shooting up the Republican congressional baseball team at practice earlier this week. And I understand the sentiment.
People ask me every day, “Rush, how long can this go on? Rush, come on. When are the Republicans gonna fight back? Rush, come on. This just can’t keep happening like this. Never seen anything like this.” I understand the sentiment, folks, but I have a different take.
Here we are on June the 16th, 2017. This is an anniversary. Do you know what it is the anniversary of? I’m getting blank stares from the other side of the glass. I’ll give you a hint. It’s a two-year anniversary. That’s right. This is the two-year anniversary that Donald Trump and Melania took the escalator down at Trump Tower and Trump made his famous “I’m running for the presidency” announcement, for which learned appellate courts are still using in their rulings on his executive orders.
Now, let’s look at something, just put it in a little bit of perspective here. For two years, the past two years, not just since Trump was elected and not just since Trump got the nomination, for the past two years the entire media-Democrat complex, and for a period of this you have to include the Republicans in it — in fact, you might still say the Republicans are part of this complex that has spent millions of dollars and countless hours to investigate Donald Trump.
They have turned over every rock. They have dug as deep as they can. They have used anonymous sources from the deep state. They have made things up. They have even gone so far as to destroy the credibility of their own industries by creating fake news in their effort to get rid of Donald Trump, to produce some information. Some damning evidence of a crime that would have enabled them, A, to deny him the nomination. And after that failed, then to deny him the election. And then after that failed, then to deny him being inaugurated. And then after that failed, now to try to force him out of office.
To the media-political complex, which we would have to say includes Hollywood and publishing, and of course the media and much of entertainment pop culture, Donald Trump is a nightmare who has come to life. He is a Frankenstein. He is a monster. He is, in their minds, everything they say they detest about human beings.
The left is not crazy about human beings to begin with. And I don’t say that to try to be funny, or I’m not even exaggerating. They think that many of the problems that exist on planet Earth would not exist if human beings were extinct. So their starting point is to be angry and enraged constantly and to blame human beings. And in the process they create all these negative characteristics about human beings that they blame and detest. Donald Trump has them all.
In their mind, Donald Trump epitomizes, he encompasses every horrible, rotten, despicable characteristic of human beings. And he beat them. He won the most powerful office in the land. As such, not only did Donald Trump become the president, Donald Trump became the biggest star in the United States. He’s also a star, folks. Do not think that he’s just the president. He is a star. He’s the biggest star. Stars are not always universally loved.
Trump loves being a star, by the way. It’s one of his earliest objectives, and he has accomplished reaching the pinnacle of stardom. The pinnacle of stardom would be name recognition and everybody in addition to knowing who you are, having an opinion of you. To be obsessed with you, to be consumed by you, Donald Trump has achieved all of this and more by defeating a large group of professionals who hate him, who despise him, who have used every weapon in their arsenal to destroy him. And they have failed.
To date, they have failed. Trump has become bigger than they ever imagined. Trump has become bigger than they ever thought they could be. They resent and despise and hate Donald Trump for a multitude of reasons. And all they know is, they have to get rid of him. Short of that, they have to destroy the stardom aspect. They certainly cannot permit the political identity and ideas of Donald Trump to triumph.
Donald Trump must be destroyed simply because he’s there. Donald Trump has to be taken out. He has to be destroyed and ruined politically and, if they can, financially. Make no mistake that that’s an objective too. You can read between the lines the latest leaks of the highly respected and immensely respected Robert Mueller, the independent counsel, going after Trump’s money, going after Jared Kushner. They are not going to leave one stone unturned in their effort to demolish, to ruin, to destroy Donald Trump. They want to obliterate the star. They want to create a figure of great shame and embarrassment, and they want to take away from him all of his achievements, including his money.
You might think this sounds irrational. You’re right; it is. It is entirely irrational. This degree of hate is irrational. It’s unnatural. The fact that they stick with it and maintain it is destroying them. Everything I hear, Trump is in a fine mood. Everything I hear, Trump’s enjoying his life as president. Frustrated by things, but, I mean, he’s not cowering in the corner fearful and worried and angry.
He’s living his life. He’s doing what he was elected to do the best he can. And he’s appreciating and very much adoring his stardom, which is rooted in his presidency. And that upsets them even more. They simply can’t get over this. They can’t abide it. They can’t believe that after two years — this is not something that’s gone on just the past six months — they can’t believe that they’ve not been able to take Trump out in two years.
Fifteen or 16 Republican candidates were not able to do it. Hillary Clinton couldn’t do it. The Democrat National Committee couldn’t do it. David Axelrod couldn’t do it. The great John Podesta couldn’t do it. Nobody could do it. There hasn’t been a single soul. James Comey didn’t do it. Now they’ve turned to Mueller. Mueller, we want you to do it. Rosenstein tried to do it, couldn’t do it. Now Rosenstein’s thinking about recusing himself.
Before this is over, the entire Department of Justice is gonna recuse itself. You haven’t heard about Rosenstein maybe recusing himself? How silly is that? Sessions recuses, Rosenstein might have to recuse because he’s got some involvement with the players here. It’s absurd. This is the theater of the absurd. It’s obvious what it is.
The Washington Post has a story today written by Amber Phillips: “Trump Keeps Creating His Own Personal Hell.” They’re giddy! They’re excited. It’s a bizarre article, and they’re thrilled. (summarized) “Trump’s helping us! Trump’s admitting he’s under investigation!” Have you heard that one today? Trump tweeted out he’s being investigated by a guy… (chuckles) Here’s what he says: “I am being investigated for firing Comey by the guy who told me to fire Comey.” Despite everything they’ve thrown at Donald Trump, he’s still there.
I know nobody cares about this. Have you seen the unemployment numbers today? “Claims for U.S. Jobless Benefits Fall by 8,000.” The unemployment situation is getting better. “The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell for a second straight week, further evidence of strength of the labor market.” Who knew? Did you see that Trump discovered that there was still a panel of American scientists working on the Y2K problem? Do you remember what the Y2K problem?
It was 17 years ago. It was a great conspiracy theory. It was a great fear that a bunch of computers were not gonna make the automatic change to the year 2000 and that airplanes were were fall out of the sky and bombs were gonna be launched. Remember all that? Nothing happened. Trump just found out that there’s a group of scientists still studying this, still working and still spending money, still being paid. So he’s shutting it down.
So now we’ve got an independent counsel, Mueller. He’s got 13 people or more working with him. He’s hiring new people all the time, most of them liberal Democrats. For two years — for two years — they have looked under every rock. For two years, they’ve overturned every stone. They’ve done everything they can. They’ve employed the Russians. They’ve used the Russians. They tried to use the prime minister of Australia.
They’ve done everything. They can’t do anything, can’t find anything to actually indict Donald Trump or anybody working for him in two years. So what are they going to find in the next two years that no one has found in these two years? The answer is probably nothing, but that’s not the point. They’re not looking for anything now. If they find it, that’s gravy. What they’re doing now is simply creating (or trying to) the illusion that Trump is a corrupt, dishonest, mean-spirited, horrible guy who needs to go.
But this is where I have a slightly different take on this, the two-year anniversary of Trump and Melania speeding down the escalator at Trump Tower, where he said he doesn’t appreciate military people who get captured like McCain and a number of other things. For two years, the media-political complex and all their allies have been using the same tactics on him, and for two years he’s survived it — and as you survive these things, you get stronger. This is where some of you may differ with me in interpretation.
But Donald Trump is the president of the United States. Every day they try to destroy him. Every day they try to take him out. Every day they try to diminish him. But what are they actually doing? I have a sound bite coming up later in the program, a disgusted sound bite from media people. Charlie Rose and Jeffrey Goldberg contemplate the reality that Trump isn’t gonna quit, that he’ll not be impeached, and he’s gonna be president for four years.
They actually contemplate that as though, “Oh, my God! Do you realize this could happen?” It’s kind of like Charlie Rose and Brokaw discussing the fact that they didn’t know who Obama was and were gonna vote for him anyway. They’ve just awakened to the reality here that it’s been two years and nobody’s laid a glove on the guy, not really, not in terms of making him quit. They’re nowhere near articles of impeachment. They can’t do it ’til the Democrats win. Not even the feckless Republicans will go there, although I have separate thoughts on them coming up.
Let’s look what has been reported. The director of the FBI — who, by the way, The Daily Beast now says is Washington’s favorite left-wing sex symbol. James Comey. (interruption) Do you know who Comey is? Is he sex symbol. No way, right? But leftist women in Washington think he’s at the top of that list. The director of the FBI was afraid top of dinner with Trump alone. He hid behind a curtai; he was so scared! He didn’t want to be seen or noticed. The most respected man in America today, Robert Mueller — and he’s only the most respected ’cause he’s trying to destroy Trump.
He’s the latest one they’ve called on to do it. He’s got a reputation beyond reproach. The great Robert Mueller is so afraid that he’s gonna be fired by Trump that he’s leaking all over Washington trying to prevent Trump from firing him, trying to make it politically unfeasible. “Mueller’s never done this before. Mueller is the king of integrity. He’s the prince of propriety. He would never engage in leaking!”
We were assured that this kind of leaking is beneath the great Mueller, and yet every day the special counsel is nothing more than a faucet. It’s turned wide open. I have no doubt that he’s doing all the leaking because the word went out that Trump might fire him too. So leaking all these things they’re looking into — like money laundering and stuff like this — is designed to make it harder for Trump to do it. But wait. I’m only halfway through this, so hang on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: You don’t think Donald Trump’s a star? Donald Trump’s bigger than the Beatles. Donald Trump is bigger than Bill Nye the Science Guy. Bill Maher doesn’t even compare. Donald Trump is bigger than Carl Sagan. I’m trying to pick left-wing stars and heroes here. Donald Trump is bigger than Bill Gates. Donald Trump is bigger than Steve Jobs. Donald Trump is the biggest star in the world today. And do not doubt me. It grates. It grates on everyone.
I don’t know how many Washington political class members get all concerned about the stardom, but the popularity and the name recognition, everything they seek, the power, the adulation from supporters, Donald Trump has it, and they don’t. Especially on the Democrat party side. They don’t. And there are very few Republicans either who can even approach Trump in the size and scope of his devoted base of support comprised of real Americans. And it grates on them.
I believe all these people are afraid. I think Mueller is afraid. I think his own cabinet, Trump’s own cabinet respects him so much, may be so petrified they make it known how much they respect him. They praise him of their own volition in that cabinet meeting. I’m not finished yet.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Two years ago today Donald Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president of the United States. In two years, they have tried to stop him. In two years, they have thrown everything they know how to thrown. In two years, they’ve uncovered everything they think they’ve got. In two years, they’re making things up. They’re leaking lies. Journalism has been reduced to something they never thought it could become. It’s become a joke.
It’s become the most untrustworthy of all institutions in politics — and that is saying something. Journalism is now not even journalism; it’s just part of the partisan agenda in Washington, D.C., that chooses sides. They are uniform in the side they choose. As such, journalism’s destroying itself. I’m of the belief that in the real world, the enemies of Donald Trump are destroying themselves. They are being eaten alive with their own rage and hatred.
It’s not pretty; it cannot be sustained. There’s nothing rewarding, uplifting, or encouraging about it; there’s no good that can come from it. I don’t know if you’ve ever known anybody who is rabidly consumed with hate and never allows it to abate. I’m sure you’ve seen people that are obsessed and can’t let something go. Your first instinct is that it’s not good for them. It isn’t healthy. There’s something wrong with them. These people are consumed and obsessed.
They’re swallowing their own bile every day. Because as the day ends, as each day ends, they awaken the next morning to find Donald Trump right where they hate hum being. They find Donald Trump right where they have tried to kick him out. They find Donald Trump where they are most fearful. They find him right there in the Oval Office or on Air Force One or whatever he’s doing as president. Every day the forces of hate and obsession have to deal — privately, publicly — with the evidence of their own ongoing failure.
Ever since they succeeded in taking out Richard Nixon they have been longing for this day. That was the ultimate thrill. That was the ultimate affirmation of their purpose: Taking out Richard Nixon, forcing him to resign, getting rid of a Republican president they hated. They have sought to do the same thing with ever Republican since with varying degrees of intensity. They didn’t work very hard in getting rid of George H. W. Bush because, in the end, they didn’t have to. George W. Bush? Ronald Reagan? They tried.
Iran-Contra, second term, much what we’re feeling and dealing with here in the same seemingly endless, ongoing investigation of nothing, purely manufactured and made up by the opposition to Reagan. It’s the same thing happening here. They wanted to get rid of Reagan; they failed. When Reagan died and had his funeral and this nation joined together? You know the fake unity they’re saying happened in baseball game last night? That wasn’t unity last night. That was phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ roll photo-op.
That was not unity. (interruption) You think it was unity last night? It wasn’t unity. The media’s all over it talking about it being unity; it wasn’t unity. The Democrats were booing Republicans last night before the night ended. There was no unity last night. That was simply plastic banana, good-time, phony photo-op. Real unity is when this nation lined the streets of the Reagan motorcade at his funeral and the leftists and the media and the Democrats were beside themselves. They thought they had destroyed Reagan’s reputation.
They thought they had destroyed Reagan’s image, and they were gobsmacked. George W. Bush, the Iraq war. They did everything they could to destroy his presidency, and here they are doing it again — and each day they awaken with the reality that they are failing. Now, I realize some people don’t see it that way. You wake up, “Ah, my God, Rush. They’re not going away! They’re keeping it up. They’re intensifying it. They’re making more stuff up. My God, I don’t know how Trump can hold on.”
Trump’s holding on. Trump’s thriving. Trump’s the biggest star in the world. That’s what Trump wants, among many other things, and he’s achieved it. Every day the people who are trying to take him out are the ones have to face the reality they haven’t done it yet. And they don’t have any evidence of any of the things they have alleged or alluded, and they know that too. So what they’re doing is what they always do in the Drive-By Media: try to create false and phony narratives that convince a majority of the American people.
They’re failing at that. They do not have their monopoly anymore. They’re unable to get away with it. I’ll give you an example. Chris Cillizza, our old buddy. He used to be at the Washington Post, but he went to CNN for the big bucks and the face time. So he goes over there, and he sends out a tweet the other day. You people that claim fake news? There’s no fake news. You can’t just say there’s fake news with no examples! Well, there were immediately 2400 tweets in response with endless examples of fake news.
Now, either Cillizza didn’t know — and, folks, do not discount that. These are the most insulated, insular people in the Washington press corps, the entire Washington political class. They don’t know what you in Iowa or Georgia or anybody else thinks. They don’t know what you think or what you’re doing. They don’t care. They don’t read anything but themselves. I mean, how many stories on fake news has CNN done? The only fake news stories they do on what a joke Trump is for accusing them of it, but they don’t ever report any while they engage in it.
So it’s logical to assume Cillizza may not even know that there’s fake news out there, even his own, and he had to be shocked. In the old days, before there was this alternative media, they would get away with these things. They don’t get away with it. It looks like they get away with it, but they’re not getting away with it. Trump’s approval rating at Rasmussen is at 50%. That is gonna irritate them. The Republicans… Let’s look at them. The Republicans cannot get Trump to stop tweeting. They are petrified over what he tweets.
Members of his own party wish he would shut up, members of his own party wish he would stop tweeting, members of his own party (and everybody) else wish he would start acting more presidential. But Donald Trump’s 140-character proclamations change the world every day. Donald Trump’s tweets thwart and obstruct the unified effort of his enemies to destroy him. Donald Trump’s tweets keep his supporters supporting him. Donald Trump’s tweets are one of the best weapons he has against this all-out assault arrayed against him.
The Saudis! The Saudis treated Donald Trump like a conquering emperor. That wasn’t supposed to happen for anybody but Obama! That’s another thing: Trump’s attacking the Obama legacy and is trying to unravel it, thread by thread. They hate him for that. He’s going to continue. NATO. The leaders of Europe are scared to death to be in the same room with Trump. They’re scared not because he’s insane, but because he means what he says. You remember the joint press conference with the president of Romania, where Trump first answered questions about either firing Comey or whatever the latest controversy of the day was?
The president of Romania said (paraphrased), “We are going to increase our spending in NATO because of President Trump.” The president of Romania credited President Trump for beefing up NATO and making everybody in it face their responsibilities. The Drive-Bys’ faces fell. It’s not supposed to happen! The president of Romania is supposed to be on their side dumping on Trump. He’s supposed to be telling everybody what an idiot Trump is. He’s supposed to be telling everybody how embarrassing it is that Trump is the president and he’s destroying NATO.
That’s not what happened. It was the exact opposite.
The North Koreans — that little potbellied dictator Kim Jong-un was so afraid of him they released a hostage. They weren’t afraid of Obama. They would not have been afraid of Hillary. They are afraid of Donald Trump. We want them to be afraid. Dennis Rodman… Dennis Rodman is over in North Korea or was. (chuckling) This is a picture. Dennis Rodman is presenting a gift to one of Kim Jong-un’s aides. You know what the gift was?
Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. Dennis Rodman gives the pot-bellied dictator’s aide — it’s a book intended for the pot-bellied dictator — Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal. The North Korean aide is smiling, Dennis Rodman is smiling, they’re both holding the book up as the North Korean executive looks happy to receive it. Not Obama’s book or books, and none of Hillary’s phony baloney books, and not Bill Clinton’s book (impression) “My Lie.” (sic) Donald Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal.
When that picture spreads, they’re gonna hate even more. Donald Trump, ladies and gentlemen, is so powerful he even got Vladimir Putin and the Russians to run his presidential campaign for him. Do you think…? Do you think that anybody could have done that? Could Bill Clinton have done that? Could Obama have done that? No way! Hillary couldn’t have done it. John Kerry couldn’t have done it. Donald Trump is so powerful, he got Putin to run his campaign and run interference for him and take out the Democrats. Name anybody else who could have done that!
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: They say in politics that perception is reality. Well, if so, if perception is reality, then the Drive-By Media with their two-year campaign designed to diminish and destroy Donald Trump may be doing just the opposite. He’s still there. Just now he lands in Miami, and he’s gonna reverse Obama’s decisions on Cuba. And Fox News has got a panel discussion going. “Oh, no! Oh, no! Is this further evidence that Trump is unraveling the Obama legacy?” Yes, it is. And they hate that.
Obama was God. Obama was untouchable. You could not criticize Obama. Obama was perfect. In their worldview, he was perfection, the only perfect human on earth. Donald Trump, of course, pales. Yet here comes this reprobate pig, and he’s unraveling the Obama agenda and legacy step by step by step. The hatred, the raw, sewage-like hatred from these people is so real you can smell it. These people are turning Donald Trump into one of the most powerful American presidents in modern times. They had better think seriously about their tactics and about their purpose here, because I don’t think they are actually accomplishing what they think they are having great success with.