RUSH: Here’s Rick, Fort Myers, Florida. Great to have you with us on the phone today, sir. How you doing?

CALLER: Hey, Rush. You know the phone thing, I’m sure that your phone’s better than the Obama phone, but, anyway, you know —

RUSH: There’s no comparison.

CALLER: (laughing) Yeah. You know, anyway, I would put yours on the wall under a frame, you know, up in the living room. But, anyway, isn’t sexual harassment a type of intimidation? So if sexual harassment —

RUSH: Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.

CALLER: Yeah. So if sexual harassment is a type of intimidation, that means that the left has been holding the women down breaking through the glass ceiling, wouldn’t you say?

RUSH: No question about it. Wait a minute. Hold it a minute now. It kind of works in the opposite way as far as the women are concerned. The women think they have to shut up if they’re gonna have a chance at advancement.

CALLER: Yeah. And one more thing, you know, Chuck Todd — F. Chuck Todd you call him — a few months ago said that Hillary had the thumb on the scales when she was running for office against Bernie. So they already knew. I mean, the press already knew that they’re in for Hillary, and so the thing is I think we need to scrutinize about them is, “What did they know and when did they know it” about all these things? You know, they need to be held accountable for this stuff.

RUSH: Well, the Democrats are not interested in holding them accountable. It’s their deal. The Democrats didn’t even want the FBI to examine their server. The whole point of all this has been to cover up the rigging of that primary. In politics, the Democrat Party can do what they want to do, and it’s so-called nobody else’s business.

Where it becomes other people’s business is you inform the American people and Democrat voters that their primary was rigged, and then they supposedly are supposed to take care of it with their votes and their donations the next time around. When did they know and when did they know it, I mean, it’s been widely known what Hillary Clinton was doing with Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz in terms of rigging that primary. Anyway, I appreciate the call.

T.J. in Athens, Georgia, you’re next. Great to have you, sir. How you doing.

CALLER: It’s a pleasure to talk with you, Rush, and I want to wish you and your staff a very Merry Christmas.

RUSH: Thank you, T.J., I appreciate that.

CALLER: You said something the other day about Elizabeth Warren and the CFPD.

RUSH: That’s right.

CALLER: The consumer organization. And looking back — I am so sick of the Clintons, I just can’t say it. Since she did the Stand by Your Man interview on CBS years ago, it’s just, how do they get away with this? And I was connecting the dots given your comment about Warren, since she was showing up on the campaign trail last year with Clinton so many times, and I think, if they are laundering money to the liberal causes, they really expected her to win. And what was really bothering me is that I think the connection or the dot connection was she’s going to win automatically, and they’ll just funnel all that money through that CFPD. And I just wanted to run that by you.

RUSH: Well, they’ve already been doing that. That was the whole reason the thing was set up. What we’re talking about here is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It was an offshoot of Dodd-Frank. Dodd-Frank was a piece of legislation that came out of the financial crisis in 2008 designed, as they said, to protect consumers from, once again, predatory lenders and banks, and blah, and the banks had only become predatory lenders ’cause the government demanded that they loan money to people that couldn’t pay it back. That’s the subprime mortgage crisis.

As an adjunct to Dodd-Frank, Elizabeth Warren, Pocahontas, set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but there’s a twist. It was set up as an autonomous agency and it was signed into law by Obama which is how it passed the unconstitutionality of it. It was signed into law by Obama. It is not funded by appropriation from Congress, which is what makes it unconstitutional. It is funded from the Federal Reserve.

In addition, it has its own leader, its own president or head — I forget what the title is, executive director, whatever this case the most recent was Richard Cordray. And what this actually was, it had a twofold real purpose. The stated public purpose was that this agency was going to safeguard the little guy. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was gonna make sure that predatory lenders didn’t screw you, didn’t take advantage of you, didn’t overcharge you interest rates, didn’t deny you loans, you know, all of this stuff.

It was typical caca from the Democrat Party. What it really was: a pass-through. It was a way to get money to left-wing special interest causes. The way it did it was via fines. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had the authority to fine lending institutions, financial institutions for improper behavior. And so let’s make something up. Let’s say they want to fine Wells Fargo because Wells Fargo did something that they disapprove of and they fine Wells Fargo a million dollars. Wells Fargo will pay it rather than fight it. It’s part of the cost of doing business.

Remember, the CFPD is not accountable to Congress, it’s not funded with taxpayer money. It’s funded through the Federal Reserve. So it’s, therefore, independent. They took that million dollars, for example, and would give it out to Planned Parenthood or would give half of it to a global warming special interest or a climate change special interest, or what you have you, a union. And this happened with all the fines that were levied. It was the purpose. It was the unstated purpose. It was a funding mechanism for left-wing special interest causes.

In addition to that, it served as a money laundering pass-through because some of these fines, as they were collected and run through the CPFB, then ended up in places other than left-wing special interest causes, and the money had to be cleaned, and it had to appear to be legitimate when it was redirected.

So the controversy now is Cordray, current executive director, is leaving. And according to Pocahontas, the president doesn’t have any authority in naming his successor. He does. Richard Cordray, a nobody, a chump change employee, does not have, because of something called the Federal Succession Act, he does not have the constitutional authority to name his successor. Only the president does, because even though this thing was set up as an independent agency, it’s still in the executive branch.

And so the fight now is Cordray wanted to name his deputy, Leandra English. And the reason is they want to make sure this thing operates as it has been even though Trump is president. They want to be able to fine lending institutions and take that money and give it to left-wing special interest causes, or even individuals. Well, when Cordray announced he’s leaving, Trump moves in and says (imitating Trump), “Sorry, I’m putting Mick Mulvaney over there. You don’t have the right to name your successor. I’m putting Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget in there,” and he’s in there, and it went to court.

The libs tried to take this to court, and the judge told Cordray, “You don’t have the right to name your successor. You don’t have the constitutional right. You have no authority whatsoever. You’re a chump change employee.” The libs and Pocahontas set this thing up, what they thought would be acting in perpetuity unaccountable to anybody. And the idea was that even if a Republican was elected president, he wouldn’t be able to touch it.

Well, Trump said, “Really? You don’t think I can touch it? Watch this.” And Mick Mulvaney is now in charge. And the reason they are bleeding like stuck bigs is because Mulvaney is gonna find out exactly everything that’s been going on there and is gonna expose it. And the thing that was set up ostensibly to protect consumers and the little guy from these horrible, mean financial corporations, the American people are gonna learn that the Democrat Party was using this as an adjunct personal piggy bank, a way to get private sector money funneled to left-wing special interest causes. That was not taxpayer money. It came from the Federal Reserve, but it’s the fine money.

This is a classic example of the left’s real intent for wanting control of government. It has nothing to do with protecting consumers. It has nothing to do with making sure the little guy’s protected. It’s all about the left being able to reach out and put their hands on somebody else’s money with the power to fine them and then take that money and essentially give it to themselves, give it to their own operatives advancing their agenda.

I have to take a break. Ponder that.