RUSH: Cookie has this 60 Minutes thing that she says is hilarious that we’ve had for two or three days that I haven’t used. Let me go ahead and do it. I found that. Apparently, 60 Minutes just celebrated their 50th anniversary. You know, I went to their… What was it? It was at the 25th. I went to the 25th. It was at the Temple of Bindar, Temple of Dundar, Temple of Whatever exhibit at a museum. That’s where they sat me with Camille Paglia and thought there were gonna be fireworks. Steve Kroft and Morley Safer kept circling my table. I couldn’t figure out why.

They were waiting for Camille Paglia to storm out in protest at being forced to sit at my table, which of course didn’t happen. We became fast friends. It ruined their night. Ed Bradley too. It was the only reason I was invited. They’d profiled me but I was only invited because they thought fireworks were gonna erupt.

So Sunday night on 60 Minutes or 50th anniversary after an opening montage on footage from stories spanning the last 50 years (not any of them including my profile), they played their iconic opening listing all of their contributors. You know, “I am Morley Safer. I am Ed Bradley. I’m Steve Kroft. I’m Lesley Stahl,” and you’re not one of us. It’s that opening they do.

They left somebody out.

They left somebody out, and we decided to add that somebody in. So here is their version…

MIKE WALLACE: (music) I’m Mike Wallace.

HARRY REASONER: I’m Harry Reasoner.

MORLEY SAFER: I’m Morley Safer.

DAN RATHER: I’m Dan Rather.

ED BRADLEY: I’m Ed Bradley.

DIANE SAWYER: I’m Diane Sawyer.

STEVE KROFT: I’m Steve Kroft.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: I’m Meredith Vieira.

LESLEY STAHL: I’m Lesley Stahl.

BOB SIMON: I’m Bob Simon.

SCOTT PELLEY: I’m Scott Pelley.

KATIE COURIC: I’m Katie Couric.

LARA LOGAN: I’m Lara Logan.

ANDERSON COOPER: I’m Anderson Cooper.

BYRON PITTS: I’m Byron Pitts.

DAVID MARTIN: I’m David Martin.

SHARYN ALFONSI: I’m Sharyn Alfonsi.

OPRAH WINFREY: I’m Oprah Winfrey.

BILL WHITAKER: I’m Bill Whitaker. Tonight, 50 years of 60 minutes. (ticking)

RUSH: If you can put “50 years of 60 Minutes” in 60 minutes, there must not have been much happening in the 50 years. But they tried it. They left somebody out and it was obvious that they didn’t include somebody. So we did.

MIKE WALLACE: I’m Mike Wallace.

HARRY REASONER: I’m Harry Reasoner.

MORLEY SAFER: I’m Morley Safer.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

DAN RATHER: I’m Dan Rather.

ED BRADLEY: I’m Ed Bradley.

DIANE SAWYER: I’m Diane Sawyer.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

STEVE KROFT: I’m Steve Kroft.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: I’m Meredith Vieira.

LESLEY STAHL: I’m Lesley Stahl.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

BOB SIMON: I’m Bob Simon.

SCOTT PELLEY: I’m Scott Pelley.

KATIE COURIC: I’m Katie Couric.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

LARA LOGAN: I’m Lara Logan.

ANDERSON COOPER: I’m Anderson Cooper.

BYRON PITTS: I’m Byron Pitts.

DAVID MARTIN: I’m David Martin.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

SHARYN ALFONSI: I’m Sharyn Alfonsi.

OPRAH WINFREY: I’m Oprah Winfrey.

BILL WHITAKER: I’m Bill Whitaker.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

CHARLIE ROSE: I’m Charlie Rose.

RUSH: (laughing) How can you do this and leave out Charlie Rose? He was there. They knew who he was. They left him out. How conspicuous is that? This is not an admission? So we thought it was a disservice to Charlie and his contributions to 60 Minutes and CBS. So we put him back in there.

RUSH: TIME magazine Person of the Year. Let me find this. I’ve got something on this in the Stack here, if I can find the Stack. I got it. I think I got it. I got it. Do I? I got it. Do you know what they announced? Do you know who the Person of the Year is at TIME magazine? (interruption) What? It is not some group of women. It is “the silence breakers.” It is the women of Weinstein and the Democrats’ sexual harassment. It’s Ashley Judd. It’s all of these women. It’s not Trump.

TIME has named all of these women who have come forward and acknowledged that they’ve been abused, harassed, or even raped as “the silence breakers: the individuals who set off a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment” in the Democratic… Wait, I added that. They didn’t say that. That’s their 2017 Person of the Year. Do you know where they announced this? On the Today show! (laughing) They announced it on the Today show, and they did it with Hoda Kotb. It’s audio sound bite number 11 in three… two… one…

KOTB: It’s time for the big reveal. Who is TIME’s Person of the Year?

FELSENTHAL: The 2017 Person of the Year is “The Silence Breakers: The Voices That Launched a Movement.” This is the fastest moving social change we’ve seen in decades. And it began with individual acts of courage by hundreds of women — and some men, too — who came forward to tell their own stories of sexual harassment and assault.

RUSH: That is what’s his name, Edward Felsenthal. He’s the editor-in-chief at TIME magazine. Savannah Guthrie, wanting to get in on the action here, said (summarized), “Look, the runner-up is President Trump. Now, first of all, what’s your rationale here, and second of all, he’s tweeted that TIME wanted him to be Person of the Year and that he rejected you. He said TIME wanted him but he told you to go pound sand. Is that true?”

FELSENTHAL: Well, he’s number two on our list because he — he has changed the very nature of the presidency and — and the way the White House functions. He’s on the verge of his first major legislative victory. He’s reshaping the judiciary and aggressively rolling back regulations.

RUSH: Now, let me look for… Nope, nothing there about TIME. See, he didn’t answer the question about whether Trump was telling the truth that they begged him to be Person of the Year and he told them to go pound sand so TIME chose the women. Now, there’s one more on this. Little Brian Stelter, the media guru and analyst at TIME magazine spoke with “Poppy” Harlow, infobabe at CNN. She said, “Thousands of women stood up, spoke out, and said, ‘Me too.’ Their battle cry against decades of sexual harassment landed them as TIME magazine’s Person of the Year. The magazine’s cover memorializing the silence breakers. The runner-up, President Trump, and a few others. Our senior media correspondent Brian Stelter is here.”

STELTER: It’s a year that started with a women’s march and ends with this cover, with silence breakers. You know, it’s been exactly two months since the New York Times —

RUSH: Wait a minute. Hold it a minute. Hold a… The year began with a women’s march? What year is he talking about? Is he talking about the vagina hats? Well, that began with Trump being elected. What the hell is this, the year began with a women’s march? Oh, well, play the thing anyway. Doesn’t matter.

STELTER: — landed that first Harvey Weinstein story. Only two months since that scandal erupted, and we’ve seen dozens of allegations against dozens of powerful men since. … [N]otice there’s an arm that sticks out there in the corner of the cover. It’s for the next woman who may come forward. If 2017 was about the silence being broken, 2018 has to be about systemic change. And to that point, I just put up a story on CNN.com about Mark Halperin accusers —

HARLOW: Yes!

STELTER: — and Charlie Rose accusers coming together —

HARLOW: Coming together!

STELTER: — forming a support group, forming a coalition. They want to see change in television newsrooms.

RUSH: Right. Link this to Trump? Oh, well. Here’s the thing about this, folks. In all candor, in all honesty, in all objectivity as an analyst: This is huge. This is earth-shattering huge. These revelations, the people that have been taken down, the people who’ve been exposed by this? This is monumental. The outing of all of these paragons, all of these so-called stars and heroes, self-appointed arbiters of courage and of morality. I mean, this is big. All of these people outed and taken down after having massively degraded women and young boys? I’m sure the media would have loved for this to have been about Trump.

They wish that the Person of the Year could be the media for destroying Trump. But the media didn’t do this. You can’t tell me that Weinstein was not known until the New York Times published a few months ago. These people were all widely known.

And I’ll tell you something else. If Hillary Clinton had been elected, this would not have happened. If Hillary Clinton had been elected, Harvey Weinstein — I was not joking — he would be sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom after paying for it with massive donations. And he and Bill would still be running around doing whatever they’ve always done.

Harvey Weinstein, there would not have been a story. There would have been no need. The Democrats and the media would have been deliriously happy. We would not have had a single one of these sexual harassment stories break. Not a one of them if Hillary Clinton had won. And that’s just one of the many things that we could cite as evidence of how important the Trump victory was.

As it is, the only reason this stuff came out now is because the media is hell-bent on getting Trump. And the calculation was made that if they’re gonna get Trump, they’ve gotta throw Clinton overboard, Bill Clinton and Monica, and expose some of these other things. NBC had this story a year ago on Harvey Weinstein, and they dropped it because they knew that their number one anchor on the Today show was doing the same kind of stuff, and they had to cover that up!

Donald Trump being elected has shaken up everything like a cocktail shaker. And these people are discombobulated and don’t know what to do about it. If Hillary Clinton had won, we would not have a revived economy, we would not have any of the changes we’ve had on the border, none of the things that people are optimistic about. The economy, the job market, the overall economic confidence, none of this would be happening right now.

I frankly don’t know what kind of mood I would be in. I probably would be asking myself, “What is the point showing up here every day? I mean, really, four more years of, ‘Come on, folks, hang in there, we can do it.’ Who’s gonna feel like it?” Half the audience would be on the way to New Zealand or Singapore. (interruption) You have a question? The Official Program Observer has a question. “The Silence Breakers,” big story, you say, yeah, about the sexual harassment. Yeah. (interruption) Well, I’m not trying to denigrate Trump. I think this is big. Trump was Person of the Year last year, wasn’t he? Not like he’s being slighted. Wasn’t he? (interruption) Okay, fine. Arguably worldwide Trump has made the biggest — Trump is the reason this happened, in fact.

Trump being elected is why all these dominoes are falling. I’m not denying that. But normally a TIME magazine Person of the Year selection is an abject joke. Like the climate or like the computer or like something or other. This is not insignificant. That’s all I’m saying. I think this is a big deal, all of this behavior been going on in the workplace, and not the least because of who it is, folks. It’s the phonies among us. The people that have been preaching to us about being phony prudes and don’t sit in judgment of other people, making fun of people who try to live a decent life.

The people making these filth movies and trying to foster them on everybody. Look who’s gotten caught up in this. “You can’t turn harassment into a partisan –” I didn’t. It is what it is! I mean, it’s undeniable. I’m not suggesting that Trump would not have been a valid choice. I’m just saying this one I do think was earth-shattering.

Look at the Democrat resignations. I think it’s gonna be a blowback too. I think the pendulum’s gonna go too far one way. There’s gonna be a little bit of an overreaction to this. But it will balance out. Look, I have to take another time-out. There’s some other things I want to get to here. I didn’t intend to spend this much time on it, but the program observer asked me a waste of time question, and I had to answer it.