RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw that. I don’t even know if it’s in the Wolff book or some story, but Trump is working not nearly as hard now as he did the first six months, that he doesn’t show up in the Oval Orifice ’til 11 a.m., that from 8 a.m. ’til 11 a.m. in the residence he’s watching TV and reading and all this other stuff and doesn’t show up to work until 11 o’clock.
Now, I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but I can tell you this. I work my butt off sitting on it. The idea that you have to be in the Oval Office — and, by the way, watching TV, sad to say, is part of the job.
You know, there’s something here I think is ironic. Anybody and everybody who thinks they’re somebody has some kind of a spot on cable news, right? You have anchors. You have anchorettes. You have infobabes. You have reporters and reporterettes. You have strategists; you have analysts. You have hosts. You have guests. You have panelists. You have weather people. You have businesspeople. You have stock people.
And there are multiple networks where all this happens. You have Fox News. You have CNN. CNN Headline News. You have CNN International. You have MSNBC. You have CNBC. You have Fox Business Network. And then some of the lesser knowns. Cable news is all over the place, is it not? And some of the most serious journalists in the universe work there, do they not? Such as F. Chuck Todd, who hosts “Defeat” the Press and what’s her name, Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, she has her own show on MSNBC.
But could somebody explain to me why it is such a sign of depravement and stupidity and unseriousness to watch cable news, when some of the most serious journalists in the world live and work there? Are we not to take cable news seriously? Is that the message? Is it possible to watch too much cable news? If so, why? Is it not worth that investment? Is what is reported, said, or done on cable news really not that important? And if the president of the United States watches it, it proves that he’s some sort of a low-rent idiot?
These two things have never made sense to me combined. The Drive-By Media tries to tell us that Donald Trump’s a lamebrain because he watches cable news and because he believes it. How many times have you seen them say, “Yeah, Trump saw it on cable news and tweeted it out five minutes later.” Well, what the hell. If it isn’t true, tell us.
Are you telling me the president of the United States can’t rely on what he sees on cable news to be factual and true? And that’s why he shouldn’t be tweeting what he saw? Are you people in cable news admitting that you don’t know what you’re talking about? “That’s right! Trump should be getting his information from the intelligence brief every day. Trump should be getting his information from his cabinet. Trump should be getting information from his senior staff, the chief of staff and the NSA, not cable news.”
Really? Really? Cable news is not a qualified, authoritative source for the president of the United States? This has always struck me as really kind of heart-stopping. The very people whose careers, whose fortunes, whose futures are tied up in cable news end up essentially saying it’s a waste of time to watch it. It’s a waste of time to really learn anything from cable news. The president’s tweeting something he saw on cable news, “Oh, my God, that’s really — uh-oh!” Well, aren’t we thus being told that what’s on cable news isn’t serious?
See, here’s the thing, folks. If I ran a cable news network and if I was serious about it, I’d want everybody watching it all the time. That was the point. That’s why you’re on the air. You want everybody watching as long as you can get them to watch. There’s no such thing as somebody that watches too much, just like there’s no such thing as somebody who listens to this program too often and for too long. And yet when it comes to the president and Fox News or any other cable news network, “Ah, he’s watching too much cable news, that’s not healthy.” Why? You people don’t believe what you do?
They show up to explain their latest stories. They show up as analysts. They show up as strategists. Anybody and everybody who rates anything in the news business is on cable news at least once a week. And yet the president is ridiculed for taking it seriously and tweeting about what he says? This would be like me if I found out that Trump was listening to this program every day for two hours, would it make sense to you if I started making fun of him because of that? If I started, “Oh, my gosh, the president’s deciding what to do because of what he heard here?”
I would be thrilled, ’cause I would realize the country’s on the right track. But cable news acts like, “Oh, no, he’s reacting to what he sees, oh, my.” Are you embarrassed of what you’re putting out? What is the problem here? You think Walter Cronkite didn’t want LBJ to believe everything he saw? You think Tom Brokaw, David Brinkley sat there and said, “Gee, I hope the president isn’t watching too much of this and isn’t taking all of it seriously”?
Somebody needs to explain this to me, because it’s senseless. It’s like Hollywood saying they didn’t know about the Harv when the Hollywood casting crouch has been a factor in getting employed, getting a job in Hollywood for women for a hundred years. “Nobody knew, Mr. Limbaugh, nobody knew, nobody knew about the Harv.” Oprah knew. She’s out there huddling and kissing Weinstein on the cheek and he’s kissing her. And The Oprah wants us to believe that she didn’t know?
“Harvey Weinstein says Oprah Winfrey called him to say she was ready to come out and publicly support him, but Oprah’s people say it’s simply not true.” TMZ says, “Our sources say Harvey has repeatedly told his team and friends that Oprah called him earlier this week –” this is back in October “– and said he needed to speak out and defend himself, and when he did she would be right there supporting him.” TMZ said, “We’re told Harvey has said a number of powerful people have called to voice support, but he singled out Oprah over and over.
“Oprah’s spokesperson tells TMZ, ‘Oprah has not spoken to Harvey Weinstein directly. Someone from his team reached out to her to see if she would talk to him, and she said she would if it was for an interview. There are no plans for an interview at this time.'”
(interruption) Axios, that’s where it’s from. And they claim they were given access to Trump’s secret schedule. There’s still a bunch of leakers in there. There’s still a bunch of people — I still don’t understand Trump’s staffing. One of the things I wish, I wish he had run some names by me. But he didn’t. And I’ll tell you this, half the people that ended up there would not have been there. But it didn’t happen.
I have it on the best authority that in one of those rooms off the Oval Office Barack Obama had a television set specifically for watching the NBA and NCAA, basketball. Daytime, nighttime. I have it on the highest authority. We know what Clinton used it for. That’s were Lewinsky and the cigar were.
But, anyway, they’re saying that Trump, “Yeah, he doesn’t show up ’til 11 o’clock. He’s too busy watching TV.” If I’m Trump, watching TV would be one of the fastest and most efficient ways to size up my opposition each and every day. All you gotta do is watch a half hour of CNN and you know how the left’s gonna come at you that day. CNN, MSNBC personify, exemplify Trump opposition, an endless parade of guests throughout their broadcast day telling how Trump’s unfit, unqualified, ways to attack Trump.
But Trump is made fun of for watching television, is made fun of for watching cable news. It’s not healthy, it’s not sensible. Why not? Do you people not believe what you’re doing?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Meanwhile, Michael Wolff says that his book will eventually bring down the president, and in so doing Michael Wolff is giving away the game. And if you talk to any of these leftists long enough, they will eventually reveal their true agenda. And so Wolff has admitted that that’s what the purpose of his book is. And he’s admitted he doesn’t know if even half of it’s true, and other reporters are saying it doesn’t matter if it’s true; it’s close enough.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times says it’s notionally true enough. Meaning, hey, yeah, there’s a lot of speculation, but it’s close enough. Many New York Times and Washington Post reporters are saying, “Hey, there’s nothing in here that we haven’t already told you.” And in that sense, they may have a point. There really isn’t anything new here.
If you ask me, this is just an expanded version of the Trump dossier, one way of looking at it. Trump reacted by saying, “I’m a very stable genius.” And this, of course, just sent them into further conniption fit.
“President Donald Trump slammed reports questioning his mental stability in a series of tweets Saturday morning, writing he’s a ‘very stable genius’ … ‘Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence …’ Trump wrote.”
And it’s right. We pointed out last week, this is the playbook. There is not a Republican president in our lifetimes that at some point the media and the Democrat Party have not gotten together and suggested was not all there mentally. Reagan and Alzheimer’s, Reagan and falling asleep during cabinet meetings, which is a lie. Reagan taking naps half of each day. Reagan with an attention span of 30 seconds because he was losing his mind. George W. Bush never had a mind to begin with. George W. Bush was a stupid idiot from day one that not even Karl Rove could cover up for.
Well, then what are you all doing? If Trump isn’t to take it seriously, why are we? The most amazing thing. But they’re out there saying that one of the bits of evidence that Trump is not all there and is not sane, is he watches cable news all the time, and he gets much of what he believes from cable news. Well, some of the pillars of journalism work in cable news.
Why are these people so eager to put down what they do by claiming that what they do is not good enough for a president to learn from? Is it the belief that presidents should know everything beforehand that they report on? Well, just to show you how this has also changed, we have a sound bite from MSNBC September 26, 2005, Chris Matthews, Hardball. His guest is Peter King, congressman, New York. And they’re talking about Bush and his stupidity.
And one of the bits of evidence for his stupidity was the way he dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that he didn’t care enough, that he flew over and waved but didn’t have the heart to land. He didn’t care enough about the destitution to actually land and help people do anything about it. You remember the drill.
And Matthews says to Peter King, “Weren’t you dismayed that the president didn’t watch television for those 48 hours? Bush said he didn’t watch TV. He had to be shown a picture of what we’d all been watching. One of the reasons these people are volunteering is because of what they saw on television.”
Matthews says, “I’m very proud of the media in the last couple of weeks. We’re not always perfect, but I gotta tell you something, the latest polling shows almost 80% of the American people say the media has done a fabulous job in handling this hurricane because it’s the pictures that people have seen on TV.” So they’re arguing here over the fact that Bush was an idiot and a numskull and didn’t care ’cause he hadn’t watched cable TV.
KING: No, the fact is, Chris, you guys are giving yourselves too much credit. You guys dwell in self-congratulation. The fact is the media’s shots were distortive…
MATTHEWS: No, It’s rare that we have anything to congratulate. (laughing)
KING: No. If you wanna —
MATTHEWS: Most of the time people give us hell. Let me ask you about this. Congressman… (crosstalk)
MATTHEWS: …we get started on this today, let’s get back to it. Okay.
KING: Chris, you won’t give me a chance to answer the question. Just because the president doesn’t watch you on television doesn’t mean he’s not doing his job. You know, Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t hired to listen to radio accounts of D-Day. You’re hired to do the job, and the President can do his job without having to listen to Chris Matthews or Andrea Mitchell or Tim Russert or any of the others.
MATTHEWS: Right.
KING: He is doing his job.
RUSH: Right. Right. So Bush was not watching TV and was idiot and irresponsible. And now Trump is watching TV, it’s too much, and he’s irresponsible and an idiot, because cable news is not enough for anybody to be able to do their jobs. Go figure.
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