RUSH: No, no. You heard me right. The judge in the Manafort case is targeting Mueller’s team and said they’re really just trying to get Trump. But he did not issue a ruling on throwing the Manafort case out. So right now, all we have is the judge pointing fingers. The judge was absolutely right on the money. CNN did a big report on it and then dropped it. The rest of the Drive-Bys started seething with rage, and then they dropped it — and now they’ve all gone back to the Weather Channel. Stormy 24/7. That’s all they are.

Now, during the break, I checked the email. I always do. “Rush, why do you think personal approval numbers — presidential approval numbers — matter here? If these people want to get rid of Trump, they’re gonna get rid of him.” Well, no, it’s not that simple, because the getting rid of Trump is gonna be impeachment. In fact, folks, the way to look at Mueller… If you really want to know, Mueller is already acting as the Democrats’ impeachment lawyer.

They are making the case. That’s what’s going on right now. That’s why it’s not going away. I don’t… I’m not saying there’s a formal arrangement made between the Democrats and Mueller. I’m just saying that this is what is gonna transpire. If the Democrats win the House, Mueller’s investigation is going to be imported, if you will, and it will become the basis for the impeachment proceedings. That’s what the Democrats are hoping and planning. And Mueller may or may not be in on it.

Rich Lowry has a great piece about this at National Review today. Rich is coming to the conclusion that this is so far out of bounds now — this is so obviously not about what it’s supposed to be about — that you can’t ignore it anymore. You can’t miss it. You have to see honestly what is happening here. And it is way beyond the bounds of the United States Department of Justice. This is just… It’s out of control. It has no basis in fact.

The energy, the propulsion of this whole thing is nothing but pure, bitter, angry politics designed to overthrow or reverse the outcome of an election. But the reason why public opinion matters is because impeachment is a political matter. It’s not legal. Remember Bill Clinton was impeached. That doesn’t mean anything. You still have to get a conviction. For those of you who are low-information voters or Millennials and don’t know how all this works, it’s very simple.

The House of Representatives draws up articles of impeachment, the charges, and then they appoint managers to handle every individual charge. So you have one member of the House — in the Clinton case, I think there were 12 House managers — and they present the case to the Senate. The Senate’s the jury. Lindsey Graham was a House manager. Lindsey Graham, at one time, was as conservative as you and I are.

But then he became a House manager and the whole impeachment thing blew up because the Senate was not interested in it at all, and the House effort to impeach Clinton blew up. And the reason it blew up is that Bill Clinton’s approval numbers remained 55 to 60 points. And I remember all during that period of time wondering, “How in the hell is this possible?” And now I look back on it, and I think I know exactly how it’s possible.

The American people didn’t want any part of it back then. Even if Clinton had lied under oath and even if Clinton had been bongin’ a little intern there in the Oval Office, the economy was great! The economy was flourishing! Everything was okay! They didn’t want to get rid of Clinton! They weren’t emotionally tied to the guy. They just didn’t want things upset. And we have building similar circumstances here, only better.

But impeachment failed because Clinton’s approval numbers were always around 55 to 60. There was no way the Senate was gonna throw him out of office. That’s why all of this matters, and that’s why the original effort here, even before Mueller was hired, was to drive Trump’s approval numbers down to the twenties. That’s how they were again get rid of him in the first six months.

When his approval number gets to the twenties, he’s got no defenders on Capitol Hill. Not that he has any now, but you understand the point. With no defenders on Capitol Hill, there is no way he’s gonna survive impeachment. And so to avoid that, they’ll go up there and they’ll say “Mr. President, you have no support left.” This is what they did to Nixon, and Nixon resigned rather than go through the whole impeachment process because Nixon said he wanted to spare the country the trauma of all of that.

Now, I don’t think we’re gonna get anywhere near this with Trump because I don’t think the Democrats are gonna win the House! I think the Democrats and the media are in the process of losing it right now, if they ever had it won. I don’t believe this blue wave was ever real! It was always the result of phony polling data, and it was the generic ballot. So how can it be…? Let me create a scenario for you.

Last December, the first generic ballot — Republican versus Democrat, what’s your preference? — the Democrats won that 15 percentage points. That’s when the blue wave talk started. The media and the Democrats began to feel exactly like they felt on election night 2016. They’ve got a landslide coming; all they have to do is wait for it. Now, since that time in January-December when the Republicans were at a minus-15% deficit in the generic ballot, look at the news that has happened since.

What has it been? All Trump all the time. All Trump creep all the time, all Trump criminal all the time, all Trump reprobate all the time, all Trump unqualified all the time. It has been never ending from the moment that… Look, that preceded it too. My point is that in a barrage, an inundation, a tsunami of nothing but negative Trump stories, the Republicans have begun to close the ballot in the generic ballot to the point now where the Democrats’ lead is in the margin of error.

So how can it be that all of this negative coverage on Trump — Stormy Daniels, take your pick — whatever it is… It changes every week. You know, there’s a new hook every week. There’s a new crisis every week. There’s a new “We got him! This is it!” every week. So how can it be with all of this negative coverage — I mean, it’s nothing but negative. There isn’t a shred of positive coverage of Donald Trump no matter where you go in the mainstream media.

How in the world can Republicans be gaining ground in the generic ballot? Well, one of two things. Either they were never down 15 points or they were and the Democrats are losing ground with a combination of Republicans gaining ground. I think it’s the latter. I think the Democrats… I think the media are actually inflicting great harm on the Democrats. In fact, there are more and more Democrats…

I’ve got stories today. Adam Schiff, Pencil Neck, he’s out. He’s warning Democrats, “Please, do not talk about impeachment in your upcoming campaign. Please do not mention it. It’s a negative. People don’t want to hear it.” If it were a positive — if the people in Democrat states and districts wanted Trump impeached and that’s how you would win an election — that’s what they would be talking about.

Their polling data must show that when it comes to impeachment, nobody wants any part of it. It’s not a winning issue. Let me put it that way. Because I can damn well guarantee you that if it were, that’s all they’d be talking about. But you’ve got Pelosi, you’ve got Schiff, you’ve got any number of ’em trying to tell Democrat candidates, “Shut up, do not talk about impeachment. Do not talk about getting rid of Trump, do not talk about it.”

Why? Because it’s a negative. But the media can’t stop talking about it. The media can’t stop talking about anything negative with Trump. They don’t have to just focus on impeachment. All they have to do is do their jobs every day and they’re beginning to irritate more and more and more people.

In the midst of all this, the media told us for the last two months that the iPhone X was a flop, that Apple’s stock price was gonna plunge, that Apple’s big days were over and behind ’em. The media told us that Cohen’s phones had been tapped and his calls to the White House had been overheard by federal prosecutors. The media said that Trump’s tax cuts would lead to catastrophe. Trump’s tax cuts wouldn’t help anybody.

Well, the iPhone X sold record amounts of new phones. Apple sold an increased number of phones in the most recent quarter, and Warren Buffett just purchased $75 million shares of Apple, spending 200 and some odd million dollars to do it. None of what was forecast about Apple came true at all, none of it was true. And now we find out that Cohen’s first were not tapped.

Trump’s tax cuts are working out for people so well that his approval number is now up to 51%. The unemployment number is down to 3.9%. U.S. job growth has rebounded with that unemployment rate of 3.9%. Manufacturing jobs are increasing. Let me find the exact number on that. Black-Hispanic unemployment rates hit record lows in April, and manufacturing jobs are up 24,000 in April for a total of 304,000 since Trump took office.

So on this side of the ledger we have actual improving circumstances for people and their lives. There are jobs aplenty. We haven’t been in the 3% unemployment category in I don’t know how long. Four percent is considered pretty much full employment statistically. There’s something else that’s happening that’s also going to redound to Trump’s benefit, and that is a new high or a rebirth of illegal immigrants succeeding in crossing the border is been reported. Trump has done everything he can to stop that. He’s not getting any help.

And with every news report that more and more illegals are crossing and more and more from the caravan are being granted asylum, that’s only gonna help Trump. It isn’t gonna hurt him. There isn’t a soul out there that voted for Trump who does not think Trump is trying, does not think Trump is working hard to fix that. They know Trump’s not getting any assistance on it.

So where people live, folks, where they live, where they go to work, where they spend time with their families, things are okay and improving. In the America reported on by the American Media it’s a bunch of garbage people don’t want any part of. They’re tired of hearing about it. They don’t believe it. They don’t want to be immersed in it anymore. And to the extent that they are, they don’t believe it. They’re rejecting it.

They’re not driving Trump’s approval numbers down. Trump’s approval numbers are skyrocketing. The same people told us Hillary Clinton was gonna win in a landslide. The same people told us that high unemployment and a very low gross domestic product was the new normal and that Obama and the Democrats were perfectly positioned to manage the decline. The same people told us the Iran deal was fabulous. The same people told us that Donald Trump would start a nuclear war with North Korea because he was an ignorant, reckless cowboy. The same people told us it was never gonna snow in New York.

Donald Trump’s only closer to a solution in North Korea than any American president ever has been. No American president in our lifetimes has presided over unemployment at 3.9%. No American president has brought a manufacturing sector back from the dead like Donald Trump has presided over. And his numbers are at 51% despite a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week mauling by practically the totality of the American Media.

I don’t think it’s hard to conclude that what they’re trying with Trump is not working in the court of public opinion. And in the process, the media continue to make abject fools of themselves. And it is obvious. It is obvious that they’re crazed. It is obvious that they’re unhinged. It is obvious they are deluded. And it’s, furthermore, obvious that they hate. And hate is not compelling. Well, it’s compelling, but it’s not infectious. It’s not how you build support for whatever it is you want to achieve.