RUSH: The Drive-By Media is erupting yet again. I mentioned this to you in our prior and previous broadcast hour. It has to do with the president’s remarks just before the beginning of the cabinet meeting, right around 12 noon Eastern Time today. There is an ongoing media eruption because Donald Trump said that he doesn’t think the Russians are still meddling in our elections — and, of course, in the Drive-By Media, it is a requirement that not only you acknowledge the Russians are still meddling, but that the Russians are meddling.

The Drive-By Media is insistent that the Russians are still meddling! Nobody could make them stop. Nobody could cause them to stop doing it. Obama couldn’t, and, therefore, it couldn’t be done. So in the Drive-By Media while the Russians are always meddling — and why is this? Why is this eruption taking place today? They’re going crazy over Trump saying that Russia is no longer targeting the U.S. for two reasons.

No. 1, they don’t want to believe it, because they want to keep the Russian-meddling-in-our-elections story alive at least through the midterms so they can blame the Russians if there isn’t any blue wave. And, in fact, CNN has already laid the groundwork for the fact that the Russians are meddling and are trying with a hashtag campaign on Twitter to cause African-Americans to abandon the Democrat Party. I’ll get to that story in a minute.

I should have found that, put it at the top. I’ll get to it in just a second. This eruption just happened. The second reason that they do not want to believe that the Russians have stopped meddling is because they cannot believe Trump would be able to do something that Obama couldn’t. I mean, Obama… Do you realize what an absolute joke all this is? Do you realize what a time-wasting joke all of this is?

Barack Obama has told us already that he told Putin to cut it out. (impression) “I told Putin! I had a meeting at the G20. I told him, ‘You cut it out!'” Well, Putin didn’t cut it out. Putin kept doing it. Isn’t that an embarrassment to Obama? Why is Trump the target? Obama told Putin to cut it out, and the media… Apparently the Russians didn’t get the message, ’cause they’re still meddling. They didn’t listen to Obama. So Obama must be not very threatening or very intimidating.

That doesn’t sit well with the Drive-By Media because when Obama tells you to stop something, to cut something out, you’re supposed to cut it out ’cause you’re supposed to be really respectful. I mean, Obama’s one of the smartest wordsmiths in the world — and when Obama tells you to cut it out, you better cut it out! If you don’t listen to Obama, then we can’t respect you, because everybody listens to Obama. I mean, this is ridiculous. Every aspect of this.

Every aspect of this! Russian meddling took place the Democratic National Committee server. It took place with Hillary Clinton and her campaign colluding with Russians on a phony dossier. And we are still caught up in, “Will Trump admit the Russians are meddling? And if he won’t, that’s treason, and we must throw him out of office. Where are you, Republicans? Your president is committing treason! He is a traitor. He will not admit the Russians are meddling.”

Well, now, wait a minute. Barack Obama told his own cyber chief to “stand down” in 2016. I have to remind you of this again. It’s in a book by two leftist journalists, Michael Isikoff and David Corn. The Obama White House cyber expert, the chief cyber expert testified that proposals he was developing to counter Russia’s attack on the U.S. presidential election were put on the back burner.

Obama told them to “stand down” against identifying and spotting Russian cyber attacks on American elections — and somehow Trump’s committing treason here? So now let’s go to the audio sound bites. White House cabinet meeting. Right before it begins, this is a female reporter and Trump. It’s kind of hard to hear, but I have the transcript. I’ll read it to you if it’s undecipherable.

REPORTER: Is Russia still targeting the U.S., Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you.

AIDE: Let’s go. Let’s go.

THE PRESIDENT: No.

RUSH: Yeah. That’s kind of busy. “Is Russia still targeting the U.S., Mr. President?” “Thank you very much. Thank you.” An unidentified aide says, “Let’s go. Let’s go.” Trump says, “No,” and then Trump said this…

THE PRESIDENT: There’s been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia. All you have to do is look at the numbers. Look at what we’ve done. Look at sanctions. Look at ambassadors not there. Look, unfortunately, at what happened in Syria recently, and I think President Putin knows that better than anybody, certainly a lot better than the media. He understands it, and he’s not happy about it, and he shouldn’t be happy about it because there’s never been a president as tough on Russia as I have been.

RUSH: The media is seething, because Obama was better than Trump at everything, right? Obama was a qualified president! He was brilliant, he was a scholar, he spoke well, he made us proud, he didn’t embarrass us — and he told Putin to cut it out! But Putin didn’t cut it out, and here’s Trump saying, “What matters to you, a bunch of words or deeds? Nobody’s been tougher.” We just went through this in the last hour listing all the things that Trump has done that are anti-Russia.

They are serious things, far more than Barack Obama ever did. Now, admittedly we’re just pointing out the hypocrisy of the media here. But more than hypocrisy, we’re pointing out what their agenda is. We’re pointing out that they’re dishonest, that they don’t care that they’re dishonest. It’s more than hypocrisy. They are actively dishonest, and they don’t care. They’re trying to sell a bunch of lies that Donald Trump is a traitor, that he has committed treason.

When it was Barack Obama who told his own cyber guy, “Stand down;” do not try to stop any of this Russian cyberattack stuff in 2016. That cannot be repeated enough. But now this meltdown because Trump has said the Russians aren’t meddling right now. They’re not meddling anymore. Do you realize what he just did? He just lit a stick of dynamite and gave it to ’em. After all this, and with all of this clamoring, “The president must learn, Rush! He must learn to bifurcate.

“The president must learn that he can go ahead and acknowledge that the Russians meddle without admitting that there was any collusion between him and the Russians.” So I said, “Yeah? Okay. So who we trying to placate with Trump saying this? What are you trying to buy?” So Trump walks it back yesterdays a little bit. He says, “You know what? I misspoke. “I … I … I meant to say ‘would’ when I said ‘wouldn’t.’ I meant to say ‘should’ when I said ‘shouldn’t.’ I… I… I…” They were not satisfied with the walk-back.

So today the next setup: “Mr. President! Mr. President! Are the Russians still meddling? Are the Russians still meddling?” “No.” “What? What!” Of course the Russians are meddling! We say they are. The Russians are meddling, trying to… How do you explain the fact that you won, you dummkopf! You couldn’t have won if the Russians weren’t meddling. The Russians are meddling.” So they want to keep this whole story alive, especially since Mueller appears to have dropped the collusion angle.

Not sure about that, obviously, but these indictments handed down last Friday — and, by the way, Trump asked for those indictments to be dropped before he went on his NATO and Helsinki trip. There was some thought that Rosenstein was trying to sabotage Trump. Trump wanted those indictments announced because he wanted it to present problems for Putin. But I think he also… I don’t think that’s why Trump wanted Rosenstein to announce it.

I think it’s not complicated at all. Trump wanted those indictments announced and made public because there’s nothing in those indictments about collusion. There’s nothing in those indictments that Trump cheated. There’s nothing in those… In fact, Rosenstein goes so far as to say these indictments, these defendants did not affect one vote. They did not affect the outcome of any election. That’s what Trump wanted out there, and Rosenstein put it out there.

And that blows up the entire year and-a-half effort the media has engaged in to get Trump on the basis his election’s invalid because he cheated with Putin. He wanted those indictments announced — not to put pressure on Putin, ’cause that’s his job. He wanted those indictments announced because there’s no collusion in them! And you see the media won’t accept it. The media will not accept, “Mueller has found no collusion.” They’re still trying to make it appear collusion is still happening, it’s still there — and Trump is defiant in his refusal to acknowledge this and admit it!

So the media’s blowing up.

I’m just gonna tell you again why. They need Russian meddling to explain why they don’t win the House in November, if they don’t. If the blue wave doesn’t happen, they need Russian meddling as an excuse. They need Russian meddling as an ongoing reality to explain why Trump got elected. He can never be legitimized.

Donald Trump will never be humanized, he’ll never be legitimized in the Drive-By Media. The fact that the Russians colluded with Trump or his campaign is gonna be a story for as long as Trump is president. Doesn’t matter how long that is. If he serves two terms, this story is going to be front and center for the entirety.

Whatever else they come up with, it will always be the reference: “Donald Trump’s election was tainted with the possibility of collusion. The Russians said today that –”

“Donald Trump commenting on the U.S. growth rate of 6%, whose election in 2016 was always clouded by his collusion, potential collusion with Vladimir Putin, said today that he doesn’t believe the Democrats should go extinct as a party. We’ll always need to keep one or two of them around so that we never forget who they were.”

No matter what happens, they’re never gonna let it go. Trump can’t buy them off. He can’t placate them. He can’t mollify them. CNN reporter. This is after they played video of Trump at the cabinet meeting. We have Phil Mattingly and Nia-Malika Henderson.

MATTINGLY: The thing that I’m always struck by is people are like, well, pay attention to the actions, not what he says. When you’re working in the world of international…

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Mm-hmm.

MATTINGLY: …diplomacy, what you say and particularly where you say it, on a forum or in a format you’re standing next to the Russian president, historically matters.

RUSH: So CNN is telling their dummkopf viewers that the actions that Trump takes don’t matter, not when you’re talking foreign policy. No, no, no. When you’re talking foreign policy, when you’re talking international diplomacy, the words are all that matters, where you say them, how you say them, where you were when you said them. The actions don’t count for diddly-squat. It’s the words that matter.

Not in Trump’s world. And that’s what they don’t get. Not in Trump’s world. So how many of you think Trump has guts now? “Mr. President, Mr. President, is Russia still meddling?”

How easy would it have been to say, “Oh, sure. My intel people say they’re still trying, but, believe me, we got their number, they’re not gonna get anywhere, but, yeah, they’re still trying.” How easy it would have been to say that? He didn’t say it.

“Mr. President, Mr. President, are the Russians still meddling?”

“No.”

“Oh, my God. He said the Russians are not meddling. Wolf, did you hear what he said, Wolf, oh, my God. Oh, my God. What are we gonna do, he said they’re not meddling, oh, my God. Oh, no.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I knew this was gonna happen. I didn’t know how, where, but I knew that this reaction was gonna happen. About an hour ago, two hours ago now, President Trump let the media in for the cabinet meeting. And it’s the usual press gaggle before the cabinet meeting begins. They close the doors after they kick the press out.

And during the gaggle, an unidentified infobabe, “Mr. President, Mr. President, do you think the Russians are still meddling? Are the Russians still meddling, Mr. President?”

“No.”

“What?”

“No.” And then she went home to CNN, “Wolf, Wolf, did you hear what he said? He said the Russians are not meddling.” And then Wolf, they had a panel ready to go to talk about Trump saying the Russians are not meddling. He knows how to yank their chains. He just knows how to do it. Let’s go to the floor of the House of Representatives during a debate on a carbon tax. This is Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat, Massachusetts.

MCGOVERN: I’m looking at a New York Times article that just appeared today where the president of the United States, Donald Trump, says Russia is no longer targeting the U.S. I mean, is this for real? What is wrong with him? It’s time for you to stage an intervention with him and tell him to listen to his intelligence agencies who contradict what he has just said this morning. This is urgent. We can’t count on the president of the United States to do the right thing.

RUSH: He just won’t give it to ’em, he just won’t give it. See, I’m telling you, you see how dependent they are on this? “Mr. President, Mr. President, are the Russians still meddling?”

“No.”

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” So this guy goes to the floor of the House and has a conniption fit over the president not paying attention to the intelligence people and that we need to stage an intervention, somebody needs to take him out of there. They need the Russians interfering, folks. They need the Russian meddling. They want it. Can we come clean on that realization?

It is now abundantly clear the Democrat Party and the American media want Russian meddling. They are not afraid of it. Because they know it doesn’t explain why they lost, either. This is all concocted. This is all another imagined, faux conspiracy, just like they lost it over separated children from their parents at the border. Just like when Kavanaugh was announced, Trump’s travel ban, doesn’t matter what it is, it’s DEFCON 5 from the beginning.

They want there to be Russian collusion. If Trump succeeded in stopping it, they would not celebrate it. They would not believe it. They would claim that it couldn’t be done. Nobody can stop the Russians. Okay, if that’s the case then all we have to do is admit it and acknowledge it, and then everything’s okay? If we can’t stop it, then what do we do? And as far as the Democrats are concerned we can’t stop it, because Obama didn’t.

Obama, he told Putin to cut it out and Putin didn’t cut it out. And, furthermore, Obama — I’m gonna keep repeating this — in 2016 told his own cyber security chief in the White House to stand down and not pursue the Russian cyber attacks on the American electoral process or whatever the Russians were cyber attacking, Obama told ’em to stand down. It’s gotten to the point where the Democrats need this. The Democrats and the media need there to be Russian meddling.

So ask yourself why. Why do they need it? You might even say they want it. But why do they need it? I don’t think they’re concerned about it. They don’t really believe — well, maybe they do. You know, I’m the guy who says they believe this stuff. They may, after all this time, really think they lost the election because of Russia, despite the fact that their guy, Robert Mueller on Friday with his indictment says there’s not one thing in these indictments, nothing happened, not a single vote was changed, and not a single election outcome was altered because of these indictments or because of the actions taken by the defendants in these indictments. And yet the Democrats want it, it must be there, it must be ongoing, the Russians must continue to meddle.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: White House press briefing, Sarah Sanders says Trump was not saying “no” to a question about Russian meddling. He was saying “no” to the question if he would take any more questions. He was saying “no, no more questions,” not about Russian meddling. And