RUSH: Most of the time, I know. Most of the time, I can predict it. Most of the time, I do it on purpose to cause it. But sometimes, I get surprised. Sometimes I get surprised by what I say on this program that is heard and reacted to by the left. I engaged in what I thought was a throwaway line about Nancy Pelosi yesterday, and Fox News and guests would not have had a broadcast today without playing my comments to get reaction to it.

JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny south Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!

RUSH: And that’s not a criticism of Fox. It’s a figure of expression. One little throwaway line that I used on Pelosi ended up being fodder that they played for every Democrat guest they had in there today — including some of their so-called mainstream journalists — to react to. Do you remember what the comment might be? I said, “She’s losing control of her caucus” with this comment that she wants to put Trump in prison. It’s not that they’re reacting to my theory. They’re reacting to my assertion that she’s losing control of the caucus.

They send people out every day (impression), “No, no, no! She’s a great leader. She’s not losing control of anything.” Most of the time, folks, as I say, I strategerize these things. Most of the time, I plan these things. You know, I know how to tweak the media. I know how to tweak the left. Other times, I’m not thinking about that. I just throw a line away. I’m always honest here — and, on rare occasions, I get surprised at the reaction. Today is one of those days.

Anyway, it’s great to have you with us. The telephone number is 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. You can send an email too. I check those. I scan subject lines — and, just so you know, if somebody puts some typical, 2019 insult in the subject line, I just roll right past it. That is not the way to get my attention. I’m not your typical social media troll looking for stuff like that to react to. If I see, you know, wild, crazy insults, I just keep scrolling right past them. That’s not the way to get your email noticed. I’m not gonna tell you what the way is, because who knows? Certain things strike me, and certain things don’t. But that’s the way, anyway, to get it done.

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RUSH: So now, we move to last night. Shannon Bream has Richard Goodstein, a well-known Democrat strategerist and analyst whose face became familiar all over America defending where Bill Clinton’s face had been back in the 1990s. So, he’s on there, and Shannon Bream wants to play him a clip of what I said about Pelosi and get his reaction to it.

BREAM: Here’s what Rush Limbaugh is having to say about the speaker and her plans…

RUSH ARCHIVE: We’ve got the speaker of House of Representatives openly saying she wants to put Donald Trump in jail. And for what? What’s the crime? What has Trump done that would warrant being sent to jail?

RUSH: She then passes it to Goodstein who says that anybody who thinks Trump didn’t commit a crime is living in a fantasy world.

GOODSTEIN: Look, there are people who are living in a dream world that Donald Trump has done nothing wrong demonstrably, and if you read the Mueller report — and I encourage everybody, still, to do that — you will see the list of things, the elements of each crime of obstruction that he’s met.

BREAM: Then why (unintelligible)?

GOODSTEIN: Whether or not that could have been proven or not, that’s what Mueller basically said to Congress: “This is on you.” The reason she doesn’t want to go impeachment now is it’s not just the Mueller report! It’s getting the tax return. It’s these 12 other prosecutions that we all know are out there. It’s the Trump Foundation.

RUSH: Yeah, but you still didn’t answer the question: “What’s he done here that says he should be in jail?” I mean, that was my point. Trump should be in prison, but for what? “Well, read the Mueller report.” (chuckles) If the Mueller report says that Trump should be in jail, don’t you think they’d be using it right now to make that happen? No. Now we gotta wait for the SDNY. Now we gotta wait for the tax returns. Now we gotta wait for the financial report. Now we gotta wait for the Trump Foundation.

Now, moving on to the Fox daytime today, this is Bill Hemmer on America’s Newsroom during the A-Team panel. I guess the A-Team is in there on Friday. They have the A-Team on Fridays, B-Team on Thursdays, and then the C-Team on Wednesdays. I guess the A-Team is on Monday, too, and they close the week with the A-Team after opening the week with the A-Team. They’re asking the A-Team here — and, by the way, the A-Team is Juan Williams, David Asman, and Ed Henry. Here’s Hemmer setting this one up…

HEMMER: Rush Limbaugh has a theory that goes like this…

RUSH ARCHIVE: …trying to keep her impeachment mob at bay, and she’s having trouble. She’s in big trouble. You know, Trump has a nickname for her, Nervous Nancy, and it’s spot on. … Nancy Pelosi, Nervous Nancy, is losing control. She knows that she is losing control.

RUSH: That is what sent the rats running for the nearest microphone to say, “No, no, no, no, no! She’s not losing control,” and Ed Henry is called on by Hemmer to take the first stab at this.

HEMMER: Is Limbaugh onto something there, Ed?

HENRY: Well, I’m not sure if she’s losing control of her caucus. We’ve heard this from conservatives before about her allegedly not being able to even win the speakership, and she had a pretty darn good hold on that caucus. I think where Limbaugh is probably right, she is struggling to keep the left, the “resist” movement at bay on impeachment.

HEMMER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: They are foaming at the mouth to impeach the president. She’s trying to look like she’s so tough, she wants to put him in jail, to cover up fact that she doesn’t want to impeach him, and that’s not where the base of her party is, and there’s gonna be a big collision here before 2020.

RUSH: So he’s agreeing with my primary point: Pelosi saying she wants to put Trump in jail is just to keep the lunatics at bay who think impeaching him will make Hillary president. They just want it to happen. But he disagrees that she’s losing it. She’s not losing control of anything. Here’s Juan Williams and David Asman. They jump in here…

WILLIAMS: Point taken. Uh, the base of the Democratic Party wants him impeached.

ASMAN: Wow! I agree with Juan, and Juan agrees with Ed Henry?

WILLIAMS: There’s one politician who says: Put my political opponents in jail. Who might that be? Hmm? Who says that kind of thing, as president of the United States? Who says that?

RUSH: Oh, is that a reference to “lock her up?” Well, see, Hillary has committed crimes. Comey listed the crimes. Hillary has committed them. There’s a reason why Trump’s audience at rallies is shouting, “Lock her up! Lock her up!” because the FBI director listed the crimes and said the only reason that she wasn’t gonna be prosecuted was nobody could find where she intended to do it, which is a laugher. Has Trump said he wants Hillary in jail? Trump has never joined the chorus. Trump has always kind of backed off the whole notion of prosecuting the Clintons. Look, this goes on.

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RUSH: Here’s Sandra Smith, and she talking to Debbie Dingell at Fox News this morning.

SMITH: Rush Limbaugh — obviously a conservative radio host — went on the record saying that he believes that Nancy’s words recently about the president mean she thinks she’s in trouble. Is she having trouble, Congresswoman?

DINGELL: I don’t think she’s having trouble at all! I’m in those caucus meetings. You know, everybody in the press loooved to speculate she wasn’t gonna get elected speaker; she didn’t have the votes. She’s done a good job. And, quite frankly, I’m traveling in the country. I’ve been to places. People respect and admire Speaker Pelosi, and she’s trying to keep people together and, quite frankly, she could take an easy route, uhh, of calling for impeachment. But that’s not the right thing to do for this country.

RUSH: (chuckles) “[S]he could take an easy route of calling for impeachment”? No, she can’t! There’s nothing easy about that. That’s why… She’s losing control. The very fact, folks, that so many people… She’s barely keeping Jerry Nadler in control. Nadler runs the Judiciary Committee, and I think he said he’s moving ahead anyway! He’s close to being in open defiance. If a committee chairman is going to defy her, I mean, that kind of indicates she’s got control problems. And here. Grab sound bite number 21. Donna Brazile. I guess on her day off, they brought her in to react to this.

HEMMER: Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi. I mean, this back-and-forth and red hot.

RUSH: Red hot.

HEMMER: He has a bit of a theory right now about the amount of heat that she’s feeling. He may be on to something here with her debate within her caucus. I’m thinking about the comment that was reported the other night on Politico.

BRAZILE: Let me tell you something, she’s probably… (sputtering) If you put all these cooks in the kitchen, she’s the only one that cannot just, y’know, scramble the eggs, but serve the entire meal. She’s strong. She’s a woman of principle. And if I was in a fight, I would want Nancy Pelosi in a foxhole with me because she is a tough, tough woman. She’s a leader.

HEMMER: Because no doubt she’s feeling the heat from her members. I think we probably agree on that, right?

BRAZILE: Of course, we feel the heat! Donald Trump is feeling the heat from all these subpoenas that are about to fly across. It doesn’t matter.

RUSH: “It doesn’t matter. … She’s a leader. … We feel the heat.” So Brazile is saying she’s a leader too. “We feel the heat.” Red, red hot. Red, red hot. “Red hot,” Bill Hemmer says. Apparently, it is — and I just thought it was kind of a throwaway line. To me, it’s rather obvious. If she hadn’t lost control, there wouldn’t be this much talk about it. She’s even, I think, lost control with some of the media. The media were out there… Like Wolf Blitzer was out there yesterday practically telling Nadler how to do it in open defiance of Pelosi.

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RUSH: I’m being reminded here that Trump did say in a debate with Hillary, quote, “Because you would be in jail.” I think what we’re talking about here is Trump never… It never crosses his mind to jail political opponents. That’s what we’re talking about here with people on the left. They want to jail Trump because he’s a political opponent. They don’t have any crimes — other than Donald Trump is Donald Trump. And in their perverted world, Trump being Trump is criminal, because he disagrees with them and he does so effectively.

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RUSH By the way, one other thing, this comment where Pelosi said that she thinks Trump ought to be in prison, remember something. I have erred innocent pointing this out. She didn’t publicly say that, folks. She said that in a behind-closed-doors meeting with some members of her caucus.

And somebody in that caucus leaked it. She did not say publicly that she thinks Trump ought to be imprisoned. So she was obviously trying to calm the herd. I’m sure they’re in there jamming her up to impeachment. (impression) “You gotta do it, let us do it, we want Trump gone, we need to.” She knows it’s potentially a political disaster. So she says, (impression) “Nah. We want see him in jail. We want to see Trump in jail. We want to see him in jail. We don’t just want to see him impeached. We want to see him in jail.” Somebody leaked it.

That’s how it got out. The reason that matters is it just makes my point here that she’s trying to quell these people that she’s losing control over. Let me say it again. Nancy Pelosi appears to be losing control of her caucus. It worked yesterday. Nancy Pelosi… Let me give ’em a clean bite. Three, two, one. I think it’s obvious. I don’t think there’s any question about it now. Nancy Pelosi is losing control of her caucus. That comment came in private. She’s trying to quiet down members of her caucus that want to impeach Trump, and somebody in there leaked it.

Okay. Maybe that will get picked up again by someone in cable news. Now, Trump is pushing back. Newt Gingrich on Fox today said (paraphrasing) “People gotta learn that if you hit him, he’s gonna hit you back three, four times as hard. You hit him, he’s gonna come pummeling back.” Trump has come pummeling back at Pelosi. “Nervous Nancy Pelosi is a disgrace to herself and her family for having made such a disgusting statement, especially since I was with foreign leaders overseas.

There’s no evidence for such a thing to have been said. Nervous Nancy, the Dems are getting zero work done in Congress and they have no intention of doing anything other than going on fishing expeditions to see if they can find anything on me, both illegal and unprecedented in U.S. history. There was no collusion. Investigate the investigators. Go to work on drug price reductions and infrastructure.” That’s Trump’s pushback on Pelosi today.