RUSH: We have audio sound bites coming up — an amazing press conference, impromptu. The president on the White House lawn with more media people than I’ve ever seen at one of these things, and it just went on and on and on. And Trump was even more outrageous and on point than he usually is in this press conference.
Acosta was standing right next to him for the entire thing. And the point here was to make it plain that Acosta had made the decision to resign, that Acosta was a great labor secretary, Trump really hates to see him go but he wants to go for the sake of a number of people and things. It’s really a phenomenal thing. And if you didn’t hear it we’ll have the sound bites coming up and you’ll be able to get a taste of what this was all about.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Donald Trump today on the White House lawn. He was on the way out to the helicopter. He’s got event somewhere. And the labor secretary was with him, the labor secretary Alex Acosta. The story is that he called Trump today, wanted to resign, didn’t want to be a distraction, didn’t want to take away the focus of this issue on Epstein. Epstein should be the focus, not the labor secretary.
Trump brought him out there to let him announce it himself. Obviously, Trump has a lot of respect for Alex Acosta and wanted to afford him this opportunity. It went on for 30 minutes. It was classic, classic Trump. The press was shouting things like a gaggle of geese out there going nuts when the old codger shows up every afternoon at 4 o’clock to feed ’em. It just was incessant and the camera shutters and the noise, the journalists shouting questions and Trump was answering every question that was sent his way, sometimes two and three times. So here’s how it begins on the way to Marine One before leaving on his trip.
THE PRESIDENT: How many bites at the apple do you get? We’ve gone through 500 witnesses, 2,500 subpoenas, I’ve let them interview my lawyers, because I had nothing to do with Russia. Now that’s come out. There was no collusion. But how many people and how many times, and this has been going on for two and a half years.
Rush Limbaugh said there’s nobody else in the world that he knows that could have taken it. And on top of taking it, I’ve been a great president. Listen, listen. I’ve done more in two and a half years than any other president. Nobody’s even close. They want to go at it again and again and again. Because they want to hurt the president for the election.
RUSH: You know, when he does this kind of thing, “And nobody’s been better. I’ve been a great president. I’ve been one of the greatest presidents ever, maybe the greatest president.” And you just know the Never Trumpers are out there having a cow over this. The Never Trumpers are starting to tweet each other and send each other text messages, “Can you believe this guy? Can you believe how braggadocious? This guy is an embarrassment to all humanity. This guy just makes me sick.”
I can just see them emailing and texting each other back and forth. No president brags like this. Nobody brags how tough they are, nobody. But when you stop and think of it, go through the numbers here: 500 witnesses, 2,500 subpoenas, Trump let his lawyers talk, if it isn’t obvious that there was no collusion and it’s been obvious since before the first allegation was made and they still won’t drop it, what does that tell you.
By the way, this is the kind of story that I, in the past, have concluded that a vast majority of the American people are gonna figure out on their own, that they’re gonna see the media overreach, they’re gonna see the media overstep. They’re gonna hear that Trump had 2,500 subpoenas, 500 witnesses, all this cooperation, but I have learned you can’t count on that.
And it’s a very dispiriting thing. And it’s because of the amount of stupidity at the starting point, the amount of genuine stupidity in journalism. And it gets transmitted under the guise of being reported, the hatred and the snark and the conceit and the ignorance are in every news report, and people absorb it that way, and I think some of that stuff transfers to the people who watch, read, and hear this stuff, rather than just taking a moment to examine what they’ve actually just heard.
You mean 500 witnesses and nobody had the goods? Twenty-five hundred subpoenas and those people didn’t have the goods? And Trump let his lawyers speak and there’s still no collusion? And of course you’re gonna have people say, “Yeah, well, that’s because Trump’s the president, he rigged the game, Rush.” You deal with this and you don’t know how to deal with it. Sometimes you throw your hands up in utter frustration.
See, I’ve always had a naivete born of optimism, faith in the American people, that at the end of the day they’re gonna see through this. I mean this is blatant. This effort to get Trump, I mean, there is nothing that is either sophisticated or subtle about it. It is a blatant attempt, and I do have faith that people are gonna figure it out. I think Trump’s rising approval ratings indicate that people have figured out it out. In fact, may even be tired of it.
Here is Trump praising Alex Acosta and ripping Paul Ryan. You just don’t hear that. You never hear this kind of thing said about a fellow politician, maybe on the campaign trail but even then you don’t hear it portrayed this way.
THE PRESIDENT: The fact is, he has been a fantastic Secretary of Labor. And Alex called me this morning and he wanted to see me. But I just want to let you know, this was him, not me. Because I’m with him. He’s a tremendous talent. He’s a Hispanic man. He went to Harvard, a great student. And in so many ways I just hate what he’s saying now, because we’re gonna miss him.
RUSH: Okay. Now, Trump did a version here of what a previous caller wanted. When Trump says Make America Great Again, a bunch of people say it means Trump wants to make America white again. So Trump points out that Acosta’s Hispanic and that he went to Harvard.
Now we’re supposed to conclude from this that Trump’s not a racist and that he loves this guy, he’s very smart, but the way the critics are gonna say it, the way the critics react to this, “Trump expressed amazement that his Hispanic labor secretary could have ever gotten into Harvard,” twist it and turn it.
Now he turns to Paul Ryan ’cause he got a stupid question. He got a question that was designed to bait him. Typical Drive-By question. The question is, it’s an unidentified male voice in the midst of the cacophony. Says, “Mr. President, Mr. President, did Paul Ryan prevent you from making any bad decisions?”
THE PRESIDENT: Paul Ryan was not a talent. He wasn’t a leader. When the people in freedom and great congressmen wanted to go after the Dems for things that they did very badly, he wouldn’t give subpoenas, whereas Nancy Pelosi hands them out like their cookies. Paul Ryan was a lame duck for a long time as speaker. He was unable to raise money. He lost control of the House.
The only success Paul Ryan had was the time that he was with me because we got taxes cut. I got regulation cuts. I did that mostly without him, but for Paul Ryan to be complaining is pretty amazing. I remember a day in Wisconsin, a state that I won, where I stood up and made a speech, and then I introduced him, and they booed him off the stage, 10,000 people. So for him to be going out and opening his mouth is pretty incredible, but maybe he gets paid for that. Who knows?
RUSH: Now, another classic example. People say, “I can’t believe Trump just ripped into –” Trump didn’t rip into anybody. He responded. As far as Trump knows, Ryan started this. There’s a book out there, Politico writer, Tim Alberta writing about the Trump campaign and obvious Trump election, and Paul Ryan is quoted in the book as ripping Trump to shreds.
(paraphrasing) “I was embarrassed. I had to leave town. I had to leave town ’cause of Donald Trump. I couldn’t work with the guy. I couldn’t govern with the guy. The guy didn’t know the first thing about how government works. I couldn’t put up with it anymore. I had to leave.”
So Trump gets up and finds out that Paul Ryan, who made some show of trying to work with him, is now telling a reporter that Trump is a disaster, Trump doesn’t know how to do anything, doesn’t know how to make government work, Trump’s a buffoon, what have you, so he’s responding here.
Look, after the Access Hollywood video, which came out when? When was that, October the 14th or something? October 4th, I think. Access Hollywood video comes out, and Paul Ryan was one of the first Republicans — and there were a slew of ’em — who said, “Trump, you gotta get out of the race. We can’t have this. We can’t have our nominee be this guy. You gotta quit. You gotta resign. Let us lose with honor.” Remember, they all thought Trump was gonna lose in a landslide.
So now they were excited, here’s a chance to get rid of Trump, put somebody in there as a fall guy that’s gonna lose anyway because we were gonna lose no matter what because Hillary, to these people, was unbeatable. A lot of good that did us. The Republican Party leadership thinking Hillary Clinton’s unbeatable, like the Drive-By Media thought she was unbeatable, the Democrat Party thought she was unbeatable. Gonna win in a landslide.
So Ryan says, “Trump’s gotta go. Trump’s gotta go.” Then Trump didn’t go. Then Trump wins. Now all of those people had to do one of the quickest 180s we’ve ever seen. They had to, within a three-week period, pivot from, “This guy is an embarrassment. We can’t possibly win. This guy’s the death of all of us” to turning around and thanking him and praising him and I remember Ryan did that, and I thought that Ryan was really struggling saying this, but it was one of Ryan’s first press conferences after the election.
You remember this Snerdley? He’s standing there, “This is incredible, this is one of the most incredible events in politics we’ve ever seen, and it’s all because of Donald Trump.” He was trying to make everybody forget about what he had said three weeks ago, meaning Trump’s gotta go, this is unacceptable, we can’t have our nominee be somebody like this. We’re gonna lose anyway, let’s put somebody in there that’s gonna lose so we can lose with honor, all that. Pivot into being one of the biggest advocates and supporters.
And like is the case with even now, a significant number of Republicans in Washington, they didn’t believe it. They still wish it weren’t through. You’d be amazed the number of Republicans who to this moment in time still wish Trump had not won and are still fantasizing about him losing in 2020.
Now, of course the Never Trumpers are in that group, but I’m talking about standard middle of the road Republicans in the House and Senate, not just the Never Trumpers, the literary community. It still is the case. Paul Ryan not a talent or a leader.
The next question from an unidentified reporter, “Mr. President, Mr. President, what do you make of the infighting going on among the Democrats in Congress between Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and The Squad?”
THE PRESIDENT: I think Cortez, who kept Amazon out of New York, and they don’t like her for that, thousands and thousands of jobs. I think Cortez is being very disrespectful to somebody that’s been there a long time. I deal with Nancy Pelosi a lot and we go back and forth and it’s fine. But I think that a group of people is being very disrespectful to her.
And you know what? I don’t think that Nancy can let that go on. Cortez should treat Nancy Pelosi with respect. She should not be doing what she’s doing. And I’ll tell you something about Nancy Pelosi that you know better than I do. She is not a racist, okay? She is not a racist. For them to call her a racist is a disgrace.
RUSH: Holy cow, folks. “Nancy Pelosi is not a racist. I’ve worked with Nancy Pelosi for a long time, and she’s not a racist.” So here he is now putting her in a circumstance where Trump is defending her against her nemesis, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now, you would think that Pelosi will be appreciative and return the — No. No way. Oh, no, no, no. Pelosi is not gonna even act like she’s aware of this, or if she does acknowledge it, she’s gonna say that Trump didn’t really mean it or what have you.
Now, let’s go back to late – (interruption) Oh. They’ve done that. Snerdley is asking me, “When will a Democrat ever do that?” The minute I started with the story you’re gonna go, damn it. Yeah. How did I forget that? The vice presidential debate in 1996 — you already know what I’m gonna talk about. We got Algore, Algore and Jack Kemp.
And Algore is talking about all the racists and the bigots and the pigs in the Republican Party, and he turns to Jack Kemp, says, “Jack, I don’t think that you’re one of those people.” And Jack Kemp said, “Thank you, Mr. Vice President” and accepted the premise that the Republican Party is a bunch of racist bigots and pigs, but he graciously accepted Gore’s acknowledgment.
(imitating Gore) “Now, you’re not, Jack. You’re a good guy. I’m gonna say you’re good ‘cause we know we’re gonna beat you, Jack. But you’re not one of those people.” And Jack Kemp didn’t bother defending the Republican Party. He accepted the compliment. But, no, they’ve done it. It’s rare.