DOOCY: Well, he joined us last Friday, and it was such a hit, Rush Limbaugh is joining us once again from his headquarters down in Palm Beach. We’re gonna talk about his runaway hit, the Betsy Ross T-shirt, in just a moment. Rush Limbaugh, good morning to you.
EARHARDT: Good morning!
RUSH: Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Great to be back. It’s always a thrill and an honor. You guys are the president’s favorite show, so it’s a thrill to be here. Thanks for having me back.
DOOCY: All right. Well, I heard you talking on your show, Rush, about the president and his rally a couple of nights ago. And, at one point, the crowd was chanting “send her back,” regarding Congresswoman Omar. Yesterday, the president made it clear he disagrees with that. He said he wasn’t very happy with that. What do you make of that?
RUSH: Much ado about nothing. Look, I don’t really have time here because I spent 20 minutes on this on the radio yesterday. This really irritates me. There are two sets of rules. The Democrats never have to denounce Antifa. What’s Antifa do? Antifa is blowing up cities. Antifa is attacking people, ditto Black Lives Matter. Ilhan Omar herself hates Israel. She’s been uttering anti-Semitic statements. The House comes up with a resolution and doesn’t even mention her name. And yet some people at a Trump rally make some innocent little chant born of fun and Washington comes to a halt and everybody gets up, “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Do you hear that?”
It’s nothing!
You know, we have this two-sets-of rules circumstance here, and all this is designed to get conservatives and Republicans acting as though they’re guilty of racism, bigotry, sexism, and homophobia. And it’s all made up. None of it’s true. We conservatives love people, Steve. We want the best for everybody.
We want everybody to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that living in this country affords everybody. And we want everybody to be able to have the opportunity to be the best they want to be using the ambition, desire they have. And all we ask — all we ask — is that you love the country, that you do your best to help other people love the country.
There’s no reason to hate this country. There’s no better place on earth to be. There’s no reason to despise this country. There’s no reason to want to “perfect it” on the premise that it is unjust or immoral. So people are fed up, I think, with hearing how rotten their country is. And they’re fed up hearing the media give those people an additional platform to broadcast their hate and their disgust with the country.
So I think what happened at that rally is a combination of people having fun. They’re with a president they love. It’s a takeoff on “lock her up,” Hillary Clinton. As I said, the Democrats never have to denounce any of their supporters. They’re never made to explain it. So it’s a two-way street here, and I wish everybody on our side wouldn’t get so darn scared and afraid. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Did you see what they said? The media’s gonna kill us.” So what? We’re winning.
HEGSETH: Rush —
RUSH: There’s no reason to act defensive. There’s no reason to act guilty of these false things that they accuse of us. So the whole thing just ticks me off. I’m really using a lot of restraint here not to be profane.
DOOCY: Thank you. This is restrained Rush.
RUSH: Did you see what happened? After the president goes out and does what they said he had to — he disavowed these horrible people — did you hear what Biden did? Biden comes out, “You didn’t go far enough. You need to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. You need to denounce what happened with your supporters in Charlottesville.” It never ends. It’s never enough. All it is, is falling into a trap and giving them further ammo to accuse us of all these phony, fake things they say we are, which we are not: bigots, racists, sexists, homophobes.
Speaking of sexists, where are all the female abuse problems taking place? The Democrat Party. Jeffrey Epstein, anybody? Harvey Weinstein, anybody? Kevin Spacey? Take the list. They’re all liberal Democrats abusing women. What do we have to defend? I’m tired of constantly being on the defensive. Look, if this is too hot TV for morning, I’ll dial it back. You asked, and I’ll tell you, it just ticks me off here. It just does.
EARHARDT: Rush, third time is not a charm apparently. Al Green continues for this impeachment push, and it failed.
RUSH: See, here we go again.
EARHARDT: Is what the president’s doing grounds for impeachment?
RUSH: No! They want to impeach him because nothing else they’ve tried to get rid of him has worked. The Democrat Party is bankrupt. They are devoid of any ideas that appeal to people. They cannot even join us in the arena of ideas to debate the great things and issues that we all face. Instead all the Democrat Party can do with their leadership in the Drive-By Media is try to destroy their political opponents, try to discredit them, try to marginalize them. They never join us in the debate.
Meanwhile, look what’s happening with substantive things like the economy and employment, particularly for minorities. They got 95 votes, and there wasn’t even a reason to impeach. They were just impeaching to do it. I say, let them continue. I hope they continue to illustrate how wacko, how morally bankrupt and substantively bankrupt they are. That’s why I hope Omar keeps talking. I hope Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — I hope they keep talking. I hope that Trump continues to succeed in making all of these people the face of the Democrat Party. That’d be great.
HEGSETH: Rush, if I may, El Rushbo, as a big fan and longtime listener, I appreciate everything, the voice of clarity you always have been. One of those moments recently was when Nike recalled — at the prompting of Colin Kaepernick — the Betsy Ross flag sneaker. Because, of course, they believe — or Colin Kaepernick, the new CEO of Nike believes — that it’s racist. Now, you responded exclusively on this show with a T-shirt that benefits Tunnel to Towers. You have an update because your massive audience has responded. What have you got for us?
RUSH: Well, this is it. And this took off. This is the Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt. It was a pushback. It started as a pushback to Kaepernick and Nike. It then became inclusive of the women’s soccer team. I mean, here they are winning, great athletic endeavor, the world championship, women’s soccer, and what do they do? They start bashing America, bashing the president.
So, this shirt became a vehicle for people to push back against this. Now, we turned the T-shirt around in four days and I announced that… This is day 11 that this shirt has been up there and running. And we announced a tie-in with a great charity, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
DOOCY: Yeah.
RUSH: Today, I’m ecstatic. The audience that I have and that you have are some of the greatest people in this country. They are ordinary people that do extraordinary things. We are well past 100,000 T-shirts.
HEGSETH: Whoa!
RUSH: We are today announcing a donation of $1.5 million to Tunnel to Towers in 10 days.
DOOCY: Unbelievable.
RUSH: Steve, on a $27 item… That’s a $27 gross item. You know, there’s expenses and the cost of the product. To put this in perspective, the Super Bowl champion T-shirt every year goes on sale the day of the Super Bowl, the night of the Super Bowl, sells 50,000 in three months. This is 100,000 and we’re still going. There’s no end to this. People are still ordering.
We’re gonna be fulfilling these orders all the way through September. It’s the greatest thing. It’s one of the most uplifting things that I have been involved in because this is the American people. This isn’t me making a donation. This isn’t you or anybody else. This is the American people, 27 bucks at a time, generating enough revenue to be able to send $1.5 million to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
DOOCY: Unbelievable. Wow.
RUSH: I’m just stunned by it, I’m ecstatic by it, and I’ve been looking forward all night to being able to announce this today because it’s a true testament. It’s a true testament to the goodness and the decency of the American people in our audience. It’s incredible.
DOOCY: I’m sure, Rush —
RUSH: It’s so far beyond our expectations. We had no idea what this was gonna do. We would have been happy with 30,000. But in 11 days we’re over 100,000. I mean, the trucks keep showing up every day delivering the shirts as we have to continue to reorder these things to meet the demand.
DOOCY: Yeah. Just put them over there by the golden microphone.
RUSH: And I really need to thank you and the Fox audience for giving us the vehicle here to make people aware of it as well as on my radio show.
DOOCY: Well, Rush, I’m sure that the people who are watching right now, if they don’t have one, they’re gonna go to your website, RushLimbaughShowStore.com.
RUSH: You know, that’s a very important point. You’re very, very smart. We’ve got over 200 bootlegs out there, Dooce.
DOOCY: What?
RUSH: Talking to you yesterday, 200 fakes, 200 knockoffs. Our crack legal department’s shutting them down as quickly as we can, but what does this mean? It means that 200 fraudulent websites are trying to sell their version of this shirt and make it look like it is the official Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt. It isn’t. There’s only one place you can get the official shirt and there’s only one place where your purchase goes to benefit the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
By the way, this T-shirt is some of the most incredible fabric. You will not believe. I mean, this doesn’t even feel like a T-shirt when you wear this baby. So it’s just been fabulous, and we’re working so hard to fulfill these orders. It’s gone so far beyond anything we expected, and it’s just — again, as I say — ordinary Americans coming through doing extraordinary things selflessly for this. Steve, $1.5 million on a $27 item.
DOOCY: Unbelievable.
EARHARDT: Amazing. And that organization is so phenomenal. What happened is, Mr. Siller, he was a firefighter, he went through the tunnel to the towers.
RUSH: Right.
EARHARDT: It was his day off and he went up there to save individuals, American lives, and he did.
DOOCY: On 9/11.
EARHARDT: And he died. Exactly. So his brother started this organization. And when one of our first responders dies in the line of duty, they have kids, they have a wife, they have a mortgage. He goes and pays off their mortgages.
DOOCY: And now through these T-shirts, $1.5 million worth of lives are going to be changed.
EARHARDT: Yeah.
DOOCY: Rush Limbaugh, thank you very much. Once again, if folks would like to visit your website, it’s RushLimbaughShowStore.com so you too can help.
RUSH: And, remember, for the rest of the comments on this stupid reaction to the chants, EIB Network, noon ET today.
DOOCY: You got it.
HEGSETH: We’ll be there. Rush Limbaugh, one-of-a-kind. Thanks so much, Rush.
RUSH: Bye. Take care.