RUSH: Now, folks, there’s a couple other things I want to do. I’m gonna go back to the archives here, because I’ve been watching cable news all day. It’s been a very frustrating thing.
The Democrats know that there was a gigantic egg laid yesterday.
Let’s put it this way: A gigantic Baby Ruth bar showed up in the swimming pool yesterday. They know it. Everybody knows it. So what were they doing today? They were back to the whole concept of how horrible it is that Russia is interfering with our elections and that it continues to this day, and I’ve about had it with this. This is the creation of a new narrative. Actually, it’s not new. It’s the continuation of a narrative. The Russians interfering in our affairs is not new, ladies and gentlemen. The Russians interfering in our affairs is as old as Russia going communist.
Ditto the ChiComs, and ditto the Cubans, and ditto Israel. Every nation in the world attempts to spy on us. Every nation in the world attempts to screw us up. There’s nothing new about it. The Russians have been attempting to infiltrate the American education system, American religion — and they’ve done a damn good job of it, by the way, and it’s taken them a long time to get to the levels of infiltration that they have now achieved. The idea that for the first time ever the Russians tampered with elections, the presidential election?
Everybody wants to be behind this… It’s B.S. The Russians are constantly trying to destabilize. That’s what international statecraft is. It’s what adversarial relationships produce. The world is in a never-ending battle for freedom for as many citizens on this planet as possible, and there are people arrayed against the concept of freedom. Tyrants and dictators are undone by freedom. They don’t want their people to have freedom. We do. We’re the beacon of freedom. We’re the backbone of freedom.
We’re the foundation of freedom — and if we don’t attempt to secure it elsewhere, it will fail here as well. It is our responsibility. It’s a responsibility that we have known and accepted since the days of our founding. This sets up and has set up a never-ending, always-there, constant battle between the forces of good and evil that we face each and every day. Sometimes those conflicts become armed as in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, you name it. Sometimes a shot isn’t fired, such as when the Soviets successfully infiltrate higher education.
But the battle is constant. The battle to undermine human freedom is constant. Therefore, we are always at war. We are never… There’s not a day in our existence where we are not at war, where we are not having to be vigilant and defend against numerous, uncountable attempts to undermine us by virtue of spying, by virtue of infiltration, by virtue of computer hacking now. There isn’t anything new about it! The idea that the Russians attempted to interfere in our elections? The Democrats attempt to interfere in elections!
The Democrats, how many presidential elections have they stolen? How many presidential elections have they thought have been stolen from them? The Russians are not the only people interfering in elections. When the Democrats are trying to get open borders resulting in illegal becoming registered to vote, is that not interfering in elections? It most certainly as heck is! Okay. So the Russians want to get in on the act. It’s not the first time. I can’t get away from this narrative that it’s never happened before and that it was really, really bad — and it may still have happened, and it may still explain how Trump was elected.
No matter the Mueller report, no matter the evidence, they won’t let it go — and it’s even on Fox. I saw a gigantic, long discussion on it today. And it’s become obligatory for every Republican guest on a cable news show, “Oh, of course we oppose Russian uhhhh meddling in the election. (sputtering) Uh, there’s no question the Russians meddled. It’s indisputable. I mean, you can’t argue with it. The Russians tried to interfere in the election.”
No! I refuse to go along with this as though it’s something new, as though it’s something unique, as though it’s something specifically tied to Donald Trump. It isn’t, and I flinch and I blanch every time I see a Republican go along with it because it’s just the path of least resistance. It’s almost like you have to admit that white people are racist now, and then you make your point. (sputtering) “I agree that there’s the spate of white nationalism out there that’s very troubling, but…” Screw this! I don’t want to give them an inch!
I don’t want to admit one thing for these people!
They’re the ones that write the narratives; the narratives are designed to entrap us! The narratives are designed to keep us on defense! I don’t want to subscribe to every damn one of them just to keep the peace. On matters like this, I’m highly confrontational. So I’m not gonna sit here and say, “Oh, it’s terrible that the Russians attempted this.” I haven’t seen any evidence that they did! We have to rely on common sense and education and intelligence guided by experience that they tried. But I haven’t seen any evidence that they did, which takes me to the next pair of blockbuster sound bites which I will share with you gain after this timeout.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to take you back. I’ve shared this bite with you before you, but I’m gonna do it again. Let me take you back July 13, 2018, Washington, the Department of Justice. The attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, is announcing indictments. These are the indictments of the Russian troll farm that Mueller was so proud of. Thirteen Russian troll farms were indicted. Mueller went through all kinds of rigmarole to describe everything they had done. They had tampered here; they had tampered there.
The truth of the matter of these troll farms is they bought Facebook ads, and over half of the money they spent was after the election. There still is no proof that these troll farms are officially tied to the Russian government. This Russian troll farm operation is no different than any domestic troll farm operation. They were trying to run targeted advertising. But Mueller needed Russians. There weren’t any Russians in the story! One year ago, there weren’t any Russians in this whole Russian collusion story, so they had to indict some people.
So they indicted some people that everybody knew could never come and face charges, because Russia would never release them. They would never be extradited. So what better thing than to indict a bunch of Russians that you can tell anybody you want anything about ’em, and they can never respond to their day in court ’cause they’re never gonna show up — and that’s what happened. But what did happen that nobody remembers and nobody reminds you of is what Rod Rosenstein said after having announced the indictments in three… two… one…
ROSENSTEIN: There’s no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There’s no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Wait a minute! What is this? We’re indicting 13 Russian troll farms for interfering in the election. There’s no evidence. “There’s no allegation” in the indictment that anything they did changed a single vote or altered any election.” Rosenstein said it. The Drive-By Media totally ignored it. It was never to be heard from again except on this program those times I have aired it. I have to take a time-out. I wish I didn’t ’cause I’m in the middle of a roll here, but it will not deter me. Hang on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Righto. Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, Rush Limbaugh, emitting vocal vibrations coast to coast, a household name in all four corners of the Mueller report and the world. Well, Mueller said he wouldn’t go outside the four corners. I just want you to know that I’m a household name in whatever four-corner area you designate.
Now, I want to go back to this, because this is key and fundamental. The one indictment of any Russians, 13 Russian troll farms. I have a little bit more time, I’m gonna explain to you. These troll farms were people that were buying Facebook ads. And they were supposedly targeting Facebook users like everybody else does. There is no evidence they are tied to the Russian government.
One of the people running one of the troll farms happens to know Putin. And so in our convoluted alternative reality, created by the delusional left today, that equals the Russian government.
Here’s the truth of this. This Russian troll farm operation that Mueller indicted on July 18th last year bought $100,000 of “Fakebook” ads, $100,000. Here is the kicker. Half of the ads were bought after Trump won the presidency and half of the ads were aimed at Trump. Half of the ads were pro-Hillary. In other words, these Russian troll farm indictments were nothing but public relations indictments.
They were never, ever intended to be charged in court. They were never, ever intended to be defended in court. Mueller and his team knew — I don’t think Mueller knows anything. Weissmann and his team knew that Russia would never extradite these people, so it was a free lunch.
It’s no different than indicting Putin! Putin’s not gonna show up and be deposed and testify. Except one of the troll farms did. One of the troll farms actually hired an American lawyer and showed up and demanded the opportunity to prove their innocence. And Mueller’s team was bumbling and stumbling around telling the judge, “No, no, no, Judge, we can’t do this yet because they’re still doing it.” Remember this?
Mueller’s team refused to meet these people in court and asked the judge for an indefinite delay of the case on the basis that the troll farms were still troll farming. “No, Judge, we can’t do it, they’re still doing it, no way we can finalize our preparation.” This was nothing but a stunt! It was nothing but a stunt. And it was the only time the Russians were ever officially linked in this collusion story that the Russians tampered and meddled in the election.
Grab the Rosenstein sound bite again. This is at the end of the announcement. This is about a 15-minute press conference. Rosenstein’s up there at the podium with five or six other people behind him, his posse. Everybody getting their face time on TV. And he’s reading the indictment, explaining the indictment, took a few questions. And at the end of it, almost in passing on his way out of the room, he added this.
RUSH: Wait. What? I could never work in the swamp. They’d never put me on the air. To me this is the only news of that whole day. In the context of everything that’s going on, the Mueller investigation in full swing, we’re being told that Trump stole the election, Trump’s a traitor, this is the only news of the day. It never got covered. It never got mentioned.
Nobody in the Drive-By Media ever goes back to this and recites this or replays this. But how can this be? In the indictment of the Russian troll farms there’s no allegation, no accusation in the indictment that these guys changed a vote or altered the result of any election.
Well, what the hell are we here for? ‘Cause I’m gonna tell you something, folks. At the time that this happened there was polling data out there that showed 42% of the American people believed the Russians had tampered with voting machines. After a year and a half of four times a day in the New York Times and the Washington Post and CNN, Russians colluded, Trump colluded, meddled in the election, what did that mean to people?
What did it mean? It meant the Russians got in there and were messing around with the election machines and messing around with the vote count. That’s what they thought it meant. That’s exactly what they wanted people to think it meant. Everybody involved in this, from Mueller and his team to the Drive-By Media wanted the American people to conclude the Russians were messing around with our voting machines and they might have affected the outcome of the election.
And they succeeded with 42% of the American people. And yet no allegation whatsoever, ever! There has yet to be an allegation in court, in an indictment, the Russians did anything! That tampered with a voting machine or machines or affected the outcome of an election. What is this all about? If that doesn’t end this, if that doesn’t put a nail in this coffin, there’s nothing that can.
We are all being strung along on a totally made-up, delusional lie that the Russians meddled in the election. And now it’s gotten to the point where every Republican has to almost recite that it’s horrible. “The Russians meddled. It’s really bad, it’s really bad. We gotta stop this.” Well, why hasn’t anybody come up with a way to stop it then? If everybody knows it happened and everybody knows what happened, then why the hell isn’t there legislation to stop it?
I’ll tell you why. Because it didn’t happen the way they want you to believe it happened. I have no doubt the Russians would love to be able to do this. But they can’t! And you know who says so? Let’s go back, October 18th, 2016. I guarantee you that when the Hillary Clinton campaign heard this, they were panicked.
The Hillary Clinton campaign already had a built-in excuse on the off chance that they lost the election. We know this because there was a book. There was a book about the Hillary Clinton campaign. It’s called Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. “That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech. Mook and Podesta assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up.
“For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.” Russian interference was why they lost. They had begun to set this up in October. When Hillary did lose, they got serious about it. It’s all in a book. I didn’t write the book. Left-wing journalists did.
But back on October 18th, 2016 in the White House Rose Garden, Barack Obama had a meeting with Matteo Renzi, the prime minister of Italy. They held a joint press conference. During the Q&A, since Hillary and her team had already planted the idea the Russians were involved with WikiLeaks and the Russians were involved with Trump and the Russians were tampering with the election, Obama got tired of hearing about it and in response to a question, said this.
OBAMA: There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even, you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they’re so decentralized and the numbers of votes involved. There’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time.
RUSH: October 18th, just two weeks, three weeks, before the election, Obama is pooh-poohing the whole idea that Russia could affect the outcome of the presidential election. He’d gotten sick and tired of hitting the question. He’s also sick and tired of the allegation he hadn’t done anything to stop it.
Remember this thing had been floating around for months. And the Hillary campaign’s getting ready, got it in reserve in case she loses, this is where they’re gonna go. Then Obama says that. Now, folks, you put these two things together, and what do you have? You have Rosenstein saying in the only indictment of Russians in this whole sordid mess no votes were changed, the outcome of no election was affected, and Barack Obama had said that it’s not possible to do anyway.
So what have these two and a half years been? What the hell have we been through, and why? Because everybody, the media, everybody knows that everything they have been saying is B.S. It is totally fake. It’s totally made up. There was never any collusion. The Russians could not have changed the outcome of the presidential election. There was no evidence they did. What has this been about?
So I don’t think anybody ought to just summarily agree that the Russians tampered with the election and they meddle and we’ve gotta do something about it. I don’t think… And Obama’s point here, by the way, is we don’t have a national presidential election until you get to the Electoral College. Even then, we have 50 presidential elections, plus the elections in the territories. So let’s stick with the number 50. It’s easy to work with. We have 50 different elections. If you’re Russia or anybody else and you want to “fix” the presidential election, how do you do it?
A, you have to know what precincts in each state to focus on. You have to know who’s gonna do well and who isn’t (or be able to guess) because they can’t change every vote. You can’t change votes statewide. It’d be impossible. As Obama said, it’d be impossible anyway. “But, Rush! But, Rush! I’ve even heard you say the Kennedys stole the election in 1960.” Yeah, they did. I guarantee you. Let me take you back to the election of 2016. Remember the tide began to turn around 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock?
It’s fun to go back and watch these YouTube videos of network news coverage as they start to realize what’s happening, that Hillary’s gonna lose. And then at midnight, did you notice — do you remember — vote tallies stopped coming in? And for an hour and a half, from midnight to 1:30, there wasn’t a single vote (in a state that mattered) reported. No updated vote count. Nothing. Not in the presidential race. They might have had, you know, a House race here and there or a Senate race. But the presidential race went 90 minutes with no count update.
What was going on?
In 1960, it was so close that Cook County, Illinois, Chicago.
That’s where they went, and West Virginia. Two places won it for John Kennedy because the Democrats delayed and found the votes they needed. Everybody knows this now. Everybody accepts it. Nobody’s even upset about it anymore. It’s become almost American mythology because JFK was assassinated. He’s been martyred. It’s all part of the story. (impression) “It’s Americana! Wasn’t it funny? Mayor Daley did what he had to do! He found votes that didn’t exist. He found a bunch of cows, fed ’em a bunch of food, and they pretty much excrement’d votes,” and everybody applauds (clapping) how Mayor Daley knew how to do this.
That’s the only way you could do it, and he couldn’t do it on the massive scale that they’re leading you to think the Russians did it. We have been lied to, we have been misled, we have been faked out like you cannot believe on this entire story — and I don’t know of anybody better than Barack Obama to poo-poo the whole concept that it can be done, and Rod Rosenstein acknowledging that in no indictment of any Russians was any vote changed or the outcome of any election altered.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: See, right there it is. It’s happening right now as we speak. There is a Democrat from Rhode Island on Fox News, David Cicilline. He’s out there saying, “We cannot ever have this happen again, such a wide systemic attack on our elections by Russia! We must not permit this.” There wasn’t one. There was not “a wide, systemic attack” by the Russians. There wasn’t a single vote changed! The outcome of not a single election was affected by whatever did happen that nobody can find.
Yet they’re out there just saying it as though it’s common knowledge and that everybody accepts it. (impression) “There was a widespread Russian conspiracy to involve themselves in our electoral process.” No, there wasn’t! I’m just tired of hearing about it. I’m sorry, folks. I’m tired of hearing about it. I reach these phases now and then where I just get tired of the conventional wisdom. I get tired of politely going along with it. That’s all this is, is conventional wisdom.
And a lot of Republicans decide they have to acknowledge it and go along with it just to utter it so that they can then get to the real point they want to make in whatever setting they happen to find themselves in. Nobody pushes back against this, and this guy was answering the question he was asked, “Why are you more hell-bent on impeachment today than ever?” (sputtering) “Well, because of the evidence of the widespread Russian attempt to — to — to collude in in our elections!” There wasn’t any of this — and there’s no push back on that, ever!
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Well, well, well. I asked, “Has anybody seen Clapper, anybody seen Comey, anybody seen Brennan,” and CNN’s got Clapper, and you know what they’re doing? Look at the headline: “Mueller Warns Russia Attacking Us as We Sit Here.” See? “Russia Attacking Us as We Sit Here.” They’ve got to try to continue this myth that the Russians are still working with Trump, this time on the 2020 election. Never mind the fact there’s no evidence!
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