RUSH: The impeachment saga in the House. This is terrific. Everything that I have thought about this and much of what I have told you about this is coming true. They don’t want any part of it. Pelosi doesn’t want any part of it. There are moderate, quote, unquote, in the Drive-By Media, moderate Democrats claiming that they are privately going — from Trump districts – they’re going to Nadler, “Please stop this. Don’t do this. This is not something anybody wants.”
But Nadler is ignoring them even though he knows he should pay attention. And they’re trying to do it and not do it at the same time. And there’s also a trick. One of the things Nadler’s trying to do with this impeachment hearing is actually find a judge, they’re looking for a judge anywhere that will rule that Trump has to turn over his tax returns and anything else that Nadler and his committee want. So we’re gonna be tracking that down.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Winter Springs, Florida. John, you’re up. It’s great to have you, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Oh, Rush, it’s great to talk to you. I’ve been listening to you since you were Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War years ago.
RUSH: Huh!
CALLER: Hey, listen, at the top of the hour you were saying they were starting impeachment hearings against Trump again, again, and again. My simple question is this. They’ve thrown everything at this guy — lies and fabricated stuff. What in the world are they going to try to impeach him for? What do they think they can impeach him for? That’s my simple question.
RUSH: They’re still investigating. They’re still looking for something. They want to impeach him because he won. Now, look, some of this is gonna sound funny, but I’m not trying to make you laugh here. They want to impeach him because Mueller failed to get rid of him. They want to impeach him because Obama’s Department of Justice and the FBI — that conspiracy — failed. They want to impeach him because they wanted Hillary to win.
They want to impeach him ’cause they don’t like his tweets. They want to impeach him because they don’t like his hair or his hair color. They want to impeach him ’cause they think he’s gauche and gross and impolite and rude. They want to impeach him simply because they are power-mad ogres themselves and cannot adapt to being rejected. It is —
CALLER: I know that they want to impeach him, but what do they hope to impeach him for?
RUSH: Well, as I say, they’re still looking. What they’re looking for now, they want a judge to force Trump to turn over business records from the Trump Organization and his tax returns. They want Trump to be forced to furnish documents that they think will prove he is a criminal, since they haven’t been able to prove that yet. But they are taking the position that they know he did it; they just can’t find the evidence, and they gotta keep looking for it. That’s the real reason this is happening.
You’re wondering what they’ll impeach him for. It’s a good question, because the answer is nothing. He hasn’t done anything impeachable. Impeachment is a political process. It’s not legal. It’s not about really violating the law — and it never succeeds if you don’t have popular opinion behind it, which they don’t. But their problem is their base voters, John… (sigh) They are not all there emotionally or mentally. You have to put yourself in these people’s shoes. I’ll try to make this as brief as I can.
Try to imagine, if you can, that you are a base-Democrat voter. And for the last three years, every day, you have been promised that Trump was gonna go. You tuned in to MSNBC every day, every night — CNN every day, every night. You opened the New York Times or went to website, Washington Post. And multiple times a day, you were promised and assured that Trump had colluded with Russia, that he was a traitor, that he had stolen the election, that Hillary Clinton was the real winner, that Trump had cheated — maybe was even a traitor.
Now, imagine you’re one of these people, and you hear this (minimum) five times a day every day for two years. You would be excused — people would fully understand — if you built up a set of expectations. I mean, after all, you believe the media. You trust the media. They’re yours! When the New York Times writes these stories assuring you that evidence is soon to be produced that Trump did it, you believe it — every day for two years.
When you watch an endless parade of experts and former Obama administration officials on TV every day and every night for two-plus years, you believe them. When they say, “Trump’s illegitimate, Trump cheated, Trump colluded, Trump is an agent of the Russians,” you believe it. When Robert Mueller is appointed, you are convinced that he’s gonna find the evidence that the media has promised you exists. And every day for two years, or a year and a half, you wait like it’s Christmas Eve and Christmas morning will never get here.
You’re so excited!
You’ve got so much anticipation.
They have promised you. And then Mueller comes up a dud. There’s nothing. You were told the Trump Tower meeting with Don Jr. and Jared Kushner and the Russian honeypot was the evidence that there had been collusion, that Trump had stolen the election. None of it, after 2-1/2 years, was true. You would be insane too. And I’m trying to be sympathetic. I’m just trying to get you to understand. These are the people driving this impeachment. They have been promised.
They still believe it’s true. They believe Trump has thwarted every effort to find the truth. They believe he’s still colluded. They believe he’s a Russian agent. They believe it, and they hate him anyway because he won, and they hate him because he’s a Republican. They are demanding that their elected officials get rid of the guy since everybody else has failed. They’re nuts! They have been driven insane. By the way, CNN and MSNBC audience levels are plummeting — and I’ll tell you why that’s happening when I have time.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’m not through with the impeachment business yesterday because I have some audio sound bites that go along with this. Look, I want to expand if not just continue something, not really expand on it, ’cause the latest ratings are in for MSNBC and CNN, and every rating period they lose another third. I mean, their audience has peaked. Well, CNN’s never peaked very much. But PMSNBC, for about a two-month maximum period right in the middle of this whole collusion business — in some primetime hours — were beating Fox.
I mean, their audience was into this, and my point is the people driving this impeachment are left-wing base voters who were subjecting themselves to all of this media for over two years, and they were told every day, “Trump’s gone.” They were told every day, “Trump colluded.” They were told every day, “Trump was a cheater.” They were told every day that Trump colluded with Putin, that Trump stole the election. “Hillary was legitimate winner! Trump was not.” They were told every day that Trump cheated, told every day that Trump was just worst reprobate ever.
They believed it — and can you blame ’em? I mean, their media assured them of this. Now, they went into it believing it. I mean, they didn’t need the media, but the media was reinforcement. This is one of the things that constantly amazes me. The media that has lied to and misled its entire audience has yet to apologize for it, has yet to ask any forgiveness, has yet to even explain it. They just move on to the next phony hoax, taking what’s left of their audience with them.
But these people are imbalanced to begin with. They’re liberals. They’re not solidly put together. They’re not mentally adjusted anyway — and then you lie to them every day and you build up their expectations that what they want most in the world, Trump in jail, is only a matter of time away from happening. And, folks, I don’t know how many of you took the time to watch all that. I did. From the New York Times, to the Washington Post, to CNN, to MSNBC, they did everything but promise that Trump was guilty.
They did everything but promise they had the evidence! They lied to their audience! They assured them the evidence was there, and it was only a matter of time before it was produced. There were “experts” with credibility from former Obama administration intel officials to former FBI people. They were all over the place. They were being quoted in the New York Times. The New York Times! “The paper of record.” You couldn’t blame those people for believing it, and they did.
To some point, they still think that it’s true, that somebody just missed it. They think everybody — Mueller, the FBI, whoever — blew it! That’s why they want impeachment to continue because they know that it’s there! They’ve been told it was there. And the media that they watched and read have not told them that they were wrong. CNN has not said they were wrong about anything. The New York Times hasn’t said they were wrong about anything.
The Washington Post hasn’t said they were wrong about anything. They keep reporting on Trump as though he’s guilty of everything they accused him of starting even before the election. Their media keeps lying to them, keeps misleading them. But now, I told you. I told you late last week and the beginning of this week that this is beginning to take its toll, that I don’t care how mixed up these people are, there reaches a point where even they are gonna stop trusting these people and stop listening to them.
Especially if there’s no apology, if there’s no acknowledgment that we got it wrong. If they keep pummeling it, people can’t hang on to this with that much passion and energy. It’s just going to dwindle. It’s gonna flitter away. There is now developing a larger mistrust of the media by the media’s own audience, and I think you see it in these audience figures. “MSNBC and CNN lost nearly a third of their respective prime time audiences compared to this time last year.” It was the same three months ago.
They were somewhat bucked up after Trump won. I mean, that was Panic City, and the media was trusted. They were gonna give ’em the dirt every day, gonna make sure Trump was gonna go, make sure Trump was gonna be found guilty, make sure Trump was gonna lose office. You had all those people in their vagina hats flocking wherever they could to get their daily therapy sessions. They’d go to Pravda, they’d go to MSNBC, and that’s what it became! Left-wing lunatics looked at the media as their therapists!
Remember when John Kerry lost in 2004, and there were therapists that opened shop down here in South Florida that helped Democrats deal with the shock? Well, imagine this nationwide, and imagine MSNBC and CNN and the New York Times becoming therapists for these people. So you have a hysterical story, and it was filled with hysteria! “Trump colluded! Trump’s an agent! Trump’s a traitor! Trump sold out America! Hillary should have won!” Add it all up. It’s hysteria — and hysterical story after hysterical story fell apart.
While at the same time, Donald Trump thrives in office. Donald Trump cuts taxes. Donald Trump initiates immigration reform. Donald Trump starts building the wall. Donald Trump gets a travel ban. Trump just keeps going! Trump starts talking to Kim Jong-un. Trump is in the trade war with the ChiComs to even out that playing field. So while these people are tuning into the media every day to hear how Trump is soon to be in jail, in reality Trump is thriving and he’s tweeting and he’s laughing at them.
He’s mocking them — he’s laughing at ’em to their faces — and they end up feeling tricked. These people, the Democrat base, have been lied to now for three years without an apology, without a mea culpa, without a “please forgive us,” without any acknowledgment that they’ve been lied to. The same people who told them it was a 90% certainty that Hillary would win in a landslide! The same people that published the polls that showed that Hillary was gonna win in a landslide.
The same people that told them that after Trump won, that he was gonna be removed, that he was gonna be taken out of office. The media is still lying to them. Are they finally realizing it? I think they are. They’re abandoning MSNBC in droves. They’re abandoning CNN in droves. We know that the New York Times is gonna be the last to go if it goes at all because that’s the paper of record.
I don’t think the Times could do anything to mess up its credibility with these people, but others, I think it only makes sense. To answer the question, “What’s he being impeached for?” These people who bought everything the media assured them are now demanding that somebody make it happen, somebody get rid of this guy. And it’s fallen to Jerry Nadler, Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee.
But here’s a story from the AP, ladies and gentlemen. “Some Democrats Concerned as Judiciary Sets Impeachment Rules.” Now, this is a classic example of a story needing me to interpret it for you. ‘Cause this is in the weeds. It’s purposely in the weeds. This story is meant to get the facts out there but in a way most people won’t understand, so the AP can say that they did their job.
Let me spell out this story. The mainstream media are pretending, and their legal experts are pretending, not to understand why Nadler is proceeding with this. They don’t know why, they’re trying to tell us they don’t know why Nadler is going forward with his official impeachment hearings, because it makes no sense. It makes no sense to call a vote on this. It makes no sense for members of the House who won in 2018 from Trump districts, it makes no sense to put them on record here, and yet Nadler is proceeding.
And so this story attempts to say that the media itself and their legal experts don’t understand why Nadler’s doing it, and that’s a farce because they support Nadler doing it. They just don’t want to admit that they support him doing it, either. The truth is that Nadler is proceeding and Pelosi is letting him proceed in the hopes — and that’s all they’ve got — in the hopes that this phony impeachment inquiry is gonna fool some Obama or Clinton judge out there into forcing Trump to turn over documents like his tax returns that are protected by separation of powers and executive privilege.
They’ve got nothing. They never have had anything. Trump hasn’t done anything that’s impeachable, never once. Mueller’s inquiry was to set up impeachment, and Mueller found nothing! There isn’t anything! They’re convinced that Trump did it nevertheless. They need his documents. So that’s the phase that we’re in now. And despite the media and some of these so-called moderate Democrats, of which there are none.
There are no moderate Democrats anymore. I don’t care what the media talks about, refers to them as such, they don’t exist. This story is about how some are concerned that Nadler’s going ahead with this when secretly they want him to. Now, under the Constitution and legal precedent, a president could only be forced to turn over these documents if he’s under an official impeachment investigation.
If there is an official impeachment investigation, then the separation of powers gets a little blurry. And it’s possible then that some deranged Obama judge could come along and grant Nadler’s committee access to, say, Trump’s tax returns. And that’s what Nadler and Pelosi are now doing, and they’re only doing it because they’ve got to keep their base on board for the 2020 election, and their base is losing its mind.
Again, sorry for being repetitive. Their base has been lied to for two and a half years. Their base has been assured Trump did it, that Trump’s guilty. Everybody they trust has told them, from media to elected officials, so, by God, they want ’em to go do it. They want ’em to find the evidence and get rid of the guy. So the Democrats have to make a show of doing this, even though they know there’s nothing here. They’re not gonna get Trump’s tax returns.
Nancy Pelosi, Nadler hope that some judge will come along and grant them access, as they continue to wail away that Trump needs to be impeached, needs to be removed from office. And if some judge would do that, then at that point Pelosi will announce the beginning of real impeachment proceedings. But not until. ‘Cause there’s no way there’s gonna be a trial, and there’s no way there’s ever gonna be a conviction. So it’s gonna be nothing more than a for-show exercise.
Let’s go to audio sound bites. Here is Jerry Nadler this morning, Capitol Hill House Judiciary Committee hearing considering a resolution on procedures for impeachment hearings.
NADLER: This committee is engaged in an investigation that will allow us to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment with respect to President Trump. That is what we are doing. Some call this process an impeachment inquiry. Some call it an impeachment investigation. There’s no legal difference between these terms, and I no longer care to argue about the nomenclature. But let me clear up any remaining doubt. The conduct under investigation poses a threat to our democracy. We have an obligation to respond to this threat, and we are doing so.
RUSH: They can’t name anything, but Trump’s conduct poses a threat to our democracy. Here’s Doug Collins, who is the ranking Republican on the committee.
COLLINS: We’re so in fantasy land here, nobody knows what’s going on. This is the problem. You just went back to what we said. Instagram, snapshot, Twitter, it doesn’t matter. We’re not in an impeachment inquiry!
RUSH: And we’re not in one because there hasn’t been a vote yet! Nadler’s saying there is just to placate the lunatics on the left, but there isn’t an official one yet, and there won’t be unless some renegade judge clears the way for them to get Trump’s tax returns or something like that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Grab sound bite number 13, Tom McClintock. This is another Republican reacting to the Jerry Nadler announcement that an “official” inquiry is underway. He doesn’t care what you call it, they’re doing it, and here… We had Doug Collins reacting to it basically saying (impression), “This is fantasyland. There’s nothin’ ‘official’ happenin’ here. You’re just tryin’ to placate Twitter. You’re trying to placate Instagram, Face Chat, InstantChat, whatever is, Mr. Chairman, but we know you got nothin’!” That was Doug Collins — a pretty good impersonation — and up next here’s Tom McClintock with his take.
MCCLINTOCK: That’s all you have to do! Resolve that the House authorizes the Judiciary Committee to conduct an inquiry into the impeachment of the president. It’s that simple. I dare you to do it. In fact, I double-dog dare you to do it. Have the House vote on those 18 words and then go at it.
RUSH: Okay. Well, here’s now audio sound bite 14. This is during the committee hearing considering the resolution on procedures for impeachment. This is after the vote, the chairman, Jerrold Nadler…
NADLER: The clerk will call the roll!
CLERK: Mr. Chairman, there are 24 ayes and 17 noes.
NADLER: Your ayes have it. The resolution is agreed to. This concludes our business for today.
RUSH: All right. So they’re off and running. Pelosi really doesn’t want this to happen; she could not stop it. So she’s gotta make it look like she’s on board — and I’m telling you, this is the inmates running the asylum. This is the Democrat base forcing it. Plus, Nadler is being primaried much the way Joe Crowley was primaried by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and he’s got to try to protect his flank, and so that’s that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, I want to go back for a moment to impeachment ’cause I’ve got some Pelosi sound bites, and I want to reiterate something about this. If you’ve done this yourself, if you’ve checked the news — if you paid any attention at all — you know that this entire procedure that Nadler was forced into doing, calling for a vote and having official inquiry or investigation… He doesn’t want to argue about the nomenclature. The fact of the matter is everybody’s calling this a circus. Everybody’s calling it a joke. It has no aim. It has no objective. It doesn’t look like it’s organized. It doesn’t have a central purpose other than to placate a bunch of malcontent voters.
And once again, I told you last week that the reason Pelosi doesn’t want to vote on this is because of all of the Democrats that won in 2018 in Trump districts. You know, she doesn’t care if Nadler blathers on about impeachment. If there’s a vote, that puts people on the record — and there isn’t a poll in America that shows anywhere near a majority of people want Trump impeached. So there’s nothing in it for the Democrats to do this except for fundraising and to placate their base.
The Democrats have a debate, and I guess Fauxcahontas is now the focus ’cause she’s gonna be really going after Plugs. Kamala Harris is gonna be going after everybody because the bottom has fallen out of her campaign. So here is Pelosi. We have a couple of sound bites here starting at number 22. This was just this morning. She had her weekly press briefing. And reporter said, “Look, Madam Speaker, on the other topic of the day, impeachment, do you concede now that the impeachment inquiry into President Trump is underway?”
PELOSI: Do I concede now? Have you not paid attention to what we’ve been talking about? I stand by what we have been doing all along. I support what is happening in the Judiciary Committee, because that enables them to do their, uh, process of, uh, of interrogation a-a-and their investigation, and I salute them for that work. But I also salute them for what they did this week, earlier this week. They took up and, uh, and marked up three bills, uh, to make America safer in terms of gun safe — common-sense gun safety. Legislate, investigate, litigate. That’s the path we have been on.
RUSH: So did you hear what she says after the question, “[D]o you concede now that the impeachment inquiry into President Trump is underway?” “Do I concede now? Have you not paid attention to what we’ve been talking about? I stand by what we’ve been doing all along. I support what’s happening in the committee.” She lost control over what’s happening in the committee. Now, some people might disagree with that characterization and they don’t think Pelosi ever loses control.
I think everybody’s lost control. I think Nadler’s committee is seen by everybody as a liability and a joke. But they can’t say that. Some of them actually are if you know how to interpret what they’re saying.
So the next reporter says, “If I may, Madam Speaker, is the specific language about impeachment and whether it’s an investigation or an inquiry, is the specific language not important?”
PELOSI: You’re the only ones who are, uh, sowing this, uh —
MALE REPORTER: That’s not true, ma’am.
PELOSI: It it it is true. (crosstalk) Look, I I I I travel the entire country. Come with me sometime and you’ll hear what the American people are saying. They understand that impeachment is a very divisive measure, but if we have to go there, we’ll have to go there. But we can’t go there unless we have the facts. And we will follow the facts and we will follow the, uh, obstruction that the president is making of us getting the facts and make our decision when we’re ready. That’s the only question, that’s the only thing I’m going to say about this subject.
FEMALE REPORTER: Shouldn’t you set the record straight?
PELOSI: I said, I have said what I’m going to say on the subject. That’s it.
I had a caller earlier, “What did he do?” They don’t know yet! That’s why they want tax returns. They are convinced that Trump has committed felonies. They are convinced that he’s a cheat, a liar, fraud, and a Russian agent. It’s just that Trump won’t tell them. Trump won’t give them the documents.
So the impeachment inquiry is designed to get a judge to tell Trump he’s gonna turn this stuff over. And then they’ll go full bore. Pelosi knows that this is a fat chance, and she’s talking about “travel with me around the country, people know impeachment’s a very divisive –” she knows nobody’s in favor of it, the American people.
Another reporter said, quick bite here, “On the timing standpoint on this, is there a deadline on these investigations into Trump?”
PELOSI: I’m not answering any more questions on, uh, possible inquiries, investigations and the rest. I’ve said what I’m going to say.
RUSH: Because she doesn’t have anything to say. Is there an end to this? Is there a deadline on investigations? No, there isn’t. They’re not gonna stop trying to find a way to get rid of Trump even after he wins reelection in 2020.
Related Links