RUSH: We’ve got Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz went on PMSNBC last night. He was one of the Republicans that stormed the SCIF in a regrettable stunt, according to some Republican Trump supporters. Let me tell you what a SCIF is. It stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, and it’s kind of like an air gapped computer.

An air gapped computer is one not connected to a network so you can’t hack into it and whatever it’s doing cannot broadcast. The computer cannot send anything outside of its own hard drive and monitor. It cannot connect to a network. That’s air gapped. And it is the ultimate in security. Get a computer, laptop, don’t connect it, that means you don’t get to surf the Web. But it means you get to create all kinds of secret documents that nobody will ever see.

Well, a SCIF is the same thing with a room. It’s not connected to the outside. No electronic devices exist in a SCIF. And your cell phones are not permitted to be taken into one. Now, the reason for SCIFs, one of the reasons is to have super-secret classified hearings, meetings, testimony. Adam Schiff is using a SCIF, a room two floors below street level in the Capitol. Schiff starts every one of these so-called hearings by announcing that no classified information is gonna be discussed.

There’s no reason to do this in a SCIF. There’s literally no reason. If there is no classified information being discussed, no classified data is in there, no classified documents are brought in there, nothing classified is discussed, then why do the SCIF? Why do it there?

The reason is simple. It’s to keep the Republicans from finding out what’s being said by anti-Trump witnesses. Schiff’s excuse is, “Well, I don’t want the witnesses to be able to coordinate so that they can’t lie in unison.” It’s the exact opposite. What Schiff doesn’t want is for anybody to know what the witnesses say so that he can leak anything he wants to tell us they said. He can take a sentence or two that they’ve stated out of context, leak that to the media, a bombshell story with a bombshell headline results, and there’s no evidence to contradict it.

This is exactly what Schiff is doing, and this is also why he doesn’t want any Republicans in there. So that they can’t see and thus tell anybody else what is going on. So it is this room that they stormed. They didn’t storm anything. They quietly walked in and sat down and tried to watch what’s going on in there since they’ve been frozen out. They gave their cell phones to aides outside the room. They did not storm in, they didn’t protest, they don’t go Code Pink, they didn’t start shouting and shut it down.

Schiff shut it down because he couldn’t afford for them to hear what was going on! Then Schiff calls the New York Times or the Washington Post, whoever’s turn it was to get the leak, says we were just shut down here by a bunch of Republicans storming in here protesting, shutting us down. And then shortly after that Schiff, “You know what? We’re thinking about going public.” Why now? Why all of a sudden are you thinking about going public? They’ve been called out.

So a break and then we’ll let you hear what Matt Gaetz said about all this. And, in a way, it might serve as a clinic on pushback and how to do it. But it will also set the record straight on what actually happened yesterday and make it clear that it was not a stunt.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Hi. Welcome back. It’s Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network. Okay. This morning on MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson, Matt Gaetz, Republican, Florida, waded in there, belly of the beast, PMSNBC. First question he got from Hallie Jackson, who used to be the White House correspondent. Whatever she is, she’s a left-wing activist disguised as a journalist. They all are. Question: “Why do you think you are above the rules? This is the point of why you went to the SCIF yesterday?”

GAETZ: I’m not above the rules, but when the Judiciary Committee chairman launches the inquiry, when the Speaker of the House won’t adopt rules, then it creates an environment where the Democrats just sort of make it up as they go along. Let’s kick some committees out, let some committees in, and it’s all because they want to reshuffle the legislative deck because they’re humiliated that they lost the Russia investigation unequivocally with the American people.

Adam Schiff lied to the American people when he said he had more than circumstantial evidence that President Trump was engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Russia, and so this is a way to take some folks on the Judiciary Committee, like myself, like Andy Biggs, out of the next hand because we were effective in making the case that Democrats were overstating the facts.

RUSH: So then she said, “Well, okay. I want to ask you about the substance of this,” which I thought we just heard some. I thought we just had a very substantive answer about, “why do you think you’re above the rules?” We’re not above the rules! We’re being shut out! Schiff is making rules! He’s making them up as they go! He’s letting some in, not letting other people in. There aren’t any rules to these proceedings, Ms. Jackson. We can’t be breaking the rules ’cause he hasn’t told anybody what they are. He’s just doing it as he goes.

So she was not satisfied, obviously, said, “I want to ask you about the substance of this, congressman, because I haven’t heard you say anything since Bill Taylor testified. Yes or no, is it okay for any politician to trade military aid for political favors?”

GAETZ: I do not believe it would be appropriate for any politician to link military aid to assistance in a future election. No. And I also don’t think that’s what the president did. I think the president —

JACKSON: Why not?

GAETZ: — was right to follow up on the work of Bill Barr to try to identify the corrupt origins of the Russia investigation. It was a Ukrainian court that ruled that the Ukraine impermissibly interfered in the U.S. election. And that is a sufficient basis for the president to ask for cooperation with the attorney general on that matter.

JACKSON: It appears from the testimony that we have seen reported publicly from the witnesses here – (crosstalk)

GAETZ: The selective leaks provided by Adam Schiff which aren’t subject to cross-examination. No, see, like you’re playing the game here, Hallie.

JACKSON: Do you dispute the facts then?

GAETZ: You’re playing the game with the selectively leaked stuff that is not subject to cross-examination.

RUSH: Let me walk you through this because what she’s doing, she is Miss Cliche. This woman does not actually even know what she’s talking about. She has the narrative. She’s got the talking points. It all starts with Trump is guilty, Trump colluded, they still haven’t said that he didn’t. Now Trump’s engaging in quid pro quo. Bill Taylor said so. And the president’s asking for Ukraine to investigate his political opponent. And that’s not legal.

She’s almost robotic. Her questions and her knowledge here are almost robotic. So she asks him one of these, “So, so, so, do you think it’s okay for a politician to trade military aid for political favors?” Right there, when did you last beat your wife? When did you stop beating your wife? Of course he doesn’t think that. That’s not what this is about. So he has to oblige. He has to say, “I don’t believe it would be appropriate for any politician to –” as though he has to say this because it could never be assumed that Republicans would obey the law.

You see, the narrative is that Republicans will flout the law, so she’s gotta ask him, “Would you obey the law, would you make sure that there was no political quid pro quo for military aid,” blah, blah, blah. And he has to oblige and say, “No, it would not be appropriate.” Then he says, “I don’t think that’s what the president did. “Why not?” she pipes up. “The president was right to follow up on the work of Bill Barr to try to identify the corrupt origins of the Russia investigation.”

And right there he lost her. She doesn’t know what we know about the corrupt Russia investigation. She thinks it’s totally legit. She thinks that Trump colluded. She thinks the Mueller report has evidence that it happened. She thinks the Steele Dossier was real. She thinks that the FISA reports were valid, the FISA warrants to spy were valid. All of that.

She believes every lie that Brennan’s ever told, that Clapper’s ever told. Her network executives are major donors to Hillary and Biden. So he’s speaking a foreign language to her. She has no idea what he’s talking about. To her, he’s just a kook. “Well, what are you talking about here? Fake Russian investigation?” He said the president was right to follow up on that. It was a Ukrainian court, Gaetz said, that ruled that Ukraine impermissibly interfered in the U.S. election.

She doesn’t know that. In fact, the left is trying to beat that back. There were four Democrat senators who demanded after Trump was elected January 2017, that demanded that Ukraine help them get dirt on Trump! You think Trump’s not gonna investigate that? She doesn’t know that. Literally, Hallie Jackson of NBC does not know what Gaetz has just asserted here. I’ll guarantee you she doesn’t know it. She won’t admit she doesn’t know it, though. If you ask her, “Oh, of course I know. I just don’t believe Gaetz knows what he’s talking about,” some semblance of that.

A Ukraine court ruled that Ukraine impermissibly interfered the U.S. election. That’s a basis for the president to ask for cooperation with the attorney general on that matter. She said, “Well, it appears from the testimony that we’ve seen reported publicly from witnesses there –” Selected leaks! We haven’t seen the testimony! We haven’t seen transcripts! “That, uh, in fact, provided by Adam Schiff that that’s what the president –” She doesn’t know. She’s just repeating the standard narrative that every journalist in Washington believes because he or she has been told. It’s amazing that Gaetz got that far. There’s more too. So hang on.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Washington Post has a motto, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Where is Adam Schiff? He’s in the darkness of a private room. If this testimony’s so devastating to Trump, why not reveal it and make it public?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to continue here with the Matt Gaetz sound bites from MSNBC this morning on a program called Live with Hallie Jackson. He was among the Republicans that stormed into — and they didn’t storm in there. They arrived in Adam Schiff’s little star chamber down there two floors below street level in the Capitol, the so-called SCIF, the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility.

There’s no classified information being discussed. There’s no reason for Schiff to do this in a SCIF for secrecy — well, there is secrecy-wise. He doesn’t want the Republicans to hear what’s going on. He doesn’t want to be able to be contradicted when he leaks out-of-context testimony from witnesses.

Here’s the thing. If Schiff is eliciting testimony here that’s gonna burn down the barn; if Schiff’s getting the goods on Trump; if Schiff has got it, if these witnesses are coming in and nailing Trump to the wall, then why not do it in public? Isn’t that the point?

I’ll give you the answer. They don’t have anything on Trump. I know there are a lot of you thinking I’m not taking this seriously enough. We had a call yesterday. Whenever there’s a call you can say if one call gets through it might represent a certain percentage of people listening that think the same way. No caller is ever actually isolated in terms of point of view. And I realize some of you might think I’m not taking it seriously.

I take it very seriously. What I’m trying to tell you is they’ve got nothing. All they’ve got is to try to drive down Trump’s approval numbers, and that’s what they’re trying to do. And they’re trying to create this illusion that there’s an avalanche of evidence that they’ve finally, after chasing after it for three years, they’re on the verge of getting it. And who knew way back in late 2016 that the answer to everything was in Ukraine? Why, everybody thought it was in Russia, but look now. It’s all in Ukraine, and it’s all about a phone call that happened this past July.

So they’re doing what they can to drive down Trump’s numbers because the only way they’re gonna get rid of him and overturn the election results is if they can create public opinion for that. So everything’s an illusion. They want you to believe that Schiff is uncovering mountains of damaging testimony, really, really deadly stuff for Trump is being learned. Well, let’s see it, then.

“Well, they can’t show their cards right now.” Why not? I mean, don’t have much time here. The election campaign will start in earnest very soon, and you want to get this done quick, right? I mean, it does appear they’d like to get Trump thrown out of office before the election because I don’t think they think they can win the election. In fact, I know they think they can’t.

I’ve got three stories in the Stack today that could each be headlined: Democrats in panic number 1, Democrats in panic number 2, Democrats in panic number 3. You put those three stories together with the New York Times yesterday worried about the roster of Democrats seeking the nomination now with the question, “Is this all there is? Is there no one else?”

There’s a lot of panic on the left, there’s a lot of panic on the Democrat side ’cause they don’t think any of these nominees can win. That’s why you’re hearing scuttlebutt about Hillary getting back in, maybe Michelle (My Belle) Obama. Who knows. JFK. Anybody. So they really would like to do this before the election because they don’t think they can beat Trump. And in fact, these three stories, Democrats in panic version 1, version 2, version 3, one of them is about Wisconsin and how Trump won Wisconsin in 2016. They can’t figure out how. And he’s so far ahead now where he was in 2016, the Democrats are in panic over Wisconsin.

And there are other things that they’re panicking over. Fundraising is one of them. But there are others as well.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to get back to Matt Gaetz now. We’re up to the third sound bite. He appeared with Hallie Jackson MSNBC this morning. Next question: “Did you get a chance to see Bill Taylor’s opening statement that was released?” You know, Bill Taylor, he’s the guy that finally had the goods on Trump. This is the guy, if we’d a known Bill Taylor three years ago we’d have dragged him out. Bill Taylor, what a great American, great ambassador, Bill Taylor, he said there was a quid pro quo. “Have you read all 15 pages? Do you think he’s making it all up?”

GAETZ: I would love to have the chance to cross-examine Taylor on those claims or even to observe my colleagues cross-examining Taylor, but this is the new Adam Schiff strategy. Leak stuff that is pre-prepared – (crosstalk)

JACKSON: Your colleagues can cross-examine him. Your Republican colleagues are in the room. So you don’t trust your Republicans on these committees?

GAETZ: No, I want to see the consequences of their work, right? They put out their opening statement. We engage in cross-examination. You want to ask me about the opening, but I don’t have the benefit of the cross-examination to be able to test the allegations made in the opening statement. And that is all by design.

It is not an accident that you and I are here having this interview on terms that are very favorable to the Adam Schiff theory of the case because when John Ratcliffe asked questions that I think poke holes in the allegations that Taylor made, we don’t get the benefit of those ’cause, you know what? They weren’t leaked and they weren’t in front of the American people, and that’s the problem.

RUSH: And apparently, I just want to share with you, Ratcliffe apparently destroyed Bill Taylor on cross-examination. See, the way this works, Taylor gives his opening statement, it’s 15 pages, and it nails Trump, and proves the quid pro quo, and it’s exactly what Schiff wanted. They worked together to create it! You ever heard of Bill Taylor before? One of the greatest ambassadors ever, apparently. Oh, yeah.

And now there’s Navy admirals and Army generals on TV today on CNN praising this guy to the hilt. One of them has a book out, Stavridis, I don’t know how you pronounce his name. But he even admitted, “Oh, yeah, you know, the officer class hates Trump, but the enlisted force, they love Trump. Yes, it’s a great divide.” Well, no kidding. The officer class hates Trump, but the enlisted grunts love Trump. How do you figure that?

But I’m told that Ratcliffe ate Bill Taylor’s testimony for lunch. But it’s not been leaked. We don’t know what it is. We only have this version. Schiff’s version of what Taylor said has been leaked, an opening statement that was crafted precisely to be leaked. And they count on the fact that nobody’s gonna say, “Bill who?”

Why wasn’t this guy the whistleblower? Why did it take three weeks to get to this guy? Was it ’cause everybody before him failed to nail Trump so they finally pull somebody out of retirement to do it?

So Gaetz’s point is I’m appearing with you here under one narrative, and that is that Taylor had the goods and we don’t know anything about the cross-examination because it hasn’t been reported and Schiff won’t let it out. And Ratcliffe can’t say what it is without being penalized for violating Schiff’s so-called rules.

Matt Gaetz’s appearance did not go over well with Meghan McCain. She was on The View today, and she had this to say about Gaetz and the Republicans, quote, unquote, storming little Pencil Neck’s inquiry hearing yesterday.

MCCAIN: I hate political stunts across the board in general. I think we elect people in order to serve in Congress. We elect you to get your freaking job done one way or the other, and when you are sitting on a sit-in for 26 hours or you’re doing what Republicans did yesterday, Matt Gaetz, when did you become a TV star or wannabe TV star? You want to do that? Get the hell out of Congress, get a TV job.

RUSH: (laughing) That’s Meghan McCain with her selective criticism of people in her father’s party because they’re doing stunts, they’re not doing their jobs. “Go get on TV if you want to be a TV star, do your job.” Meghan, with all due respect, they’re not being allowed to do their jobs. They’re being denied entry and participation in what’s being billed an impeachment inquiry.

Anyway, I wanted you to hear Gaetz, and I wanted you to hear him get to the point about the cross-examination of Taylor. Nobody’s allowed to see it, but his opening 15 page statement, Hallie Jackson, “How do you refute it? You think all 15 pages are a lie? This man was great.” That’s all they’re talking about. And next week it’s gonna be somebody else when this blows up on them.