RUSH: Now, Pelosi and her de facto emasculation of Schiff.
I’m sure many of you ask, “Wuh wuh wuh wuh, what do you mean? When did Pelosi emasculate Schiff? I thought Schiff already was emasculated.”
Well, I get your point. But Nancy Pelosi has decided that the best way to distract from Trump killing Baghdadi — and, by the way, we got his successor the next day. Al-Baghdadi’s successor is also now room temperature. Actually, Baghdadi never made room temperature. He was vaporized at about 3,000 degrees with his own explosive suicide vest. But we got his successor. So Pelosi has gotta distract from that. She can’t have her party sympathizing too long with al-Baghdadi.
So she has announced the House is finally going to vote on Thursday whether to hold an impeachment inquiry or not. Now, hang on, because this still is not the vote everybody thinks it is. Now, let’s remember. Less than two weeks ago, Pelosi brushed off all the calls from Republicans to hold a vote to formally authorize the impeachment probe. She said, “No way. We don’t need to do that. It isn’t necessary.” She didn’t want to call a vote, didn’t want to endanger these 40 Democrats that won in 2016 from Trump districts.
Republicans were demanding that she do it. She has accused Republicans of focusing on the process in an effort to distract from the allegations against Trump, but now she’s gonna hold a vote. Now, it wasn’t that long ago that Pelosi was claiming Trump was trying to trick the House Democrats into impeaching him. Do you remember that? That was barely a month ago. Pelosi and the Democrat leaders were saying, “We’re not gonna fall for this! Trump is goading us. Trump is trying to get us to impeach him.”
Now, why would Trump be doing that?
Well, the popular conventional wisdom is that it would benefit Trump if the Democrats do this. History says that impeached presidents end up having their polling numbers rise because of sympathy and a number of other factors. But it’s undeniable that, whatever the reasons, Pelosi was claiming she wasn’t gonna have a vote because Trump was trying to goad her. She wasn’t gonna have a vote because the Republicans were simply making a mockery of the process and trying to distract from the real work that Adam Schiff was doing behind closed doors that nobody could see.
Now, both sides in the media now are claiming that this vote means their side has called the other’s bluff. For example, The Atlantic says, “Democrats Call Trump’s Bluff.” The New York Post says, “Calling Pelosi and Schiff’s Bluff.” Anyway, this vote on Thursday is a clear admission of one thing, and that is that the Schiff-headed inquiry so far has not been legitimate. Now, Pelosi and her buddies can use cover from the media to try to hide that, and they can try to say, “This is just the next step.
“This is the next legitimate phase in the legitimate impeachment of President Trump.” But it’s not. If what Schiff was doing behind closed doors was working, nothing would change. If what Schiff was doing was really collecting evidence of impeachable offenses, then Pelosi would keep it going and they wouldn’t fall for the pressure to call for a vote. But the killing of Baghdadi has changed the equation. The press will never admit this — the Democrats will never admit it — which is why I am telling you.
So now are the Democrats gonna have to throw out all the testimony and documents they got when they were conducting their inquiry illegitimately for more than a month? You know, the vote is to formalize it. The vote is to make it official. By calling for a vote, Pelosi is admitting that what’s happened to date with Schiff has not been legitimate. (pause) No, I’m joking. The Democrats are not gonna throw anything out. I’m making a point here. The Democrats are gonna use all that testimony, all those documents that they collected from their secret, behind-closed-door meetings in their final report on impeachment.
But now they’ll claim their investigation was completely transparent because they’ve now decided to open up the hearings to the public (maybe) and maybe the Republicans’ actual questioning of the witnesses will happen. But, of course, not the witnesses who’ve already testified. We’re not gonna bring them back in. This whole thing is a sham, folks. And then “Pelosi said Monday that the House vote on a resolution to formalize the next steps of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump will not be an ‘impeachment resolution.'”
What?
“Pelosi was asked by NBC News about the resolution, which she announced earlier in the day, and responded by saying ‘it’s not an impeachment resolution.'” Why not? “Pelosi previously said she would not hold a full vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry…” Trump has continued to “call for” this. “Pelosi has said she believes Trump is ‘goading’ Democrats to impeach him because he thinks it will help him fire up his base.” His base is already fired up.
His base is fired and will remain so, and is going to get even more fired up as all of this continues. That’s what I mean about the snowball effect. Pelosi is responding to something by calling for this vote then telling NBC it’s not an impeachment resolution. For some reason, she doesn’t want to make this official. They want to continue to try to get away with illusion that they are impeaching Trump. I know the conventional wisdom is that they’re gonna do it, and I know the conventional wisdom is it’s not stoppable.
I know the conventional wisdom is that it’s a fait accompli — and I remain unconvinced.
I think this is all part of the 2020 reelection strategy for the Democrats, but we’ll see.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Do you remember when the Republicans stormed the SCIF? Republicans went in there and demanded to be part of the process, and the media called it a “stunt,” and the media derided the Republicans. The Democrats made fun of ’em and laughed at ’em. “You guys have no business being in here! You guys can’t bring your phones in there,” which they didn’t do. I maintain that it was not a stunt. The stunt is Schiff! Schiff and the Democrats are the stunt.
They are the charade.
More on these witnesses that you are seeing reported on breathlessly in the media. (Just hang on. We’ll get to that in the next half hour.) But I think it worked. I think a number of things are forcing Pelosi’s hands here. The Republicans did something they’re not used to doing and the Democrats are not prepared for them to do. The Republicans stormed in there like Code Pink, in effect, and so here is Pelosi yesterday on Capitol Hill. A reporter asked her about the upcoming vote.
ABC NEWS REPORTER: Madam Speaker, can we have you talk about the impeachment resolution?
PELOSI: It’s not an impeachment resolution.
RUSH: What? “It’s not an impeachment resolution”? Why is everybody saying they’re gonna have a vote on an impeachment resolution on Thursday? Why is everybody saying that? If it’s not a vote on impeachment resolution, then what are they voting on Thursday? And if you want to know, here’s Rosa DeLauro. She is a Democrat from Connecticut on the Fox News Channel this morning.
DELAURO: This is about laying out how we are going to try to move forward in terms of collecting data and the continued process. It’s nothing to do as to whether or not there is a, uh… an inquiry.
RUSH: I don’t… Could you hear that? No plans to vote for a formal inquiry. This is a rules-and-process vote. It’s “about laying out how we are going to try to move forward in terms of collecting data and the continued process. It’s nothing to do as to whether or not there is … an inquiry.” There still isn’t gonna be a vote on impeachment, folks.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We go to the Tampa. This is Lou. Great to have you with us, Lou. How are you?
CALLER: Hey, Rush. How you doing today?
RUSH: Fine and dandy, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: I’m confused. Well, maybe not confused, but a rhetorical question. We’re taking a vote, or the Congress is, on whether they’re gonna set up the rules and the process for something that’s already been established for almost two months. But there’s news reports out there, including Judge Napolitano, who’s been saying the rules have already been in place and some places are even saying that the Republicans are the ones who set up the rules. So why are we voting on the rules —
RUSH: Well, this actually is a good question. I am so grateful for this question. Because the way Congress works is a gigantic secret to people that have never studied it. Yeah, you think the rules are in place because the Constitution spells out how impeachment happens, and the House has to go by it. Well, there can’t be any impeachment without high crimes and misdemeanors.
Have you ever seen the definition of a high crime or misdemeanor? Well, don’t those two cancel each other out? High crime and misdemeanor? A misdemeanor is jaywalking. Well, you can’t impeach people for jaywalking. Gerald Ford was asked in 1970, what is high crimes and misdemeanors? What is an impeachable offense? Gerald Ford said, “Whatever the House of Representatives wants to say it is.”
These are specific rules, like how many Republicans will be permitted to participate? Will the Republicans be allowed to cross-examine? The Democrats are in charge of this. The Democrats can get away with whatever they want to try to get away with, Lou. If the Democrats want to pass rules suggesting that certain Republicans are not permitted in the impeachment hearing, they can try to do it. They have to submit it to a vote for the whole House. But there are procedural rules for every piece of legislation.
Have you ever been paying attention to news and there’s this big bill, a big piece of legislation’s up, and in the Senate they have to take a vote first for cloture. Cloture. What the hell is cloture? Well, they gotta get 60 votes before they can actually vote. Every bill is considered to be filibustered. Senate rule. Filibusters were not what they are today when the Senate began proceedings.
A filibuster is simply automatically assumed on every piece of legislation and to end a filibuster, which used to be somebody talking and talking and talking and talking until they couldn’t anymore, a filibuster is now just assumed, and you need 60 votes to stop debate. Filibuster now equals debate. You gotta get 60 senators to vote to end debate, and then you vote on the bill.
Now, it’s assumed, well, if you get 60 votes to end debate, then you’re gonna have 60 votes to pass the bill, but not always. Some senators will vote to end debate just so they can get to the vote, but they have no intention of voting for it. The House can set up their own procedural rules for this, like how many hours they’re gonna give to it each day, how many days they are gonna allot, how many weeks they are going to allot.
So there are the procedural rules, then there are the constitutional rules, and then there are whatever rules that Schiff and Pelosi want to try to implement. And it’s whatever they can get votes to do. And if it appears undemocratic or unconstitutional, well, elections have consequences.
I mean, you would think the last three weeks Adam Schiff has been conducting a so-called impeachment inquiry behind closed doors in a room two stories below ground level in the House of Representatives with no electronic devices permitted. There have been no transcripts. The Republicans were not allowed in. The Republicans were not allowed to read full transcripts of what witnesses said.
The only thing that was made public was what Adam Schiff leaked to the New York Times, the Washington Post, or CNN. It was not Democratic. It was not fair in anybody’s definition. But that’s what happened. That’s when the Republicans decided to storm that room and to demand to be admitted. And it was after that and after the killing of al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader, that all of a sudden now Nancy Pelosi is, okay, okay, okay, we’ll have a vote, we’ll have a vote.
But they’re not having a vote on impeachment. They’re having a vote on procedure. They’re having a vote on rules. They’re having a vote on how they’re gonna move forward. So if somebody’s telling you the rules are already set, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Constitutional rules, yeah. They can’t change the rule that says two-thirds of the Senate must vote to convict. They can’t change the rules about articles of impeachment being created. They can’t change the rule about house managers, but they can assign them.
That’s what they want you to believe. That is not what is happening. They’re being brought in so that Adam Schiff can lift damning testimony from them amidst whatever else they say and leak it to the furtherance of the illusion that Trump has been impeached. If some people think that the actual impeachment and the trial has begun, all the better! Although that will come back and bite ’em because it hasn’t begun. And if people think that, they’re gonna expect a result at some point down the line.
So I’m really glad that you asked the question, because it’s something largely misunderstood by casual observers of the way Congress, which is the House and the Senate, the way they work. But the take away here, Lou, is that no official impeachment anything has begun. No official vote on an impeachment inquiry has been taken or taken place.
This entire thing — it’s real, I mean, don’t misunderstand. They’re gonna do it if they can get away with it, if they think they can. They’re monitoring polling data, but right now they are still in the stage creating the illusion that all of that has begun.
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