RUSH: Sean Davis at The Federalist has this little story just cleared. “A top National Security Council (NSC) official who listened to President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky testified to Congress today that he did not believe Trump had discussed anything illegal during the conversation. ‘I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed,’ former NSC Senior Director for European Affairs Tim Morrison testified today, according to a record of his remarks obtained by the Federalist.”
Folks, I’m telling you. This is why it’s a trap to respond to these allegations by trying to defend them item by item because that’s not what these are. This is part of a never-ending series of attempts by John Brennan and Obama to derail Donald Trump. When one fails, they launch the next one. So Trump-Russia collusion bombs out. This whistleblower, this Ukraine phone call? This is another. This guy gets fired from the White House ’cause he’s leaking; he goes back over to the CIA.
He’s a disgruntled, fired employee!
He’s the whistleblower? He’s the guy with automatic credibility? This just stinks to high heaven! There’s nothing authentic about this. Now, I understand — and it frustrates the hell out of me. I understand when people say (like my buddy Andy McCarthy), “The White House better have a substantive answer to the charge.” (big sigh) My problem is this charge is bogus! How do you have an answer to a bogus charge other than, “Your charge is bogus! There’s nothing illegal on this phone call! I don’t have to defend it to you!” That’s just me, though.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to go back to the story, Sean Davis, the story from The Federalist. “A top National Security Council (NSC) official who listened to President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky testified to Congress today that he did not believe Trump had discussed anything illegal during the conversation.”
His name is Tim Morrison. And according to a record of his remarks obtained by The Federalist, he said, “‘I want to be clear, I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed.’ Morrison testified that Ukrainian officials were not even aware that certain military funding had been delayed by the Trump administration until late August 2019 –” This call is in July. “–more than a month after the Trump-Zelensky call, casting doubt on allegations that Trump somehow conveyed an illegal quid pro quo demand.”
There couldn’t have been because they got the money! Ukraine got the money, and Trump didn’t get any dirt on Biden and his kid! “How do you know, Rush?” ‘Cause I guaran-damn-tee you we would know if the Ukrainians had actually dug up dirt like Adam Schiff lied through his stinking Democrat teeth and said that Trump told this guy to make it up, dig it up. If that had happened, we’d have found out about it.
Trump did not get his investigation into Biden. Ukraine did get its money. It’s Obama that withheld the money from Ukraine, according to U.S. treaty, in violation of it. But there’s more. Tim Morrison, in his testimony today, the national security official, said that Bill Taylor, who is the star of Schiff’s show to date, Bill Taylor, William Taylor, another decorated veteran, folks, decorated, can’t assail him, can’t criticize him, can’t challenge him — Democrats don’t even like military people.
I’m having a tough time containing myself here. I am far more reserved than I feel. I am bursting with rage over this. I’ve been following this Democrat plan for 30 years! Ted Kennedy with those allegations about Robert Bork. Then this stupid, insulting, near disastrous thing they tried to do to Clarence Thomas. It’s how they do things. They destroy us. They don’t and can’t beat us in the arena of ideas. They don’t even try.
They get people that they then claim have impeccable reputations, because of their labels, not their personalities. Vindman wears the uniform. You can’t disagree. Vindman served in the Army. You can’t disagree. Vindman was in the National Security Council, Ukraine expert, you can’t disagree.
Why can’t we? If he’s one of your tools, why can’t we? If he’s a surrogate for you, Mr. Schiff, or you, Ms. Pelosi, why can’t we disagree? Why can’t we be suspect? Intelligence guided by experience would tell us to doubt everything you say, particularly about all these outrageous things Donald Trump has done when you haven’t been able to prove a single one of them! Sorry. I’ll dial it back here.
So the timing. Bill Taylor, star witness, whistleblower! Big nothing about a phone call! We had an impeachment inquiry, official vote today on the same day a National Security Council senior official totally contradicted everything Schiff and Pelosi are acting on. Do you think if Morrison’s testimony happened yesterday, for example, it would have changed what happened today on the vote?
Stop and think of this. These people lurched headlong into this on the basis of the whistleblower and Bill Taylor and we had a witness to a Democrat committee this morning contradict them. Now, what are they gonna do, dump all over this NCSC guy, Tim Morrison, he’s never worn a uniform, we distrust him? How are they gonna discredit him? He’s a Trump partisan.
What’s the whistleblower? A Brennan partisan, an Obama partisan, a Schiff partisan! He’s a fired, disgruntled leaker. He represents the political enemy of Donald Trump, the administration. You ought to automatically believe him and discount everything anybody else says.
The Democrats have nothing to figure out. They’re making it up. It is fully, wholly manufactured. We know it from Comey, from Baker, from Bruce Ohr, from Strzok Page. We know it from McCabe, it’s all made up. It’s all manufactured! We know the Papadopoulos story. It’s all made up! There is nothing about any of these allegations about Trump that are legitimate. And I, for one, am tired of everybody reacting to these as though there is legitimacy.
Now, I understand the need to reject on the substance, but there isn’t any substance. It’s a bunch of lies! “But Rush, that would mean going against the media.” Yeah, I know the drill. I know. Nobody wants to go against the media. Can’t beat the media. Sorry. I don’t subscribe to that.
Now, one other observation here — and it was something that I’ve alluded to earlier about the Democrats are so immersed in this that they couldn’t care less about the American people. They couldn’t care less — for the next year — about the status of health care, prescription drug prices, anything. Education? Open border? Couldn’t care less. They broomed it all. They set it all aside. “Gonna get Trump!”
I want to repeat something here ’cause I think it’s… I’m not gonna call it bombshell, but I think it’s still really important. There was a hearing on Capitol Hill today in the House along the lines of this impeachment business, and there was a new witness named Tim Morrison. Tim Morrison is a top national security official, and he listened to Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president. He testified today, “I want to be clear. I wasn’t concerned with anything illegal being discussed on that phone call. There wasn’t anything illegal discussed.”
He testified Ukrainian officials were not even aware that certain military funding had been delayed by the Trump administration until late August 2019. So all this talk about Trump threatening to withhold aid was bogus. It didn’t happen. There was nothing untoward whatsoever. And he specifically said today that Bill Taylor, William Taylor, who’s the Democrats’ star witness so far, made multiple false assertions and that there was nothing illegal about that phone call at all.
That testimony is on record. That testimony happens on the very day the Democrats are doing this vote that officially authorizes what they’ve already been doing. This is another point to make. This vote does not change anything, folks. Do not fall for the illusion. Now, and also, don’t misunderstand something else. Don’t anybody think that I’m not taking this seriously. Don’t make that mistake. I’m just telling you to keep things in perspective. And never forget that you are being manipulated into believing a gigantic illusion is reality.
This vote today changes nothing. Schiff is gonna keep doing what he’s been doing, and he’s gonna keep doing it the way he’s been doing it. All this vote does today is satisfy a bunch of media and left-wing radicals demanding that something be done. They’re tired of it being said this is not really an impeachment. And it isn’t yet. This formalizes the inquiry. Another way of looking at it, this formalizes the impaneling of a grand jury.
But it is not going to be the case that what’s happening here is the preparation and writing of articles of impeachment. That’s yet to happen. It may or may not happen by Christmas. But even Pelosi and Steny Hoyer himself are saying that nothing fundamentally changes here. But you’ll never know that if you immerse yourself in network TV. And I don’t care what network it is, it doesn’t matter. They’re all acting like something major, something unprecedented has happened today. And it hasn’t.
Yesterday we had the news of the rules and the procedures that Schiff and his committee are going to utilize. Well, today was a vote on those things. And they’ve already been in place. They’re already being used. The Republicans are responding as though it’s something big. They’re responding, “Well, now we’ve officially been shut out of the process with the vote.”
But it is not a vote yet that moves actual impeachment to the next phase. That hasn’t happened yet. But it doesn’t mean it’s not going to. I think they’re committed — I don’t know how they walk it back. But my point to you is, I guess the way to say it, Donald Trump is no closer to being thrown out of office today than he was yesterday. And I don’t know that he’s close at all to being thrown out of office.
I’m not sloughing this off. I’m just telling you, it’s a game. It’s a game that if they play it out has very serious consequences. And I think that it is they, the Democrats, who face more negative potential than the Republicans do or than Trump does. There are three things that can happen here, and two of them are not helpful to the Democrats.
This can stall. This can go forward and lead to an acquittal in the Senate. Or they can come up with something that scares everybody so much that they get 20 Senators on the Republican side in the Senate to vote for conviction. Now, they pulled the trigger on this and they’ve got everything thinking we’re on the train now, the impeachment train has left the station and we’re all on it. Now they’ve gotta produce something. They gotta come up with something to convince people that Trump needs to go. And they don’t have that yet.
And I want you to think about this. There’s been a bunch of witnesses paraded up there before Schiff’s committee. All of these witnesses have had one thing to offer, and that is their opinion. “In my opinion, that phone call that Trump made was outrageous. In my opinion, that phone call that Trump made contained impeachable offenses. In my opinion, Trump’s a reprobate. In my opinion, Trump’s not sophisticated enough to make such phone calls. In my opinion, President Trump was asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on the valid Joe Biden. In my opinion. In my opinion.”
Okay, you’ve given us resumes, and you’ve told us we can’t challenge these people because of their labels, because of their breeding, because of their experience, because of their appearance, but you haven’t told us one fact that they have given you. You’ve told us whatever Bill Taylor thinks is gospel because we can’t challenge Bill Taylor. And you’ve told us that whatever Vindman thinks we can’t challenge because Vindman is unassailable because of all these labels and uniforms and resumes.
Opinion isn’t going to cut it. Now we’ve got a contravailing opinion from Tim Morris: I don’t think there’s anything bad about that phone call. I listened to that phone call, in fact, I can tell you that Bill Taylor said a bunch of things about that phone call that are not true. I was on the phone call. I heard it. There was nothing illegal about that phone call.
The Democrats will say, “Well, that’s just his opinion.” All we’ve got is anybody’s opinion, so far. The Democrats don’t have diddly-squat. They haven’t had diddly-squat since the Russia collusion stuff began.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I need to point something else out too. When I talk about Tim Morrison, the fact of the matter is, folks, the Democrats only have two witnesses about that phone call, Vindman and Bill Taylor. The whistleblower if you want to count him, but he didn’t hear it. And both of these people have nothing but their opinion, Vindman and Bill Taylor. They’re the only two witnesses who said there was anything wrong in that call! And it’s their opinion that there was something wrong in the call.
Now we gotta a witness, “No, there was nothing. I was on the call. I heard it. There was nothing illegal about it.” And we’ve got the transcript of the call. That’s what makes this all the more incredible. We’ve got the transcript of the call. We don’t need Taylor or Vindman’s opinion of it. It’s right there in the transcript!
Here’s Tony in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Great to have you with us, sir, on the EIB Network. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks. You know, you should be able to have on your roster of sound bites Tim Morrison’s testimony, not from Adam Schiff’s closed door stuff going on, but from what Lindsey Graham or what Richard Burr should be doing in the respective committees by having him testify publicly along with all of these other witnesses there are going behind closed doors that Schiff has and those witnesses that he refuses to have. If all of this was out in the open, we would be able to have sound bites that the Democrats would have to be fighting against instead of just putting out leaks —
RUSH: Well, look. You raise a really valid point, but the reason that — by the way, Burr doesn’t run his committee. Mark Warner does. I know that the Republicans run the Senate, but Burr has turned that committee over to Warner for all practical purposes. Whether he knows it or not, he’s not running the committee. But since this is, quote, unquote, impeachment, only the House can do that. And so it would be very, very bad form for Senator Grahamnesty to open a committee hearing and bring in the same witnesses.
There would be hell to pay for the Senate trying to undermine a constitutionally provided exclusive power to the House of Representatives. But, you know, your argument over all is something a lot of people have made. Where is the Senate? I mean, where is Lindsey Graham’s hearings into all of this independent of impeachment? Where is it? A lot of people have been asking that
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