RUSH: Well, so glad to be back, folks. Rush Limbaugh here, and you are there. And we’ve got broadcast excellence for the next three hours. Great to have you with us. Telephone number, 800-282-2882. You know what I heard? You have that thing ready to go up there, Mike, that tune? Because over the weekend, you know what I didn’t hear? I didn’t hear anybody talk about impeachment. They are talking about the New England Patriots maybe floundering, people talking about Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals bragging about how much money they saved. Nobody’s talking about impeachment.

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That’s the Rush Hawkins Singers.

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You gotta love it, ladies and gentlemen. The president of the United States has just told Jerry Nadler to go pound whatever it is he eats. He’s not showing up. These clowns schedule a so-called impeachment hearing. There aren’t gonna be any hearings. They’ve got nothing, folks. It’s totally bombed. This is me saying it. I’m not reflecting anything else I’m seeing in the Drive-Bys, certainly not there, but other places.

But I think, once again, they’ve fired everything they’ve got and it’s a big, fat zero. People are not even talking about it. They haven’t figured it out yet. I mean, they’re gonna still try to go through the motions. They’re gonna try to make it look like this is a deadly serious thing and that they’re gonna follow through on it, but it’s not gonna end up at all the way they have dreamed about it.

Anyway, great to be back after the long four-day absence. Great to be back here with you.

The big news — and I love this — President Trump and his lawyers have decided not to legitimize the Jerry Nadler hearings by attending. This is the same thing has rejecting the premise, the false premise of a question from a journalist or any other claim. You know, they always come at us, try to put us on defensive by concocting some strange premise and we acknowledge it by answering.

Trump’s simply not gonna go. His lawyers are not gonna go. How many times have we been hearing, what Schiff did was unfair, he didn’t have any Trump lawyers, no Trump witnesses, the Republicans couldn’t call any witnesses. So now we go to the Nadler stage. Trump says he’s not even gonna show up. Let’s go to the audio sound bites. This morning the president on the White House lawn under an umbrella. He’s heading over to the U.K. for a NATO meeting.

By the way, how would you like to be Prince Andrew? Your own mother disavowing you, your own family undermining you. He’s the duke of something. They all have titles. The Prince of Wales is Prince Charles. I think this guy is the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. And his own I think nephew was undermining him and told the queen you gotta quick the guy out of the royal household, you gotta kick him out of official royal business, and she did.

So Trump announced he’s going to the U.K. for the NATO meeting, whatever it is, and the first thing that happens is the queen says that’s fine, the Duke of York will not be there. The Duke of York has totally been rejected because of his dalliances with Jeffrey Epstein.

Anyway, Trump’s on the White House lawn today under an umbrella ’cause it’s raining and he’s making his way to Marine One before leaving on his trip to London, speaking with reporters. A reporter said, “Are you concerned, Mr. President, about being out of the country during the impeachment inquiry?”

THE PRESIDENT: The radical left Democrats, the do-nothing Democrats decided when I’m going to NATO — this was set up a year ago — that when I’m going to NATO, that was the exact time. This is one of the most important journeys that we make as president. And for them to be doing this and saying this and putting an impeachment on the table, which is a hoax to start off with.

If you noticed, there was breaking news today. The Ukrainian president came out and said very strongly that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong. That should be case over. He said President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong and that should end everything. But it will never end it because they want to do what they want to do. They’re getting killed in their own districts. I think it’s gonna be a tremendous boon for the Republicans.

RUSH: Another reporter then said, “Well, why don’t you send one of your lawyers to represent your point of view to the House impeachment inquiry?”

THE PRESIDENT: Because the whole thing is a hoax. Everybody knows it. All you have to do is look at the words of the Ukrainian president that he just issued, and you know it’s a hoax. It’s an absolute disgrace what they’re doing to our country.

RUSH: That is absolutely true. Do you realize that through all this, there isn’t a single shred of evidence for any allegation they have made? That has not changed. Hey, Mr. Snerdley, did you see the news over the weekend that Gordon Sondland has been accused of sexual harassment by three women at the European Union office or wherever his headquarters – (interruption) No, of course he’s not gonna resign, but talk about a quid pro quo. Three women — (laughing) — there you go. If you’re looking for a quid pro quo, we may have found one.

Poor Gordon Sondland, he came out, he tried to get on the Democrats’ good side, he kept the exculpatory statement out of his opening statement, i.e., when Trump said (paraphrasing), “I don’t want anything. I don’t want a quid pro quo, I don’t want anything, just tell the Ukrainian president do the right thing.” He didn’t put that in his opening statement during the Schiff hearings, and it was completely exculpatory for Trump. Did everything he could to straddle the line. Gordon Sondland wanted to appear to be on Schiff’s side and then on Trump’s side. He was trying to balance it because his wife’s hotels are being boycotted because he’s on Trump’s side.

And then after it, how long have they been waiting to accuse Gordon Sondland of sexual harassment? After he testifies and didn’t do the job, none of their witnesses did. Anyway, folks, the White House lawyer, Pat Cipollone, wrote a five-page letter to Jerry Nadler in which he said this baseless and highly partisan inquiry violates all past historical precedent, basic due-process rights, and fundamental fairness.

He pointed out that Nadler has provided only vague details about the hearing and that the deadline didn’t give Trump and his team any time for preparation. The letter points out that Nadler purposefully scheduled the hearing for when Trump would be in London attending a long-planned NATO meeting.

Now, for all intents and purposes, folks, the hearings are over, which is why Nadler is not going to say who he’s going to bring in as new witnesses beside the so-called constitutional scholars he’s gonna have appear tomorrow. As I mentioned last week, you know the case is weak when they have to bring in some think tank gurus to explain what high crimes and misdemeanors are, when they have to start explaining what they’re doing and what impeachment is.

And, remember, it’s a TV show. You’ve got to start out with something that’s gonna attract and hold the audience, and that ain’t gonna do it. People aren’t watching these hearings that have taken place to date anyway, not in anywhere near enough numbers to have them impact public opinion. I don’t think these things are hearings anyway.

And I saw a piece by Andrew Malcolm today at HotAir.com. I saw it today, I don’t know when he wrote it. But he said, “You know what? I’ve had it. I’ve had it with all these investigations.” See, everything is an investigation now. There isn’t anything that’s not an investigation. And none of them ever turn up anything. They are a total waste of time. They are a disservice to the American public. They are a disservice. They take people out of the jobs they’re supposed do and they stymie actual work getting done. And that’s absolutely right.

And Schiff’s investigation and hearings and now whatever Nadler’s gonna do is a classic illustration of this. This is what happens when you politicize basic policy differences. And what we have now is the attempt to criminalize any policy that the left or liberals or Democrats disagree with and the investigation of people who hold those views.

But you know what the problem is, folks, for them? They have promised, the Democrats in the media have promised everybody, including their base, they have promised — we’re up to now four years — they have promised revelation after revelation after revelation of high crimes, misdemeanors, bribery, fraud, extortion, rape, you name it. They’ve accused Trump virtually everything, hiring prostitutes to urinate on a bed Obama slept in in Moscow.

They have assured people for four years that all of these things are true. They have co-opted and corrupted the media, or the media has corrupted itself. They’ve about run out of public energy. You can’t go to the well this many times with all of these assurances and all of these promises to get to the bottom of it, to prove that Donald Trump is illegitimate, to prove that Donald Trump did all these things. Four years and nothing? They’re wearing people out. And now here comes another so-called investigation by the round mound of the gavel, Jerry Nadler.

Now, I think Schiff is gonna call a vote, there will be a vote on this, and it’s gonna go to the Senate. There may even be a trial. But, folks, there is nothing there. And I think the president pulling back on even showing up at this thing is brilliant, it’s great. Well, it’s what I would do. It simply rejects the premise. And I think it’s also an indication, that Trump, the White House feel very confident. They’ve not lost anybody.

There’s now a third poll that shows Trump’s approval rating with African-Americans is at 33%. We’ve got Emerson; we’ve got Rasmussen; and now we’ve got Marist. Three different polls — and by the way, where’s Pelosi today? Pelosi and her crew are off somewhere on some climate change crusade.

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RUSH: What was it, two weeks ago we prepared an audio sound bite montage to show you the Democrats’ latest attempt at characterizing Trump and you, his base of supporters, which remains solid, unbreakable.

One of the greatest failures of the media and the left is their inability to drive a wedge between Trump voters and Trump. Trump’s popularity among Republicans now remains at over 90%. This is almost unprecedented. And so the word went out. Trump supporters are a cult. I had these montages for you all last week prior to leaving for the Thanksgiving break.

And here’s the latest example of it from PMSNBC host Joy Reid claiming that support for President Trump is like a cult on her Saturday show. She says, “A lot of ways, if you look at the Public Religion Research Institute numbers, you know it isn’t just a pejorative to say it’s a cult. There’s a lot of evidence that it is a racial and religious cult of personality in which his base is solidly among the white evangelicals of almost worshiping and say that he’s the chosen one of God.”

They’re at their wits’ end. I can’t emphasize enough the degree to which they know they have failed. And this is relatively new territory for them even though it’s been three years. Just to restate it because, folks, you may think this is redundant, but it’s important to always keep this in mind as you encounter Drive-By Media presentation of news events or what have you.

Their sole objective from the get-go has been to take Donald Trump out, to reverse the election results of 2016 however, whichever way they can. One of the ways they have tried to do it is to separate Trump voters from Trump. They have failed miserably. Back in the days when they had their media monopoly prior to 1988 they could pretty much destroy anybody they wanted on a whim. Look how long it took ’em to get George Bush’s numbers down into the thirties, took ’em almost six years to do that.

Now, we’re into four years, and they haven’t budged Trump and even during this so-called presentation of all of this horrible news, Trump supposedly cheated, worked with the Russians, withheld money from Ukraine, whatever it is, whatever lies that they have perpetrated, not a single one of them has worked. They have not made a dent in either Trump’s overall approval number or support for Trump among his own base voters. And now they are at their wits’ end.

And so what do they do? Instead of trying to find out who these people are and literally making a decent pitch at them, they do what the left and the media always do, and they start insulting people. And it backfires on them. And they haven’t come to grips yet with the idea that they simply cannot shape public opinion and events with the ease they used to be able to do so.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Mr. Snerdley came in today and said, “You know, I can’t find anybody talking about impeachment. Everybody’s talking about either the Patriots or Cyber Monday and Black Friday.” And I have to admit, you know, my tech blogs, none of them have anything but deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Every post is about how you can save money. It’s like their readers are broke and in poverty and have no money to spend on anything.

All it is, is where you can go get whatever you want for the least. There’s no news on anything out there other than this. You know what the lead story on Drudge is right now? The Patriots and Tom Brady’s anemic offense. That’s the lead item. I couldn’t find anybody talking about impeachment. Some friends of mine had a party Saturday, 60th wedding anniversary.