RUSH: One of the things they’ve been harping on today — and it’s filled with misquotes — the Democrats, just for example here, keep saying, “And Trump called President Zelensky, said, ‘Do me a favor.’” The Republicans are pulling their hair out, “He didn’t say, ‘Do me a favor.’ He said, ‘Do us a favor,’” meaning the United States. But what was that all about? Grab audio sound bite number 24. What is this really all about?

We have a trade pact, we have a deal with Ukraine, a mutual agreement where we will ferret out corruption — they will, we will. They will help us; we will help them. “Corrupt” has been the name of the game in Ukraine up until Zelensky was elected. Now, Zelensky has to prove that he’s a new deal, he’s a new guy, he’s not the same old corrupt leader.

So the president of the United States, following the law, suggested that there is a hell of a lot of American corruption in Ukraine that Zelensky’s gotta root out. And some of that corruption involved the vice president of the United States, Joe Biden. Joe Biden in fact interfered in the internal domestic politics of Ukraine for the benefit of himself and his son and Barack Obama. Donald Trump did not. Donald Trump has not.

Donald Trump has not engaged in corruption in Ukraine, but Barack Obama and Joe Biden have. Ukraine needed financial assistance from the United States. It’s a new day under Donald Trump. You don’t get financial assistance unless you’re genuinely deserving of it. Are you a good ally? Do you say good things about us? Do you welcome our support? Do you support us? Is it mutual?

We’re not throwing away money anymore under Donald Trump. Recipients of American foreign aid have to genuinely demonstrate that they’re allies, and one of the ways Ukraine has to do it, are you gonna get serious in fighting the corruption going on there? Because we’re not gonna pay you any more if you’re going to allow it to continue.

So Trump says you’ve got a problem. You need to look at what Joe Biden’s been doing for his son. They want to impeach Trump for this when all Trump has been doing is following the law. Now, why Biden? Well, I want to go back to the audio sound bite January 23rd, 2018. This is the Council on Foreign Relations. And Joe Biden is bragging about how he interfered in domestic Ukraine politics and got a prosecutor fired, a prosecutor who was looking into his son’s relationship with the energy company Burisma.

Biden is here at the Council on Foreign Relations bragging about how he got the prosecutor fired and how he and Obama threatened to withhold American aid if in fact the prosecutor wasn’t fired. Ukraine fired the prosecutor, and Biden is here bragging about it.

This is what Trump wants investigated. This is what Trump wants to get to the bottom of. It’s perfectly legit. We have an American politician, sitting vice president admitting interfering in domestic politics in Ukraine for his own personal benefit. Here is Vice President Biden bragging about his interference to the council.

BIDEN: I went over, I guess the 12th, 13th time, to Kiev and uh, and I was gonna – supposed to announce that there’s another billion dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from, uh, Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor, and they didn’t. I said, “Nah,” I said, “I’m not gonna,” or “we’re not gonna give you the billion dollars.” They said, “You have no authority, you’re not the president, the president said.” I said, “Call him.”

CROWD: (laughter)

BIDEN: I said, “I’m telling you, you’re not gettin’ a billion dollars.” I said, “You’re not getting the billion and I’m gonna be leaving here,” I think it was, what, six hours. I look and I said, “I’m leaving in six hours, if the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not gettin’ the money.” Well son of a bitch.

CROWD: (laughter)

BIDEN: He got fired.

RUSH: There it is. Biden is admitting that he gets a prosecutor fired in exchange for $1 billion in American loan guarantees, American aid. He’s bragging about it. Everybody’s laughing. Everybody’s applauding. This is what Trump says has got to stop to Zelensky. He said, “Do us a favor. Look into this.”

Now, because it’s Biden, everybody thinks Trump is trying to get the lowdown on Biden because he might be Trump’s opponent, the 2020 Democrat nominee. Who cares? Trump has a responsibility according to a mutually agreed to law to ferret out corruption in Ukraine and in the United States. And Biden has admitted it. There’s no impeachable offense here. They’re simply following United States law.

What’s happening is that Biden’s role in all this, Biden’s actual interference in a foreign government and its domestic affairs and then bragging about it is being totally ignored and swept under the rug. Trump has not done anything even close to what Biden has bragged about here. And yet they’re trying to impeach him.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Donnie in Dallas. Donnie in Dallas, great to have you on the EIB Network. Rush in Florida. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: You know up until this morning I was thinking I wanted the Senate to make a big, long, dragged-out trial and, you know, get Biden up there and Hunter and all that, and point out all the hypocrisy. But, you know, after hearing that sound bite this morning of Biden’s quid pro quo, it actually makes me think they should probably keep him in play, go ahead and quit Trump as fast possible and get him into the general election and then bring all that out. You know, it could be a real quick campaign advertisement or something like that and show Biden who he truly is.

RUSH: Now, wait. Why couldn’t you do that in what you originally wanted which was a thorough and comprehensive trial, why couldn’t they include the Biden bit in that? Why’d they have to go, you know, get in, get it, and get out and then use Biden? I don’t get the difference.

CALLER: Well, if you think back to the 20 election primaries, I think you had a theory that Hillary wanted Trump to win because she thought he’d be easy to beat. So if you keep Biden in play for now and then in the general, you know, you guarantee the presidency when you can —

RUSH: Ohhh, I see. You’re saying don’t take Biden out by exposing his Burisma chicanery.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Leave him in there. Let me ask you this, Donnie. Have you heard that Vice President Bite Me has pledged — well, supporters are saying that he will only serve one term if he wins. What do you make of that, Donnie?

CALLER: I would think it has to be something about his age or his health condition, but I don’t know. I don’t really —

RUSH: No, no, no, no, no, Bite Me is admitting he’s a stopgap to save the party from the radical leftists like Crazy Bernie and Fauxcahontas. What he’s also saying is, “You know what? I’ll only serve one term and I won’t even show up. You can have somebody else actually be president, I’ll live in the White House, I’ll get the perks, but have somebody you want run the country.”

CALLER: Yeah. I could see that. Kind of like we needed to jerk back to the right. I mean, maybe — you know, further to the right, maybe they’re trying to jerk it back closer to the middle. They’re gonna have to do something because they’re pretty loony right now.

RUSH: I know. They’re wackos. And they’re being dominated by their wackos. Well, Bloomberg’s in the race ostensibly to wrest control of it from the leftists. And Biden is essentially saying that that’s the role that he will play. Well, the supposed attraction of saying you’ll only serve one term is that everything you do will be genuine. None of what you do is gonna be geared to reelection or fundraising. You’re gonna be able to focus like a laser on your agenda, and you won’t care because you’re not running for reelection.

But that’s in your dreams. If somebody would actually win with that pledge, they’re a lame deck from the minute they are inaugurated, meaning they’re not taken seriously, and just as the one term guy says, “I can go pedal-to-the-metal on my agenda,” so everybody else can go pedal-to-the-metal on wiping him out. You’re dealing with somebody who is already pledging not to run again so half your battle’s already won. You’ve already beaten the guy before he even takes office.

I don’t even think somebody literally, honestly making that pledge would win even if these partisans times. I don’t think that’s what voters are looking for. They’re not looking for stopgaps. We’re not. I know we’re not looking for stopgaps. We’ve had it with stopgaps. Stopgaps haven’t stopped anything, gaps or anything else.