RUSH: So Chuck Schumer is demanding four witnesses at the Senate trial. He’s demanding four witnesses. Now, you know what my reaction to that is? “Screw you! The hell with you! Who are you to demand four witnesses? The Republicans didn’t get any witnesses over in Schiff’s basement hearings.” But here’s the main reason why. If the Republicans go out of their way to show fairness for the Democrats, it’s gonna be a one-way street like it always is, because the Democrats are gonna say about the Republicans — and the media is going to repeat it regardless what happens.
The only focus for Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and the rest of these guys is the result — and the result is an acquittal. That’s all that’s at stake here ’cause you cannot buy their approval, you cannot do anything to get their approval, and why the hell would you want it anyway? Why the hell, after all of this, would you want the approval of the people who have been running this coup, who have been running this corruption, who have been the architects and authors of it, including in the media?
Why in the world would you seek fair reporting from them? This is an all-out political war, and the only thing that matters is the result, and the result here is Donald Trump not guilty. Even having to go through this charade is insulting enough. So here comes Chuck Schumer, in the minority, demanding four witnesses. Demanding four witnesses? The same guy didn’t think there should be any witnesses during the Clinton impeachment. Pound that back at him. I don’t care what they say.
Pound the reality back at them. Hit ’em with all the hypocrisy we can muster, because it doesn’t matter. If the Republicans give Chuck Schumer his four witnesses, if the Republicans go out of their way to meet every Democrat and media demand — and believe me, it will be a media demand — to have a fair trial, the perception of fairness in the Senate, they’re still gonna accuse you of a rigged outcome. They’re gonna say that you had the outcome already rigged before the trial even began no matter what you do, because there’s only one result they want, and that’s Trump convicted and removed from office.
That’s the only hope they’ve got of winning the 2020 election, is having Trump kicked out of office by his own party. That’s it. That’s the only chance they’ve got, and the only way that can happen is if Trump’s own party removes him from office, because the Democrats do not have the votes to do it. And every damn Republican had better face that squarely and understand what they face. The only way Donald Trump can be removed from office is if his own party decides to do it — and wouldn’t the Democrats love that?
“The Republicans got rid of their own president. They knew how odious he was. They knew what a reprobate he was. They knew how orange his hair was,” whatever they want to say. ‘Cause I don’t care about all this blathering. I don’t care about all the pretrial chat and talk and all that. The fact remains the only way Donald Trump can be thrown out of office is if his own party decides to do it — and if they do, “Sayonara, GOP.” You’ll be in everybody’s rearview mirror. (interruption) No, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I’m just saying it’s the only way it can happen.
That’s why you don’t give ’em their witnesses. You don’t let ’em have one inch. You don’t let ’em have one inch after the unfairness and the corruption and the bogus nature of all of this, starting with this bogus investigation, bogus allegation. “Trump’s illegitimate, a Russian spy, a traitor!” We need to be fair with these people? It’s about time they got a dose of their own medicine, as far as I’m concerned. They are losers, and they need to keep losing, and be pounded over the head with defeat after defeat after defeat.
The Democrats cannot remove Donald Trump from office. They don’t have the votes. The only way Trump can be removed from office is via a conviction in the Senate. It would take 20 Republicans and all Democrats voting together. The Democrats cannot do it. In fact, I think that the more that is used as the way to frame this is… You’re worried about Republican defections? Well, then put it straight on ’em. “Yep. The only way Trump can be removed is if his own party does it.
“You Republicans that want Trump gone, there’s no way for you to make it look like the Democrats did it. You can’t get away with getting rid of Trump and have it blamed on the Democrats. The only people that you can do it are you.” Every Republican voter needs to understand that. Here’s Carly Fiorina, just for the fun of it, on CNN today — a “special interview,” ’cause she’s got some new book out — talking to the infobabe Poppy Harlow, whose question: “Do you believe President Trump should be impeached and removed from office?”
FIORINA: I think it is vital that he be impeached. Whether removed this close to an election, I don’t know. But I think the conduct is impeachable.
RUSH: What conduct?
FIORINA: And what I regret is that the principles that are being debated in this impeachment trial — separation of powers, abuse of power, obstruction of Congress — those principles are not as immediate or intense as partisanship or people’s belief that the policies that I care about impact me personally.
Anyway, here’s Chris Van Hollen, former member of Congress, now senator. Well, he’s still in Congress. He’s just from the Senate. He’s from Maryland. He was on CNN this afternoon. Dana Bash said, “Elissa Slotkin turned her district in Michigan from red to blue, but she’s voting ‘yes’ on both articles.” By the way, this woman, this Elissa Slotkin, let me tell you a little bit about her. She’s a former CIA operative or some the such thing. So she claims to have inside knowledge of the horrors and the outrages committed by Donald Trump.
If this woman was really concerned about that, she would want to get rid of John Brennan.
She would want James Clapper and Brennan sent somewhere for some accountability. She’d want Comey and McCabe and Strzok and Page and Bill Priestap and the Ohrs. She would want those people held accountable, not Donald Trump. Donald Trump hasn’t done anything. He literally hasn’t done anything, particularly within the context of these so-called charges. She’s a CIA operative. She’s one of these 31 Democrats elected in a Trump district in Michigan. So last Friday, she made it a point to go on Fox. She was on Fox, and she was wringing her hands, and she was struggling, and she didn’t know how she was gonna vote in impeachment.
She had to take the weekend to really, really think about it. Elissa Slotkin, who was the author of one of the first congressional letters and memos saying Trump’s got to go and be put in jail. But now she’s going to think about it. She’s going to spend the weekend searching her soul. She’s going to wring her hands, and she’s gonna dig deep within, deeper than she’s ever been, to find guidance on how she should behave and how she should vote, which was a crock.
She was always gonna vote to impeach. She just put on a little show for the Fox audience, for the voters in her district. If you are in her district in Michigan, she’s decided after all of this very careful introspection and after all of this mind-numbing thought, she has concluded she has no choice but to vote for impeachment. And that’s who Dana Bash is asking Van Hollen about.
So he says Elissa Slotkin turned her district in Michigan from red to blue. She’s voting “yes” on both articles. She got an earful at a townhall this morning. She had a lot of people telling her that they don’t want her voting for impeachment. “Does this complicate the Democrats’ goal of keeping the majority in the House in –” so essentially the question is, these 31 Democrats voting to impeach, is it gonna hurt them, do you think, Mr. Van Hollen?
VAN HOLLEN: I don’t think so because I don’t think anybody can really read all the political signs here and figure out how this shakes out. At the end of the day, even for those swing voters who may disagree with a particular decision, I think they will respect a member of Congress who comes out and clearly states their position and explains why.
RUSH: So Chris Van Hollen is telling these 31 Democrats, don’t worry. Don’t worry at all. Your voters will respect your decision to impeach Trump. Don’t sweat it. Your voters will respect that you want Trump gone on no evidence whatsoever. They will respect that you hate Trump and that you hate him like we do and that you want him gone even though he hasn’t done anything impeachable. Your voters will respect you for that.
That’s what Van Hollen is saying. Well, it may not be the case. Because, as we know, Jeff Van Drew, a Democrat, New Jersey, announced on Friday he’s switching parties. The scuttlebutt that I’m hearing that in the Senate there may be three Democrats who vote against conviction.
This impeachment is gonna turn out to be bipartisan, except it’s gonna be bipartisan against. It’s gonna be bipartisan against in the House. It’s gonna be bipartisan against in the Senate. Now, in Oklahoma City there was another town hall meeting, Representative Kendra Horn, Democrat, she replaced a popular Republican in this particular district. She had a town hall event, and here’s a montage of voters telling her what they think at her town hall recently.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1 UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Since the election of 2018, has been concentrated on impeach President Trump. We want Congress to get back to work for the American people, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Where was it ever fair to our president, the one we put in — that I voted for? And we’re mad. We’re mad as hell.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: He’s a duly elected president. And I feel it is not your responsibility to take somebody that was duly elected out of office. I think you’re in a lot of trouble if you vote for this impeachment
Now let’s go to audio sound bite number 4. Meet the Depressed sent a correspondent out to Michigan, Kent County, Michigan. The correspondent, Dante Chinni, and they went to out there talk to Republican voters about impeachment, and here’s a montage of what they happened to say. Again, this is NBC sending a reporter to Michigan.
MIKE: I don’t even care about it, it’s just noise. Have you ever recorded a football game but found out the final score before you watched it? Then you just don’t even care.
CINDY: We’re not hearing people talk about it in my circle at all. They’re just not interested.
PETER: Looking back on the Nixon impeachment which was really, really grave at the time, and was by the vote very bipartisan. And this just seems like it really is political theater.
NATE: A predetermined process that was going to be played for political gain on both sides.
MARY: People are just tired. They see it as a political hit. It is very partisan.
TIM: For me, it’s beyond Trump. Trump will come and go. Worst case scenario for some, right, 2024. And I still believe that the Republican answers are the answers to solve some of our country’s problems.
RUSH: So even Meet the Press couldn’t come up with a panel of voters who think this is anything but what it is, a bunch of partisan politics by a bunch of spoiled brat Democrats who don’t get their way every time they lose an election. Sound bite number six, CBS This Morning, cohost Tony Dokoupil reporting about a new CBS poll on impeachment, and he said this.
Dokoupil: A new CBS News poll finds 42% of Americans think that if President Trump is impeached, he should be convicted and removed from office. But an equal amount say the Senate should not convict him or not hold a trial at all.
RUSH: Forty-two percent say impeachment. Forty-two percent say no trial at all. Impeachment is losing ground in every poll that’s taken. And the latest one, USA Today, it’s 51-45 “no” on impeachment.
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