RUSH: Breaking news, breaking news. Nancy Pelosi says that she’s not gonna send the articles of impeachment to the House today. Really? What a gigantic surprise that is. Breaking news, breaking news, Nancy Pelosi says she’s going to take steps to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. Really?
JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny South Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!
RUSH: What does that mean, she’s gonna take steps to send the articles of impeachment to the Sentate next week? With all due respect to the ChiComs and the Chinese, I think the Democrat Party’s becoming a Chinese fire drill. I don’t think they know what they’re doing over there. I think they literally are the equivalent of a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, and it’s really tough to figure out who’s running that party, outside of the press, outside of the media.
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RUSH: The Democrat Party is standing in quicksand. And there are a number of reasons for it, and I may want to try to explore a little today why that may be.
There is something very, very fascinating happening with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her fundraising that is way outside the standard way it has always been done. Essentially one of the reasons Pelosi or any other Speaker has such a hold on the job is that the Speaker is always a prolific fundraiser because of the power of the gig. And Pelosi has always, as Boehner did and as Paul Ryan, shared the wealth.
You go out and you tell various members, “Hey, you want to be reelected? Hey, you want my help in being reelected? Hey, support the stuff that I tell you to support and I’ll give you money.” And that’s how you buy loyalty. That’s standard operating procedure. Think of it as what you will, but that’s how it’s always worked.
Well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is out raising money on her own and not sharing it with anybody in the Democrat Party. You know what she’s doing with it? She’s coming up with people to primary incumbent Democrats in the leadership that she doesn’t like because they’re a bunch of fossils. They’re a bunch of relics. They’re a bunch of old-fashioned “we don’t do it that way anymore” type people.
And Pelosi has no control over her. And she, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, you could say that she is the energetic figurehead leader of the wacko, radical leftists in the Democrat Party that Pelosi is not in charge of. And so it could be said that Pelosi’s doing everything she’s doing here to try to mollify that group.
But, folks, the Democrats… We’ve noted here over the course of this busy broadcast week all the Democrats breaking with Pelosi. We’ve had Senator Feinstein break. We’ve had Chris Coons break. A number of them don’t understand what’s going on. “Okay, we got the articles. Send ’em over!” She won’t send ’em over. They want the articles sent over. She has been trying to do something, and it’s blown up in her face.
Her strategy was to hold those articles and force McConnell — because of some kind of imaginary public pressure that was gonna be applied to him — to accede to her demands on the trial (i.e., there would be witness; i.e., there would be Bolton; i.e., there would be a whole bunch of people that the House didn’t call) and Pelosi for some reason thought that holding the articles and not sending them over would somehow apply pressure on McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate would say, “Okay! Okay! If you want to call witnesses, just send ’em over.”
But that hasn’t happened. McConnell has stood firm. As the Turtle, he hasn’t moved. She hasn’t… None of this has worked. Bottom line: None of what she was attempting has worked. She’s no closer to getting what she was aiming for — i.e., an expanded investigation under the guise after trial in the Senate. So now the Democrats are breaking away. They’ve grown impatient. “What the hell are you doing? Send them over!” She said she was gonna send ’em over.
I guarantee you… She said some things yesterday, and people literally thought we had it yesterday. Democrats and the media really thought she was gonna send ’em over today. In fact, you might have gone to bed last night thinking you’re gonna wake up today and the articles of impeachment would be delivered to the Senate. Well, had you listened to me yesterday, I would have told you that’s not the case, not gonna happen.
There’s no way it’s gonna happen, particularly after I heard what Pelosi said yesterday. After I heard what Pelosi said yesterday, I gave her some advice. Grab audio sound bite number 2. This is the advice I gave Pelosi — and I think this is still operative. I’m not gonna believe that those articles of impeachment will ever get to the Senate ’til I actually see it happen. She said today she’s going to “take steps” to deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Take steps? What’s “take steps” mean?
Well, she’s gonna have a meeting with her caucus on Tuesday. There’s no need for a meeting with the caucus unless there is still a gigantic amount of indecision — and there is, because none of this has worked the way they intended. I’m just gonna remind you again. Not one thing, starting with Russia meddling in the election and Russia colluding with Trump — not one thing — has worked. Stormy Daniels didn’t work, Cohen didn’t work, Avenatti didn’t work, the attack on Kavanaugh didn’t work, the Ukraine crap didn’t work.
Nothing has worked. They are (do not doubt me) beside themselves. This is unknown territory. They’re not used this kind of impotence. In their minds, they’ve got all the weapons and they’ve got all the firing mechanisms. They’ve got the media. They’ve got public opinion! They can shape and bend and flake and form anything they want. Nothing has worked. The original idea was the whistleblower characterizing the Ukraine phone call — that alone — was supposed to cause people to demand that Trump leave!
That alone! Without even doing any hearings in the SCIF, without even calling any witnesses, the whistleblower alone — and then Trump releases the transcript and blows that to smithereens. But this whole effort has been designed to create massive public opinion fleeing from Trump. It hasn’t happened. They don’t have the goods to get rid of Trump in an impeachment or an impeachment trial or the allegation of colluding with Russia ’cause there isn’t any.
There’s no evidence Trump has done any of this. This has always been an effort to move public opinion in massive percentages to anti-Trump, and it hasn’t, and they’re lost. They don’t know what to do now. So now, “Trump is committing war crimes! He took out the terrorists. There was no imminent threat.” I mean, they’re just flailing away. Meanwhile, Trump goes to his rally last night in Toledo and is just laughing at ’em.
Poking fun at ’em, having more fun at their expense, properly characterizing Pencil Neck and talking about Pelosi, begging — begging — for the Democrats to nominate Biden so that he, Trump, can ask him about Hunter nine times during the debates. Trump is on top of the world, sitting there with overflowing confidence, having a grand old time — and these people on the Democrat side are at a loss.
Now they are asking themselves, “Who the hell is in charge of over here anyway?” (interruption) No, no, no. Don’t doubt me. They don’t know who’s running the Democrat show right now, other than the media. Who’s in charge? Now, here’s the advice I gave Pelosi yesterday, audio sound bite number 2. Three… two… one…
RUSH ARCHIVE: She should be pushing the Turtle to dismiss the charges based on what she just said here. “Dismiss equals admission.” There’s your solution, Madam Speaker! There is your answer. She should be pushing for a dismissal of charges and then run around and say, “The Senate knows Trump’s guilty, and that’s why they dismissed the charges ’cause they don’t have the guts to do a trial.” When the truth is, there’s nothing to try because she doesn’t have a case, and her articles of impeachment do not present a case. This is why she’s not gonna send ’em over.
RUSH: Yeah. Look, I know I’m a lone wolf. She’s saying they’re gonna go over there Tuesday. I’ll believe it when I see it. Well, she didn’t specify Tuesday. She said next week she’s gonna “take steps.” But she said yesterday, “Dismissal of charges equals admission of guilt.” That’s what she’s saying. If the Turtle dismisses the charges, he’s essentially saying that Trump’s guilty. Well, she ought to be pushing for that, then, ’cause that’s as close as she’s gonna get.
And then go out and try to make that case. It’s kind of like the advice I gave her. “Madam Speaker, all you’ve got here… The only thing you can do is to accuse the Republicans of bias and partisanship and mean-spiritedness and bigotry and all the rest — and that’s why your articles are not gonna get a fair trial because of the Republicans. You gotta dump on the Republicans.” Those are the two options that she has left, ’cause, folks, if they… (chuckling) If they go to a trial, there’s gonna be an acquittal — and if that happens, she’s toast.
You talk about shooting yourself in the foot or elsewhere?
Talk about self-forced errors?
That would be the creme de la creme!
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RUSH: We start here with Jim in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Great to have you, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. I am really honored to be speaking with you and it feels like I’m talking with an old friend, too.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I’ve been listening to you since the early days of WGL talk radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
RUSH: Yes, sir! I remember that well.
CALLER: I’m holding in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a Rush is Right bumper sticker. So my reason for calling is that Trey Gowdy wrote an editorial for Fox News, I believe, yesterday, saying the real reason for the impeachment delay is to try to flip the Senate. His point was that when Schiff inadvertently told the truth about the reason for — as he called it — “the pause” in transferring the articles of impeachment to the Senate, that it was really calculated to place moderate Republican senators in a bind and cause ’em to vote as many times on impeachment as they could, so that their Democrat rivals could run 30-second sound bites and use it to try to flip those four or five seats that would be critical, because they know they can’t get rid of Trump as the Senate is currently configured.
RUSH: All right. Let me ask you this. Has that worked? Do you think that strategy that Trey Gowdy has outlined has worked for the Democrats?
CALLER: I actually don’t think so because I think… As you’ve said many times, and — anybody who is really paying attention… I don’t think anybody cares about impeachment except the leftists in the House.
RUSH: Well, but wait. Can you name for me any moderate Republicans that have flipped?
CALLER: No. No.
RUSH: Can you think of any moderate Republicans who have done or said anything to give these Democrats fodder for campaign ads in November?
CALLER: (sigh) You know, I don’t… Well, the ones that are vulnerable, I think they think may do it, like what’s his name in Colorado, Cory…?
RUSH: Cory Gardner?
CALLER: Cory Gardner. That’s one that sort of targets… I think they’re looking at these purple states thinking they can put enough pressure on to make it happen. I don’t think it’s happened yet, no. I don’t think… They don’t seem to be saying that. I mean, you got some out there —
RUSH: Okay. So let me see if I understand this. I may be misunderstanding this. The theory is — Gowdy’s theory is — that the reason for the delay is to put pressure on some of these moderate senators. What does this theory require? Does this require that people like Gardner vote to acquit and then that makes them vulnerable in November? What am I…? Is that right or wrong? I’m not sure I understand this, to tell you the truth.
CALLER: I think he’s saying… I think he’s saying that he wants to like… Okay, where… When Schiff said, you know, that they were fleshing out where they stand, they’re trying to get — they’re trying to delay as much time to see if they can get these moderate, supposedly moderate Republicans in these purple states to —
RUSH: Right. To do what, though? To do what?
CALLER: To vote for impeachment, to push it going forward so that they can use that to say, “Hey, look! Therefore, they’re for this,” and try to — or against it, and then say, “Okay. Hey, we need to get Democrats in.”
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. You have to forgive my stupidity and thickness here.
CALLER: No, no.
RUSH: How does it help for a moderate Republicans to come out for impeachment? Democrats think that will make them vulnerable when it’s reelection time in November because they’ve gone again Trump?
CALLER: All right. Well, here’s what he said. This is actually right from what he said. He said that he “deemed” — that Schiff, when he’s talking… He’s now talking about Schiff and his moment of truth. He said, “He ‘deemed it fleshing out where these Republicans stand.’ That is California-speak for making Republican senators in tough reelections cast as many votes as possible on impeachment so their Democrat opponents can run as many 30-second ads against them as possible.” That’s what he said.
RUSH: So then the fear…? They want these moderates to oppose impeachment numbers of times so that they can then say, “These guys, you don’t want to reelect them, they love Trump,” or some such thing?
CALLER: Exactly. I think that’s the theory, yes. It does make sense, that — like you said, too — they can’t get it with Trump. They can’t get it now. They’re not gonna impeach Trump in the Senate.
RUSH: I know. They’re not gonna get an acquittal and so forth. Look, I have all the respect in the world for Trey Gowdy. In fact, I met him over the holiday break. But (sigh) I don’t think this is as… I don’t think the Democrats have that degree of control over this. They may be trying to affect something like that, but I think it’s just indication of how deluded they are.
If they think they can turn this into somehow a… That’s not even when this is about. Now, I can understand somebody that still lived and breathed inside the Washington Beltway for all these years thinking that there’s a theory here above and beyond just impeachment, but I just don’t think the Democrats are that sophisticated right now to be able to pull something like that off.
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RUSH: This is Fred. Fred’s in Rockford, Michigan. It’s great to have you, Fred. Hi.
CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Rush. And an early happy birthday to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: The point I’d like to make is I’m in my seventies, I’ve been following politics for 50 years, and I have never in my life seen a congressman who came into Congress with the gravitas and the importance that AOC did. And I believe that’s a product of the press, which Pelosi thinks is on her side, and the fact she can’t put AOC in the right box is because these people that she thinks are her friends have given her this big problem.
RUSH: So the theory is that AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has become the media darling. Because of that, she’s being promoted and heralded, singled out at the expense of Pelosi and the rest of the Democrat leadership. Therefore, the press is responsible for Pelosi even having a perceived challenge in opposition to her leadership position? Is that your theory?
CALLER: Correct. She thinks the press are her friends, the mainstream media, and they’re the ones that dumped this problem in her lap.
RUSH: Okay. So let’s carry your theory forward. The press has made Cortez.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: And The Squad.
CALLER: Well, made ’em more important than they are.
RUSH: Made Cortez more important than she is?
CALLER: Well, if I think back over the last 50 years, I don’t remember any freshman congressman coming into the House of Representatives with all that importance.
RUSH: Precisely, and yet this one has.
CALLER: Correct. It’s the press.
RUSH: It is the press, but why?
CALLER: Well, they just look for the newest and freshest thing. I don’t think the press really thinks, to be honest with you. I don’t think they ever look at the long-term implications of what they do.
RUSH: That could well be. But there’s some conventional wisdom about the press that people always cite. I’m not accusing you, don’t misunderstand. When the subject of bias comes up and people say, “No, they’re not biased. You’re missing the point. What they are is X, or what they are is Y.” It’s a crock. They are biased. They are liberals, 98% of ‘em vote Democrat.
Now, are there other things? Yeah. They have become pro-government, pro-establishment. That’s their real allegiance now. Their real allegiance, instead of being watchdogs on power, they have joined it. They think they’re joined at the hip with it. And that would traditionally be Pelosi. By definition, she’s got the years of service, she has the legitimate power as Speaker. And yet, you’re right, they have focused on this young bartender. Now, one of the things the press is is interested in things that are new. There’s also the demographics. I mean, this babe is closer to their age than Pelosi is.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: She’s also as stupid as they are.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: Well, ignorant. I mean, whatever you want to say. I mean, clearly the woman — she may have some strategery smarts in terms of going up against Pelosi, but the stuff that she knows or thinks she knows about America and American history couldn’t be more wrong, for example.
CALLER: Oh, I agree with that. I agree with that.
RUSH: Yet she is heralded as some new, brilliant newcomer. I don’t think there’s anything brilliant about her unless you want to talk about the strategies that she’s using to raise money and to go up against Pelosi. Now, one thing she’s doing — and Fred, I appreciate the call.
I mentioned this earlier. The way that leadership — this is both parties — the way that leadership holds onto power is by buying it. The amount of money that pours into political parties and candidates in Washington is bigger than you can even imagine. It’s bigger than you think. And it is used in any number of ways in addition to being converted into personal use when they leave. But that’s for down the road.
So Pelosi will go to each new freshman class — and Paul Ryan would do the same — “Hey, you like it here?”
“Yeah, I love it.”
“Do you want to stay here?”
“Yeah, I want to stay.”
“Okay, here’s how that’s gonna happen. You’re gonna do everything I tell you to do. You’re gonna support the legislation the leadership supports. You want a good committee?”
“Yeah, I want to really be on a good committee.”
“Fine. Then you gotta do exactly what we’ll tell you. And if you do, we’ll help you get reelected. We’ll help fund your campaign. We’ll find donors that will assist you. And these donors will be beneficiaries of legislation that your name is on. And if you just work with us, then your future’s guaranteed.”
So the leaders take in all this money and then they go spread it around to up-and-coming freshman, sophomore members of Congress. Well, Pelosi tried that, and Cortez was not interested. She didn’t want from the beginning to be associated with Pelosi. She didn’t want to be beholden to Pelosi. She didn’t want to have to vote with Pelosi. She didn’t want to have to do anything the leadership did.
Instead, she set up her own fundraising apparatus. And it’s pretty big, because the press, as Fred just pointed out, has made her a big star in these circles. So she’s raising her own money, but she’s not sharing it with Pelosi or the leadership. She is using it to find people to challenge the leaders in primaries because Cortez believes that Pelosi and the leadership is a bunch of dinosaurs. They’re artifacts of a bygone era. They’re not nearly hip enough. They’re not nearly radical enough. They’re way too establishment liberal.
So she’s become a genuine competitor to Pelosi in all ways. And what is different about this is Pelosi has no control over her or any of the others in The Squad. And I can’t tell you how frustrating that is. So Pelosi, I think a lot of this impeachment business has been to try to keep The Squad happy and to keep them off her back and to hold on to her speakership.
I think Pelosi is in all new territory here. I think Paul Ryan was in all new territory and he don’t want to be so he resigned to go out and do something else, and ditto Boehner. Pelosi’s hanging on because that’s all there is. But The Squad bunch, they’re not happy with the way Pelosi’s done impeachment. They think she’s blown it. They think Trump is guilty of far more than what’s in these articles. They think these articles of impeachment are a bunch of pap. They think that they are throwaways. They think they’re gutless.
Now, there’s a story today at The Federalist by Ben Domenech. And it’s an interesting piece. I’m gonna read to you the last line of the piece because it’s not answered in the piece. Well, let me give you the last paragraph. “For now, if you were only reading the front-facing mainstream press, it remains a mystery as to why Pelosi chose this pointless gambit which ended up dragging this impeachment process out without any apparent benefit to her conference. It’s only when you understand who’s really in charge that things start to make sense.”
Now, to me, that ought to be an opening paragraph rather than a closing, because he doesn’t answer who’s in charge. If he does, I was not able to figure it out reading the piece. But essentially it is about his opinion that Pelosi has blown this as badly as it could have been blown, that the Democrats are beginning to defect, that this has not galvanized the Democrats. It has not hurt Trump in any way, shape, manner, or form.
Everything she thought would happen — Trump’s negatives climbing, people clamoring for the trial, people clamoring for new witnesses, people clamoring for all these witnesses that Schiff didn’t call — none of it’s happened. The American public is yawning. The American public is not even paying any attention to it. The American public does not even care about it because it’s a gigantic nothing burger.
Pelosi was hoping that the press hatred for Trump and support for Pelosi and the Democrats would lead to a cacophony of media attention on what a reprobate Trump is, and all these witnesses who have — all of a sudden — testimony, if they could just be brought to testify, it would end Trump the next day, maybe that day. But people are saying, “Well, if they exist, why didn’t you call ’em?
“If these witnesses are out there, like Bolton or anybody, why didn’t Schiff call ’em? You guys were calling witnesses in a basement room that nobody could be present with. Why didn’t you call ’em?” Everything has blown up in her face, as evidenced now by all these other Democrats demanding that she get off the dime here and move this, bring the articles over — which, I’m here to tell you, I don’t care what she’s saying about doing it next week, she doesn’t want to do it.
Here’s another pull quote from the piece: “Pelosi is as outsized a figure for Washington Democrats as [the Turtle] is for Republicans.” I’m not even sure what that means, and it’s not his fault. It’s not the writer. I just… “Pelosi is as outsized a figure for Washington Democrats as McConnell is for Republicans.” Outsized? What…? Well, anyway. “McConnell has several potential Republicans who could conceivably take up a leadership role in the future, having learned from his methods. Who is Pelosi’s successor?
“Should Democrats lose the House in 2020, who steps up to the plate considering the age of the leading Democrats at the moment? And if this is the last major strategic decision she made, how does that impact Pelosi’s legacy? Perhaps that question will be answered in the multiple biographies planned for the speaker at the moment. But for now, if you were only reading the front-facing mainstream press, it remains a mystery as to why Pelosi chose this pointless gambit which ended up dragging this impeachment process out without any apparent benefit to her conference.
“It’s only when you understand who’s really in charge that things start to make sense.” Now, throughout the piece there’s a good description of how she’s lost control, of how she’s lost respect, of how this hasn’t gone the way anybody, particularly her, intended it to go, and that her leadership hold is — she losing it, that essentially we are watching Nancy Pelosi fall over in slow motion. Don’t be surprised if one day you wake up and she’s gone.
So the theory is that she’s in self-destruct mode, but because of the protection the media affords, it’s not chronicled as such, but that’s actually what’s happening. One day we’re gonna wake up and she isn’t gonna be there. But I still don’t know who he thinks is really in charge. “It’s only when you understand who’s really in charge that all this impeachment stuff starts to make sense.” Anybody have any idea who he might mean is in charge?
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RUSH: Let me try to tell you how bad it is for the Democrats. What are the Democrats…? What is their one thing? What’s the only thing they’ve got? The only thing they’ve got, the only thing they’ve tried, the central issue they have had since the election night 2016 is what? Get rid of Trump before the next election. Get rid of Trump before the next election. Meanwhile, Trump has 95% support and approval in the Republican Party. Do you know what Reagan had?
It was 87%.
Trump is more popular in the Republican Party than Ronaldus Magnus was. They really, really think that they can get rid of Donald Trump outside of an election? That has been the sole impetus that they’ve had. Their one selling point is removing Trump without an election. Who would ever decide on that as a number one policy objective? And what does that mean? It means they have nothing. It means they have no ideas. It means they have no leaders. It means there isn’t any exci…
It means there isn’t a Democrat out there that could put together one rally like Trump did in Toledo last night, and he could do it every week if he wanted to. There’s not a one of them that engenders that bond, that support, that excitement. They have no enthusiasm. They don’t have any policies. They don’t have any money. They don’t have a success track record on anything in the last three years other than winning the House in 2018. And to top it off, who the hell are they depending on to bring them out of the wilderness? Rich old white guys.
Seriously, Democrats? Seriously, Millennials? This is your answer? Michael Bloomberg, who could not play third base on any baseball team because he couldn’t see over the pitcher’s mound to make the throw to first? Tom Steyer? Are you kidding? Tom Steyer? Who’s ever heard of him? Environmentalist wacko extraordinaire. Crazy Bernie, multimillionaire and the closest things the Democrats have to any kind of excitement.
But they’re having to depend on rich white guys to shore them up. Who am I leaving out? Bloomberg, Steyer… (interruption) Who? Buttigieg? Buttigieg is not a rich white guy. There’s one other rich white guy. Who? (interruption) No, he’s not a white guy. Andrew Yang’s not a white guy. (interruption) See how discriminatory you are? You think that the Chinese American is a white guy. Wrongo. Andrew Yang does have a lot of money.
Anyway, there aren’t any women that are gonna carry the day. There isn’t any African-American. The party of diversity. They couldn’t get 150 people to show up at a rally like Trump had last night. The Democrat Party is a dead party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? She raises money, but she’s a joke compared to Trump. She may be the energetic leader of their side, but that just is an illustration of how off the rails that they are.
That’s the truth, folks.