RUSH: We have this sham of an impeachment designed to do what? This is something that I have been giving considerable thought to, because none of this makes any sense if you look at it from the perimeters of conventional wisdom. By this I mean they’re never going to get a conviction. See, to me, this is, the overriding reality of this, that makes me question what the real motivations are. And then with what Round Mound of the Gavel did yesterday by accusing the very senators of being part of a cover-up.

They supposedly want to change their minds and vote with them to authorize new witnesses and new documents and all that? The Round Mound of the Gavel pretty much insured that isn’t gonna happen now. Susan Collins sent a note to the chief justice. “This is outrageous. Why did you let him say that? Why didn’t you stop him?” Nadler is accusing Republican senators of being part of cover-up if they don’t vote to authorize witnesses. Now, here’s Susan Collins and Murkowski and Cory Gardner and the rest of these four so-called recalcitrants that Schumer was appealing to yesterday.

Here they are sitting there, and, of course, they’re (sniveling) “wanting to be seen as independent and fair and they’re wanting to be seen as not in the back pocket of the Trump administration, want to be seen as doing justice and so forth — and if there’s a need for witnesses, they want to make sure they’re on the right side,” blah, blah, and Nadler comes along and insults them to the point that now they probably can’t vote for it. So what’s that?

Why in the world is the Round Mound of the Gavel sabotaging ostensibly his own effort? And then throw Schiff in this. Schiff has said some of the most stupefying, outrageous things, such as… I’m listening to Drive-By Media talk about how eloquent Schiff was, how persuasive Schiff was — how Schiff got in there, dug deep, got in and pulled the heartstrings — and made these Republican senators wake up. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Adam Schiff actually said yesterday that Donald Trump needs to be removed from office because he didn’t follow the talking points prepared for him by the likes of Lieutenant Colonel Vindman — O don’t you dare criticize hiiiim! (Snort!) Lieutenant Colonel Vindman said he prepared the talking points for Trump, and that Trump gets on the phone call and doesn’t use the talking points. Schiff says he’s gotta be thrown out of office for that! H’s gotta be removed because he didn’t follow the talking points. That means he went against U.S. policy.

Schiff, in a literally insane rant, claims that Trump failing to use the talking points put together by deep state civil servants attempting to undermine him and conflict with his foreign policy… And it is his that matters. He’s the president. He chooses foreign policy. Not Vindman, not Yovanovitch, not any of the others, not Fiona Hill. They don’t determine foreign policy. They can prepare talking points all them; Trump can chuck ’em any time he wants. Schiff said because Trump didn’t follow the talking points, that he is undermining American foreign policy.

He admits that Trump doesn’t have to follow the talking points, but the fact that he didn’t means that he’s undermining foreign policy. He is foreign policy, Schiff! And I’ll tell you something else that’s kind of got me worked up. I’m trying to figure out how this happens — oh, I know how it happens. You go back to the day where Schiff was chairing the House Intel Committee, some hearings, and makes up the transcript about Trump on the phone call with Zelensky.

He literally makes it up, says things like, “Trump got on the phone with Zelensky and said, ‘I want you to find some dirt on my 2020 opponent, Joe Biden. I want you to dig up some dirt on him. I want you to make it up if you have to, and I don’t want you getting back to me until you do — and I’m gonna tell you eight or nine times until you get it. You find some dirt on Biden! You dig up the dirt. You make it up, if you have to, and don’t get back to me ’til you do — and you’re not getting a dime from us until you do!'”

Schiff says that’s what’s in the transcript. He’s lying through his teeth! Every bodily orifice that Schiff has, he’s lying through — and the Republicans are sitting there and they’re not even reacting to it!I’m watching it here from the EIB Southern Command and I’m blowing a gasket asking, “Why aren’t the Republicans reacting to it?” Finally, a Republican constituent sent an email to a Republican member of the committee and said, “What the hell are you doing? The guy’s lying through his teeth!”

So a Republican member of the committee — I forget who it was — then finally called Schiff out on it 30 minutes later, and Schiff said (muttering), “Well, it was a parody. I was doing satire,” and yet Schiff gets a pass for this. Adam Schiff, in all of this, gets a pass! He still goes before the Senate in this trial with some kind of moral authority as though he is engaging in the truth. He wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him upside the head. He’s making up what the president said on the phone call with the transcript of the phone call there and available for anybody to see.

Why does anybody debate Schiff’s version of the phone call as legitimate? Schiff makes up what he calls a parody, and now all of a sudden, the word “dirt” is somehow part of the transcript, when it isn’t! “Trump was trying to dig up dirt! Trump was trying to do this! Trump was trying to find this about Biden,” when it’s not part of the transcript. Andy McCarthy had a piece yesterday/last night, saying that because Schiff has done this, Schiff has now opened the door to calling the Bidens if there are witnesses called.

Because Schiff has totally mischaracterized what Trump asked Zelensky to do regarding Biden and his kid Hunter in the investigation. So since Schiff has put forth a fallacious, phony, lying version of that, the president’s team has a legal opportunity and requirement to correct that record — and that may be calling Schiff (which I still think they ought to do, make him the face of this), and call the Bidens. The Democrats are literally paranoid that that would happen.

Schumer and the rest of these guys in their public statements, press conferences, are doing everything they can to make it sound like, “Mentioning the Bidens in any of this is insane. It shows the president’s lost his mind.” This is all about the Bidens. It’s all about the investigations and what Biden was able to do as a member of the United States government to grease the skids for his family for years and years and years.

The reason all this is relevant is they’re trying to throw Donald Trump out of office for something that he didn’t do, for a scandal he wasn’t engaged in, for misconduct he did not enter into — and yet it is all over the place on the Democrat side, starting with Hillary and the Steele dossier. Now the FISA warrant totally make-up abuse on Carter Page, which now all these people are admitting to. Down to the Mueller report. On the let’s-go-get-Trump side of this, nobody has found anything. There’s no impeachable offense. There’s no crime.

So what’s really this all about? What are the Democrats doing? ‘Cause let’s go back to the reality they’re not gonna get a conviction — and especially now. I don’t care how persuasive anybody might think that some of these House managers’ cases have been. By the way, the TV ratings daily are plummeting. You’ve seen that, right? The top was 11 million. Twenty million’s what the first day of Kavanaugh got with Blasey Ford. This thing is 11 million, and they’re dropping every day. Reuters and CNN are wringing their hands, destroyed, distressed about this.

So they know they’re not gonna get a conviction (chuckles), and now they’re not gonna get four Republicans to vote to authorize witnesses if they ever were. But Nadler coming in and accusing essentially Susan Collins and Murkowski and Cory Gardner and whoever else they’re trying to get in there of “participating in the cover-up.” Nadler’s statements that he made yesterday as part of his press statement were so far out of bounds, they were so radical left that I said, “Wait a minute. This isn’t right. There’s something going on here that people are not seeing.”

If you circle back, it all goes back to the fact that they know they’re not going to get a conviction — and yet they’re doing this. So why? Well, look, there’s some obvious answers. They’re trying to dirty Trump up for the 2020 campaign, and there’s a theory that they’re trying to dirty up enough Republican senators that are vulnerable to maybe win the Senate to go along with the House so that they can shut Trump down even if he is reelected. I think there’s even more than that going on. Those two things are relevant; I’m not saying they’re not happening.

But I think there’s a… I mean, what kind of rhetoric did the Round Mound of the Gavel use yesterday? Who was that rhetoric intended for? The Democrat base! The lunatic fringe of the Democrat base. You put this together with some of the other news out there. Obama… According to Charles Gasparino at Fox News, Obama is getting so scared of Bernie that he’s considering a national statement urging Democrats not to vote for Bernie Sanders. That is an all-out assault on who, in addition to Crazy Bernie?

That is an all-out assault on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has become one of Bernie’s biggest advocates and is toying publicly with the idea of a third-party ’cause the Democrat Party isn’t left enough. Well, here comes the Round Mound of the Gavel yesterday and he starts uttering resistance-type lingo! He starts uttering language that people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want to hear and people that might be inclined to support her want to hear. You go to New York where all politics is local.

Is Nadler perhaps gonna be primaried by somebody chosen by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because he, Nadler, is not sufficiently resistant to, radical left-wing enough? Now, if Nadler is worried about a challenge, it would make perfect sense for him to do what he did yesterday. In other words, it could well be that part of the explanation for this is that some of these House managers — Nadler, Schiff — are actually doing all of this to keep their base together, not bust up Trump’s connection to his (’cause they can’t, and they know that by now). Now, in Schiff’s case, I honestly think that he needs professional help right along the lines with Antonio Brown.

I think they need to be seeing the same shrink, they need to get the same kind of mental health care, ’cause I think Schiff has lost it totally. There’s a great piece today by somebody at PJ Media, I think. If you’re a parent, have you got a kid who loves performing, loves doing things in the living room, and you can’t get ’em to stop and you have to act like, “Oh, that’s so cute, Little Johnny;” you have to encourage ’em ’cause you’re the parents? That’s Schiff.

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RUSH: One of the interesting things about all these House managers are gone on and on and on (sobbing), “Ukraine and Donald Trump! Donald Trump denied aid! (sniffling) Donald Trump withheld aid! (sniffling) Donald Trump said, ‘You can’t have your aid unless you give me Biden. You can’t…'” None of that’s true! They got their aid. But guess what? Three of the House managers that have gone on and on and on about the importance of Ukraine voted against military aid to Ukraine in every piece of legislation that came up. That is Hypocrisy 101.

Of course, this doesn’t stick to Democrats much, but the fact is, they don’t care about Ukraine. Adam Schiff and the Round Mound of the Gavel and all the rest, they don’t care about Ukraine. When given the chance to participate — voting — on military aid for Ukraine, they voted against it. The Obama administration denied all aid to Ukraine for eight years after requiring that they disarm. We signed an agreement promising to defend them if they’re attacked, and they were, and Russia annexed and took Crimea — and we didn’t do a damn thing.

And Trump somehow is now going to be impeached — or has been impeached — because he delayed aid that they eventually got? In the phone call that somehow magically has been referred to as “dirt,” even though that word’s not even in the transcript…?

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RUSH: It’s Neil in Matthews, North Carolina. Great to have you. Hello.

CALLER: Thanks for taking my call, Rush.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: Listen, what has been glaringly overlooked in the Biden quid pro quo Ukraine situation is that Joe Biden was merely acting as a mouthpiece for President Obama. In his own words at the Council on Foreign Relations meeting, Joe Biden clearly established it as a fact. When Biden told the Ukrainian officials to fire the prosecutor or they’re not getting their money, Ukraine officials immediately challenged him. They said, “You have no authority, you’re not the president,” to which Biden answered with two words that implicate President Obama. Biden said, “Ask him.” So it’s not “quid pro Joe” —

RUSH: No, he said he said, “Call him.”

CALLER: — it’s “quid pro O.”

RUSH: He said, “If you don’t believe me, call Obama!” No, no, that’s all true. Every bit of that’s true. Now, I happened to see the House managers yesterday making their case for all this. You know, their version of that Biden admission to the Council on Foreign Relations? “Biden knew the prosecutor was corrupt. Biden was trying to get the prosecutor fired! Biden did. Biden got what he wanted. Trump doesn’t have the…” They’re trying to say that Biden was not trying to get rid of the prosecutor who was going after his son. They’re saying that Biden was trying to get rid of a corrupt prosecutor, that Ukraine was resisting. They have twisted this. They’re lying about so many things, it’s hard to keep up with it. But I get your point.

I wish I had more time to make it, but we’re out.

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RUSH: So I got an email during the break, “Rush, I didn’t hear what you said Schiff said that Trump should be thrown office ’cause he didn’t follow the talking points.” Here’s the quote. Schiff said yesterday, “I just want to underscore this. He’s not obligated to his use talking points. He’s not obligated to follow the recommendations of his staff no matter how sound they may be. But what this makes clear is that Donald Trump was not conducting U.S. policy. It was his private, personal interests he was conducting.

“If it was U.S. policy, he would have followed the talking points that Lieutenant Colonel Vindman says he prepared, but he didn’t.” So Schiff is trying to say Trump needs to be thrown out of office because the very fact he didn’t follow the talking points put together by people he didn’t trust, means that he was engaged in his own personal foreign policy, not the best interests of the United States. Folks, that is evidence of how nothing they have — how little to nothing they’ve got — to have to make that claim in terms of suggesting it warrants being removed from office.

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RUSH: Let me close the loop on the Nadler business. When Nadler came out and accused Republicans who would not vote for more witnesses of being part of the White House cover-up, that’s when Susan Collins got all upset.

That’s when Lisa Murkowski got all upset and sent a note to John Roberts saying, “This is not true, and I can’t believe we have to put up with this,” and yet Nadler said it. I think this is a play. This entire charade here is a play to solidify the far-left base of the Democrat Party. In Nadler’s case, I think he’s maybe trying to ward off a primary challenge that’s been put up by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. There’s all kinds of stuff that may explain this.

But here, let me… You know, as I speak, I keep coming up with more things I want to say about it. So let me cut to the chase. I think… I’m just gonna go out on a limb. I think by this time next week, this is all gonna be over, because by this time next week, there will be one weekend left for these senators in this trial running for the Democrat nomination to go out to Iowa and campaign for a weekend before the Hawkeye Cauci.

I can’t believe that the Democrats in the House are actually going to preside over this thing to the point that these Democrats running for the presidency in the Senate don’t get to go out and campaign. Now, I know some of you are shouting, “Well, of course they would, Rush, if they want Michelle Obama! Of course they would if they want Doomberg. Of course, they would if they want somebody…” You got Crazy Bernie, who can’t leave and campaign. You’ve got Fauxcahontas who can’t leave and campaign.

You’ve got Klobuchar who can’t leave and campaign. Is Cory Booker still a factor? Whatever. If he is, he can’t leave and campaign. There’s a bunch of them in there that can’t. But the road’s wide open for Biden, and now Crazy Bernie is making inroads, and he’s locked there in the Senate and can’t leave and campaign. You think the Democrats in the House are gonna want to ultimately get the blame for other Democrats seeking the presidency being frozen out of the presidential campaign by having this thing go on and on and on?

Now, there’s another side to this, and the other side is that that’s exactly what they want, that they want the opportunity to call witnesses because that’s court fight for months, and that means this process goes on all year — and there’s a school of thought that says this is what the Democrats want. They want a never-ending circus called a trial in the Senate that goes on all year because of the chaos it causes. There’s also just basic political facts. The Democrats do not want Trump to be able to make a Supreme Court nomination this year should an opening occur.

And then further down the road, the Democrats want to make sure that Trump never gets another judicial nomination. How could that be? By the Democrats winning the Senate. Now, how could they do that with this? Well, they have these four Republican senators that are said to be in very iffy reelection efforts, and these House managers could really put ’em in a tight squeeze here depending on how they play it. All of these things are in the mix.

But we’re making a mistake… Well, I’m not. But a lot of people are making a time-honored, never ending mistake, and that mistake is assuming that the Democrats never screw up, that the Democrats are brilliant and that they are forward thinkers and that their strategy is four or five moves ahead of ours, and that we’re always playing catchup and we’re always on defense.

“They know exactly what they’re doing, and this is exactly what they want to happen, and they’re gonna end up getting rid of Trump,” and, folks, they are not that way. They are split. They are not unified. The very fact that Adam Schiff has become the face of this party is perhaps one of the worst things that could have happened to it if they want to broaden this party beyond the fringe, lunatic base that it has now.

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RUSH: To the phones we go on Open Line Friday. This is Donna in Vineland, New Jersey. Welcome. It’s great to have you. Hi.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. I’m calling because President Trump is coming to New Jersey, and New Jersey, I think, is gonna turn from a blue state to red state. The venue he’s gonna be at holds the capacity of 7,500 seats. There’s a request for up to 100,000 tickets that want to see him.

RUSH: This is next Tuesday, right?

CALLER: I’m sorry?

RUSH: Next Tuesday he’s due there, is that right?

CALLER: Yes. Yes. A lot of it is because Jeff Van Drew turned from Democrat to Republican.

RUSH: Well, now, that’s quite a statement, convert New Jersey from blue to red. Are you basing that just on the fact that a hundred thousand people want to get into this rally?

CALLER: The traffic is backed up right now. He’s due there Tuesday. It’s already backed up on the roads to Wildwood. People are already going to get hotel rooms, and it’s insane. They’re starting… In fact, Democrats online — I haven’t seen this, but I heard it. They’re trying to say, “Oh, certain bars around here won’t serve you if you’re a Trump supporter.” They’re already starting trouble trying to get people (crosstalk).

RUSH: Well, that may actually be true.

CALLER: It’s not working —

RUSH: If you wear a MAGA hat, they may not serve you. I mean, that’s not… (chuckling) Look, that would be earth-shatteringly fabulous if that happened. However, it’s unlikely that New Jersey is gonna flip. It’s just the numbers, folks. You’d need a hell of a lot of people moving out of there for that to happen. But the fact that Trump is going there and there is so much interest and that the crowd is going to be so energetic, some people want to get in?

It’s gonna make news in and of itself in that way because nothing’s changed. I mean, there isn’t a single Democrat that can create this kind of excitement. I mean, Elizabeth Warren offering to forgive every student loan in the country cannot create this kind of excitement, cannot create this kind of happiness, cannot create this kind of desire to be seen. There’s not a single Democrat out there — and there’s not another Republican who can, either.

But that is what you have to constantly weigh against the other pictures that you see. The Senate is being turned into an equivalent of the Democrat National Committee here. I watch this, and I listen. You know, Adam Schiff actually said — and we will have a sound bite coming up. Schiff actually said that Trump did the trade deal with China so that China will help him cheat in the 2020 election. Now, I try to imagine myself as a Republican in the Senate at any time, any time any of this has been on.

Like right now, Hakeem Jeffries is presenting whatever article of impeachment there is. I think today is the abuse of Congress article of impeachment or the obstruction of Congress, whatever it is. Hakeem Jeffries is a guy who during House committee hearings said Trump should be thrown out of office because he disrespected a 16-year-old climate change activist in Sweden. These people are using this trial to vent everything they hate about Trump.

Everything he’s said. Everything he’s done. They are so far above and beyond the confines of whatever their case is in the articles of impeachment, they may have not made that case. By all rights, Mitch McConnell could dismiss this and shut this down and put it to a vote when they finish presenting their case today, because they haven’t made it — and because they haven’t made it, there’s no reason to call more witnesses. That’s not how it works!

When the prosecution has ended its case, they don’t get to call more witnesses at that point after that. That’s it. Oh, they’re not allowed to have the jury call more witnesses and then start its own investigation, which is what they’re asking for here. But if ought to matter that they haven’t made the case, despite all the repetition — and by the way, the Drive-Bys are excusing the repetition based on the low audience. (impression) “Oh, yeah. Well, they’re having to repeat their case over and over ’cause they know that everybody can’t watch all the time.

“So some people can see it in the afternoon, but other people can’t tune in until nighttime, and so they have to repeat the case, making sure that every audience member at all times during the day hears the case.” As I was saying, if I’m I senator and I’m listening to this tripe and I’m listening to all these abject lies (laughing), I don’t know how I… It’d be so tough to sit there and just be quiet — and then did you hear what Senator Kennedy from Louisiana did?

I don’t mean to make it that dramatic. It wasn’t that dramatic a thing. Senator Kennedy from Louisiana — who is solid guy. It was either after the first day that the Democrat managers presented their case or the second. I think it was the first. Senator Kennedy said, “You know, I learned some things today that I didn’t know,” and the media glommed all over that. (apoplectic) “Oh, my God, the Democrats are succeeding! The Democrats…

“The Democrats are talking to a bunch of senators who’ve only watched Fox News, and now they admit they’re learning things they didn’t know!” So Senator Kennedy says, “There’s some things I didn’t know here. I’m learning some things I didn’t know,” and they immediately assume that Senator Kennedy is saying, “Wow, I’ve been lied to by Trump! I’ve been lied to by Fox News! I’m learning things I didn’t know.” What do you think Senator Kennedy’s really doing with that comment?

That comment — “Hey, I’m learning some things I didn’t know” — is no different than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett claiming they’re for tax increases on the rich. Senator Kennedy is simply keeping the hordes away from his gate by letting them know that he’s open minded; he’s hearing things he didn’t know before. He’s giving them hope that maybe the House managers are succeeding in their lying stack of articles of impeachment evidence. It’s actually kind of a smart move on Senator Kennedy’s part.

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RUSH: Okay. So there’s Hakim Jeffries of the New York congressional delegation, one of the House managers, up there saying that Trump cheated in the 2016 election and wants to cheat in the 2020 election. Can any of you tell me how Trump cheated in 2016? When Rosenstein said all the indictments are Russians, not a single vote was changed and the outcome of not a single election was changed, how did Trump cheat? Look, it’s conventional wisdom. It’s conventional wisdom that the Russians meddled in our election.

Can any of you tell me how?

Can any of you tell me what they did, and can any of you tell me how Trump cheated in 2016?