RUSH: If you want to know how bad the debate was last night, and it was very bad, but I gotta tell you, I disagree with a lot of the conventional wisdom about that debate. We’ll get to that in a minute. If you want to know how bad it was, all you need to know is that right now the Drive-By Media is glued to the courthouse where Roger Stone’s going to be sentenced.

Can you think of anything that matters less to anything in the future of this country than the sentence Roger Stone’s going to get? Because whatever it is, is gonna be commuted or pardoned at some point. Everybody knows it. These people are so obsessed. They still can’t figure it out. They’re so obsessed with getting Trump that they’re focused on this sentence that the judge is gonna hand down, Roger Stone. Since impeachment bombed out, since Mueller bombed out, they’re hoping somehow that Stone getting a long sentence will convince people what a creep Trump is.

It’s getting funny. It’s been funny for a while, scary at the same time, but it’s getting funny and ridiculous, the media’s obsession with fake news, irrelevant news. They’re just looking for anything to keep themselves engaged with hope that they can do something that’s gonna topple Trump, and, after last night’s debate, they know, like I told you the day after State of the Union address.

And someday, folks, someday when I get permission, I’m gonna tell you the whole story of that day because it will explain how the Democrats don’t have anybody that can touch Donald Trump. In terms of achievement, in terms of accomplishment, in terms standing side by side on a debate stage, in terms of defeating him. They just don’t have anybody with half the heart, number one, but they don’t have anybody that’s even close to him in terms of personality and the ways he has to get what he wants, despite all odds against him.

And they’re so obsessed that everything they’ve tried, which has always worked whenever they targeted a Republican, none of it’s working against Trump, and they can’t learn from it. They’re continuing to try variations of their old weapons and ammo, and now they’re camped out at the courthouse waiting for the sentence for Roger Stone.

And this nonstory about Bill Barr and all these fake leftists acting like they’re bipartisan DOJ officials demanding that Barr resign. Barr’s not gonna resign. Barr does not have a problem with Trump. None of this is real. It’s just a continuation of the fake news that got started with Trump-Russia collusion, meddling, and all of that.

Great to have with you, folks. Rush Limbaugh here, as always, behind the Golden EIB Microphone. The telephone number is 800-282-2882. Email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.

A story I just saw. I guess it’s been known since yesterday, but it I just found it. It’s on PJ Media. You know how the Democrats during impeachment were making this major effort for witnesses because they wanted John Bolton to come up there? They wanted Bolton to unload on Trump. They knew after all of these years, after all of these things, Bolton was the guy that was gonna take out Trump for ’em. And Chuck Schumer is still bummed that he couldn’t persuade the rest of the Senate to vote for witnesses. Nothing is going their way.

Now Trump is in California and he’s embarrassing the Democrats out there. He’s doing exactly what I hoped he would do when I suggested last summer that he go out there. Well, here’s the news about Bolton. And it is from yesterday.

“President Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, made a public appearance alongside Obama’s former national security advisor, Susan Rice, at Vanderbilt University.”
For those of you in Rio Linda, it’s in Tennessee somewhere. And you know what Bolton did? (interruption) What, you think it’s funny that I have to point out to Rio Linda that Vanderbilt’s in Tennessee? Well, it’s the kind of thing they might not know. There are a lot of people that might not know where Vanderbilt is. Think of a train track, for example.

Bolton, standing side by side with Susan Rice, you know what he said? “He blasted the Democrats’ ‘grossly partisan’ impeachment against Trump, and downplayed the impact of the testimony he would have had,” if he had been called. “According to Bolton, the House ‘committed impeachment malpractice.'”

Wait ’til they — I’m sure they’ve heard this by now. This is gonna infuriate them even further. They don’t know how lucky they are that they didn’t get Bolton called up there, because he would have embarrassed the heck out of them, even more than they already have been. I saw this, and folks, I just had a Cheshire cat smile. ‘Cause I know all of this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s comical. It is literally comical. The Drive-By Media is glued to that courthouse waiting for the Roger Stone sentence. Can you imagine anything more irrelevant today, tomorrow, than the Roger Stone sentence? I mean, it’s not irrelevant to him, don’t misunderstand. And why? They’re hoping the judge throws the book at Stone because that might convince people that Trump colluded with Russia. They still can’t forget it, move past it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Drive-Bys are trying to act like the Stone sentence is a major, major problem for Trump. Okay. So what did those ludicrous, Trump-hating prosecutors recommend for Stone? Seven to nine years. Seven to nine years. And then when Trump and Barr moved in and said, “Wait a minute, this is outrageous,” they huff and they puff and they resign, and the media starts claiming, “What a bunch of honorable lying prosecutors these guys are!”

They’re nothing but a bunch of Mueller holdovers. So the judge hands down 40 months. For those of you in Rio Linda, that is three years and four months. Three years! It’s not even to the bottom of the threshold recommended by the Trump-hating line attorneys: Seven to nine years. So here is a headline from CNBC. “Roger Stone Sentenced to Over Three Years in Prison as Judge Slams Him for ‘Covering up for’ Trump.”

And the Drive-Bys are talking about how the judge made it perfectly clear that this Mueller investigation was valid and that the Trump-Russia collusion was a valid investigation and that Stone’s paying the price. Stone’s gotta about it through some drug counseling or drug testing. It’s a $20,000 fine. But this is nowhere near the minimum that the Trump-hating DOJ lawyers who resigned suggested. So the Drive-Bys are picking up the pieces, trying to make it look like the judge is affirming everything. (chuckles)

The Mueller investigation, the impeachment, WikiLeaks, all of this. It’s pathetic. It is literally pathetic. I mean, in the real world, they just got creamed. They’re hoping seven to nine years. They want Stone to die in jail, and he gets three years and a few months — and now they’re out trying to make it look like this is devastating to Donald Trump. This could be the end of the Trump administration, is what they want people to believe.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me tell you why the Drive-Bys are having orgasms over Roger Stone’s sentence of 40 months, three years and four months — which is really outrageous. It’s a process crime. But the judge is Amy Berman Jackson. She hates Trump. Who nominated her? Is she a Clinton judge or is she Obama? It doesn’t matter. She said in the sentencing… This is why the media just is holding out all hope that this may be what finally gets Trump, which is so preposterous.

The judge said, “He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president. The truth still exists. The truth still matters. Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t … are a threat to our most fundamental institutions.” Roger Stone threatening our most fundamental institutions is a joke, ladies and gentlemen. (interruption) Obama. I knew it! She had to be an Obama nominee. “‘The truth still exists. The truth still matters.

“‘Roger Stone’s insistence that it doesn’t … are a threat to our most fundamental institutions,’ Jackson said in a blistering denunciation of Stone” in which she “repeatedly mentioned the ‘dismay and disgust’ that his crimes caused…” You know what he did? You know what the essence of Stone is? He tweeted, “Congratulations” to WikiLeaks after they started publishing the Democrat National Committee emails, and then they called him up. It was the biggest… (sigh) I have to be real careful, because I don’t know Roger Stone, and I’m really not trying to demeaning or critical here. (sigh)

But pinning your hopes on getting Trump by going after Roger Stone is so forlorn and hopeless that it’s comical. But such was the status of the Mueller investigation that they had nothing. So all of these process crimes — crimes that occurred because of investigation. If there hadn’t been an investigation, Roger Stone would be sitting in 21 having lunch right now hoping to be noticed, and then he’d be calling GQ and say, “Hey, I got a new suit. How about a photo display?” I’m not being… Don’t misunderstand here.

Roger Stone sent me a nice email last week. Don’t misunderstand. I’m just… It’s a question of… Stone wasn’t even a part of Trump’s campaign! It’s just so futile what they have here. I don’t know what Trump’s gonna do regarding Stone’s sentence. Do you know what 40 months is, by the way? Besides being outrageously excessive, it’s almost exactly the sentence that Barr suggested after he said seven to nine years is way too much. Now, wait ’til the Drive-Bys figure that out.

Wait ’til the Drive-Bys figure out that Amy Berman Jackson went for Barr’s recommendation or very close to it.

BREAK TRANSCRIOPT

RUSH: Here is Mary in Sparks, Nevada. Great to have you. How you doing?

CALLER: Hi. I’m actually quite well. How about yourself?

RUSH: Very well today. Thank you for calling.

CALLER: Sure. And God bless. You know what I was wondering is this whole Roger Stone thing. I watched it played out this morning on Fox News. And being that his sentence is three years, four months, do you think that the Democrats are gonna use him as a vehicle for impeachapalooza 2, whether Donald Trump decides to pardon him or not, but to use Roger Stone as a vehicle so that they can impeach again?

RUSH: Ah, maybe. I know they’re chomping at the bit. My attitude on this, Mary, is let ’em try. It’s not gonna have any impact, it’s so overblown now. I think the Democrats, the best thing they could do is to just stop all of this investigations stuff as a means of — ’cause it’s being counterproductive. They have made Trump more popular. They have made Trump more sympathetic. They have bombed out at every one of these attempts to get Trump via some sort of crime, misdemeanor, high crime, what have you.

So I don’t think it would succeed. I think they would become a laughingstock. I think the media, though, would support it. That’s what would kill them. The media would get fully behind it, try to make it look like the biggest scandal of all. And there isn’t the biggest scandal of all. Not one of these scandals has panned out to anything. Except Biden. Biden has been hurt more than Trump by any of this. Hi son, Hunter.

(interruption) No, no, no. I’m not thinking of Scoop Jackson. It was a Texas — Bob Strauss. Bob Strauss was the prototype Democrat when you think of what the Democrat Party used to be. Remember Bob Strauss? He was from the Hugh Scott Republican era and all that. But he’s long gone out there now. Those kinds of Democrats have ceased to exist.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Apparently, President Trump is gonna have some reaction to Stone’s sentence. CNN says that that’s the case. They’ve got a microphone set up and it’s in Las Vegas where the president is. I would find that really… Well, it’d be other things that he’s gonna be doing. He wouldn’t just comment on the Stone sentence unless (laughing) it’s to announce a pardon today. (laughing) He won’t do that because Stone hasn’t actually been sentenced today. Stone has petitioned for new trial, and if he’s granted a new trial, then his sentence will be delayed and delayed and delayed.

So Stone’s not going to jail any time soon, and the judge, Amy Berman Jackson, went out there and she said, “Yeah, seven to nine years, the original suggestion, that was just way too much.” So Stone gets three years and four months, which is 40 months, and he’s got a $20,000 fine. He apparently has to do some drug rehab or counseling, whatever. But it’s much less than was suggested by those wacko line attorneys from the Department of Justice, the Mueller holdovers that were recommending seven to nine years.

But CNN can’t help themselves. Now they’ve got this list of Trump associates convicted and sent to jail. They just can’t give it up. It’s amazing. These are otherwise, you’d think, smart people. You think they would figure out it isn’t working. What is CNN…? What is the media’s objective, do you think? The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, what is their objective since election night 2016 — and before, but since then? What has been their objective? It’s not to do the news. Their objective is to get rid of Donald Trump, is it not?

Their objective has been to overturn the election results of 2016, to aid in the running of the coup, the silent coup to get rid of Trump. They have been doing everything they can to turn Trump voters against him and they have failed, and they have made Trump more popular than ever. They’ve made him more sympathetic than ever. His performance ratings, his job approvals are sky-high. At what point do you think they might figure out that it ain’t working and to change course and try a new strategery?

At what point? We had a caller last hour, “Do you think if Trump commutes or pardons Roger Stone, that they will impeach him again?” I wouldn’t put anything past them. I wouldn’t, if I were them. I would have seen the light by now.