RUSH: Hi, folks. Great to have you back. Great to be back. Great to be with you, as always. Middle of the week, it’s hump day, and this is the EIB Network. Sadly, this place may be one of the last outposts of reason, sanity, and not panic anywhere in the media. It’s incredible. It’s incredible out there. And, you know, I don’t know, folks. I’ve got personal perspective on this that many don’t, and I’m wondering if I should even introduce that into my thinking, in terms of what I share with you about my thinking on this.
This whole thing, there just is a gigantic cloud of suspicion hanging over all of this, as far as I’m concerned. And I’m gonna try to explain it as the program unfolds before your very eyes and ears today. Because I just can’t look at this as an isolated thing. I have to put it in context of everything that I know has happened in the last four years. Finally something has come along that is accomplishing everything every enemy of Donald Trump, and us, has wanted to accomplish for the last four years.
And where did it come from? It came from China. And who has been warning us about the ChiComs for longer than anybody else? That would be Donald Trump. He was right about them. He has been right about them. Look, I know that there’s a lot of people genuinely scared out there. I know there are a lot of people really, really scared out there and it would be futile on my part to try to talk people out of that. I wouldn’t even try.
But all I can tell you is I’m not and maybe tell you why. As I say, I have a different perspective on this than many do. At any rate, all of this will become clear to you.
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RUSH: I’m telling you, folks, there’s so many red flags about things happening out there. This coronavirus? All of this panic is just not warranted.
I’m telling you, when I’ve told you that this virus is the common cold? When I said that, it was based on the number of cases. It’s also based on the kind of virus this is. Why do you think this is COVID-19? This is the 19th coronavirus! They’re not uncommon. Coronaviruses are respiratory cold and flu viruses. There is nothing about this except where it came from and the itinerant media panic. You can’t blame people reacting the way they’re reacting if they pay any — even scant — attention to the media.
If you read just two or three media headlines a day — pick one, pick two, pick three at random — you’re going to think that if you leave your home, you’ve got a good chance of dying, and you don’t. But I can’t… There’s no way we here can stop a panic. There’s no way we can talk sense into a panic. I wouldn’t even try. But I’m telling you, just… (interruption) To me, this is just a gigantic series of question marks and red flags, all this stuff that is… It’s just the timing of it; the gleeful, gleeful attitudes in the media about this; the gleeful attitudes that Democrat leaders have about this.
I’ll tell you what’s really more scary than anything is how the American people — some Americans, I don’t know how many it is — seem to be okay with being told they can’t do this and they can’t go there and, “You’ve got to stay here and we’re gonna quarantine you there and we’re gonna wrap you up over there. We’re gonna put you in this cocoon here and you can’t leave and you…” “Okay. Okay. Fine with me!” No, not okay.
Do you think Andrew Cuomo knows what’s best for you? He put this little quarantine around New Rochelle. I mean, this is just… Too much of this, to me, appears to be made to order for objectives that have long been held by the American left, the Democrat Party, the media, what have you. In Chicago, the mayor of Chicago has just announced that they’re not gonna dye the Chicago River green. It’s St. Patrick’s Day next week. They’re gonna eliminate it. They do it every year. They dye the Chicago River green for St. Patrick’s Day.
They’re not going to do that. The downtown parade and the South Side Irish Parade have all been postponed as part of this weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day. Over a hundred thousand people were expected to fly to Chicago. They’re not gonna go to Chicago. South by Southwest gets canceled. The mayor in Austin cancels it, and shortly after then starts begging people who live in Austin, “Hey, go ahead and go outside. Go ahead and go patronize some of our businesses. Go ahead and go out to eat.”
Well, okay. If it’s okay to do that, why did you cancel South by Southwest? “Well, because the inertia was set in motion. We’re gonna be canceling everything. We’re canceling everything we’re gonna do, any public meeting. We’re gonna play basketball games with no crowds. The baseball season’s coming up. We’re gonna play baseball games with no fans in the stands.” How long is it gonna be before the NFL decides, “You know what? We’re gonna do studio only. No fans allowed in any of our stadiums.”
Where does this end, especially when you realize there are diseases out there that kill many more than are being killed by this, and the people that are suffering mostly from this are elderly people who already have respiratory problems of one kind or another? Anyway, look, I’m sure you can tell I’ve gotta be very careful how I navigate this, ’cause the media is just waiting for people to come along and act like it isn’t a big deal so they can point fingers.
I am fully aware of this, folks, but you know me. I can’t fake it in here, and I can’t act out things that I don’t believe. Well, actually, I probably could. You know, J.R. Ewing said, “Once you fake integrity, the rest is easy,” and I don’t like going down that road. I don’t even want to have to try anything like that.
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RUSH: The stock market’s down, what, a thousand points again today? I haven’t checked it in about an hour. Yeah, 929. So down. That wipes out everything that was regained yesterday. The stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is down 5,000 points since February. That’s almost 20% of the decline in the last 40 days, folks.
We were on the way to 30,000. This is on the way to wiping out the U.S. economy, and it’s gonna be more than just Donald Trump and his reelection chances that get hurt if that’s what happens here. We’re almost back down to 23,000 now when just a few short days ago we were on the cusp of hitting 30,000 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Nothing like wiping out the entire U.S. economy with a biothreat from China, is there?
Oh, and you can’t call it the China virus! You can’t say anything about it coming from Wuhan. No, no, no. See, that’s racist. Can’t do that. Even if you try to urge calm, they’ll say that you are in denial and that you are not serving people properly. So we’re all supposed to be in panic. Well, uh… (sigh) What are those of us who are not panicking supposed to do, act like we’re in panic so that we can relate to people? ‘Cause if you don’t act like you’re in panic, then you’re in denial.
If you point out that this whole thing came from China, why, that’s racism and xenophobia and all that — and yet we’ve got a biothreat. We got a biothreat, and it in fact started in China, and look at the damage that it is doing to American industry and the American economy. You know, watch TV, watch the news. Bernie Sanders has an announcement, by the way, at the top of the hour. In 32 minutes, Crazy Bernie going to make some announcement. He lost four primary states yesterday.
I don’t know what he’s gonna say.
All I know is that Bernie has vowed to support Biden if he wins. Bernie doesn’t have any fight in him. I’ve told you this for the longest time. Bernie is not a fighter. He can be bought off with another house, maybe a Hawker 800 private jet. So I don’t know what he’s gonna say. But with the coronavirus out there as bad as it is, why is anybody talking about anything else? Why does it matter the Democrat Party primary and the campaign? Why does it matter with the coronavirus? Why is anything other than the coronavirus even being talked about by people? Huh?
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RUSH: I have seen it officially. I’ve been told that the World Health Organization has now officially declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Now, I’ve not seen that anywhere. I’ve had that told to me. Grab audio sound bite number… No, ladies and gentlemen: Make sure you wash your hands 20 seconds with warm — preferably hot — water and soap, and make sure it’s not scented soap. That stuff could be…
Go out and get something plain and dull and dryball like Dove soap or some such thing as that, and make sure you drink water. Consume fluids every 15 minutes! You know, set a reminder on your phone: DRINK WATER. (interruption) Sparkling water is fine. Effervescence and bubbles in there is fine. Make sure you have a bottle of water next to you. Just set a reminder every 15 minutes on your phone. Just if say, “Siri, remind me to drink water every 15 minutes.” It’s all you gotta do.
SIRI: (wake noise)
RUSH: Hey, Siri, stop! HomePod. Thank you.
SIRI: All right, I’ve added to reminders.
RUSH: No, I don’t need to be to reminded! I was just demonstrating for people how to do it. Hey, Siri!
SIRI: (wake noise)
RUSH: Cancel my last reminder about drinking water every 15 minutes.
SIRI: I didn’t find any reminders about drinking.
RUSH: All right, good. See, I don’t need… (sigh) And remember, if somebody sneezes on you, turn away as fast as you can and sneeze yourself — get it out of there — and then turn around and slap ’em for being rude. Tell ’em not to do that again; it’s very impolite and so forth. Here’s Donna Shalala. Grab audio sound bite number 23. Right on cue, right on schedule, this morning on Bloomberg TV’s Balance of Power, a question for Donna Shalala of the Clinton administration. (sniveling) “How far behind this virus are we? There’s a perception that we got off to sort of a slow start with it. Is that fair?”
SHALALA: We have not understood that we needed to fund state and local health departments at a very high level because they’re our first line of defense. Now we have to understand that there’s another virus coming, maybe a year or two from now. I don’t know its name. But we better be ready the way we are for hurricanes in my community where we have the staff in place, we have the systems in place, we have the resources in place — and if we need additional resources, we can automatically get them.
RUSH: She’s member of Congress now from Florida. She lives down in Miami, Coral Gables. So there’s another virus coming. Did you hear that? She doesn’t know the name of it, and she doesn’t know where it’s coming from. There’s another virus coming right on the heels of the coronavirus. Now to me, this is irresponsible. She’s speaking statistically. She doesn’t know there’s another virus coming!
Who’s next? We’re gonna start on the phones. Marlboro, New York. Stewart, welcome, sir. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, many prayers to you. Just to put this in perspective, these are statics from the National Institutes of Health and the CDC. Over 70,000 people in 2017 died of opioid overdose. There were 38,000 auto deaths last year in the United States alone. These statistics are for the United States alone. Nearly 99,000 people died in the United States alone in 2018 when they entered hospitals. It’s called acquired — like, staph, strep and other — illnesses.
RUSH: Right. They were perfectly fine, they went to the hospital, they got infected, and they didn’t get out. Yeah.
CALLER: And they died. It was confirmed today, there are over 220 confirmed cases of malaria in New York City alone. In the last flu epidemic of 2018, 41,000 people died. In 2016, 62,000 —
RUSH: Wait, wait. What is your point here?
CALLER: My point is this is all blown out of proportion. This is all a setup. In fact, the good tyrant, Cuomo, said today, “I’m worried about the health care system being overwhelmed,” and if this is not a play to take over the health care system of this country, I don’t know what is. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: You… Well, wait a minute. They already have the health care system. Government already runs the health care system. What do you mean, the play to take over the health care system?
CALLER: To eliminate private health care.
RUSH: Ohhh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Ohhhhh. I see what you mean. Yeah. With all those statistics (chuckles), especially about… Folks, I guess, should we be surprised that any of us are still alive?
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RUSH: All right. Here it is. The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Fox Business Channel with the news.
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RUSH: Sharyl Attkisson has just tweeted the following about 10 minutes ago.
She’s the former CBS infobabe — way back, a long time ago, former CNN infobabe — and she writes, “To sum: Majority of 30+ US coronavirus deaths occurred in Wash. State elderly facilities. The handful of additional deaths are among elderly & sick, mostly 80+ yrs. Be very careful if you’re elderly, or have sick, older loved ones. Everyone else (so far) is ok or recovered.”
Oh, is she gonna get in trouble! (Snort!) Does she realize what she’s done here? She’s just made the case that there’s no reason for panicking over any of this.