RUSH: “The Coronavirus Crisis Is Turning Americans in Both Parties Against China.” Well, it is about time. I’m gonna tell you something. Here are the details: “The Chinese government’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 outbreak, and how the United States should respond, are caught up in the partisan politics of Washington. But around the country, Americans in both parties…”
It’s a Washington Post poll, by the way. “Americans in both parties increasingly agree that the United States needs a tougher, more realistic China strategy that depends less on the honesty and goodwill of the Chinese government.” Let me tell you something, folks. I want to take you back. We could get… If I wanted to, we could get sound bites of Donald Trump speaking on TV in the 1990s.
We could get sound bites of Donald Trump speaking on TV in the 2000s. We could get Trump speaking on TV starting in 2015 when he ran for president. One of his themes as a human being has been that the Chinese are getting away with scamming us and with cheating us, both economically, in currency manipulation and trade. Donald Trump alone!
Nobody in the Washington establishment has dared be critical of the Chinese. In fact, the Obama administration… Just to remind you, there was some Chinese foreign minister, some politburo member was in Washington, and somebody in the Obama administration launched into this guy for human rights abuses, and the ChiCom reaction was (paraphrased exchange), “Well, you got no right to preach to us about human rights abuses. You people created slavery!”
And the Obama guy said, “You know what? You’re right. I apologize. We have no right to preach to you.” So this guy in the Obama administration just threw away any moral authority that we do have, because they are communist pigs. We have moral authority over the Chinese just as we had it over the Soviet Union — and we had it over Cuba, Venezuela. We are the good guys!
And the Obama people just threw it away with one little bit of throwback from the Chinese. Donald Trump has singularly been sounding the call to alarm about China, and this is something the media will not be able to rewrite. Long before he came down the escalator to start his campaign, he has been warning everybody about China, about what a bunch of cheats they are, about how they have outsmarted stupid American leaders in trade deals, about how they are currency manipulators.
Even Democrats know that this is the case. Trump has been more astute and forward-thinking about the ChiComs than almost anybody else in this country. In fact, you could go back to the 1980s where you can find interviews of Trump talking about the threat that China posed to the United States. And now more and more Americans are beginning to see the problem posed by China.
That is only going to benefit Trump, as it should. I am telling you, he is singularly focused, before he even dreamed about getting involved in politics. He’s routinely been a guest on every conceivable television show America has had before he even started hosting his own.
And for as long as he’s been doing that, he’s been singling out the Chinese.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Michael in Tucson, Arizona, as we head back to the phones. Thank you. It’s great to have you here. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you. First, I want to tell you that we feel you’re a true American patriot and we pray every day for your recovery.
RUSH: Thank you, sir, really very much.
CALLER: I’d like to get your opinion on a controversial strategy I have for dealing with the situation. If you believe the data, coronavirus in its various strains have come out of China over the last years. I propose a permanent ban on travel between China and the U.S. — and back and forth — until they establish a competent government.
RUSH: Defined by who as “competent”?
CALLER: Defined by a country that would at least deal with health issues in a competent manner, for example.
RUSH: Okay. So let’s put Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx are on the case. We’ll say that they get to determine whether or not China has a competent government when it comes to dealing with this?
CALLER: No.
RUSH: No? No.
CALLER: I think our politicians have to decide that, not health officials.
RUSH: Oh, I thought… Oh.
CALLER: People like Trump have to decide this.
RUSH: Well, unfortunately, I… Look, I get your point. Unfortunately, wars start over this. Nations don’t get to determine whether a government is competent. Now, we don’t have to deal with incompetent governments. We define that as unfavorable to us. But that’s no longer practicable. Way too much of what we need is manufactured in China.
That is something that people are clamoring to change. You would be amazed, folks — you’d be scared to death — if you knew how much of the American antibiotic pharmaceutical system comes from China, and if you started pondering, “What would happen if they shut it down? What if we stopped manufacturing and distributing?” We’d have to pick up the slack and start it on our own.