RUSH: Yeah, I can’t help laughing at what I’m looking at. We got this presidential press conference which we are not going to JIP. I don’t know how many of our local affiliates will preempt us to carry it ’cause it’s Obama’s first White House presser in eight months. I’ve got it up here, and every network has their White House correspondent all lined up in front of the presidential podium, and they’re all doing their live shots, talking to their network anchors, all telling their audiences what’s coming up in the presidential press conference. There was F. Chuck Todd; there was Jessica Yellin; there was Jonathan Karl. I mean, they’re two feet apart from each other. It looks like such overkill. You could do what they were doing with one camera and one reporter.
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RUSH: It’s just a campaign speech. I just listened to a little bit of the press conference and it’s nothing more than a campaign speech. It’s nothing more than the perpetual campaign. Basically what the president just said is, “I’m gonna raise taxes on the top 2%, and that’s gonna fix pretty much everything. I’ll gonna raise taxes, and I’m gonna take away some loophole deductions, and that sets everything right.
“That takes us away from the cliff. That pretty much sets us up. Look, you shouldn’t be surprised. Governor Romney said all he wanted to do was cut taxes for people, and I said I want a balanced approach, which includes raising taxes on the rich, and that’s what we’re gonna do. More people agree with me on this than even voted for me, so that’s what we’re gonna do here.”
He didn’t say these words, but he has before. He said, “I won.” He said, “There are two options for the tax code: Either we go off the fiscal cliff or extend only the Bush tax rates for people below $250,000.” The problem with that… Well, it’s not a problem. There are no problems for these guys, but they keep saying the Bush tax rates applied to the rich only. And we’re gonna find out the Bush tax rates apply to everybody, and Obama wants to leave them in place for everybody but the top 2%.
“Doing that, just doing that and maybe a little discussing on the discretionary side of things — not much — will take us off the fiscal cliff. That will start the ball rolling to deficit reduction. That’s it.” He said, “We just can’t afford to extend these Bush tax rates for the rich. If we take those back, then we’re on the way. (impression) It’s exactly what I said in the campaign.” It’s just a campaign speech. I’m sure he’s blamed Bush for something by now or will before it’s all over. There will be War on Women stuff.
He might even relate it to saving Big Bird!
Hell, who knows?
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RUSH: Folks, I want to help you out here. There’s a Obama press conference going on, and it’s been going about 25 minutes. I want to tell you basically what he said: “There will be tax increases on the rich, and I can’t really discuss Benghazi. That’s an ongoing investigation. We’re gonna raise taxes on the rich, and I’m not gonna use dynamic scoring. I’m not gonna go for that. We’re gonna raise taxes on the rich! I’m not gonna have some poor family in a nursing home have the deficit come down on their shoulders, and there’s an ongoing investigation, and — and that’s it.”
That’s how you do an Obama press conference.
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RUSH: Okay, folks, Obama just got mad. He just got livid. Jonathan Karl of ABC News said, “Lindsey Graham and John McCain today said that they need a select committee to look into Benghazi, and, by the way, if you’re gonna nominate Susan Rice to be secretary of state, they’re gonna do everything they can to stop her. What’s your reaction?” And the smoke started coming out of The One’s ears.
No, the reason we didn’t JIP this thing is ’cause most of it is boring, “uh, and, uh.” I can tell you what he’s saying. I’m gonna raise taxes on the rich and I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation. That’s the sum total of this press conference. But when they mentioned Susan Rice, it was Jonathan Karl of ABC News. Now, what did Susan Rice do? And, by the way, I want to go back to the guy from Maryland. I know he’s not mad at me. John in Crofton, Maryland. Well, he might be mad at me today. But he’s like every one of us, we’re throwing our hands up. Where is what’s right? Where is the decency we always used to be able to count on?
I want to address this in just a moment. None of the institutions and traditions that have defined this country’s greatness and set us apart seem reliable anymore. Everything seems corrupted. And it is. It’s what happens. People think I’m just too partisan. When you have liberals in charge of things, all these things end up being corrupted, by definition.
Now, Susan Rice was sent out by the regime on five Sunday morning shows after Benghazi. When you’re sent on five shows, the shows are not calling you. When you hit all five of them, it means the White House is offering somebody and the shows accept. So Susan Rice on five shows means that the regime wanted her out there, and they gave her a message to impart. And she said that what happened in Benghazi was the result of a mob that went out of control because they were mad over an anti-Islamic movie. We know that that was not true. We know that a movie had nothing to do about it. But Obama will not even admit that today because there’s an ongoing investigation.
He promised to work with Congress to get to the bottom of it. But then he tore into these guys for impugning Susan Rice. How dare they attack her. She is the finest, she’s the best, she’s the most gracious, she’s the done great work. And all she did was tell this country the latest intel that she had at the time. Meaning, it was the video. There are rumors that he’s gonna nominate her to be secretary of state and these guys say they’re gonna block that as best they can. And he launched into these guys. They think they’re going after the UN ambassador because they think she’s an easy target, but he’ll nominate her or whoever he wants to be anything. These attacks from McCain and Graham on Rice are outrageous.
I don’t have any doubt he’s gonna nominate her for State, and he’s livid here that these people would dare block his intentions. And then he pledged to get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi. He’ll work with Congress all day long. Well, we already know. We all already know what happened in Benghazi. The State Department knew the moment it was happening. The White House Situation Room knew the moment it was happening. You want to get to the bottom of Benghazi, you gotta go get Obama because Obama’s the bottom of Benghazi. Obama’s is the bottom of the cover-up on Benghazi. It’s why I said that this dwarfs Watergate. This is a cover-up that dwarfs the Watergate cover-up. There are four people dead in this.
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RUSH: Okay, so Obama is now talking about global warming and how it’s getting warmer now than anybody thought ten years ago. It’s an abject lie. The planet is cooling. It is not getting warmer. “And we gotta start educating our children about it,” he says. “I don’t think the Republicans will go for a carbon tax but we’re gonna work on that.”
So we gotta reduce carbon. We don’t have to reduce debt, folks. No, no! But we gotta reduce carbon. “Yep, yep, yep, yep, yeah. So we’ll shut down the coal industry, and do what we can to shut down fossil fuels and oil. We’re gonna double down on green energy. We gotta reduce carbon.” Nothing, by the way, about debt reduction today.
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RUSH: This was also quite interesting. Ed Henry asked Obama a question, Ed Henry of Fox News. He cited a couple parents of some of the dead Americans in Benghazi. He said, “The parents say they haven’t heard from you. The parents say they felt like they called 911 and nobody answered. Have you said anything to these parents?”
(imitating Obama) “Ed, I’m not gonna do that here. I’ll talk to families when I’m ready. I’m not gonna go through the media on this.” He started to get really mad again. Because, you see, a number of parents of some of the people killed in Benghazi have been all over television. Well, they’ve been all over Fox very expressly saying that their son thought he had cover, thought he had backup, thought he had people there to protect him, and there wasn’t anybody to protect him. Obama basically was asked, “Do you have anything to say to these parents? Can you tell these parents you were doing all you could to protect these kids, protect these people?” He wouldn’t answer the question. “I’ll deal with that, Ed, I’ll talk to the parents. I’m not gonna do that here with you.”
Now, Chuck Todd, NBC News out there covering for Obama. In fact, grab number 23. This is where Obama loses it. The question from Jonathan Karl: “Senator McCain, Senator Graham both said they want to have Watergate-style hearings on the attack in Benghazi, and if you nominate Susan Rice, they’re gonna do everything they can to block her nomination. Senator Graham said he simply doesn’t trust Ambassador Rice after what she said about Benghazi.”
OBAMA: She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her. If Senator McCain and Senator Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me, and I’m happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the UN ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. When they go after the UN ambassador, apparently because they think she’s an easy target, then they’ve got a problem with me.
RUSH: Oooh! They got a problem with me. Now, F. Chuck Todd, official Obama apologist, is saying that the reason Obama, the nice guy, oh, he’s one of the nicest guys around, the reason he got mad at the McCain-Graham question is because Rice was simply out there acting on the same intel that Congress had and that everybody had, and that these guys know it. McCain and Grahamnesty know that what she had is what everybody else had. That is not true. The State Department knew at the time of the attack it was not a video. They knew there was nothing spontaneous about this. It was not a protest that derived from a video. They knew it real time.
The CIA station chief sent the notice to the White House Situation Room. She goes on TV practically a week later. It was not the latest intel. It was a cover-up and the White House sent her out. She was on five shows. Again, I don’t mean to be redundant, folks, but when you have anybody from the regime who’s on all five Sunday shows, they’re all at the same time, you’ve gotta go pretape a bunch of those. You can’t do them all live. The regime is calling the networks and saying, “We want to send Susan Rice over.” They sent her out with that story. It’s not that the networks called and said, “We want to talk to Susan Rice.” Why even talk to the UN ambassador about this anyway? This is a CIA operation. The UN has nothing to do with this. But the regime wanted to send her up there, and I’ll tell you why.
No, I’m not gonna tell you why; I’ll just get into trouble. But they sent Susan Rice up there specifically because they thought she would be the least likely to be criticized or opposed. That’s why they sent her up there, of all people, send somebody from the United Nations, our UN ambassador, to go explain what happened at a CIA station? Send somebody from the State Department, if you gonna do that. Send somebody from the CIA itself if you can’t send the State Department. Anyway, so Obama did get ticked off about a couple things. That’s one of them.
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RUSH: I’m telling you: When you send Susan Rice on five shows, you are choosing who you want to go out and you are choosing what you want said. Now, why her? Again, she’s the United Nations ambassador. She had nothing to do with the State Department. She has nothing to do with the CIA. Why didn’t they send Petraeus up to say this, for example? Well, there’s an explanation now. Despite what they’re saying, they knew Petraeus was under investigation.
They couldn’t send him up there to represent them on anything because they knew that at some point they were gonna use the fact he’s having an affair on him. So they couldn’t send Petraeus up there. They send Susan Rice. Here’s another thing. Obama essentially stood behind her today, which means he stood behind what she said. Obama officially stood behind this video story today again. There’s no other way to explain this.
He also, I’m sure, wants to name her secretary of state. That’s what this raucous defense of her today was all about. Now, Lindsey Graham has issued a statement to the president. “Mr. President, don’t think for one minute that I don’t hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi. I think you failed as commander-in-chief before, during, and after the attack.
“We owe it to the American people and the victims of this attack to have full, fair hearings and accountability be assigned where appropriate. And given what I now know, I have no intention of promoting anybody who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle.” Fine and dandy. Where was this during the campaign?
Well, the Romney people obviously didn’t want to do this during the campaign. They had I-don’t-know-how-many opportunities. Do you realize, for Graham to do this…? Do you realize how many people on our side have been seething about this just as we all are? But for some reason, the campaign did not want to go to Benghazi. Probably… I don’t even want to speculate why, but I could guess.
Maybe the Candy Crowley/Obama team-up. Maybe they felt they weren’t gonna win it because the press had shown, “If you try this, we’ll humiliate you or embarrass you,” or whatever. But here’s Lindsey Graham, again: “Mr. President don’t think for one minute…” He’s saying, I’m not blaming Susan Rice, man! I’m blaming you. You’re the one that failed. “[G]iven what I now know, I have no intention of promoting anybody who is up to their eyeballs in this Benghazi debacle.”
Grab sound bite 27. This is the Ed Henry, Obama exchange on all of this.
HENRY: I want to stay on Benghazi. I wanted to ask about the families of these four Americans that were killed. Sean Smith’s father Ray said he believes his son basically called 911 for help and they didn’t get it. And I know you’ve said you grieve for these four Americans, that it’s being investigated, but the families have been waiting for more than two months. So I would like for you to address the families, if you can. On 9/11, as commander in chief, did you issue any orders to try to protect their lives?
OBAMA: (stammering) Ed, you know, I’ll address the families not through the press. I’ll address the families directly, as I already have. Uhhh, and we will provide all the information, uh, that is available about what happened on that day. That’s what the investigation’s for.
RUSH: That’s a pretty simple question: “On 9/11, did you, as commander in chief, issue any orders to try to protect their lives?” And he won’t answer it. How easy would it be to say yes? (impression) “Yes, Ed, I ordered troops in from wherever, and I ordered…” He won’t answer it! There’s no easier answer in the world. He’s the commander in chief! “Yes, I sent forces in! Yes, I did what I had to do.” He will not answer the question.
“Did you issue any orders to try to protect their lives?”
“Ed, that’s not for you to know. I’ll talk to the families.”
Where was it during the campaign?
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RUSH: They coulda sent Hillary Clinton up there from the State Department. She’s the secretary of state. They wanted this story of the video. They tried to sell that. Obama and Hillary did that commercial on Pakistan TV for this. So we’ll see where it all goes.