{"id":15354,"date":"2012-06-20T16:07:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T16:07:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-06-20T16:07:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T16:07:27","slug":"fast_and_furious_cover_up_obama_asserts_executive_privilege_to_protect_himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2012\/06\/20\/fast_and_furious_cover_up_obama_asserts_executive_privilege_to_protect_himself\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast and Furious Cover-up: Obama Asserts Executive Privilege to Protect Himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I guess you have to know when to fold \u2019em and when to Holder <\/a>\u2019em. I think I\u2019m gonna start asserting executive privilege. I\u2019m an executive. Kathryn asked me a question, “I\u2019m assigning executive privilege, I don\u2019t have to answer that.” News media asked me a question, “Executive privilege. I don\u2019t have to answer that.” <\/p>\n

Hi, folks. How are you? Great to have you here. Already hump day. The Excellence in Broadcasting Network. You know, here\u2019s some irony — by the way, telephone number, 800-282-2882. <\/p>\n

What was Fast and Furious<\/a>? Look, I\u2019m assuming everybody knows that Obama has asserted executive privilege to protect himself, not just Eric Holder, but to protect himself from being discovered somewhat, somehow, to be involved in this Fast and Furious. What was Fast and Furious? As simply put as I can make it, Fast and Furious was an American government program authored by the Obama administration to arm violent drug gangs in Mexico with American weapons from Arizona, primarily. Assault rifles and deadly weapons were purchased from gun stores in Arizona and walked across the border to Mexico on purpose. This resulted in the death of scores of people, including a man named Brian Terry, a border agent for our government. <\/p>\n

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Now, we all know what the purpose of this was. The purpose of this was to gin up anti-Amendment 2 sentiment among the people of this country. The objective was — and this is where the irony steps in — the objective was to have news stories where everybody was shocked and stunned and saddened, guns purchased by drug cartel members in America. Look how easy it was, end up in Mexico, owned by violent drug gangs, and used in the commission of heinous crimes. <\/a> Why, our gun laws are too lax. The sentiment in this country among the people is to maintain the Second Amendment. The America people don\u2019t want, by a vast majority, any gun control legislation. But that doesn\u2019t matter to people like President Kardashian or Eric Holder or any of the Democrat Party or the left. <\/p>\n

They don\u2019t want you to have guns, and so it doesn\u2019t matter about the Constitution and it doesn\u2019t matter about the will of the American people. If they don\u2019t want you to have guns they\u2019re gonna try to find a way to make sure that you don\u2019t. And that\u2019s what Fast and Furious was, as simply put as I can make it. Obama has dragged this on for years. He has never had any intention to cooperate, nor has Holder. It was the arming of violent gangs in Mexico with American weapons purchased in American gun stores resulting in the death of scores of people. Obama has never explained the details of what occurred to anybody, not the media, not investigators, not Congress. He is the head of the executive branch, so he asserts executive privilege. Meanwhile, he pretends that he knew nothing, but he\u2019s trying to protect himself. <\/p>\n

Now, what triggered this today is also very simple. Darrell Issa\u2019s congressional committee has been attempting to get documents from the Department of Justice to document this. And Eric Holder has refused to turn over the documents. They have been negotiating back and forth. There was a scheduled face-to-face meeting. Holder claims that he made one of the greatest offers in American history, to share information, the executive branch and the legislative branch. But here is the bottom line. The Department of Justice lied to Issa\u2019s committee. February 4th, 2011, the Department of Justice — that\u2019s Holder — sent a letter to Congress in which they stated that the allegation that ATF sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers to begin transporting them to Mexico is false. That was a lie. <\/p>\n

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The DOJ sent a letter to Issa\u2019s committee that was not true. In their letter, they said, “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.” Now, a member of Congress, Issa\u2019s committee member, said, “We know that multiple people in the Department of Justice were involved in drafting this letter, and we know that their statement was false.” So the Department of Justice, where the law of this land is to be the most stringently administered, adhered, obeyed, enforced, lied to Congress. And that is what this controversy is all about. That\u2019s why Issa wanted documents from Holder. It was Holder who called Obama either last night or today, asked for executive privilege, and Obama granted it. <\/p>\n

Now, the irony of this is that the whole point of this operation was for all of this to become public except for Obama and Holder\u2019s involvement, and for you to be so angry about it that you would demand tighter gun control laws. Well, now the whole thing has become public, and now they\u2019ve gotta do everything they can to try to keep it under wraps. They wanted this thing public. They wanted the results of this brilliantly conceived, but it was not flawlessly executed, they botched the execution. Way too many people died. A border agent died on December 10th. And so now the Department of Justice, part of the executive branch, Eric Holder and Obama have claimed, well, Obama is the only one who can, has claimed executive privilege. <\/p>\n

Now, look, folks, I\u2019m not a lawyer. My dad was a lawyer out there. As far as I know, executive privilege has been traditionally asserted to either protect the president\u2019s confidentiality, protect the executive branch\u2019s autonomy — separation of powers — or, three, to protect state secrets. There may be other reasons, but those are the three reasons I\u2019ve always understood for it. So which of those is behind Obama\u2019s claim here? If the executive privilege is to protect confidentiality, then he\u2019s admitting his involvement in Fast and Furious. If he says it\u2019s to protect executive branch autonomy, should they have the kind of autonomy to do dangerous and illegal stunts like this? Now, I don\u2019t know that Obama would have the nerve to invoke national security after leaking all the secrets they just leaked, but you never know. <\/p>\n

Anything\u2019s possible with this bunch. Charles Grassley, senator from Iowa, has issued a statement, and it\u2019s pretty telling. (I\u2019m getting it now.) His statement is this: “The assertion of executive privilege raises monumental questions. How can the president assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement?” That\u2019s a pretty good question. Now, the executive branch includes the DOJ. But executive privilege..?<\/p>\n

For example can Holder call Obama and say, “I want you to exert executive privilege for me” and have it not affect Obama? No. “How can the president assert executive privilege if there was no White House involvement? How can the president exert executive privilege over documents he has supposedly never seen?” That\u2019s another thing Obama said. He\u2019s never seen anything; he doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

“Is something very big being hidden to go to this extreme? The contempt citation is an important procedural mechanism in our system of checks and balances,” says Grassley. “The questions from Congress go to determining what happened in a disastrous government program for accountability and so that it\u00c2\u2019s never repeated again.” Well, that\u2019s basically what this is all about. Again, something very, very simple.<\/p>\n

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On February 4th, 2011, the Department of Justice, Eric Holder, sent a letter to Congress in which they “said that the allegation that ‘ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms] “sanctioned”‘ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico — is false.'” They denied the program. They denied that Fast and Furious existed. They denied it in a February 4th 2011 letter to Congress. And in that letter they will say “ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that were purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.”<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s known that multiple people in the Department of Justice were involved in drafting that letter. And Congress now says that the statements in the letter were false. You lie to Congress…? You know, ask Roger Clemens. You lie to Congress like this, whether you think these guys are hoity-toity and far more important in their own minds than they really are, the fact of the matter is when the executive branch starts lying to these guys, red flags go up, and this is exactly what happens.<\/p>\n

So the congressional committee of Darrell Issa said, “We want everything you\u2019ve got on this,” and Holder\u2019s not gonna give it. Executive privilege. The White House is apparently now intent on hiding something. Obama\u2019s involvement? Further details of the program? But I have to tell you, I\u2019ve looked at the media on this. They\u2019re gob-smacked. This is another thing. They were so out of touch. To them, Fast and Furious has been nothing more than a Tea Party, right-wing, extreme, conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been something they\u2019ve laughed about. They\u2019ve not bothered to inform themselves. To them, it\u2019s just a joke. Fast and Furious is nothing more than a joke. It\u2019s typical right-wing tinfoil hat people trying to get poor old Barack. And they\u2019re shocked! They are shocked that Obama asserted executive privilege. Remember, the big assertion of executive privilege that went down the tubes was Nixon and Watergate. A lot of presidents have asserted executive privilege. I think Clinton did 14 times. Bush did six.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not uncommon. But the big one that led to the downfall of a president was Richard Nixon because the Supreme Court did not allow him to assert it before challenge. He lost the claim of executive privilege in Watergate. So they know what can happen. And they\u2019re gob-smacked by this. They don\u2019t know how to report this. They thought it was a joke, folks. They thought it was nothing more than the Martians had landed, that a bunch of people believed the Martians had landed.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re already having second and third thoughts about Obama. You got Frank Bruni (or Bruni, I don\u2019t know how you pronounce his name) at the New York Times with a scathing review of Obama\u2019s performance done at this G-20 summit. Obama looked totally outclassed, looked totally out of his element. He just looked like he had no business being there. It was embarrassing. No command whatsoever of his actions, of his presence. He seemed small. This is the New York Times describing Obama at the G-20.<\/p>\n

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Then you have this Neil Munro business. Then you have the leaks. You have Obama failing in the polls. You\u2019ve got the Supreme Court might do away with Obamacare. They, in 2008, never envisioned 1% of what\u2019s happening here. I tell you, Fast and Furious they thought was a joke, and here\u2019s Obama asserting executive privilege. It sounded like “Angrier” Mitchell. “Well, we didn\u2019t have time to play the whole tape on Romney<\/a>. Hee-hee-hee. Romney didn\u2019t know what a scanner was!”<\/p>\n

They, folks, are struggling with how to defend their guy. Now, they will. I don\u2019t have any question. When they get hold of themselves, when the media gets hold, I\u2019m gonna predict to you what\u2019s gonna happen. They will argue that they are upholding long-honored tradition of protecting the internal process of the executive branch. That\u2019s what the media will say about Obama. It\u2019s part of the separation of powers doctrine.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll argue that ongoing investigation and congressional interference could upset the executive process. They\u2019ll be defended on this by the press. Don\u2019t misunderstand. I\u2019m just saying right now, the press thought this was nothing more than the birthers. They think the birthers a bunch of kooks; they think the Fast and Furious crowd\u2019s a bunch of kooks. And now, with Obama asserting executive privilege, they think, “What are they trying to hide? It makes them uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Let me tell you something, folks. This assertion of executive privilege just shows how important Fast and Furious was. You can\u2019t claim it\u2019s just some low-level, rogue operation and then go out and assert executive privilege. You don\u2019t assert executive privilege for low-level operations. But it looks like President Kardashian is going to go the national security route. The Democrat apologist and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley was just on Fox News saying that the country…<\/p>\n

By the way, he\u2019s an administration mouthpiece. Listen to this. This a journalist, an historian, Douglas Brinkley, on Fox. He said, “The country can\u2019t have our secret strategies about dealing with drug cartels out there in the public! We can\u2019t have that.” Right. Issa would have immediately leaked all of our strategies in dealing with the drug cartels? Right. Issa would have leaked? This administration leaks like a sieve. Folks, it already is known what Fast and Furious was!<\/p>\n

Maybe there\u2019s much more to it that we don\u2019t know, but we know what it was.<\/p>\n

The regime armed violent gangs in Mexico. On purpose. The Obama administration wanted US assault rifles walked across the border by drug cartel members and used in the commission of their crimes. And then they wanted news stories saying, “Look at this! A Mexican drug cartel. Where\u2019d they get their guns? America. It\u2019s too easy. We\u2019ve gotta tighten our gun laws. If these drug cartels can walk into a gun store in Phoenix and end up getting these assault weapons and go out and start killing people, why, our gun laws are too lax!”<\/p>\n

That was the purpose here.<\/p>\n