{"id":4067,"date":"2016-02-29T17:17:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T17:17:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-02-29T17:17:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T17:17:57","slug":"preposterous_new_york_times_implies_i_m_part_of_a_pro_amnesty_conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/02\/29\/preposterous_new_york_times_implies_i_m_part_of_a_pro_amnesty_conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Preposterous! New York Times Implies I\u2019m Part of a Pro-Amnesty Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, on Sunday, the New York Times had a story<\/a> that is an attempt, was an attempt to drive a wedge between me and those of you in my audience. The attempt was to imply, because they cannot state it, the attempt here was to imply that I am a secret, clandestine operative for the Gang of Eight bill and amnesty. The story was written in such a way as to make it look like I am a secret supporter and that I have kept relevant information from you and that I am secretly trying to push this bill across the finish line. <\/p>\n

Now, the story couldn\u2019t say that because it hasn\u2019t happened. The story didn\u2019t say that because it\u2019s not true. So they did their best to imply it, to insinuate it, so that people might infer this was going on, because the New York Times knows that many people are suspicious of anybody and everything in politics, that nobody\u2019s honest and nobody\u2019s straightforward with them anymore. And that the first minute, the first notion they hear that somebody isn\u2019t who they claim to be, they know people will glom on to it and perhaps believe it. <\/p>\n

<\/a>And the reason that they tried to make this story believable or the vehicle they used is something that I have referenced, but never specifically detailed for you, on this program. Before even beginning the discussion, I want to play two audio sound bites to help put this in perspective. Because I am not going to sit here and be placed on defensive about it. It\u2019s just patently absurd to suggest that I have in any way and at any time, either clandestinely or openly, supported amnesty. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the height of absurdity. It is utter foolish ridiculousness. So the first sound bite happened on a satellite radio program on Saturday. A campaign advisor to Trump, Stephen Miller, was there to discuss immigration reform and Senator Rubio. The question that Stephen Miller, who is the Trump campaign advisor, got was this: “Can you walk people through what the Gang of Eight was and why it was so horrific for this country?”<\/p>\n

MILLER: First of all, let\u00c2\u2019s remember the warning of Rush Limbaugh, who said that, if Rubio is president, within 12 to 18 months the entirety of the donor class agenda will be implemented. Mass immigration, open borders, amnesty, TPP and even more globalist trade deals, and the destruction of US sovereignty. Understand, everyone listening today: There is a point of no return. It is not far away. It is right in front of you. And, if you cross it, there is no going back.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: The beginning of that bite, “remember the warning of Rush Limbaugh.” There is, by the way, nobody who can find anywhere at any time me supporting amnesty. This is just so preposterous, either directly, indirectly, openly, closedly, there is no way anybody can ever do it. I think it\u2019s a sign of the desperation that some are in. <\/p>\n

The real question is why hasn\u2019t Gang of Eight passed? You look at all the powerful forces arrayed trying to get it passed, why hasn\u2019t it? Why isn\u2019t the Gang of Eight already law? Why isn\u2019t amnesty already the official law? I\u2019m not saying it isn\u2019t happening with Obama\u2019s executive orders and actions and so forth, but why is the Gang of Eight still up in the air, why has it still not happened? <\/p>\n

If there are all those powerful forces arrayed trying to make it happen, including me and others in talk radio, why hasn\u2019t it happened? “First of all, let\u2019s remember the warning of Rush Limbaugh, who said that if Rubio is president –” does that sound like somebody warning you or pushing amnesty? <\/p>\n

Now, let me go to the real quote, because what I was talking about, this is October 22nd of last year<\/a>, and I was discussing and informing you about the Republican establishment plan for enacting its agenda and what I had learned and then passed on to you was what the establishment Republicans were hoping to make happen.<\/p>\n

<\/a>RUSH ARCHIVE: I\u2019m telling you the House leadership thinks it\u2019s gonna be Jeb or Rubio. The dream: Jeb or Rubio in the White House; Ryan Speaker of the House. Then in the first 12 months of the Rubio or Jeb administration, first 12-to-18 months, the donor-class agenda is implemented, including amnesty and whatever else they want. That is the objective here. That\u2019s what I think all this adds up to. Just guessing. … [M]y scenario about what\u2019s going on with Ryan and the Speakership and how this is actually a script that\u2019s been written for many, many days here, long before we first hear about it. I mean, the dream is, from the establishment point of view, that if Jeb Bush — or somebody else, if he is not able to pull it off, that he\u2019s elected president — got Paul Ryan as the Speaker, and in the first 12 to 18 months the donor class agenda gets implemented, including amnesty. I do not doubt that is what they want out of winning the White House.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Right. Now, back to… This is back in October, and they\u2019re still very mightily behind Jeb. Jeb is still… He\u2019s not performing well. He hasn\u2019t ever performed well. Never did. At this time in October he hadn\u2019t, either, but they still had all their eggs in the Jeb basket. Their backup plan was Rubio. And here I am warning everybody against it. I\u2019m not advocating it, and certainly not pushing it. But the attempt by the New York Times nevertheless to drive this wedge between you and me — and not particularly so much you.<\/p>\n

I mean, you people that listen every day know it\u2019s preposterous. But there are people that don\u2019t. People that don\u2019t, who support one candidate or another and who believe any conspiracy theory that comes down the pike — particularly if they\u2019ve been pre-set up to expect people to disappoint them, to lie to them, to defraud them or what have you. It\u2019s happened so much at the Republican establishment level that people have come to expect it, which is one of the reasons why the establishment is in circumstances they find themselves.<\/p>\n

<\/a>But the New York Times somehow found out about a dinner that I was asked to attend. They reported the fact that the dinner had occurred. They had few, if any, details of the dinner, but they didn\u2019t care. All they had was the dinner, and they were able to use just the fact that it had happened in order to try to create this wedge between you and me. In fact, the New York Times even notes that. It was last week; we had a caller upset with me that I was not supporting Rubio. <\/p>\n

We had a caller upset with me, angry with me that I was not being more openly supportive of Rubio. And the caller tried to tell me that Rubio was no longer part of the Gang of Eight — that he had abandoned that and was moving on to other things in immigration — and I told the caller. I said, “I\u2019m sorry, but what is still being discussed is exactly that,” and the caller had given me the specific immigration scenario. I said, “Ma\u2019am, I\u2019m telling you that is in the Gang of Eight. And I know that because no less than Senator Schumer told me.”<\/p>\n

I said that last week. This is my first reference to this dinner. <\/p>\n

Now, I have mentioned on several occasions how powerful forces and powerful people have been dispatched to me to try to convince me that I\u2019m wrong about amnesty, that I need to see it in a different light. The George W. Bush White House, on two separate occasions, sent emissaries to me to try to explain to me that it wasn\u2019t “amnesty” and what it really was, their support for amnesty and immigration. And I\u2019ve told you that a number of times. I\u2019ve gotten to the point now that I joke about it.<\/p>\n

A number of times the Bush White House sent emissaries to me — actually to my home — to try to talk me out of my opinion on amnesty, out of my opposition to it. And the Bush administration efforts were always focused on, “This is how we save the Republican Party. If we succeed in this…” This is what I was told. “If we can do this, we make the Republican Party the dominant party for the rest of our lives,” and that was always the way it was pushed to me. That was always the angle that was taken to make me support it.<\/line><\/p>\n

And I — to their face, just as I did in this dinner that I will detail in a moment — expressed my opposition. I told them I didn\u2019t see it the way they do. I thanked them. I was civil. I was polite. I didn\u2019t yell at them, jump down their throats, or anything of the sort. I was flattered and gratified they would take the time to come see me personally. I was polite as a result. I was civil as a result, as I have been with Senator Rubio on the phone here, as I have been with Senator Cruz and everybody else who has ever called this program.<\/p>\n

Romney, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, you name it. Any candidate who\u2019s ever called here, I\u2019m polite and civil. And I\u2019ve routinely said to each of these emissaries, no matter where they\u2019ve been (in order to make my point, in order to let them know that I\u2019m not buying what they\u2019re selling), “I\u2019ll gladly, openly support your amnesty — happily so — if you will guarantee that none of those being granted amnesty can vote for 20 years.” And not a single person trying to sell it would even entertain the idea.<\/p>\n

Which I knew, because the whole purpose of amnesty is it\u2019s a Democrat voter-registration program. The Democrat Party needs its permanent underclass. In the pre-Obama economy, people in the lower-middle class and the middle class had opportunity to lift themselves, to change their economic circumstances, to go from lower economic middle class to middle class to upper-middle class and beyond. With the advent of the Obama economy, that movement has becoming stagnant. Nobody\u2019s moving upward at all. <\/p>\n

Everybody\u2019s stagnating or declining because of the Obama economy. But prior to the Obama economy, the Democrats needed to replace people who started improving their lives. Because as people improved their lives, they became less dependent on Washington, less dependent on the Democrats. Ergo, you need a constant influx of low-wage, low-skill, low-educated people who have no choice but than to depend on government to live, the permanent underclass. The Democrat Party cannot thrive or survive without it. <\/p>\n

And in an effort to establish that all this is is a voter registration drive by the Democrats, I have said, “I\u2019ll be glad to support you — in fact, I\u2019ll become one of your loudest voices — if you\u2019ll put in the bill that these people being granted amnesty will not be made citizens for 20 years and thus cannot vote.” And not one advocate would even entertain the idea. Nor did I expect them to. Because I know what this is. I have known forever what this is. It\u2019s what this was in 1986 with Simpson-Mazzoli. <\/line><\/p>\n

The advocates for amnesty have been lying and misrepresenting themselves ever since Ted Kennedy revived this whole process back in 1965. There was no immigration in this country from the early \u201920s to 1965. You know why? It gave people who had immigrated time to assimilate to become Americans. So we shut it down. There was illegal immigration, of course. Dwight Eisenhower deported six million people. In fact, I also referenced last week to a caller who said, “Rush, we can\u2019t do it. We\u2019re never gonna get rid of 12 million… Come on, you gotta be realistic.” <\/p>\n

And I said, “Why? What do you mean?”<\/p>\n

I said, “It\u2019s the United States of America.” It\u2019s one of these cliches that\u2019s used to shut conversation down. “We\u2019ll never deport all those people.” <\/p>\n

Who says we can\u2019t? We did six million with Eisenhower. If we have the will, there\u2019s a way. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: So the Democrats, ladies and gentlemen, can see their goal is within their grasp if they can just accomplish giving these 11 million — or probably twice that, really. Let\u2019s call it 11 or 12 million, these illegal aliens. If they can just somehow get them the vote, then whatever else happens, it\u2019s over. It\u2019s ballgame. And make no mistake: That\u2019s what this is about. It\u2019s what amnesty has always been about, which is why I\u2019ve never understood (and have said so) any Republican favoring it, which led me to figure that out. <\/p>\n

And then we find out the Chamber of Commerce wants the low-wage labor. The Chamber of Commerce has been taken over by a bunch of moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats, and we learn the donor class has been running the Republican all this time while we\u2019ve believed that elections and the will of the people were what influenced the Republican Party. Well, how wrong were we? So, anyway, it brings us back to the New York Times story on…<\/line><\/p>\n

It actually hit Saturday night. It was for the Sunday paper. And it begins with the story of Chuck Schumer wanting a dinner in the executive dining room at Fox News with Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, which apparently happened. Then the story says that Ailes and Murdoch told Schumer that, “If you really want this to happen, you need to reach out to Rush Limbaugh.” None of this was known to me at the time it was happening. But they did reach out, and I was invited to attend dinner with these people.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: All right. Now, you all know how much I really don\u2019t like making this program about me, particularly from the beginning. But I want to do this and get it out of the way. Reading here from the New York Times on Sunday: “Their mission…” Chuck Schumer, and I guess it was Rubio. Schumer and Rubio. “Their mission was to persuade Rupert Murdoch, the owner of [Fox News], and Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of its Fox News division, to keep the network\u2019s on-air personalities from savaging the [Gang of Eight] legislation and give it a fighting chance at survival. <\/p>\n

“Mr. Murdoch, an advocate of immigration reform, and Mr. Ailes, his top lieutenant … agreed at the Jan. 17, 2013, meeting to give the senators some breathing room.” I know nothing of that. Zilch, zero, nada. The Times then says, “But the media executives, highly attuned to the intensifying anger in the Republican grass roots, warned that the senators also needed to make their case to Rush Limbaugh, the king of conservative talk radio, who held enormous sway with the party\u2019s largely anti-immigrant base.” <\/line><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an “anti-immigrant” base! It\u2019s about the rule of law. It is about illegal immigration, not “anti-immigrant.” The base of the Republican Party is not anti-immigrant! But I digress. “So the senators [Schumer and Rubio] supporting the legislation turned to Mr. Rubio, the Florida Republican, to reach out to Mr. Limbaugh,” and this is where it breaks down. I was indeed invited to attend a dinner in New York on I think it was… Well, the dates are running together. When was the…? It was March 9th, 2011, five years ago now. <\/p>\n

I was invited. I got a call from Mr. Ailes, who is a friend of mine, and said (Rubio was not even part of this), “Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer would like to invite you to a dinner we\u2019re going to about immigration reform.” And he gave me the details of where it was, and I accepted. I would have been a fool not to. It was a learning opportunity. It was many things. So I attended. It was at The Palm in New York, and I have no idea how this leaked. But I was asked to keep it off the record, and did, because nothing happened at this dinner that was unexpected. <\/p>\n

But I\u2019m gonna give you the details of what did happen here. I want to properly characterize this for you. There was no pressure from anybody when I got the call and the invitation to attend the dinner, and they were very up front about what it was. Schumer and Lindsey Graham. Rubio was not part of this dinner. Rubio\u2019s name had not been mentioned to me in any of this. This was Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham wanting to explain to me and Rupert Murdoch what their legislation was all about, the intimate details of it.<\/p>\n

I was never under any pressure to agree with it. But Schumer and Graham did put the full-court press. In fact, not long after we had been seated, Lindsey Graham looked at me and said, “Let me tell you why we\u2019re here. We\u2019re here because we\u2019ve gotta fix the broken immigration system in this country. It\u2019s out of control. We\u2019ve gotta fix it. We\u2019ve got a plan. We want to tell you what the plan is. But if you call it ‘amnesty,'” Senator Graham said, “You\u2019ll kill it. It isn\u2019t amnesty.” <\/p>\n

And they went through it step by step — E-Verify, all of the mechanisms by which illegals were gonna be “brought out of the shadows” and be given identification cards and have to leave the country, come back in, get back in line, whatever it was. There wasn\u2019t gonna be immediate citizenship. There wasn\u2019t going to be amnesty of any kind. And they were hell-bent on me understanding it. I was polite, and I was civil. And by no means was this the only thing discussed. There were all kinds of other things. <\/line><\/p>\n

It was a random-topic dinner, not all of it full-court press, not nearly all of it intense. In fact, I remember when Senator Schumer began talking about, “The Republicans had better sign on to this or they\u2019re never gonna win the White House again,” I was sitting here, and I was literally as amused as I could be. Here\u2019s this rabid liberal Democrat senator trying to tell me he\u2019s concerned for the Republican Party. He said, “If they don\u2019t get with it, if you guys don\u2019t get with it, if you don\u2019t understand this, you\u2019re never gonna bin the White House again. You\u2019re never gonna get the Hispanic vote.” <\/p>\n

I\u2019m sitting there thinking, “You don\u2019t care about the Republicans winning the White House again. You\u2019d be perfectly happy if they never did.” And at some point in the dinner, I mentioned my little joke about, “Hey, you guys guarantee they can\u2019t vote, and I\u2019m all in.” No response whatsoever. The thing lasted about two or three hours, with immigration nowhere near the only thing discussed. I had a lot of takeaways, realizations, things that were being said by people that were surprising and shocking to me, but none of it about immigration. <\/p>\n

I was shocked at how well Schumer and Rupert Murdoch knew each other, but then I said, “Well, it makes sense. Rupert lives in New York; he runs a major business empire that interacts with politicians every day. It would make sense he knows Schumer.” But Marco Rubio was not part of this. Marco Rubio… My memory is Marco Rubio\u2019s name wasn\u2019t even mentioned at this dinner. Nobody asked me to take phone calls from Marco Rubio. Nobody asked me to give Rubio some airtime. Nobody asked me anything about Rubio. <\/p>\n

This was strictly Schumer and Lindsey Graham pitching me on understanding that their bill was not amnesty. So that\u2019s 2011. It\u2019s March of 2011. It\u2019s five years ago. Don\u2019t forget, I\u2019m the guy who calls Lindsey Graham “Grahamnesty,” and five years ago this happened, and I have never buckled on this, never once even gotten anywhere close to supporting amnesty or anything like it. Now, I was told that everybody wanted to keep this private, and so having agreed to attend on that premise, I didn\u2019t talk about it afterwards because…<\/line><\/p>\n

Well, I have manners and I had agreed that it was off the record. And frankly, folks, about the only thing that there would have been to tell you would have been the following: “Hey, folks, guess what happened last night? A couple of senators tried to talk me into supporting amnesty, but I told \u2019em no.” That was the upshot of the dinner. But for me, it was an opportunity to learn up close and personal who these people are, how they approach, how they sell, how they attempt to persuade. <\/p>\n

Education is an ongoing thing to me. I remember at one point when Senator Schumer was detailing the impossibility the Republicans had ever winning the White House unless they somehow did something to get their Hispanic numbers up. He started talking about the way politicians look at elections. Demographic groups here, and states over there, and tailoring a message. I put my arms up. “Senator, you\u2019re losing me,” I said. “I don\u2019t look at this the way you do.” And he said, “Okay, okay, okay. Fine.” <\/p>\n

But had that conversation continued, I would have said to him, “You guys can sit there and subdivide the country all you want by ethnicities, by demographics, by states, by this and that. I\u2019m into ideas. I think we\u2019re all Americans here, and with the right pitch, the right set of ideas and core beliefs will persuade anybody. I\u2019m not into tailoring what I believe based on who\u2019s listening to it.” That\u2019s what I was thinking, and that\u2019s why I put my hands up. “You\u2019re losing me here. I don\u2019t look at politics this way, Senator.” <\/p>\n

“Oh, okay. Okay.” There was nothing contentious at any time. It was friendly, convivial. There was nothing argumentative about it in any way, shape, manner, or form. Now, I\u2019ve told people here at the staff of this dinner. It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t tell anybody. I don\u2019t know how the New York Times learned of it, but we had the caller last week upset with me for mischaracterizing Rubio\u2019s immigration position, and the Times against referenced this call.<\/line><\/p>\n

I did say to the caller, “Look, I\u2019m sorry, what you\u2019re talking about comes right out of the Gang of Eight,” and I heard it from no less than Senator Schumer. Well, apparently, bells and whistles went off at the New York Times, and that\u2019s all they needed to go ahead and write confirmation of this dinner that had taken place. But that\u2019s all there is to it. There have been any number of such meetings I\u2019ve had over the course of my career with politicians of all stripes about issues, left and right. And I have not made a practice of divulging details when people have asked me not to, hoping to keep lines of communication open. Just the way I do it. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not into defrauding people or lying to them. “Yeah, yeah, don\u2019t worry, I won\u2019t say a word,” so they\u2019ll open up to me and then blab it. I hear it all — and I\u2019ve used, by the way — there\u2019s no way you would know this — things that were said at that dinner, things that were discussed, I\u2019ve used it in discussion of this issue ever since the dinner happened. I\u2019ve just not credited actual events at the dinner as my source, but I have used the information I learned, and that\u2019s the value of it for me. <\/p>\n

But they were polite. They were outgoing. They even followed up. They followed up with e-mails and invitations to other things, which I didn\u2019t do. This was it. I didn\u2019t take \u2019em up on any further golf outings that were suggested or whatever. This was it. So what\u2019s going on here with this story is obvious. The New York Times is attempting to further cloud the Republican presidential race, and they\u2019re trying to make it look like Republican voters are justified in thinking that they\u2019re being lied to. However, they\u2019re now trying to move the discussion from the establishment lying to them to the actual candidates they\u2019re thinking of voting for lying to them. <\/p>\n

When you talk about amnesty and so forth, I\u2019ve been as explicit as I can about this. If you have, in this presidential race, of all the Republicans in it, there have been two that you could guarantee would never sign on to amnesty. One was Ted Cruz and the other would be Trump. And you say Trump based only on what he\u2019s saying as a candidate, building the wall, all of these things. All the other candidates, none of them will come out and say as definitively as Ted Cruz has. <\/p>\n

Rubio has the Gang of Eight problem that hasn\u2019t gone away. People continue to raise questions about it. And I realize that one of the efforts that the New York Times made in this story was to make it look like the Schumer and Grahamnesty effort had been successful because I went easy on Rubio thereafter and enabled Rubio to come on this program and sell the Gang of Eight, and I didn\u2019t argue with him or shut it down. In fact, I complimented him. <\/line><\/p>\n

They printed a quote from a subsequent interview I did with Rubio on this program, and, as usual, the quote is out of context, and it does convey what they want you to believe. That Schumer and Grahamnesty hit me up to go easy on Gang of Eight, then Rubio gets involved in the program, and I went easy on him and didn\u2019t stand up to him, and thereby they succeeded in taking me out as an opposition force. <\/p>\n

Nothing could be further from the truth. Last night I went back, I looked at, we went to the archives of the program back in that era, five years ago, found the relevant transcripts to share with you today should this come up further. But the point that the New York Times tried to make is that I went easy on Rubio. Not true. I had interviews with him, I was civil again, I was polite, because that\u2019s just my philosophy in doing this program, particularly if I\u2019m gonna invite people on, I\u2019m gonna be polite on them. I\u2019m civil. I thought that\u2019s what everybody wanted in our politics anyway. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Just one more thing here and then we\u2019re done with this, unless any of you want to ask questions about it, but this is it. All of this began in March of 2011. That\u2019s when the dinner I had with Schumer and Grahamnesty and Mr. Ailes and Murdoch happened. Some days later, Rubio did call and ask to come on the program. He came on the program. I was polite to him. I was doubtful. I praised his conservatism and his courage. Remember, this is five years ago, Tea Party. He\u2019s the hot, young conservative, gonna take everything by storm. He had a lot of people supporting him and so forth, and I was complimentary in that regard. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe in chewing up and spitting out people on my own team. Even during these interviews with Rubio, I expressed my doubt. The first question I asked him, the very first interview I had with him, “Why are you doing this? Why are we doing this,” meaning Republicans, “What is the point? Why are we doing this?” And I went on to ask, “Why are we always responding to what the Democrats do? Why can\u2019t we just say ‘no\u2019 and forget it? Why do we have to come up with our own version of amnesty? Why can\u2019t we just say ‘no\u2019? They always get the agenda going. They\u2019re always the ones that come up with the next thing that has to be done. It\u2019s what they want to do to advance their agenda and we always end up saying, ‘No, no. We\u2019ve got a better, smarter way of doing the same thing.\u2019 Why are we doing this?” <\/line><\/p>\n

Rubio went on and answered. The New York Times published the following half quote of me. “I happen to like Senator Rubio very much. He\u2019s a force of nature. He\u2019s a force of energy. Folks, he is a genuine conservative and full-throatedly, full-heartedly, wholeheartedly believes in it. He really does. The bill itself, however? I\u2019m never gonna understand it. I\u2019m never gonna understand the thinking here.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what they published. I went on to say, “Let\u2019s say this happens exactly as Senator Rubio –” this is what they didn\u2019t print. “Let\u2019s say that this happens exactly as Senator Rubio spells it out. Within two months, Senator Schumer and the Democrats are gonna run to the microphones and cameras and they\u2019re gonna start tugging at people\u2019s heartstrings by saying, ‘How in the world can we be so cruel as to not let them vote? We\u2019ve just legalized them.'”<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve just brought them out of the shadows. We have just put them on the path to citizenship here. “But they\u2019ve been here, they\u2019ve been paying taxes, they have been discriminated against, how in the world could we have screwed up and not given them the right to vote?” And within two days I said — and the New York Times didn\u2019t publish this half of the quote, I said within two days Schumer and the rest are gonna be demanding that we add to the bill by granting them the right to vote, \u2019cause they\u2019re making a big deal how it wasn\u2019t gonna be part of the Gang of Eight to begin with. But my point was, after talking with Rubio, that none of this fooled me because all that was gonna happen was a two-day delay and then they push for the immigrants being granted the right to vote because that\u2019s all they care about in this whole process in the first place.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Folks, I actually misspoke. The dinner that I was invited to and attended was in 2011. The interviews with Rubio on this program were 2013. It sure took a while for Schumer\u2019s arm twisting to work, didn\u2019t it? Two years! Rubio was never part of that dinner. His name was never mentioned. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Look, I know, I know. Some of the Rush-hating trolls out there on Twitter and Facebook? They\u2019re out there saying, “I don\u2019t care what Limbaugh says! He still attended the meeting, and that means he was compromised.” Compromised? Really? The whole point is: If I\u2019d been “compromised,” that\u2019s what the New York Times story would be! That would be the story; that isn\u2019t the story. Their attempts to persuade me did not work. Their attempts to persuade Rubio did work, apparently. But not me. <\/p>\n

Snerdley just said during the break, “You gotta spell this out for people.” Uh, okay. I\u2019ll give this one little splash here, and that\u2019s it. I am a powerful, influential member of the media. I do not have guests on this program. There are rare exceptions, and you know who they are: When a president calls, a vice president calls. Sometimes you would not believe — and I\u2019m not complaining. I\u2019m just informing you. You wouldn\u2019t believe. I hear from every author. Every author wants to come on. Every author wants me to plug their book. I\u2019m not complaining.<\/line><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the way the world works. I never call anybody else and ask them to plug my book, though. I never call anybody else and ask them to plug my show. But they\u2019re all calling here. There are even some people out there ragging on me over this, who routinely call here every time they\u2019ve got a new book or call and ask to come in here and be on the air to talk about their new book. And I don\u2019t do it because I do not want to give up precious time that I have with you. <\/p>\n

I said the other day, “I don\u2019t know when people have time to squeeze guests into their shows anyway.” But I\u2019ll just tell you… I\u2019m gonna mention this: Way, way back 28 years ago when this program began, when I started this program, I explicitly decided to do it without guests, to stand out. Every show in the world has guests because that\u2019s just the way it is. And when I started doing this in Sacramento, they made me try to have guests, or tried to make me. And I resisted all of awhile, because it didn\u2019t take me long to figure out because the guest had no real interest in my show succeeding.<\/p>\n

My show was just the next in an endless parade of appearances for them in order to sell their books or whatever. And I asked myself, “Why should I give over a half hour here and a half hour there to somebody who really is not invested in this show working, who only wants to use it?” And then I said to myself, “When they\u2019re gonna be on every other station and every other show, why should I join that parade?” I wanted to find out if I could be the reason people would listen to the radio, not an endless parade of guests, \u2019cause I can\u2019t get any better guests than anybody else.<\/p>\n

And since I don\u2019t care what other people think, I\u2019m a lousy interviewer to boot. I don\u2019t like it. I couldn\u2019t care less about it. I know what I think, and that\u2019s all I need on this show. And then there were other programming aspects to it, too. But, you know, everybody else does it. “Why should I join the parade? They don\u2019t care about the show as much as I do.” So it just got established: I don\u2019t do it. And I very much appreciate it because that way I\u2019m not obligated to anybody. I don\u2019t want anybody obligated to me.<\/p>\n

But there are people out there (and you know who they are) who are ragging on me about this and have no idea what they\u2019re talking about, who are part of this crowd that\u2019s constantly asking me. And I have promoted their books. And I have attempted to help them with their stuff. So it\u2019s not just Senator Schumer that calls and it\u2019s not just these people. I\u2019ve told you: Mitt Romney\u2019s been by here twice. Rand Paul\u2019s been by here. I\u2019ve talked to Rubio. I\u2019ve had these people on the radio now and then. When I decide that it\u2019s interesting for me to have them on the radio, that\u2019s when I decide to do it.<\/p>\n

Not because of a sense of obligation.<\/line><\/p>\n

Not because I think you want to hear from \u2019em. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s if I do. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s strictly done on that basis, when I decide to have somebody in here. The only exceptions are when a president or vice president calls, I automatic say, “Yes.” But I never tell you about the people I say “no” to, and it happens constantly. By the same token, my only point is I don\u2019t tell you about each one of these conversations I have with people \u2019cause if I did, the Stick-to-the-Issues Crowd would get mad and say, “Will you stop talking about that? All you\u2019re doing is bragging about the people you know! Just stick to the issues!” <\/p>\n

And that kind of thing would be said. So that\u2019s that. And, again, just to correct — not correct, but to illustrate — one thing, one more thing. The dinner that I had with Schumer and Lindsey Grahamnesty was in March 2011. I had Rubio on this program two years later. So that arm twisting they did, yeah, that the New York Times says happened? That was really successful, wasn\u2019t it? It took \u2019em two years. Rubio on this program had nothing to do with that dinner. His name never came up; he was not part of it in any way, shape, manner, or form. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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