RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, if I had an out-of-control ego, like most media people do, if I were self-absorbed and thought the world revolved around me, like many people in the media do, I would think that I am the reason President Obama has decided to call a news conference. If I were self-absorbed, thought that the world revolved around me, thought that everybody hung on my every word, if I thought that I was the center of the universe and had all of this power, I would think that my two days of ridicule and criticism of Obama going on a late-night comedy show to discuss a very serious terrorism issue, was the reason why he’s all of a sudden called a press conference for this afternoon.
But I don’t have that kind of ego. I don’t have an ego that makes me believe the world revolves around me. I am not self-absorbed. This is just pure coincidence. It is nothing more than pure coincidence that two days — and I don’t know that anybody else has been harping on it, but I’m sure it’s just pure coincidence that after I highly critical in a serious way of the stature of the office being diminished by virtue of the president’s actions going on a comedy show to talk about a very serious national security issue, I’m sure it’s just coincidental that he called an emergency press conference for later this afternoon.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: My criticism of the President going on a late-night comedy show to talk about serious things, my criticism was so significant, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post had to address it. And after I addressed Chris Cillizza addressing me, he went back and arrested it again in the Washington Post today, as did USA Today. And for all intents and purposes, they are both acknowledging that, yeah, ol’ Rush has a point. Might even say that they think it is me that made the president call this press conference.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look, very quickly, the president is going to do a press conference this afternoon. What time, I haven’t heard. He was on The Tonight Show earlier this week, and I thought that was a mistake. I don’t need to rehash everything I said, but it makes the presidency look small, it diminishes it. JFK didn’t go on Jack Paar to tell the American people about the Cuban Missile Crisis. We closed 21 embassies for a week. All this talk about dangerous terrorism out there, chatter that was as dangerous, potentially dangerous as that which we had heard prior to the 9-11 attacks in New York and Washington, and to address this on the Tonight Show led to some people reacting to that.
At first journalists tried to say, “Well, you know, in the new media everybody is a journalist. It really doesn’t matter any more. There’s no reason why you can’t combine fun with journalism.” It used to not be that way. And I said the truth of the matter is, that anybody but Obama, the media would be livid here. This guy is sidestepping them left and right and they’re still in his camp. This guy doesn’t get any pushback from the mainstream media, no reason to go on a comedy show and side step them. But they’ll do everything they can to accommodate this guy because they’re in the tank for him and his agenda and everything else.
But Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post wrote a piece and said that (paraphrasing), “You know, Rush is absolutely right. Most reporters, me included, have been trusted by the regime’s tendency to end run the traditional media by picking and choosing where and when he gets asked questions.” USA Today, much the same thing, and let’s go to the audiotape. Earlier this afternoon on the Fox News channel, Judith Miller, a former reporter for the New York Times, was on, and the fill-in co-host Kelly Wright, and they’re talking about this. Kelly Wright said to Judy Miller, “Judy, does the media give him a pass for not coming to the White House press corps first or the American people for that matter saying, ‘Look, this is a very serious matter, we’re dealing with it’?” What do you think here about Limbaugh’s point.
MILLER: Other presidents have done this, but this president has made a habit, a pattern out of this. And I don’t see why he has to, because until recently the mainstream media haven’t exactly been beating up on him. I rarely agree with Rush Limbaugh. But this time I do. It diminishes the presidency and it’s not fair to the nation.
RUSH: I don’t know about fair to the nation, it’s just not respectful. But it’s not presidential. It’s diminishing, which is nothing new, by the way. But this has been talked about left and ride. On CBS this morning, Nora O’Donnell speaking with their White House correspondent, Major Garrett, and talking about the press conference today, she says, “Major, a lot of topics to be discussed here.”
GARRETT: A great number of topics. Evacuation of embassy personnel, Yemen, the uptick in strikes by drones, the ongoing global terror alert, Russian relations. All those terror alerts and security situations will sort of haunt that vacation as will the destabilized situation in Egypt.
RUSH: Now, earlier on the Today Show, NBC, F. Chuck Todd had something interesting to say about the president’s summer, upcoming vacation.
TODD: This is expected to be a press conference that will be all over the map. It’s an end of the summer-type press conference, if you will. The president is headed for vacation tomorrow for ten days in Martha’s Vineyard. This is basically a little bit of a disappointing end of the summer for the president. Three months ago he thought this would be a press conference where heÂ’d be talking about a big success, possibly signing a big immigration reform bill. That doesnÂ’t appear anywhere in sight. HeÂ’s got a big budget battle coming up in the fall, implementation of healthcare. So it’s a more precarious position that heÂ’s in as he heads to vacation and has this final press conference.
RUSH: It’s been a disappointing summer. Obama’s gotta do a press conference here to try to revive things.