CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m a listener for 29 years, I think. Right around there.
RUSH: You’re pretty close. We’ve got our 28th anniversary coming up in less than a month. Do you realize, August 1st is gonna be 28 years?
CALLER: Oh, wow. Wow. I’m approaching the third decade, so I’m a proud listener.
RUSH: It’s great to have you out there.
CALLER: Thank you. I’ve been anticipating the end of this cheap matinee for several months now, and it happens a few weeks before the Republican convention? I’m just interested in what your insight is towards that significance.
RUSH: Uhhh…
CALLER: If it is.
RUSH: The timing of this before the Republican convention? Uhh, you’ll have… I haven’t thought about it in those terms yet. What is your theory on it?
CALLER: Well, I just think one of Mr. Trump’s things that he says is “Crooked Hillary, Crooked Hillary,” and it looks like, “No, no, she’s not! Look, she’s been exonerated.” And I just hope there’s enough ammunition there with Mr. Trump that he comes out and just —
RUSH: Well, you see, that’s… In a way, that’s kind of the point. She has been legally exonerated, but with a lot of questionable twists and turns. Politically, she hasn’t been. The FBI director pretty much stipulated that she trafficked in top secret classified information. The FBI director has committed that it’s pretty likely that “hostile actors” got her emails. They couldn’t find any direct evidence of a hack, but the hackers will be glad to tell you that they’ve done it. But he laid out a case.
I went through all of the things that she did at the beginning of the program. He just said at the end of the day, she didn’t intend to. He couldn’t find any intent to be grossly negligent like they was, and so because there wasn’t any intent, that no reasonable prosecutor would pursue this, in a legal sense. You prosecute on the basis of the nature of evidence, the likelihood of a conviction. Nobody wants to go into court thinking they’re gonna lose if they even could.
Some cases, you have to prosecute — like murder. The OJ case, you have to prosecute it. But things like this, prosecutors can decide based on all the evidence — the recommendation from the people that collect the evidence, the FBI — whether to go or not. So the FBI director said (summarized), “I’m not gonna recommend that they prosecute because no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute the case.” Well, based on what?
But that doesn’t mean that a presidential candidate or a presidential party cannot prosecute what she has done here. She has pretty much been tied to gross negligence. This we knew before Comey went through it. We know she’s been trafficking in these things. We know she had a private server. We know she had it set up so she would be able to shield it from public view. That was why she did it. The Clintons and the Democrats don’t want us to be able to find out what they’re really doing. They don’t want there to be an email report, for example, that shows why $100 million has been given to them by foreign governments, for example.
They don’t want that record known.
But we know that it happened.
So it’s gonna be up to now the political world to carry out the case, to prosecute the case.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, the timing of this. You know, let’s not forget, the Democrat convention is the following week from the Republican convention. So I don’t… The timing of all this? If you want to start playing those games, I mean, the Lynch meeting last week with Clinton, and then Hillary’s interviewed for three or four hours this weekend? What the hell was that? And then Comey? Nobody knew on Friday this press conference gonna be today. Did you know Friday? (interruption)
Nobody knew that… It was just this morning we found out that Comey is gonna have the press conference here. So look at what’s happened in the last four days — just the last four. You had the Clinton-Lynch meeting on the tarmac in Phoenix. You had Hillary all of a sudden show up 3-1/2, four hours to interview the FBI. We learned that all of the people the FBI was talking to on Hillary’s staff could not tell the FBI anything, because she’d hired all of them as her “lawyer,” quote/unquote, granting them attorney-client privilege.
Meaning, they had to say nothing, even though she didn’t hire some of them ’til years after this whole thing surfaced. So we have a weekend of speculation about Hillary’s interview. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! What does it mean?” Loretta Lynch was practically almost recusing herself but falling short of that, saying, “No, no, no, no. I’ll accept the recommendation of the FBI and the career prosecutors.” And then there’s all this scuttlebutt throughout the weekend; then we all wake up today, and find out Comey’s got a presser 11 o’clock.
Whoa.
On the same day, Barack Hussein O is putting Hillary Clinton on Air “Farce” One, flying her to a campaign appearance in North Carolina. Now, you know damn well he’s not gonna do that if there’s even the slightest possibility that the FBI’s gonna recommend that she be indicted today. By the way, you know, people are asking the wrong question. Trump, come on! Get with it. The wrong question is, “Who’s paying for it?”
That’s not the question. That’s not gonna faze anybody. Okay, so it’s $200,000 to operate Air Force One and Obama’s taking her to a campaign appearance. The fact that it cost a lot of money? That’s not gonna change one person’s vote. We’re beyond that. The question is: Why is she on Air Force One to begin with? Why? He’s not taking Trump on Air Force One with him. Why is he taking her?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look, I mentioned earlier there’s a piece in the Washington Post today by Chris Cillizza, and here’s its headline: “Hillary Clinton’s Email Problems Might Be Even Worse Than We Thought.” The piece was posted after Comey’s press conference.
It begins this way: “Here’s the good news for Hillary Clinton: The FBI has recommended no charges be brought. Here’s the bad news: Just about everything else.” And let me give you some pull quotes from this. Again, Washington Post, Chris Cillizza.
“FBI Director James B. Comey dismantled large portions of Clinton’s long-told story about her private server and what she sent or received on it during a stirring 15-minute news conference, following which he took no questions. While Comey exonerated Clinton legally speaking, he provided huge amounts of fodder that could badly hamstring her in the court of public opinion.”
Exactly the point that I made. He did exactly that. He detailed crime after crime after crime, even though there’s no prosecution. He detailed irregularity after irregularity after irregularity. He detailed impropriety after impropriety. He detailed gross negligence after gross negligence. He went through it all. And that’s what Cillizza means by, well, he may have exonerated her legally, but he provided huge amounts of fodder that could badly hamstring her.
“Comey said the FBI found 110 emails on Clinton’s server that were classified at the time they were sent or received. That stands in direct contradiction to Clinton’s repeated insistence she never sent or received any classified emails.”
And I’m gonna add something else to that. Those 110 emails and the 36 threads were from the 30,000 emails she deleted. It’s even worse than it stands in direct contradiction to her repeated insistence that she never sent or received any classified emails. She had 60,000-plus total on that server. She deleted half of ’em saying they were not relevant. Yoga lessons and Chelsea’s wedding and all that. She sent 30,000 over to the prosecutor, the FBI, the State Department for parsing and examination. The 30,000 that she did not send she deleted. And it was in those 30,000 deleted they found the 110 classified at the time they were sent or received.
Another pull quote. “Now for the key question: How much do the FBI findings hurt her campaign? Clinton did avoid indictment, a ruling that would have effectively ended her campaign or left it so badly weakened that there would have been a major move within Democratic circles to replace her as the nominee. That said, campaigns aren’t governed by the ultimate legality of what Clinton did or didn’t do. So, while dodging an indictment is a good thing — she isn’t under criminal investigation and remains a candidate — it’s a far different thing from being cleared (or even close to it) in the court of public opinion.”
I find this a fascinating admission by an admitted leftist member of the Drive-By Media that this dodging an indictment is a far thing from being cleared. In other words, she hasn’t been found not guilty. They just decided not to pursue it on the thin, thin, thin basis that she didn’t intend to do any of it.
“For a candidate already badly struggling on questions of whether she is honest and trustworthy –” And don’t forget that. She and Trump are both in trouble. It’s not just Trump. She is horrible in the polling data. It’s like F. Chuck Todd last week in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. It had her up by five or six, but every important internal question she was getting creamed, like cares about people like me, best to handle terrorism, best to handle the economy. She was getting her clock cleaned on every internal issue. And that’s what he’s talking about here.
“For a candidate already badly struggling on questions of whether she is honest and trustworthy enough to hold the office to which she aspires, Comey’s comments are devastating. Watching them, I could close my eyes and imagine them spliced into a bevy of 30-second ads — all of which end with the FBI director rebuking Clinton as ‘extremely careless.'”
That’s exactly right. Again, look, I don’t want to impute intentions to anybody ’cause I don’t know Comey. He did recommend no prosecution, but he laid out step by step an indictment that they choose not to seek. But he made it clear this woman is not clean and pure as the wind-driven snow. So he’s not gonna prosecute. That leaves it up to Trump. That leaves it up to Trump and the Trumpists and whoever else in the Republican Party wants to join that effort.
One final pull quote from Chris Cillizza. “All things considered, this is a very bad day for the Clinton campaign. It’s not the worst outcome (indictment), but it badly disrupts her attempts to move beyond the email server story as she seeks to unite the party in advance of the Democratic convention later this month. And it suggests the email issue will haunt her all the way through Election Day on Nov. 8.”
And just remind you of an alternative theory. That had she been indicted, Cillizza thinks it would have finished her. I’m not so sure. If she’d been indicted, you know, these Democrats might have circled the wagons around her like the leftist media did when Dan Rather was canned for forging documents in that story on George W. Bush and the National Guard. They circled the wagons, they gave him an awards dinner to protect the institution of the media and themselves. Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings did it.
When Clinton got in trouble with Lewinsky, was impeached, the Democrats rallied around, Clinton had 65% approval rating among Democrats. So it could have been that Hillary could have circled the wagons or had the wagons circled for her, Democrats could have joined forces; or it could have been that they’d have dumped her and brought in Biden. That’s not gonna happen now.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Kathy in Cleveland, Tennessee. Great to have you with us. Hi.
CALLER: Hello. Thank you for having me.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I called today because — as I told Snerdley — I’m not depressed about this news conference. To me, we have somebody running that’s not a RINO, somebody who will take what Comey said and go with it, you know? It makes me optimistic.
RUSH: Well, that’s the hope. Yeah, that’s the hope. I’ve seen a couple of Trump tweets so far today and, you know, it’s still early in the campaign. But let me tell you something: He’s not running any ads. Chris Cillizza writes his piece where he says he can close his eyes and see all these Comey statements in ads. There aren’t any. Trump’s not running any.
CALLER: Not yet. Not yet. But it’s just like the swift boats. It took a couple days to get that going, you know?
RUSH: Wait, wait. Took a couple days to get what going?
CALLER: Back when the swift boat ads ran.
RUSH: Oh, swift boats.
CALLER: Yeah. Remember it was on talk radio, and a couple days later, Fox, and pretty soon it was in mainstream media. But, you know, we’ve never… Romney wouldn’t have done this. McCain wouldn’t have done this. They would have said, “Well, no. This wraps it up, and we know there’s nothing there.” And, you know, she would have been pardoned, I think, by Obama anyway, just like Bill. Any crime present, past, future, she would have been pardoned. I don’t think she would have ever served time. That would have not happened. I really feel like Comey just laid it out for Trump, and if he is smart, he’ll use it, and I think he is smart.
RUSH: Well, I didn’t want to put it that way. I was hoping people would conclude that’s what I meant when I was going through this, because I don’t want to impute that motive to him. But whether Comey intended to or not, you believe that Comey has given Trump a road map.
CALLER: Oh, and he laid it out well.
RUSH: Yeah. Well, I think you’re right. Somebody like McCain would not have run with it because, “Oh, the Department of Justice and the FBI are above reproach! They’ve recommended no charges. I cannot see myself taking issue with the revered office.” You’re probably right about that. I hope Trump does run with it. I hope so. The swift boat guys, that was a PAC that came up with that. George W. Bush didn’t have anything to do with that. That was a PAC, political action committee that did that. We’ll see if one pops up for Trump that tries to capitalize on this. And, of course, the timing. You don’t want to be too early with this stuff. So we will… Let me ask you a question, Kathy. You’re a Trump supporter?
CALLER: I wasn’t initially, but I am now.
RUSH: How long have you been an enthusiast? There’s no wrong answer, ’cause I’m just curious. I’ve got another question depending on your answer here. How long have you been an enthusiastic Trumpist?
CALLER: I think since Ted Cruz dropped out of the race. I could see that, you know, that wasn’t going anywhere. Like I said, Trump wasn’t my first choice, but he definitely is now, because he’s not Hillary. And there’s so much at stake in this election, just the courts and all of that.
RUSH: Right. Okay. So you don’t really qualify for my question.
CALLER: Okay. (chuckles) No, I have friends who’ve been Trump supporters from the very beginning.
RUSH: Okay, well, then let me ask you: How do they seem to you now? Are they still as excited as they ever were?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: They are?
CALLER: Yes. Yes, definitely.
RUSH: All right. Okay.
CALLER: Just my friends. Could I say a shout-out to two people —
RUSH: Sure.
CALLER: — that were girls with me when we were little? Ann and Jenny, who are listening, I know.
RUSH: Yeah, absolutely.
CALLER: We’re good listeners, Rush. We’ve been around through it all with you.
RUSH: Oh, God bless you. I know you all are.