RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, the Schiff has hit the fan. I’ve been running a test all morning long. I’ve been asking people, “So what is the big news today? What do you think the big news is?” And I have not got a consensus of answers. And it is the most amazing thing. What happened yesterday, folks? Stick with me on this, now. What happened yesterday? What happened yesterday was we had an opening round of hearings into what? The impeachment of a president of the United States for the, what, fourth time in 300 years, 250 years, fifth time, fourth or fifth, regardless.

You know what the lead story on the Drudge Report right now is? A marital spat between Kellyanne Conway and her husband, George. Are you kidding me? After a full day of impeachment hearings, that’s the lead story. Really? I’m looking here at my Stack of Stuff today. I’m going to be very honest with you. This is the thinnest Stack of Stuff that I have had in I don’t know how long. This is the slowest news day that I can remember in I don’t know how long. And what day is this? This is the day after opening hearings into what? The impeachment of the president of the United States.

Now, you would think that after the opening day of the impeachment of the president of the United States, which is so rare it practically never happens — it has happened once in our lifetimes, Bill Clinton. Nixon was not impeached — you would think that after three years of all of the alleged crimes that Donald Trump has committed, all the alleged scams, the collusion with the Russians to steal the election in 2016, all of this that we have been subjected to daily, seven days a week, 31 days a month, 365 days a year for three years and counting, you would think that after the first day of impeachment hearings that there would be overwhelming, shocking oh, my God, what’s happened to our country news.

Ladies and gentlemen, they don’t have anything. I’m trying to be very reasoned here and very serious. This is a Schiff show, and Pelosi is committed to it. And I am telling you right now that if she could find a way out of this, she would. They don’t have anything. They didn’t have anything to start with. They never had collusion with Russia. They never had any of the things they told us that Donald Trump did.

After the first day we had two witnesses and neither of the two witnesses at any time in their lives have ever had direct contact with the president of the United States. They are the star witnesses. They were the witnesses that were going to create the inertia that would lead to the public clamoring for the removal of Donald Trump.

There is no clamoring today for the removal of Donald Trump. The media doesn’t even have anything to make a bombshell out of. There literally was nothing yesterday. And I’m telling you that Schiff and Pelosi know exactly how bad this show is playing. They are not confident. They’re gonna have to make another pivot. They’re gonna have to change directions. They’re gonna have to do something if they’re going to save this because, folks, there is nothing.

So the big news of the day is Kellyanne Conway and her husband in a marital spat over an interview that she gave Wolf Blitzer on CNN. The news of the day is not whatever happened in those hearings yesterday. The second big news of the day is that Deval Patrick is gonna get into the Democrat presidential sweepstakes. Really?

On the day after the president of the United States underwent the first day of impeachment hearings, where’s the news about it? Oh, you can find it if you tune in to CNN, but, folks, you don’t find it. There really isn’t anything. It’s striking. My instincts yesterday that they had nothing have been more than confirmed overnight and today.

And let me tell you why they’re in this position. Aside from the fact — I’m gonna make it specific to this instance. But they’ve never had anything. There’s never been a single bit of evidence. There hasn’t ever been anything solid to back up any of the numerous things they have accused the president of for the past three years. If it was solid, it would have all come out yesterday.

This was the impeachment of the president of the United States, and there isn’t a thing that anybody can remember about this yesterday. There isn’t one element of it that stood out, that everybody’s talking about and saying, “Oh, my God. We didn’t know that, oh, my God. Can you believe that?” I mean, this was a flatline with two dryball witnesses who couldn’t even testify to direct knowledge and communication with the president of the United States.

Now, the way this was supposed to go — and don’t doubt me on this — Pelosi should have pulled this away from Adam Schiff, and I will guarantee you she wishes that she had. The moment Donald Trump released the transcript of the phone call on July 25th with the president of Ukraine, that blew up the entire plan they had. The media will not acknowledge this. Very few people in Washington will acknowledge it.

But I’m telling you right now that the plan was for the whistleblower to be the star of this show. The whistleblower was set up. The whistleblower, this whole thing was orchestrated, it was practically scripted by the Democrats, including Schiff and whoever at the National Security Council and John Brennan, who was directly responsible for picking the whistleblower and positioning him. The original plan was for the whistleblower to come forward and say the most shocking, outrageous, “Oh, my God. We can’t believe that” kind of things, that Trump engaged in in the phone call with the president of Ukraine.

They rolled the dice that Trump would not reveal the transcript of the phone call in order to protect executive privilege, to continue to wage battle between Congress and the executive branch and the separation of powers. And they really believed that Trump and his advisers would go to the wall not releasing the transcript. That would permit Schiff and the whistleblower and the Democrats to accuse Trump of exactly what got Nixon: cover-up, obstruction, what is he hiding? What did he know, and when did he know it?

When the president released the transcript, it immediately rendered the whistleblower irrelevant. We then learned the whistleblower himself only knew secondhand what was said on the phone call. Plan A was the whistleblower, with instant credibility, was to be the Christine Blasey Ford of this story. Except nobody was gonna get access to him.

He was never going to testify because his life was threatened, remember? He was going to be kept under wraps because the president’s men were trying to kill him. The president’s men were trying to injure him. The president’s men were trying to find him. This was going to be the story. The whistleblower would never face cross-examination, would never face questions, would never be identified because what he had was so shocking, it would bring down the entire presidency.

That was Plan A. Trump releases the transcript of his, quote, unquote, perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine, and we find out that there’s nothing in it that is impeachable. There’s nothing in it that is criminal. It’s literally a nothing burger. That’s when Pelosi should have canceled this. But Schiff told her that he had it. Schiff told her he could still get the ball across the goal line.

Schiff told her he had a Plan B, and Plan B is what’s in motion now, but they’re trying to make everybody think that Plan B is Plan A. They’re trying to make everybody think the whistleblower was never a big deal, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But the whistleblower was it, folks. All eggs were in the whistleblower basket. Now the whistleblower isn’t even gonna testify. Now the whistleblower isn’t gonna even be acknowledged. The whistleblower may as well not even exist.

Oh, I know the media is talking about a bombshell. You know what the bombshell yesterday was? Let me run this by you. Here’s the bombshell from yesterday. This is the only new evidence — and I’m saying that in quotes — that came from yesterday’s hearing. In fact, in fact there’s actually a second thing. George Kent inadvertently made Trump’s case yesterday.

I went back – you know, I’m trying to follow this stuff while hosting the program at the same time, and it’s impossible to follow it intimately. I mean, I’ve got three-minute spot breaks. I went back and looked at some of the things this guy said. This guy actually did great damage to Schiff and his case. But I’ll get to that in a minute. He didn’t mean to.

This new bombshell yesterday is more thirdhand hearsay. This bombshell evidence — and this is what the media is reporting today is the bombshell — Ambassador William Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow Taylor claims that he had an aide named David Holmes. Taylor said that his aide, David Holmes, told him three months after the fact that when Holmes was at a restaurant, he overheard Gordon Sondland talking to Trump on the phone.

The phone call is in July. Three months later, Taylor’s aide is in a restaurant within earshot of Gordon Sondland. After this phone call, David Holmes said that he asks Gordon Sondland what Trump thought about Ukraine, and Holmes said that Sondland told him that Trump said he cared more about investigations than he cared about Ukraine. This is it! This is the sole totality of what the bombshell is yesterday, that a thirdhand witness had to go ask Sondland, “What were you talking to Trump about?”

He said, “Trump cares more about investigations than he does Ukraine!” This is like a high school romance. This is like the cheerleader’s girlfriend saying of the star quarterback, “He cares more about football than he does you, Babe.” (whining) “He cares more about investigations than he cares about Ukraine,” and that was the bombshell. That’s what CNN and the… They tried to run with it. They couldn’t even give this bombshell status. They tried.

It is so pathetic.

“Trump cares more about investigations than he cares about Ukraine,” like caring about Ukraine is the equivalent of a high school romance where people are judging what you care about and what you don’t care about as a testament to your character. It’s mind-boggling. High crimes, misdemeanors, bribery, extortion, the emoluments clause, colluding with Russia — and the bombshell was that William Taylor’s aide (three months after the fact) talks to Gordon Sondland, and Sondland told him that Trump cared more about investigations than he cared about Ukraine.

(wailing) “We care about Ukraine. We love Kiev! (sniffle) We love the people of Ukraine, and Trump doesn’t even care! Trump doesn’t even care what we care about, my God.” This is flat-out, immature, childish embarrassing — and once again, this is thirdhand information that came from one person, Gordon Sondland. Well, guess what else? Guess what else? This David Holmes, the aide working for Taylor who asked Sondland what was on that phone call with Trump? He worked for Marie Yovanovitch, who was the Trump ambassador Trump removed.

So he’s probably yet another disgruntled employee (blubbering) “upset that Trump… (mewling)” See, these guys, their reason for existence is Ukraine. They love Ukraine. Oh, Ukraine’s the center of the universe because it’s their diplomatic assignment. They love Ukraine! They love “Keeve.” See, us plebes pronounce it “Key-ev,” but they call it “Keeve” because they’re insiders. It’s Kiev. (sobbing) “They love Ukraine and they care about Ukraine and so forth, and they found out that Trump cares more about investigations than he cares about Ukraine! Oh! Oh!” They went nuts.

This is the basis. This is the bombshell that Trump’s gotta go. He doesn’t care about Ukraine, supposedly. It’s all hearsay anyway. The fact that there are adults literally reacting as though this is one of the single greatest offenses a human being could commit: “He cares more about investigations than he cares about Ukraine!” We don’t even know if it’s true — and even if it is true, so what? Trump is not president of Ukraine. But that was it. Regardless what you think of it, that is the bombshell.

That’s why Kellyanne Conway and the spat with her husband is the lead story on Drudge. That’s why today my Stack of Stuff is thinner than it has been in years. That’s why today is the slowest news day that I can recall. This is gonna be a day where I’m gonna have to be doing a lot of vamping, because the news media is so depressed, they have not reported on anything else. Everybody is in a collective mood of despondency because they all know that yesterday was a complete and total bomb. The Schiff hit the fan.