RUSH: I asked the Fox & Friends people — I called my buddy Steve “The Duce” Doocy. I called Doocy on Wednesday and I say, “Hey, can you make some time for me Friday morning at 8:30?”
He said, “Gee, I don’t know. I gotta check with the producers.” And in two seconds, he came back and said, “They said it’s fine.” Literally two seconds. He didn’t even check with the producers. He told the producers that I was coming on. The producer said, “Okay, good.” And the reason I wanted to appear is that it’s phenomenal, the Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign benefiting Tunnel to Towers, a charity that pays the mortgages for families who have lost heads of households and first responders in military conflict and in episodes such as 9/11.
They have… Because of you, they have paid off 50 mortgages for families, folks — because of you — since early July. They also build houses from scratch for surviving terribly wounded military personnel. They manufacture and build houses that are made with kitchens, for example, that are specifically manufactured to help people who can only get around in wheelchairs, can’t bend over, can’t get down to lower shelves.
It’s amazing what they’ve done. And this all started back in July, when, as you know, Nike came out with a new pair of tennis shoes for the Fourth of July with the Betsy Ross flag in the heel. And Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, told Nike he didn’t like the Betsy Ross flag and they should not start selling the shoes. So Nike said, “You know, Colin doesn’t like them; we’re not gonna sell the shoes.”
And for me, I don’t know. Maybe even prior to that was the last straw. I mean, here comes Colin Kaepernick, who starts kneeling during pregames and the anthem of National Football League games ostensibly to protest police brutality against American minorities. But it wasn’t that. He was protesting the country. And it clearly became obvious to everybody that he was doing so, protesting the anthem, protesting the flag, politicizing all these things that stand for unity.
The flag is about unity. The flag was created, designed by one of the first feminists in America, Betsy Ross. They’re trying to politicize her. It was outrageous — and that’s born of rage. That’s born of hatred. Everything the left is doing today is because they hate and they hate and they hate — and their hate is primarily aimed at the fact that they are not winning, that they are losing. They hate it. They hate the people beating them, and they hate the fact that they have to put up with it.
Well, I got irritated — we got irritated — and said, “This needs something to push back. We’re tired of people like Kaepernick, tired of people like Nike and others bashing the flag, bashing fundamental American values.” I mean, the flag! No matter what side of the political aisle you’re on, it stands for unity and freedom, liberty, perseverance. You know, we want everyone to prosper. We want a great country. We want a nation of people pursuing excellence. We want a nation of people fulfilling their dreams and desires, and we don’t care what color they are.
We don’t care what gender they are. We don’t care what clubs they go to or what clubs they belong to. We want everybody to be great. And we are not running around angry all the time, and we don’t want to be angry all the time. There’s no reason to be angry living in the United States of America, not as a daily feature. Yeah, you get mad here and there, but to be perpetually mad because you’re an American? So we decided to push back.
This is a miraculous country. We wanted everybody who sees the flag to know just how lucky we are to be Americans, to be free. What incredible early patriots did to establish this country and preserve and protect freedom and guarantee it. Betsy Ross was a strong, talented, creative patriot. Why on earth attack her, for crying out loud? Why attack her flag? So Nike puts it on some sneakers, and Colin Kaepernick doesn’t like it. So Nike says, “Colin doesn’t like it. We’re not gonna sell ’em.”
So we decided to start the Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign. People could purchase a Stand Up for Betsy Ross T-shirt while supporting U.S. military police and first responders. We chose Tunnel to Towers to be the beneficiary of the campaign ’cause we love the work they do and the story about how they started. When a family experiences significant loss, the mother or father passes while serving our country, Tunnel to Towers steps in, frees that family of a major worry during their time of crisis.
Tunnel to Towers pays off mortgages in full for these families and provides them with the comfort of a home when their world has literally been turned upside down. And thanks to this campaign, the Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign, you have seen to it that we have been able to send a charitable donation in total of $5 million to Tunnel to Towers since this campaign began on July the 8th — $5 million. It’s not a profit center, as I said on Fox.
The Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign is not a profit pursuit for the RushLimbaugh.com store. Proceeds go to Tunnel to Towers. We started with a $27 T-shirt. We then expanded the line to include a different color, then different styles — and for fall and winter and Christmas we have really expanded the line with apparel for women. We’ve got fall and winter gear, long-sleeve zip-up fleeces and hoodies. We’ve got caps. We’ve got pink T-shirts.
We’ve got anything that you could want, but still the price point is still amazing. But we’re able to generate $5 million at this price point. That means that there has been an incredible amount of merchandise purchased, and it’s all you. It’s $5 million for Tunnel to Towers. It will help them provide 53 homes to the families of our greatest patriots, either lost or severely wounded, injured in service. This campaign, I should tell you, has created itself over 100 jobs. When we started, our objective…
We would have been thrilled if we could have moved 50,000 T-shirts in the first month. That would have been success. It kept going. We had to take over a vendor operation in western Pennsylvania. This guy prints T-shirts and does things for a whole lot of people. We had to take it over. His output became ours. He was running 24/7 embroidering and screen-printing merchandise for us. Delivery trucks were showing up with everything in the truck destined for our warehouse every day.
We had to staff up at our fulfillment center with person after person after person doing nothing but fulfilling these orders. All told, 100 jobs were created just to meet the demand for those of you who wanted to purchase some Stand Up for Betsy Ross gear. We’re gonna keep this going through Christmas. So if you’re looking for meaningful, wonderful little presents and you want to support Stand Up for Betsy Ross, go to RushLimbaugh.com and find the “Store” tab. You can find it on our app on your iPhone or your Android device or at any website browser.
Go to RushLimbaugh.com. Click on the “Store” tab. You’ll see cold weather gear, soft fleeces embroidered with the Betsy Ross flag and more. Now, folks, I’m not just saying this: Supplies are limited. I’ll just give you the number, some inside baseball. Thirty minutes after the appearance on Fox today, we had sold 5,000 items. In the first 10 minutes after the appearance, 25,000 people were shopping. So when I say supplies are limited, I ain’t lyin’.
I ain’t sales pitchin’ you. I ain’t making it up. We’re down to inventory crunch time. You know, “Do we reorder? How much time is left in the Christmas season?” So make tracks, and remember the proceeds for anything with Stand Up for Betsy Ross go straight to Tunnel to Towers. We generated another million, a total of $5 million to that great charity started by Frank Siller in honor of his brother Stephen.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Donald in Cameron Park, California. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. It’s an honor to talk to you. I just wanted to let you know a Tunnel to Towers story out here. On October 23rd in the wee morning hours, Deputy Brian Ishmael was ambushed and murdered by an illegal alien, and within two days it was announced on the news that Tunnel to Towers had paid off Katie, his widow’s, mortgage.
RUSH: Yeah. They’re doing fabulous work. They really are.
CALLER: Yeah, and I have no idea how they found out about it. It was just amazing that it was that quick that they paid it off.
RUSH: Well, they’ve got people scouring the countryside for people who are in need — first responders, law enforcement, military, of course — and people pitch them. They’re like any charity. They can’t respond to everything. They’ve got a specific set of requirements because they can’t service every problem that they are alerted to. They wish they could. But that is a typical story. I’m glad you called.