RUSH: So I checked the email during the break. “Rush, why aren’t you doing play-by-play of the hearings?” Okay, that’s a good question. I’ll tell you why. Because there isn’t anything new being said here, folks.
What’s going on, it started out with Republicans trying some rules-of-order motions and delay tactics because they’d like to get to debate this thing — I mean, the final vote — after everybody’s gone to bed tonight, which is a great political objective. Here you have this major, terribly important, earth-shattering, world-stopping moment — and it’s so important, it’s voted on at 2 a.m. That was one of the objectives. The second thing is that the Democrats are just repeating the gunk and the garbage of these two articles.
They’re throwing in all this stuff about, “This president put children in cages. This president is somebody who attacked a 16-year-old climate activist.” There’s nothing new here, and none of it’s impeachable. But the Republicans, the Republicans in their debate-response segments are nuking all of this. They’re doing well. Doug Collins is running it along with Mr. Cole, and they’re nuking this on the substance. They keep pointing out, “The aid was not withheld. The Ukrainians didn’t know the aide had been withheld.
“The president was talking about ‘us,’ not him, when asking for a favor. There’s nothing here, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Speaker.” They are just nuking it all. Anybody who’s watching this who has any semblance of an open mind… I’m telling you, Democrats are so overplaying this. I don’t doubt it’s working with their base. But it’s so obvious. Chuck Todd and Toobin, these guys all know that this is not the grave, consequential, stop-dead-in-your-tracks-and-watch-it moment.
It’s just seen as yet another in a never-ending series of purely partisan political attacks that, frankly, is one of the reasons why so many people are fed up with politics in general and following it. So you’ve heard it all before. There isn’t anything new here since the hearings began three weeks ago. There’s literally nothing new here. In fact, this isn’t even the story anymore. That’s right. This isn’t even the story.
This is a foregone conclusion. We have known since before Trump was inaugurated that this day was coming. I, among many others, predicted it accurately and told you. I played the audio of me predicting it two days after Trump was inaugurated. This is a foregone conclusion. They were gonna do this the minute they got control of the House, and no matter what they had to make up to make it happen, they were gonna do it. They were gonna use the votes to do this.
The story is now what happens in the Senate. The story is they have done this knowing they cannot get a conviction in the Senate. Now, they have done a good job of peppering the news every day with the possibility that all these RINOs in the Senate can’t wait to vote against Trump. Don’t buy it. That’s nothing but a bunch of fake leaks. In other words, folks, if I were you, I wouldn’t believe a damn thing that you see on CNN or read in the New York Times.
Using experience guided by intelligence, after what they pulled off during the Russian meddling hoax and coup, there’s literally no reason to believe anything they say the first time you hear it or read it. So if you see stories about all these Republicans who can’t wait to vote against Trump in the Senate, it’s bogus. That’s not the case. It’s not even gonna get to that point. “Schumer’s gonna force it. He’s gonna get these witnesses called. Mulvaney is gonna appear!”
No, he’s not.
This is why they’re so dejected today in the Drive-By Media. Even Fox News is going wall-to-wall with this because it’s historic, and they have no choice. But there isn’t a damn thing new. Nobody, even the analysts… The analysts don’t have anything new to say about it. Everybody’s exhausted every opinion there can possibly be about this. “Well, what about different tactics?” Well, there might be some different tactics played. There’s a long time to go before the vote.
You never know what’s gonna happen. But this is a foregone conclusion. What the Democrats in the House are doing is old news, and it hasn’t even registered on the Richter scale. They thought they would time this to happen on the same day that Clinton was impeached. You know, but the big difference was back then that Clinton had actually done some stuff. He had lied under oath in a federal grand jury proceeding, and he had asked other people to lie, and he had left the semen deposit on the blue dress.
I mean, the things that he was accused of, he did. But even at that, the same thing is happening today that happened then. During the impeachment process, Clinton’s numbers kept going up. Now, his numbers got to the sixties. You remember how frustrated we all were over that? The American people don’t like their votes being ignored, and they don’t like presidents being thrown out of office in this manner. Do you realize it has never happened?
A president of the United States has never, in the history of our great country — never — been removed from office by way of an impeachment proceeding and conviction in the Senate. It has never, ever happened. The Democrats are doing this as much as anything to get a black mark on a Republican president like the Republicans got on Clinton. They think it’s payback time for that. But they’ve also got the requisite Trump hatred, and they’re totally out of control.
I want to get some phone calls in here. I intended to in the first hour; I failed. So in deference to people not having to hold on for their whole lives here, let’s start in Folsom, California. Doug, I’m glad you waited. I appreciate it. How are you?
CALLER: Hey, Rush, Merry Christmas. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet, sir.
CALLER: So after these two articles fail in the Senate, what’s the likelihood of Democrats just introducing new articles down the road, you know, just keep the narrative going all year (crosstalk).
RUSH: Oh, they will continue to impeach. This is a… They pull the trigger on it’s never ending. If Trump wins reelection they’re gonna keep impeaching him. Keep doing the same thing. They’re not gonna stop.
CALLER: Yeah, there’s no, like, double jeopardy.
RUSH: No, there’s no double jeopardy. No, no, no. Well, no, they can impeach. It all depends on who runs the House, Doug. If the Republicans win control of the House, then there won’t be any impeachment unless they decide to get rid of Trump which won’t happen. The Democrats have to maintain control of the House — and if they do, they can go back and redo these same articles again if they want or they can try new ones.
There’s no double jeopardy when it comes to impeachment. It’s a purely political process. This is the rub here. The Democrats have taken something that already is a political process — meaning that you can’t do this without public opinion. That makes it a public and political process. They’re doing this without public opinion supporting it. But they can because they can turn impeachment into anything they want.
The great fear that a lot of people have is that impeachment has now become or will become a staple of every presidency. Once you cross the line — once you turn this sacred, rare proceeding that should never, ever be used except in the most dire circumstances… Once it becomes part of every political party’s ammunition, then they’ll use it. Like I tell you, I’m gonna be getting together Republican leaders over the break; we’re gonna be writing articles of impeachment for the next Democrat president.
Even before we know who he is, and even before we know what he’s done, because they’ve just shown how to do it” Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Well, hell’s bells! You can impeach Mickey Mouse for that. So why not do it? This is the great fear, that impeachment is gonna become as dull and boring as government shutdowns are, all thanks to the Democrats. Kind of like using the nuclear option on judges. All this stuff, it does come back to bite ’em.
Here’s John in Yorkville, Ohio. John, great to have you with us today. How are you, sir?
CALLER: Good. Merry Christmas to you, and first time I finally get to get through on this phone call. I want to call about Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She’s sitting on the House floor sitting there saying Trump is — nobody should be above the law like Trump’s being, trying to act. This is the woman right here that was the head of the DNC that got caught making the DNC, giving it to Hillary, and then taking it from Bernie Sanders, giving the election to her during the primaries, okay?
RUSH: This has always been — the word is overused. The word “irony” is always overused, and you know why it’s overused? Because when you go to journalism school, it’s in the first year, first semester journalism they teach you irony and to look for it and to highlight it. Well, in this case the great irony or the great contradiction or the unbelievable, here is Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz, I saw her, I happened to be watching. And she’s going on and on about Trump fudged an election.
These people are still acting, by the way, like Trump colluded with Russia. Half of these Democrats that get up and speak reference the fact that Russia and Trump meddled in the election. They’re just ignoring what the Mueller report said, and then they’re adding Ukraine to it and then saying Trump is meddling in 2020, this why we gotta stop him.
But in truth Trump did not meddle, he did not collude with the Russians or anybody else. The Democrats did. Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia. See, I’m repeating myself now. Hillary colluded with Russia via Steele via Fusion GPS to write the dossier. Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz rigged the Democrat primaries. She was head of the Democrat National Committee, and she made sure that no matter who won every Democrat primary, that Hillary Clinton was gonna get the superdelegates that would put her over the top.
Crazy Bernie had no prayer in 2016 of winning the Democrat nomination. The thing is Crazy Bernie knew it, and he still went through with it for the sake of party unity. And the Democrat National Committee server that was hacked, well, it was hacked during the leadership of Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz. It was Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz that would not let the FBI examine it forensically. It was Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz that made sure that CrowdStrike got hold of it and was able to report.
So, yeah, it’s ironic for Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz to be talking about Trump rigging elections, meddling in elections and all that. But pretty much all of this, the Democrats are accusing Trump of doing things they’ve done. It’s called projection. There is a psychological term for it, but in point of fact, without any psycho-terms, they are doing and have done what they accuse Trump of doing.
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RUSH: Here is Mario in Miami. Mario, great to have you with us, my man. How are you?
CALLER: Yeah. Fine. Thank you, sir. I’m a Cuban-American Trump supporter, and my question to you is once the House comes back — we retake the House, can we expunge, can the House expunge the record of impeachment?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: No, they can’t?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: They don’t have —
RUSH: If you could, Bill Clinton’s impeachment would have been buried with Jeffrey Epstein.
CALLER: Yes. You’re right.
RUSH: Nah. It’s permanent record. In fact, that’s one of the primary reasons they are doing it out there, Mario. You can’t erase it. You can’t expunge it. You just point out that failed to be removed from office because of no conviction in the Senate. But, no, it’s part of the permanent record.
CALLER: Part of the record, but in a symbolic way can the House take a vote against — I mean the new Republican-controlled Congress, can they vote to repudiate the impeachment?
RUSH: No. They can’t bring it back up and have a new vote and say, “When this happened, we thought it was bunk. And we’re gonna vote it again and vote –” no, it’s permanent. It goes into the Congressional Record. Every two-year Congress is its own entity, and it’s self-contained, it’s bookended as a two-year period of history, and there’s no expunging the record, there’s no community service that can erase convictions or any of that. It is what it is. Look. I’m glad you called. Mario, what is your country of origin?
CALLER: I’m a Cuban-American.
RUSH: You’re Cuban, ’cause I want to ask you a question. I just saw a Democrat on TV who was proud, “I did not have the blessing of being born in America. I came from Ecuador.” And then she started talking about how she’s seen dictatorship, she has seen the horrors of dictatorship, and she doesn’t need to see it again with Donald Trump. So she’s comparing the Trump presidency to dictators in Ecuador. Would you compare Trump to Castro?
CALLER: (laughing) No. No, no, no. No way.
RUSH: See, that’s exactly right. These people, they’re so overreaching. They’ve tried everything to get people to notice, and the American people are yawning. So they’re going way overboard with their analogies and allegations. Thanks, Mario.
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RUSH: Here is audio sound bite number 26, Debbie Powell. She identified herself. She’s Democrat from Florida, and she talks about coming here from Ecuador.
POWELL: Madam Speaker, I did not have the privilege of being born into this country. My mother brought me from Ecuador looking for freedom and opportunity. … We’ve left and experienced corruption in our countries of birth, where brutal dictatorships have choked their potential to benefit those in power. This president — elected by the American people — has violated his oath of office and violated the rule of law.
RUSH: You notice this subtle comparison to these dictator thugs in Ecuador, with these brutal dictatorships? How in the world…? It’s obscene, and it’s absurd. Just take a look at the United States economy and the vast improvement just in the three years that Trump has been president. The stock market is up 10,000 points since Trump has been president, for example.
The idea that there’s a dictatorship is just absurd. This is my point. They are grasping at anything now because they can’t get anybody’s attention with (impression), “He abused his power. He made a phone call to the president of Ukraine, and he said some bad things on that phone call, and this is very, very dangerous for the country.” That’s not getting anybody’s attention.
(sputtering) “And he — he — he abused Congress! He — he — he abused Congress, he obstructed Congress!” What did he do? “He didn’t let people come talk to us!” No, he went to court to try to stop you from being able to talk to them. He did not obstruct Congress in any way. So the things that they wanted to tar and feather and sully Trump with haven’t worked. So now they’re just reaching for anything. He’s no different than a tinhorn dictator in Ecuador — or Hakeem Jeffries.
I’ve got that here somewhere. Let me find that sound bite. Hakeem… Number 25. Here we go in three, two, one.
JEFFRIES: Slavery once divided the nation, but emancipators rose up to clarify that all men are created equally. Suffrage once divided the nation, but women rose up to clarify that all voices must be heard in our democracy. Jim Crow once divided the nation, but civil rights champions rose up to clarify that all are entitled to equal protection under the law. We will hold this president accountable for corrupting our democracy. We will impeach Donald John Trump.
RUSH: That’s right! We’re gonna impeach Trump just like we got rid of slavery ’cause it’s one and the same. This is the guy who last week went on a diatribe about Trump putting kids in cages, and he ripped into Trump for “attacking” a young, 16-year-old climate change activist — and in so doing, he uncovered or revealed what it really is all about. They just can’t stand Donald Trump, politically or personally.
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RUSH: That’s right. One of the biggest deregulators in American history is a dictator. The Democrats are just wackos.
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RUSH: I’m told it’s 17 degrees in Battle Creek, Michigan, and people are already lined up outside for the Trump rally there tonight. And some of them may have been lined up since yesterday and spent the night, on the day the Democrats, their little whiny, wimpy little votes on a phantom impeachment.