RUSH: Whoa is right. (laughing) There’s no other way to interpret this. Now, there are people trying to put a smile on this by saying, “No, no, no, you’re misunderstanding what Tillerson was saying. Tillerson was saying the president speaks for himself on these issues, not that he speaks differently.” Look, here’s what’s happened in a nutshell.

Trump does his three different statements on Charlottesville. The first statement, you know, the media had a cow, they did not particularly like it. So Trump went on and in the second statement specifically condemned neo-Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists because that’s what everybody in the media and his administration was demanding that he do. Because he had screwed up in the first one by not signaling them out as the lone bad guys.

Trump never thought they were the lone bad guys. Trump knows that the leftist protesters are the agitators and the bad guys and there are just as many creeps in that group, if not more, as there are over here in these extreme so-called — I think all these groups are leftists, but that’s another discussion. I don’t believe that the KKK and the Nazis — the KKK was a bunch of Democrats when they were founded. They’re not a bunch of right-wingers and neither are the neo-Nazis or these white supremacists.

These people are people that want the federal government to be big as hell to take care of the their enemies for ’em. That’s exactly what leftism and liberalism is. But these people get tagged over here on the right by the media and by the Democrats. And Trump in his second press conference officially condemned and called out by name the KKK, the white supremacists, and of course the Klan, the neo-Nazis.

Then the media said, “Not good enough! Not good enough! You don’t really mean it, because you only did it because we egged you on. You didn’t do it from your heart. You don’t mean it.” That ticked Trump off even more. So the next day he goes out, and he just unloads on what he really thinks, that there are bad actors on both sides and that there are good people on both sides. And that just sent everybody into an absolute tizzy, apparently including Gary Cohn and Tillerson.

Now, Gary Cohn, the economic guy, actually said that it is a mistake to equate citizens standing up for equality and fairness with these neo-Nazis and right-wingers. I looked at that and I about came out of my gourd because that’s not who these people are. And if people in our administration do not have a proper understanding of who these leftists are, then where are we?

Trump does. He knows exactly who they are, but he’s now got two people in his administration undercutting him. Now, I need to find something out. I raised a question yesterday, and I’m gonna ask it again in relation to these two guys. When I raised this question, I’ve already seen people have responded to it elsewhere in the media. You know the CEOs of Apple and JPMorgan Chase both announced massive million-dollar donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center sometime during the last week.

Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center is perhaps one of the biggest hate groups on the left. They tar and feather and slander right-wing groups and call them hate groups. They’ve got a map on their website, and whenever a right-wing group that says or does anything that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a bunch of leftist freaks, all you have to do is disagree with them and you are called a hater.

For example, if they support gay marriage and LGBT and all these other things and you happen to disagree with it, you are the hater, you hate. You are a hate-filled person that is the bordering on the use of violence. And that’s how they characterize these groups, and it led to a deranged leftist walking into the office of the Family Research Council and actually shooting at somebody. It’s what contributes to this deranged guy shooting up Republicans at a baseball practice in Virginia.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and other left-wing groups actually inspire their dope members to violence while claiming that the right-wing groups that they’re identifying — and they point ’em out on a map. They identify where these groups’ headquarters are on a map, and their deranged supporters end up there protesting so forth.

Now, my question yesterday was, do the CEOs of Apple and JPMorgan not know this? And it was a legitimate question, because in the mainstream media, the Southern Poverty Law Center is treated as the Vatican. The Southern Poverty Law Center is treated as one of the most worthwhile, fair, enduring organizations devoted to equality and fairness, and that’s the last thing they’re devoted to. These are the people that want to shut you up if you say something they disagree with. You don’t even have to be saying it about them.

Basically all you have to do is be a prominent conservative or run a prominent conservative 501(c)(3) fundraising organization, if your conservative group raises money, then the Southern Poverty Law Center is out to destroy you. So I asked the question, do these CEOs not know this? And it was a legitimate question because if all they do, if their total source of information happens to be CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and maybe the Washington Post, it is entirely possibly they don’t know the truth about the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Just like they don’t know the truth about me, just like they don’t know the truth about conservatism. Because they never expose themselves to it. Because they’ve already been convinced it’s just a bunch of kooks and fringe, and it’s abnormal, and they are normal, and so they don’t need to pay any attention.

But these CEOs are in the business of selling products to everybody. And so when they go public with their million-dollar donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center and then say that they will match their employees’ donations up to a certain amount to this group, you think every employee at Apple or JPMorgan happens to agree with the CEOs? The number of people we’re talking about it simply can’t be. There cannot be universal agreement. I guarantee you the people that don’t agree with the CEOs at these companies probably have to stay pretty much hidden, have to keep their thoughts pretty much to themselves, if they know what’s good for them.

By the same token, does Gary Cohn, who is the top ranking economic adviser the Trump White House, does he really not know what Antifa is? Does he really not know that they are a group that is devoted to violence, that they are a hate group. That they are not devoted to equality and liberty and fairness. They are devoted to exactly the opposite, does he not know it? It’s a legitimate question. I think it’s entirely possible that a left-wing Democrat would not know what the Southern Poverty Law Center is.

The other side of it is that they do know, they know exactly what it is and they support it anyway and they know exactly what Antifa is, and they support it anyway, while lying about who they are. Which is easier to believe here? I must tell you, folks, before you start cackling at me, one of the many things that I have learned over the course of my career is how genuinely ignorant and in some cases stupid people in our media are. And when I say ignorant, I really mean they are closed off. They do not expose themselves to anything other than what they already believe.

You know what they say about us? They say that we do nothing about confirm our biases. That’s why we watch Fox News. We’re not interested in the other — BS. We watch all of their crap! We read every bit of idiocy they say. They do not consult us. Their biases and their prejudices prevent them. I know liberalism better than they do. I know what they’re thinking before they’re thinking. I know what they’re gonna do before they do it because I have taken the time to study them and understand them, what makes them tick, why they think the way they are. They’re the ones closed-minded. They’re the ones who are ignorant. They’re the ones who are not curious. They’re the ones who live in this dream world where we are Satan incarnate.

My question is, is that what we’ve got in the White House? Do we have an economic adviser who really doesn’t know that Antifa is not devoted to equality and fairness and is that why he decides to diss the president and go out and suggest the president is siding with people — let me know put it a better way. He went out and basically implied the president is opposed to citizens standing up for equality and fairness.

And then Tillerson (paraphrasing), “Well, you know, we in the administration here at the State Department, the U.S. government, we advance those values, we defend those values, commitment those values.”

“What about the president?”

“Well, you know, the president speaks for himself, Chris.”

Oh, really? Cannot include the president here. Gary Cohn is Trump’s National Economic Council director. He said what he said in an interview with The Financial Times, and he was openly critical of Trump’s comments about the violence in Charlottesville. He said citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacist, neo-Nazis, and the KKK. But Trump didn’t. Trump did not equate the two sets of people. He said that more than one side was responsible for the blame for the violence. Which is true!

He didn’t fall for the usual tack of blaming only one side, which is what the media demanded and apparently what Gary Cohn did. Gary Cohn (paraphrasing), “Yeah, the right-wingers, they’re the problem, supremacists, the neo-Nazis, the KKK.” And there’s no equivocation between them and citizens standing up for equality and freedom. Don’t forget, we had this New York Times reporter who was out there at Charlottesville when this happened who was witnessing the violence on the left and wrote about it and then had her tweets canceled or deleted by the New York Times because it was so against protocol.

What was her name? Mental block. It’ll come. Prominent reporter at the Times who was there and tweeting when it happened. So my question, does Cohn really not know? Do the CEOs of Apple and JPMorgan really not know about the Southern Poverty Law Center. Or do they know and simply hate right-wingers so much that they will support the Southern Poverty Law Center because they’re nothing more than dyed-in-the-wool leftist activists themselves? What do you think?

I think these leftists are some of the most fooled, misguided, misdirected people, and they fall for anything that they’re told is compassionate or sustainable or devoted to equality. And in the areas that they would read or the TV networks they would watch, you will not ever find one critical word of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In fact, you’ll find nothing but devotion. And the people at that stupid — what about that name anyway? Southern Poverty Law Center. These people hate the South. They are not in poverty, and they don’t do anything about poverty, and the law is something that gets in their way. Their name is a distraction.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It was Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times who had those two tweets that recorded and referenced the pro-hate violence by the left, by Antifa. She tweeted two things documenting the fact that she saw violence on both sides. She saw hate on both sides, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and the New York Times went in there and essentially deleted her tweets, and she had to revise what she had said. I guess Gary Cohn missed that. I guess Gary Cohn missed the New York Times reporter saying there was violence and hate-filled behavior on the part of the citizens standing up for equality and fairness.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: No, look. Here’s the reason I’m asking about Gary Cohn. Gary Cohn is not just some random economist. He’s in the White House. He is the National Economic Council director. He has Trump’s ear on matters of economics. My point is this. If he is mistaken or if he doesn’t know, if he’s not able to see the threat that these Antifa and related groups pose to liberty and freedom, if he’s not able to see that, that worries me. That worries me tremendously.

We don’t need somebody in this administration — put him in the Obama administration, but not this one. We don’t need somebody who doesn’t see the threat of leftist violence, somebody who looks at a bunch of leftists and automatically concludes that they are devoted to equality and fairness. You know, if this guy doesn’t see who these people are, I’m sorry. That’s a problem.

And if the guy is then going to separate himself from the president and put himself on a pedestal of superiority based on his own ignorance in order to distance himself from the president, for what reason would he be doing that? Media fawning? Trump doesn’t need people like this, if you ask me. Trump needs people that see the world as he sees it. That’s the reason why you win. That’s why you put together an administration.

To me it’s problematic. If there’s gonna be somebody there that close who can look at these events and only see half of what’s happening and be wrong about the other — well, be wrong on both sides. Sorry. It presents problems for me. As a citizen, not as a radio host. As a citizen.

Now, supposedly Trump is livid with both these guys, Cohn and Tillerson. But I’ll tell you what this shows. Once again, we have this event in Charlottesville which was totally mischaracterized, blatantly so, by the media, and the gutless wonders that refuse to take issue with it prevail and run the day, rule the day here. It just goes to somehow what everybody’s up against. These guys, it could well be that Cohn and Tillerson are just choosing the path of least resistance. Maybe it was, “I don’t want to get in a scrap with the media. Look what they’re doing to Trump. I’d rather be on their good side.” You know, like the congressional Republicans and senatorial Republicans have decided to do.

But folks, there’s nothing about fairness or equality or liberty when we’re talking about these leftist protesters. They are devoted to the exact opposite. These are the people who are defining hate speech as anything they disagree with. These are the people who were trying to maintain the U.S. Constitution prohibits hate speech. These are the people using their power combined with that of the media to get as much force behind the notion that if you’re not one of them, you don’t have a right to say anything, and if you do, there is the obligation to rough you up, to intimidate you or what have you. There’s nothing, nothing about this group that is devoted to equality, and there’s certainly nothing about freedom that they’re devoted to, except for their own.

It’s like the Southern Poverty Law Center. The only poverty they’ve ever solved is their own, with your money.