RUSH: You know it’s amazing to watch this. Now the Egyptian army is saying we will act if protesters resist change. What? Resist change? The protesters are demanding change. You know, I arrived here today outta sorts. I’m really not feeling all that good. I don’t know why. It’s just one of these straight-line sorta blah days. Today the job is the job. Let me just put it that way. Very rarely, ladies and gentlemen, is this job work. Today, it’s work. Not because of the subject matter; just because… I don’t know. I am so irritated at things I can’t begin to tell you, but I’m not gonna bleed on you. I’m just saying it’s hard to keep up with here. The Army says there’s gonna be big trouble if the protesters resist change. Who is it that’s been demanding the change? The protesters. Others are saying, ‘Hey, Mubarak is still in power.’ The CIA says he might leave. NBC says he’s outta there. Fox is saying we’re pretty sure here’s outta there. CNN is saying, well, foreign ministry says he’s not going anywhere. So in the middle of all this, our young boy president has deigned to speak. He’s in Marquette, Michigan, at Northern Michigan University, and this gets worse as we go along here on these sound bites. He spoke about the reports that Hosni Mubarak might step down.
OBAMA: We are following today’s events in Egypt very closely and we’ll have more to say as this plays out. But what is absolutely clear is that we are witnessing history unfold. It’s a moment of transformation that’s taking place because the people of Egypt are calling for change. They’ve turned out in extraordinary numbers representing all ages and all walks of life, but it’s young people who have been at the forefront, a new generation. Your generation —
RUSH: Gonna throw up.
OBAMA: — who want voices to be heard. So going forward we want those young people and we want all Egyptians to know America will continue to do everything that we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy in Egypt.
RUSH: That is horrible. That is as shameless as anything yet. This is co-opting whatever’s going on over there and relating it to his reelection campaign of 2012 in an attempt to get out the youth vote, making the speech to a bunch of skulls full of mush at a university, telling them, ‘That’s essentially you over there. That’s the young people, wanting change.’ What Obama was telling those people, ‘The Egyptians want their own me. The Egyptians want their own Obama.’ My gosh, this guy is shameless. That, folks, is just extraordinary. ‘A new generation, your generation who want their voices to be heard. So going forward we want those young people, all Egyptians to know America –‘ Good Lord, take it and make it about yourself. That’s disgusting. He has no clue what this is. He has no clue what this is about. Nobody does. But now it’s been appropriated. It’s about Obama’s reelection campaign. ‘We are watching history unfold.’ Doesn’t history unfold every day? We’ve been watching history unfold for two years here, folks, and we’re not happy about it.
The real question is, or should be, will these events help the United States? Are they in our best interests? It doesn’t sound odd to say that. Believe it or not, that’s what the US president is supposed to be thinking. The US president is supposed to be thinking how does this help us in the Middle East, what does this do, what is this saying about US interests? He couldn’t care less. This has now been appropriated for his reelection campaign. To tell a bunch of college students that essentially it’s them, your counterparts, your colleagues, your compatriots in Egypt are calling for change, which is of course what his campaign was all about. This is despicable, folks, I’m sorry. This is so beneath the presidency to look at this, to talk this way, and this is the second time he’s done it, to try and get out in front of the mob and now own it a second time.
RUSH: We mentioned earlier here that a coup appears to be taking place, a transfer of power from Hosni Mubarak to the military, which is outside of Egyptian constitutional procedures. Now, apparently what’s happening here, the power is gonna be handed over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is not what the Egyptian constitution says should happen. The Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces consists of Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, defense minister and commander of the armed forces, Lieutenant General Sami Annan, the military chief of staff, the chief of operations and the heads of the Egyptian army. And they are admitting that the transfer of power would occur outside of the constitutional framework. The Egyptian constitution stipulates that a resigning president would be replaced by the speaker of the parliament and that elections would be held within two months. However this source said the military council would not be governing under the constitution or any legislation and would have to define the format under which they are taking power.
So the military is gonna take over and define what kind of power they have. Now, these reports follow the Supreme Council meeting and the release of a statement that the council titled ‘statement number one.’ Now, this is eerie because this is almost exactly what happened in 1952 in Egypt. July 23rd, 1952, a group of army officers calling itself the Free Officers Movement led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the monarchy and a revolutionary command council composed of about a dozen top members of the movement became Egypt’s government, and then Nasser overthrew them and became a ruling monarch. This is why I said it’s the second revolution you have to pay attention to.
Meanwhile, our young president tries to tell us that what’s happening here is no more than a replication of his campaign, young people demanding change, young people looking for their version of Barack Obama. In one of the most shameless co-opting of events — my God, what kind of narcissist must this guy actually really be? Essentially, if all this plays out, essentially a military coup taking place, and Obama wants to say, ‘Yep, yep, yep, these guys are over there, just what happened here in America, they’re looking for their Obama.’ No, he didn’t use those words, he didn’t have to. Go back to sound bite 24. Obama’s reaction to this today. And listen to this again. He doesn’t say those words, but it sounds like a campaign speech of his back in the 2008 campaign.
OBAMA: We are following today’s events in Egypt very closely.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: And we’ll have more to say as this plays out.
RUSH: Sure.
OBAMA: But what is absolutely clear —
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: — is that we are witnessing history unfold.
RUSH: We do every day.
OBAMA: It’s a moment of transformation that’s taking place —
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: — because the people of Egypt are calling for change.
RUSH: Like me.
OBAMA: They’ve turned out in extraordinary numbers representing all ages and all walks of life, but it’s young people who have been at the forefront, a new generation, your generation who want their voices to be heard —
RUSH: Change.
OBAMA: — and so going forward we want those young people and we want all Egyptians to know America will continue to do everything that we can —
RUSH: All right.
OBAMA: — to support an orderly and genuine transition —
RUSH: Right, right.
OBAMA: — to democracy in Egypt.
RUSH: He’s making a speech here to college students in Marquette, Michigan. It’s all about change, all about finding a new Obama. Young people. It’s a military coup. Maybe the officers are young.
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This is Fouad. Nice to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh, pleasure talking to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I’m going to talk about Egypt, but from different point of view. But if you allow me to thank you very much, you single-handedly stopped Clinton last century from having socialized medicine. I’m in medicine, and I’m thanking you again in my name and my friend name.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: Going back to Egypt, I think the problem with Egypt and the Middle East, because I am from there, I’m from the Middle East, I lived half of my life there, I’m talking about experience.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: Luckily I’m living the rest of my life in the best country in the world, the United States. I vote Republican just to tell you where I’m coming from.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: The problem with Egypt is corruption. The dictator come with his family, take everything, and let the people suffer. If you talk, you get killed. Mr. Mubarak, the president, has emergency law for 30 years, 30 years after he make peace with Israel. That means any time you talk about the president, about anything, you get in jail, you get killed. The whole thing started, this demonstration in Egypt start because a young man called Khaled Said from Alexandria last summer said something against Mubarak. He was beaten to death, he was from some —
RUSH: Now, not to be rude, but it seems like the consensus of reports that we’re getting say that it was the unrest in Tunisia which ignited the unrest in Egypt.
CALLER: Yeah, I know, I know, exactly, but that Khaled Said was before Tunisia. He was beaten to death and thrown in the street. And his friends, hundred people start texting to start the movement. And when Tunisia came, they encouraged to go in.
RUSH: Now, that —
CALLER: Mubarak used tactic called brotherhood.
RUSH: That is true. Now hang on just a second. I want you to hold that thought because I want you to confirm something you just said. The social networks did gin this up, videos of this beating that you’re talking about.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: It took some people who were ambivalent and took ’em into the streets. You’re absolutely right about that.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Now, what were you saying about the brotherhood?
CALLER: Mubarak used technique named brotherhood to scare America (unintelligible). For 30 years he could not contain the brotherhood. That’s big lie. And if he continue his son would take after him for 40 years. In 40 years he is the same thing. Brotherhood, they are extremists, you push the people to go to them by, you know, not giving them jobs or equal opportunity —
RUSH: We have heard that Mubarak has said his son’s not gonna have any role in the future, is that not true?
CALLER: It is true, but by force. But before that he was planning to have his son. You know Assad in Syria he has his son now 40 years, same thing, scare tactic. ‘Is Israel going to kill us?’ And he go under the table and go to Turkey, ‘Please, please come and tell Israel to come talk to me.’ Israel say, ‘No, I don’t talk to you.’ It’s scare tactic. I know from experience. You know, Mr. Limbaugh, people in Middle East are family like you and me. They like to live in peace, harmony, raise their kids, give them food, education, freedom. Freedom is what we came here for. And maybe short term, what happened in Egypt not good.
RUSH: All right, so we know the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Sadat.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: And it looks like the Muslim Brotherhood is gonna end up being two-for-two here. They may not kill Mubarak, but it looks like he’s gone.
CALLER: He’s gone. But, you know, democracy in east Europe much better than dictatorship, same thing will happen in the Middle East. Democracy will be much better in long run for everybody.
RUSH: No question, but is that what this is? If this is a military coup, we’re still talking about authoritarian dictatorships —
CALLER: Of course. Because these young people came, they don’t have any opinion how to rule, what’s going on, and the whole party try to takeover but nobody like them. It’s going to be mess for a while. But, you know, Mr. Limbaugh, I know people stand in line in the United States embassy all over the world. They like to come to the United States for freedom, opportunity, freedom. We don’t have that. And, you know, that’s our opinion. I’m not saying I know it all or is true, but this is my opinion. You know, Condoleezza Rice went, two years before she left, she went to Egypt telling about democracy, about things but, you know, Mubarak say —
RUSH: Let me ask you a question, your personal belief. We’ve got reports now, hundreds of thousands of people that are now in Tahrir Square, which is a circle.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: This has put even more strain on the Egyptian economy. I mean, it has to be in Cairo, shut down. Can you run a country, can you base political decisions based on mobs in the streets?
CALLER: No, no. No. But if you realize 40% unemployment, people earn two dollars, and Mr. Mubarak has $70 billion. Mr. King in Saudi has many billion, nobody know how much, and people hardly working to make it day by day. This is all over the east, Syria, you name it. And it didn’t blow up today, it blow up tomorrow. Democracy is the answer, like east Europe, after 70 years —
RUSH: Well, you know, I saw that. I can’t help but interject my own personal — If I were 83 and had $70 billion and this is going on where I live I’m outta there, you know, I head to Cannes. I’ve heard that he’s got $70 billion but I also know — did you hear what Schwarzenegger said? What is your impression of Schwarzenegger’s governorship in California? It was a disaster, right? It was a horrible disaster. I mean from the outside looking in, particularly from a Republican perspective, and I know Schwarzenegger, we’ve had our backs and forth, but he’s an acquaintance on the positive side, it was a disaster. He loved it. He said he became addicted to the day-to-day power. He had more fulfillment, enjoyment, doing that than any movie career he ever had. Now, on the outside looking in, it was a disaster to us and he had the half the state hating his guts and the legislature trying to stop him at every turn, he even had the Bush administration lined up against him in fundraising battles. He eventually does a 180, sides with all the forces of the left in that state, and when he leaves he said he never had felt like he did with that much power. And we’re just talking a governor here.
So look at this guy, he’s 83, I’ve heard the reports he has $70 billion socked away, who knows. I’m sure he’s got a lot, whatever it is. Now, you and me, if we had that kind of money at 83, hey, let’s go tee it up. Let’s go get the little umbrellas in the drinks down in the Caribbean and have some pina coladas or something. This guy wants to hold onto all of this. Now, as somebody who has no concept of that kind of power, no desire for it, no knowledge of what I would do if I had it, I can’t relate. I really can’t, I really can’t. It doesn’t look like it’s worth it to me. You got half of your country marching, wanting you dead. But that’s just me. Snerdley’s looking to me like he is incredulous. He can’t believe that I’m saying this. What is it you’re having trouble believing that I just said? That I can’t relate to having this kind of power? Right. Okay.
Snerdley is saying that you people think that if I had the money you think I’ve got that I’d be teeing it up rather than put up with all this grief. Well, grief doesn’t hurt me. The grief has done nothing but help me. They’re not marching in the streets wanting my head, yet. Plus I do get to go tee it up. And I do occasionally put an umbrella in a drink. (laughing) Well, I don’t do it. It’s served that way. So you’re saying that people look at me the way I’m looking at Mubarak. Okay, if that’s true then this is not work to me. When I get up in the morning this the thing I would much rather do. I guess it’s the same thing with these guys. I don’t look at this as power. This to me is just fun. I can’t describe it any other way. But, look, Fouad, I appreciate the call very much. I really enjoyed talking to you, and I thank you for your kind comments.