{"id":299427,"date":"2019-02-11T16:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/?p=299427"},"modified":"2019-02-12T16:28:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T21:28:11","slug":"drive-bys-claim-im-running-the-country-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2019\/02\/11\/drive-bys-claim-im-running-the-country-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive-Bys Claim I\u2019m Running the Country Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

RUSH: I\u2019m a guy in a golf shirt in Palm Beach — Rush Limbaugh — supposedly running the country\u2019s immigration policy. We go to the audio sound bites. This was Sunday morning on the local Fox 5 news station in Washington, D.C. This is not the Fox News Channel. This is WTTG Eyeball D.C. Fox 5. The anchor, Tom Fitzgerald, was speaking with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace about the possibility of another shutdown. Oh, by the way, I\u2019m gonna be appearing on Fox News Sunday this coming Sunday.<\/p>\n

It airs live on the Fox broadcast network at 9 a.m. and it\u2019s run at all kinds of different times depending on your market, and then the Fox News Channel replays it at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays. They ask me every February to appear on the program and I routinely, graciously agree. So it\u2019s this Sunday. This is gonna be interesting because the host here of the local Fox station in D.C. asked Chris Wallace, “No matter what deal Congress comes up with, this really does all hinge on the president as to what he\u2019ll accept and then be able to declare victory on, correct?”<\/p>\n

WALLACE: We\u2019ve seen this act before where the president back in December agreed to a bipartisan compromise just to keep funding the government into February. And then he took such heat from hardliners on the wall like Rush Limbaugh that he changed his mind and said, “Nope! Well, let\u2019s go have a shutdown.” So, you know, you have to ask, “How much are the president\u2019s assurances worth, and will he sign a deal that he says — he may say right now he\u2019s willing to sign?”<\/p>\n

RUSH: Okay. How many times do you people think…? How many times have you been bored now by me explaining to you what really happened on this? I don\u2019t know how many times I\u2019ve explained it to you, but it\u2019s a bunch. I bet I\u2019m gonna get this question on Sunday, despite explaining this I don\u2019t know how many times. The president was not getting ready to sign it. He did not have the D and the O of his name signed, and then an aide ran in (shouting), “Mr. President! Mr. President, stop! Stop!<\/p>\n

“Rush Limbaugh says no! Rush Limbaugh\u2019s ripping you!” And Trump stopped and didn\u2019t sign it. That\u2019s what they want you to believe happened? Okay. For about the fiftieth time, what happened was, I\u2019m sitting here and I\u2019m reading the news, and the news says that Trump is thinking of signing the continuing resolution that would keep the government running with absolutely no money for a wall, which was his signature campaign issue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So I am sitting here as I am now saying what I just said, and I get a flash instant message on my iPhone from somebody who says, “The president wants you to know he\u2019s not signing this. He doesn\u2019t have any intention of signing this. So don\u2019t believe what you\u2019re reading.” So I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I just got a message from someone close to the president saying that he\u2019s not gonna sign this and didn\u2019t intend to sign it.”<\/p>\n

That announcement by me was immediately taken by the media and misrepresented. (impression) “The president was sittin\u2019 in the Oval Office, and he was in the process of a signing ceremony! All the people were there, and he\u2019s getting ready to go — and then, somehow, he heard that I was saying, ‘No way; don\u2019t do it,\u2019 and stopped.” Why is it that my truthful characterization of this event does not get reported? Why…?<\/p>\n

None of these people who are reporting the untruth about this have ever called me or emailed me or anybody in my office seeking clarification. They\u2019re all just assuming that what they want to have happened is what did happen. That Trump\u2019s better instincts were about to prevail! That Trump was about to give them what they wanted. That Trump was about to cave to the Democrats, which is what they desperately wanted to report.<\/p>\n

But then I came along, and I got the message to the president to stop right in his tracks — and he did. That is not what happened. It\u2019s not even close. And yet, despite explaining this I don\u2019t know how many times here as I\u2019ve just done to you — I\u2019ve explained it countless times previous — not one call from anybody asking, “Did you really stop this? Did you really convince the president…?” Not one call. They just continue reporting this, and it\u2019s actually mind-boggling to me.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I actually am not boggled. I said it\u2019s mind-boggling that they continue to misreport this. It\u2019s not surprising to me at all, because it\u2019s what modern journalism has become. It\u2019s agenda-driven. The objective is to impugn and destroy Donald Trump. Part and parcel of that, any time they can make Trump look like he is a neophyte, know-nothing nobody being influenced by other people that they don\u2019t like (which would be me), then they will take advantage of it. Doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s true or not. The idea, the very…<\/p>\n

\"\"Let me tell you what wouldn\u2019t happen. Let\u2019s say that the way they say this happened indeed happened. So Trump\u2019s in the Oval Office or wherever and he\u2019s getting ready to sign this continuing resolution. There\u2019s no way anybody would run into the Oval Office and tell him, “Stop, stop, stop! Rush Limbaugh\u2019s saying don\u2019t do it.” It would not happen. Trump would know before he was gonna sign it what I thought of it. But even if he didn\u2019t, there wouldn\u2019t be… I cannot imagine… Trump\u2019s not alone in the Oval Office during these signing things.<\/p>\n

Nobody\u2019s gonna run in there (whispering), “Mr. President! Mr. President!” whisper in his ear or say for the whole room to hear, “Don\u2019t do it! Don\u2019t do it! Rush Limbaugh says don\u2019t do it.” That\u2019s what they want people to believe happened. He was in the process of signing. He was getting ready to sign this back in December, two weeks before Christmas. He was getting ready to do it. Democrats were salivating! They were on the verge. Trump was gonna sign the CR. The government\u2019s gonna stay open. The budget\u2019s gonna be filled with money and no wall.<\/p>\n

Trump was gonna totally cave on his signature issue, and they could taste it.<\/p>\n

They could feel it! They were chewing and they were ready to swallow it and go have a party. And then all of a sudden, I say on the radio, “I just got a note from somebody with the president assuring me the news is not true. He\u2019s not gonna sign it.” That then becomes, “Trump was on the verge of signing it until I told him not to do it.” There\u2019s no mechanism that I know of where somebody in the White House in the West Wing is listening to every moment of this program and then running in to the president and telling him what I say he shouldn\u2019t do on anything.<\/p>\n

It just doesn\u2019t happen that way. But they wanted you and still want you to believe it. There\u2019s more of this. This is Friday night, PBS, Washington Week. The host is Robert Costa, who used to be a conservative writing at National Review. He isn\u2019t anymore. He\u2019s now at the Washington Post. He had a guest, the author, the catty Katty Kay from the BBC, who had this to say about the current negotiations to avoid another government shutdown…<\/p>\n

KAY: In Trump\u2019s mind, the wall is so much bigger than just a wall, right? This is his presidency. It\u2019s his ability to negotiate, his ability to be tough, his ability to stand up to Democrats, his ability to give the base what they want, his ability to deliver on the promises that he made in the campaign. It\u2019s all of those things wrapped up into the symbolism of the wall. And the question at the moment seems to be: How low is he prepared to go and still feel that he can sell this to Rush Limbaugh and say, “You see, I\u2019ve got more than rose bushes. I\u2019ve got a wall.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: (laughing) How low can he go and still sell it to me. Ah, folks, if I could only… (laughing) If I could only tell you a few things. This is so… This is so distant, so far away from the truth that it defies explanation. I would love to be able to give you the incontrovertible truth, but because I am discreet and respectful of privacy, I shall not. But you can trust me. First off (impression), “This is his presidency, his ability to negotiate, his ability to be tough, his ability to stand up to Democrats, his ability to give the base…”<\/p>\n

What\u2019s missing in all of her reasoning about why Trump\u2019s doing this? What\u2019s missing is Trump\u2019s real motivation. Preserving, defending, protecting, saving America! Trump\u2019s not doing any of this to show his ability to negotiate. He\u2019s not doing any of this to show people he\u2019s tough, his ability to stand up to Democrats. Nobody\u2019s questioning that! What they still don\u2019t get: Donald Trump believes these things. It\u2019s why he got elected because his voters know he believes them, as they do. “Make America great” actually means something — and it\u2019s wonderful. It is superb.<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t had presidential leadership like this since the 1980s and rarely before that! Donald Trump is literally a man of the people. He\u2019s not from this insider group of elites who think they put together a world that includes America with a specific role America has in the world. That\u2019s not how Donald Trump views America. He views America as the standalone, greatest nation in the world, that when it\u2019s humming on all cylinders the world benefits like never before, as do Americans.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Donald Trump\u2019s belief system, and a wall or some kind of border security is to make sure that illegal immigrants do not come in here and goof up everything and get away with breaking the law and distort and pervert our culture. It\u2019s no more complicated than that. But in her little world here, in her little political world (impression), “This is all about Trump trying to preserve his presidency, show that he can negotiate, show that he can be tough, show that he can stand up to Democrats, show that he will give his base what they want, show that he is able to deliver to promises.”<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already demonstrated every one of those things! It\u2019s all of those things wrapped up into the symbolism of wall. No, the wall isn\u2019t symbolic. The wall is real. Border security is real. It\u2019s why Donald Trump got into this race. Now (impression), “How low is he prepared to go and still feel he can sell this to Rush Limbaugh?” My friends, do you realize if that were in any way a factor, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be doing what I\u2019m doing here.<\/p>\n

I would be somewhere else. I would be in his administration. I\u2019d be doing something that\u2019s actually involved in the implementation of policy. But see, these people grab hold of something that they believe or want to be true, and the lie digs deeper and deeper and deeper to the point that the lie becomes reality to them. Here\u2019s another one. Robert Costa. This is the same guest, and Costa has to reference me, the right wing and others and how intransigent we are.<\/p>\n

COSTA: But is the right-wing — like Rush Limbaugh on radio and others in the blogs — saying don\u2019t accept anything less than that $5.7 billion?<\/p>\n

KAY: Mmm-hmm!<\/p>\n

COSTA: But what about —<\/p>\n

KAY: P-please don\u2019t shut down!<\/p>\n

COSTA: — Republicans on Capitol Hill?<\/p>\n