RUSH: Denver and Samantha. Great to have you, Samantha. Thank you for waiting. Hi.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Such a pleasure to speak you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah. Great to have you here, too.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/APP-102319-US-Capitol-RUSH.jpg\")
CALLER: (chuckles) My question is, I know that you and others have made the argument that getting through this trial as quickly as possible is beneficial. We don\u2019t want to drag it out any more than the Democrats have dragged it out. You know, it could be potentially damaging to, you know, voter turnout and whatnot. But my question is —<\/p>\n
RUSH: No. That\u2019s not… I don\u2019t think that. That\u2019s not why. But go ahead. I don\u2019t want to stop you. Go ahead. I\u2019ll explain later.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah, that\u2019s kind of a separate thought. But my question is we have this unique opportunity that Democrats have pretty much pushed themselves into to put people on the stand under oath and really start exposing the corruption that\u2019s there. Do you feel that, you know, that\u2019s enough of a benefit to, you know, really try to dig into this trial and use it for that purpose?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, you know, I thought I had an additional minute. I misjudged the clock here. So I\u2019m gonna have to answer you after we conclude the call. It\u2019s possible, and I know the Democrats don\u2019t want that, which is what makes it intriguing to you. The same potential opportunity exists in the next phase of this, which is questions. The senators get to ask questions of both the House managers and the president\u2019s lawyers, and that is maybe a way to treat Schiff as a witness, even though you don\u2019t call him as a witness. But let me expand on this when I have a little bit more time. Samantha, thank you very much. It\u2019s a great point, and I\u2019ll address it when we get back.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Look, very quickly: This is the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. No matter what happens at it, that\u2019s what it is. It needs to end with the acquittal ASAP. The purpose of this is not to investigate Democrats. Nobody\u2019s watching this anyway.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay, during the break here at the top of the hour, one of the things that I picked up on — and this is a good point. I want to go back to our previous caller. The previous caller said, “Look, Rush, I know that you want this over. You want the acquittal to be done with it. But wouldn\u2019t witnesses be a golden opportunity to bring in all of these corrupt Democrats — Plugs Biden and his kid Hunter — and just blow \u2019em up and just let everybody know what\u2019s going on?”<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think that would happen. But even if it did, I\u2019m not in favor of this prolonging itself, because we know what the end of this is. The end of this is an acquittal. To my mind, there is no reason to prolong this. The purpose… This is the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. This is not Senate hearings into the corruption of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, and to try to turn it into that? (sigh) I just think that\u2019s… I think it\u2019s stay focused on what this is, get the acquittal — and then, if you\u2019re hell-bent, do Senate hearings on Biden.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing stopping the Republicans. They run it. Do Senate hearings on Hunter Biden. Senate hearings on the corruption in Ukraine, it\u2019s perfectly within their purview to do it. The longer this goes on, the continuing opportunity the media examine the Democrats have to dirty up the acquittal. They know there\u2019s gonna be an acquittal. There isn\u2019t any other outcome here that is remotely possible. I mean, you\u2019ve got maybe one-tenth of 1%.<\/p>\n
Now, do the United States senators really want to permit a precedent to be set for future impeachments where the Senate will call witnesses that a House team of managers does not present and does not call and does not work with themselves? That, to me, is something that somebody like Mitch McConnell — who loves and adores the Senate. He\u2019s not gonna sit there and permit this. This is not at all what is intended. The House doesn\u2019t get a do-over when they don\u2019t have a case.<\/p>\n The House doesn\u2019t get to show up and present a fact-free case with no evidence — and then demand the Senate go out and call additional witnesses that the House didn\u2019t call? Sorry, folks. No way. I can\u2019t support that. I don\u2019t care what the end result of it would be. What happens if Hunter Biden comes in and takes the Fifth Amendment, pleads the fifth? You don\u2019t hear from him anyway. All you get to do is presume he\u2019s guilty. But the whole point of exposing the corruption of him and his dad? (sigh) I mean, I understand the desire to see that. Don\u2019t misunderstand.<\/p>\n But we know what the end result is gonna be, and, as far as I\u2019m concerned, the objective is to get there. The president is going to be acquitted. There isn\u2019t an impeachable offense that has been presented. There is no evidence of an impeachable offense that has been presented. There is no evidence of misconduct. There\u2019s no evidence of a president abusing his power. There\u2019s no evidence of a president covering up or obstructing anything. There\u2019s no evidence even that Ukraine didn\u2019t get its aid when it did.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing here, and so allowing this thing to go on and on and on for the purposes of dirtying up the acquittal… I mean, where we in favor of the Kavanaugh hearings continuing so we could dirty up Blasey Ford? We wanted that over with! We knew what was happening there. It was a trick. It was aimed at sullying and dirtying up Kavanaugh so that his time on the Supreme Court would be subject to disrespect and disrepute.<\/p>\n What they were really trying to do was get Trump to withdraw the nomination. Why should we allow this thing to go on interminably when what this is, is meddling in the 2020 election? This is how I see it. But this whole notion that somehow the Senate must allow witnesses that have not been part of the case up to now, that somehow the Senate must allow the admittance of documents that have not been part of the case up \u2019til now? That just doesn\u2019t fly. There\u2019s no way it should. Now, I realize that the Senate trial is not the same as a courtroom trial, by definition.<\/p>\n But still, the nature of precedents is such that this is… We\u2019re already way out of bounds on what an impeachment trial is supposed to be. Now, what\u2019s coming next? Senator questions for the legal teams! Now, the way this works is kind of like the way I used to do it during the Rush to Excellence Tours. I would take questions from the audience sometimes. I didn\u2019t do it all the time, \u2019cause you never know they\u2019re gonna be any good. What I did is ask the audience to submit their questions in writing. We\u2019d give \u2019em cards as they filed into the 10,000-to-15,000 seat arena.<\/p>\n So the same thing happens. The senators are gonna ask questions of both legal teams. They get to ask questions of Schiff and the House managers, and they get to ask questions of the president\u2019s lawyers. But they submit them in writing. Those questions then go to the chief justice, John Roberts, and the chief justice determines the questions that are asked. So if Republican senators want to pretend that Schiff is a witness, if they would…<\/p>\n You know, they can ask him questions as though he were a witness, but it\u2019s like gonna be up to the chief justice to permit that question or those questions. But more importantly, there is no follow-up, and each answer has a scheduled maximum time limit of five minutes. So whoever is answering the question cannot go off on a the filibuster. The chief justice can shut it down after five minutes — and whatever the answer is, that\u2019s it. There is no follow-up. Nobody gets a follow-up. So it probably isn\u2019t going to be loaded with fireworks like everybody thinks.<\/p>\n But there are 16 hours allotted for this: Eight hours for Democrats to ask questions of the president\u2019s lawyers and eight hours for the Republicans (or anybody) to ask questions of the Democrat House managers. Now, that\u2019s 16 hours. That\u2019s two, eight-hour days. So theoretically — this is Wednesday — it\u2019d be over by Friday. Technically, if you get to the end of this week and have the vote on witnesses, it will be over. I still think this will be over this week \u2019cause of the Hawkeye Cauci.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: Let me assure with you some headlines here. “Lawyer Says Parnas Cannot Attend Senate Trial Due to Ankle Bracelet<\/a>.” So? Who cares! Who cares if Lev Parnas can attend the trial or not?<\/p>\n “Chuck Schumer Says There Will Be No Bargaining in Exchange for Hunter Biden Testimony<\/a>.” Who\u2019s Chuck You Schumer to say what the Senate\u2019s gonna do? Chuck Schumer does not run the Senate. Mitch McConnell does. “Chuck Schumer Says There Will Be No Bargaining in Exchange for Hunter Biden Testimony.” “Chuck Schumer Rejects Proposal to Subpoena Bolton Manuscript for Impeachment Trial<\/a> — Chuck Schumer has rejected a proposal by Republican senators to subpoena the manuscript of Bolton, insisting that Bolton has to appear in person.”<\/p>\n The manuscript isn\u2019t enough. Meanwhile, Adam “Pencil Neck” Schiff was on PMSNBC yesterday, and he said (paraphrased), “Well, no wonder Bolton didn\u2019t want to come testify! He\u2019s got this book out there. We didn\u2019t know that. We would have loved for Bolton to come testify during our impeachment investigation, but he refused,” adding that “it\u2019s pretty clear now why he wouldn\u2019t testify. He had a book that was being vetted.”<\/p>\n Wait a minute. Bolton refused? I thought Bolton wanted to testify! Somebody help me out here. I thought the narrative was that Bolton wanted to testify. That\u2019s what everybody\u2019s been saying. “Bolton, he\u2019s eager to testify,” and now Schiff is saying, “He didn\u2019t want to testify. He refused. He refused to testify during the House hearings,” you know, the hearings that Schiff is conducting in the basement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" RUSH: This is the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. No matter what happens at it, that's what it is. It needs to end with the acquittal ASAP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":326219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/DANANGDICK-e1580322337254.jpg\")
<\/a>But it would take far more than is known now. As we\u2019ve had indicated, even the Democrats realize no evidence has been presented yet! Da Nang Dick Blumenthal, Connecticut, says<\/a> (summarized), “There\u2019s no evidence. We just sat through a presentation bereft of facts and evidence.” So here\u2019s the thing. They want Bolton and they want a whole bunch of other people. They want witnesses that the House didn\u2019t call, by definition.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/APP-121018-US-Capitol.jpg\")
They\u2019d fill out questions on the cards, they would pass \u2019em to people who then — while I was doing the show — would go through the cards and trying to pick some of the best questions. And at the end, they\u2019d bring the cards to me on stage, I\u2019d go through them, and that\u2019s how I would choose to answer questions. It\u2019s a losing proposition if you do it by handing a microphone to the audience and they start asking questions. You lose control of it. You never know what people are gonna say. Well, the same thing\u2019s possible here in the Senate.<\/p>\n