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The states that remain on lockdown are obviously blue states, Democrat governors with a political objective behind it. And now there\u2019s this big op-ed in the New York Post which just calls attention<\/a> to the outright destruction that is done, that has been done to New York City. It is just incredible what has happened here and what\u2019s ongoing. And now we\u2019ve got the ability to make side-by-side comparison of things. Open up, let freedom ring, let people be responsible for themselves. And you see what happens. It all works out.<\/p>\nThe idea that the American people are a bunch of children, cannot be protected from themselves, cannot be allowed to make their own minds up has been a classic element of American liberalism and the Democrat Party for who knows how long. And they\u2019re eager to shovel more and more people into that category.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: I\u2019m gonna tell you something else here, folks. I just was looking at the Drudge page, and there\u2019s a graphic accompanying the story, and it\u2019s all about doomsday forecasts for the next few months in America. The doomsday forecasts are the result of a model from the University Pennsylvania Wharton School. Now, this model, which is a relatively new model on the scene…<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been out there, but it\u2019s not been in the top two models that are constantly cited — the one from the U.K. and the one from the state of Washington. But the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Wharton School — which, by the way, is Trump\u2019s alma mater. (chuckles) A very big point here. The Wharton School model is predicting… Ready for this? Dadelut, dadelut, dadelut, dadelut, dadelut, dadelut!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/APP-051520-Covid-Coronavirus.jpg\")
COVID-19 cases are gonna reach 5.4 million and the death toll could be 290,000 by July 24th. That is if — if — there is reopening and if there is no social distancing. But don\u2019t worry, because the Wharton model only predicts 4.3 million cases and 230,000 deaths, not 290,000 by July 24th if states reopen but continue social distancing. Now, what do you think the real purpose of this is?<\/p>\n
Since everything is politicized, since everything has been corrupted that the left touches, what do you think this is? This is the new version of 2.2 million people could die if you don\u2019t shut down, 2.2 million people do die if you don\u2019t mitigate. This is all part of the relentless effort to prevent or to slow down the reopening of the U.S. economy. That\u2019s all this is. Do not doubt me. It\u2019s an attempt to scare everybody into resisting opening up.<\/p>\n
Even if your state opens up, you\u2019re supposed to stay scared and not participate.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the objective here.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Couple of sound bites. This is an ABC News report today, Good Morning America, and it\u2019s the end of a report from correspondent Steve Osunsami reporting about the number of coronavirus cases in places that are reopening.<\/p>\n
OSUNSAMI: Here in Georgia the numbers appear to be moving in the right direction. In fact, in the 21 states that have eased restrictions since May 4th or earlier, ABC News has found no major increase in hospitalizations, deaths, or percentage of people testing positive. George?<\/p>\n
STEPHANOPOULOS: Boy, that is encouraging news, Steve. Okay, thanks very much.<\/p>\n
RUSH: That\u2019s Stephanopoulos. Boy, Steve, that\u2019s really encouraging news. What about you people that keep getting it wrong? Where are the apologies? Where are the assurances to the American people? You got this whole Trump-Russia collusion thing wrong. Not a single apology. Nobody\u2019s returned the Pulitzer prizes you got for the fake, phony reporting. You still accept as gospel whatever the lying sources then are telling you now.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve scared the American people staying at home. You\u2019ve scared \u2019em to death of their own shadows. Then you run the story saying, “Hey, not nearly as bad. Wow. Boy, that\u2019s encouraging.” That\u2019s all you\u2019ve got to say about it? How about we were wrong? How about we were wrong on purpose? I don\u2019t expect them to actually admit that. But I\u2019m just telling you, folks, you gotta pay attention.<\/p>\n
All of these horror stories about the predictions now since some states are opening up, got new models, the Wharton School, oh, my God, 290,000 new deaths. Oh, my God. Could only be 230,000, oh, my. It\u2019s designed to get you not to open up, not to participate in the opening up.<\/p>\n
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I think the effort\u2019s gonna fail. I think it\u2019s already falling apart. I think the blue states are falling apart. I think the blue states and these blue state governors are under intense pressure like you and I can\u2019t believe because it isn\u2019t being reported. But who\u2019s giving the standing orders to the blue state governors to stay locked down? Are they doing it on their own? Or is it coming from higher up? Is it coming from whoever\u2019s running the DNC? Is it coming from Pelosi? Is it coming from Schumer? Or are they just doing it instinctively because this is what they do?<\/p>\n
I mean, look at the Obama economy for eight years. You know, Obama\u2019s out there talking about how incompetent Trump is. For crying out loud, Obama rewrote the book on presidential incompetence. And all you need to do is look at his economy for the evidence and what Trump was able to do to correct it in three years. And now look where we are, trending right back down to the Obama economy and lower. And who is it that\u2019s happy about that and wants to keep us there? Your Democrat Party.<\/p>\n
They don\u2019t deserve your vote. They do not deserve your vote. I don\u2019t care if you\u2019re a lifelong Democrat, voting for a Democrat is voting for your economic death. Voting for a Democrat is voting for the transformation of America, which I doubt a lot of you Democrats are really all in with.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, last night CNN Situation Room with Wolf Blitzed. He said, “On Sunday you said it was too soon to tell if your concern over Governor Kemp\u2019s decision was warranted to open the state. How do you feel about Georgia\u2019s reopening today?”<\/p>\n
BOTTOMS: We are about ten days in. Things are not as bad as I thought that they would be, yet. And I am very hopeful that they continue that way. But, as we know, with COVID-19, there\u2019s often a lag in infections and when people begin to actually show symptoms and get sick. And so, right now, it appears that we\u2019re doing better as a state, and I will keep watching and waiting.<\/p>\n
RUSH: For what? What are you gonna wait for? To get worse? Is that the objective? So Governor Kemp is wrong? What about your concern for the people? What about your concern that your city not become a ghost town? What about your concern for the people that live in your city? It\u2019s good news, you haven\u2019t seen any bad news, yet, from the reopening of the state of Georgia.<\/p>\n
Contrast this with the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. This is Monday, his daily coronavirus briefing, he said this about prohibited activity at the New York City beaches for Memorial Day weekend and beyond.<\/p>\n
DE BLASIO: No swimming, no sports, no gatherings. NYPD will be out, parks department will be out. Don\u2019t go in the water. It\u2019s a dangerous situation to ever go in the water when there\u2019s not lifeguards present. Anyone tries to get in the water they\u2019ll be taken right out of the water.<\/p>\n
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RUSH: There you go. So there\u2019s your contrast. New York can\u2019t do this, don\u2019t do that. If you do that, we\u2019re gonna come get you. If you do that, if you go there, we\u2019re gonna come get you. The authorities, the police force are gonna come get you if you do that, if you don\u2019t do that. If you don\u2019t listen to us, we\u2019re gonna come get you and who knows what. You might join Lori Loughlin in jail. You heard about that? Lori Loughlin and her husband accepted a plea deal of two months in jail, $150,000 fine for the fraud in getting their daughters into USC.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the same deal that what\u2019s-her-face, Felicity Huffman got, except Felicity Huffman didn\u2019t fight it. These two did. And as they fought it, they kept adding on charges. You don\u2019t fight us. We are the same bunch of people that went after Donald Trump. You don\u2019t fight us. We\u2019re gonna keep adding charges. You ever heard of Michael Flynn? You do not take us on. They finally reached the settlement.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s Phil Murphy. Here\u2019s the governor of New Jersey this morning on CNBC Squawk Box. Joe Kernen says, “Bring us up to speed what stage we\u2019re in right now and whether [New Jersey] is within all the guidelines,” to start opening up.<\/p>\n
MURPHY: We\u2019ve begun to take what I would call baby steps. Admittedly beaches is a big step in that list, but we\u2019ve had a bias toward opening things up first that are outdoors and loosening that. We\u2019re as moneyball as we can be, and we say all the time that data determines dates and then more broadly public health creates economic health. Trust me, I want to get folks back to work as fast as possible, but if we screw up the public health piece, none of that will happen and that\u2019s really the side that we need to err on.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yeah. Well, the question, how are these other states doing it then? You think they\u2019re not concerned with the public health aspect? Is it that the state of New Jersey is much more dense than the state of Florida? I mean, what is it? “We say all the time data determines dates. More broadly, public health creates economic health. Trust me, I want to get folks back to work as fast as possible, but if we screw up the public health piece, none of that will happen, and that\u2019s really the side we need to err on.” Meaning, we can\u2019t open up if it\u2019s gonna increase the number of cases.<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019m sorry, then you\u2019re never opening up, Governor. That\u2019s what you\u2019re saying. You know something else DeSantis said? He studied the Spanish flu pandemic in 1917 and 1918, which was worldwide deadly. And one of the things DeSantis, the governor of Florida<\/a>, one of the things he said he learned is there wasn\u2019t even a focus — because World War I was raging — there wasn\u2019t even a focus on shutting anything down. It was a pandemic. It came along, it did what it did, the country did what it could to protect people and to help those who came down with the flu get over it, get better, but still it was massively deadly. But there wasn\u2019t anything of the sort like what we\u2019re doing now.<\/p>\n In fact, Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States during the Spanish flu which had two big waves, 1917-1918, and there wasn\u2019t even an Oval Office address about it. Not just Oval Office, there wasn\u2019t even a White House presidential address about it. It was just something that happened. “Oh, there\u2019s a pandemic out there.” “Okay, we deal with it.”<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t stop the presses on anything.<\/p>\n The only reference you\u2019ll find is, “It was a particularly cold winter.” There wasn\u2019t any complaining about it. There wasn\u2019t any whining and moaning or, “Oh, my God! What are we gonna do about the children?” They just endured it. Yeah, they had to resort to cannibalism and that\u2019s how we know about the Donner party — and, no, nobody\u2019s advocating that. I\u2019m just talking about the fact that what we\u2019re going through here is not unprecedented.<\/p>\n There have been pandemics. This isn\u2019t even as deadly as AIDS, and we didn\u2019t shut anything down for AIDS. Not a single thing. And there were people who made allusions to maybe we might want to quarantine…? “No, you don\u2019t! You\u2019re not quarantining anybody.” So there were all kinds of mitigation efforts that were proposed during AIDS. It\u2019s just back in the 1980s. They were all summarily rejected by the group of people suffering from HIV.<\/p>\n Do you know there was no antibiotic of any kind in 1917? The solution for Spanish flu…? You know what the treatment for Spanish flu was in 1917-1918? (interruption) Exactly. Get out in the sunshine and fresh air. Vitamin D, although they didn\u2019t know what vitamin D was. They might have known. I don\u2019t know. But sunshine and fresh air is what they said.<\/p>\n If you go back and look at the historical record, that\u2019s what helped in the days of the Spanish flu. Now we have this thing running around, “You better not go onto the beach. If you do, we\u2019re gonna drag you home. If you get in the water, we may drown you right there or we may take you home. It doesn\u2019t matter to us. How do you want to die?”<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: Tom in Springfield, Illinois. You\u2019re next, sir. Great to have you with us.<\/p>\n CALLER: Hey, Rush. Dittos. Honor to speak with you.<\/p>\n RUSH: Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n RUSH: Obviously they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n CALLER: — to just staying closed for another two months, three months it might take.<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, no.<\/p>\n CALLER: They don\u2019t.<\/p>\n RUSH: I may have misspoken. (sigh) There are some elements of the Democrat Party who wouldn\u2019t mind a total destruction of the economy because it would allow them the opportunity to remake it.<\/p>\n CALLER: But why wouldn\u2019t they want to educate the voters, such as… I know CNN\u2019s not gonna —<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, because nobody\u2019s in favor what the Democrats want. Nobody wants the economy to crash. Nobody wants to go back to the Great Depression permanently, and nobody wants the Democrat Party rewriting the economy in their massive dreams and turning America into this massive socialist\/communist “paradise.”<\/p>\n I mean, some people do, but not a majority. This was something… The Democrats still have to govern against the will of the people. When they win, they still have to force things on us. They are elected… Do you think Obama would have been elected if he\u2019d have been honest about Obamacare, what it was gonna do?<\/p>\n CALLER: No.<\/p>\n RUSH: No! They have to cover up everything they\u2019re gonna do and mask it. They camouflage who they are, and when they\u2019re really feeling confident after winning elections is they take the masks off and start behaving as they really are with their arrogance — which is what happened during the two terms of Obama, and look what happened. Hillary Clinton loses! The American people still are not to the point where a majority of us want what the Democrats want. So the only way for them to get where they want is by use of authoritarian force.<\/p>\n CALLER: I see.<\/p>\n RUSH: Your question is actually pretty good one: What would the country look like if these lockdowns continue as long as Democrat governors want them?<\/p>\n CALLER: And what would the signs be? What would be the first elements?<\/p>\n RUSH: Well, (snort) we\u2019re living them!<\/p>\n CALLER: Well, yes, we are. So would we be in the same shape in another two months?<\/p>\n CALLER: I see.<\/p>\n RUSH: If the red states were doing the same thing the blue states are, your question would be academic; we\u2019d already be there.<\/p>\n CALLER: But there\u2019s no models of what it would look like if we go way too long.<\/p>\n RUSH: What do you think would happen?<\/p>\n CALLER: Well, I think for one we move closer to socialism every day we proceed.<\/p>\n RUSH: Yeah, but what does that look like? You\u2019re asking me what it\u2019d look like. What do you think it would look like?<\/p>\n CALLER: That\u2019s what I\u2019m asking. I don\u2019t really know exactly. I don\u2019t know what it would look like if we —<\/p>\n RUSH: It looks like… The country would become a ghost country. Look at pictures of New York. It is a ghost town. Look at pictures of Boston. It is a ghost town. Just expand it. By “ghost town,” I mean nothing is open.<\/p>\n CALLER: Uh-huh. I see. Well, I just wondered. I thought, you know, there\u2019s one-hour specials all over the place on all the networks and articles in the newspaper of all the models. But nobody talks about the long-term economic collapse that could happen and when it would look like.<\/p>\n RUSH: No, because you\u2019re supposed to endure that if it means saving just one life. Look, you actually have swerved into something here. I started asking the very question you\u2019re asking within two weeks of this lockdown. It seemed out of place to me from the very beginning. It didn\u2019t seem necessary. There was a part of me intellectually that understood it.<\/p>\n But after two weeks — and I wasn\u2019t hearing anybody talking about reopening, even at these White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefings every day, there wasn\u2019t a damn thing mentioned about reopening. There wasn\u2019t a damn thing mentioned about the damage already happening to the U.S. economy. There wasn\u2019t a damn thing mentioned about the unemployment that was already happening. What the focus was was how we\u2019re ramping up to build ventilators, we\u2019re ramping up to build masks, that we\u2019re doing a great job in sending hospital beds to New York.<\/p>\n It was all about how we are coping with the virus and saving lives and how we\u2019re competing with other nations around the world and how we\u2019re beating them. Are you like me? After a while at these Coronavirus Task Force briefings, I got sick and tired — I\u2019ll be honest — I got sick and tired of hearing Trump bragging about the ventilators, about how we got more ventilators than any country in the world, we got more this, we got more tests, we got more this than any country in the world until I figured out what was going on.<\/p>\n And the reason Trump kept bragging about it is because the media was ignoring it. And it was a massively huge achievement that he was proud of. And because the press wasn\u2019t covering it, he was talking about it every day, about the number of ventilators that we manufactured, about the conversions at various American factories to build ventilators because during the early period of time, the news was that everybody who gets this can\u2019t breathe. Everybody\u2019s gonna need a ventilator. That turned out not to be true, either. But it was just an incredible presidential administration achievement, to get all of that stuff built at scale and ramped up as fast as they did.<\/p>\n The media was ignoring it. So Trump had to constantly tout it. And in the process of touting it, there was never any mention of opening up. If you were listening regularly here at this time, going back to the middle of March when all this began, you\u2019ll remember that I came back from a prolonged absence because of cancer treatment. And I was fit to be tied that nobody was talking about reopening. And I was talking about how I\u2019d traveled around and I saw boarded-up storefronts and empty storefronts and all I saw behind them was people and faces and dreams, people had invested everything they had in opening some of these businesses. Not a single person was yet talking about the damage being done to them.<\/p>\n We were making a hero out of Andrew Cuomo as the death toll mounted in New York City and New York state. We\u2019re trying to make heroes out of other Democrat governors. In the meantime, people were losing their livelihoods. And I could not believe nobody was talking about it. So actually out there, Tom, I was way ahead of you on this. I mean, I wasn\u2019t in visualizing what it was gonna be if we didn\u2019t open up in six weeks, two months, whatever, but as I continued to hear no sports, no fans in the stands, no schools open, I said, what the hell is this? We\u2019ve never done this before. And it isn\u2019t necessary. And I was cringing at it. I was waiting for somebody, some governor, open your state, please. Let\u2019s prove none of this is necessary.<\/p>\n And so some of the states have opened. Kemp opened up and then DeSantis never did really close down. I mean, there was a small stage of it. And these places that have opened up are thriving, they\u2019re doing well. It\u2019s all looking good. Are the blue states influenced by it? No way. Are governors of blue cities in these states impressed? No way. ‘Cause it\u2019s politics first, baby. It\u2019s kill Donald Trump first, baby. That\u2019s requirement number one.<\/p>\n And it was breaking my heart seeing what was being ignored. And it was music to my ears when Trump and Pence finally started talking about reopening and how we\u2019re gonna do it and why we have to do it. ‘Cause this lockdown shouldn\u2019t should not have lasted more than two weeks. Once that we learned that there was not gonna be an overrun of the hospitals, which is the only reason we flattened the curve, was to make sure the hospitals were not overrun, we should have been reopening at that time after two to three weeks, folks.<\/p>\n BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n RUSH: I\u2019ve mentioned this a couple of times, and it\u2019s being discussed all across the — well, it\u2019s interesting. The Drive-By Media is ignoring this. It is a piece in the New York Post by David Marcus, and it ran yesterday, actually it was published last night. And the headline: “Sometimes, a good rant is all a writer can offer. Bear with me.”<\/a> And the New York Post has covered it.<\/p>\n “One man\u2019s plea: ‘The Big Apple is dying. Streets are empty. Tens of thousands have been plunged into poverty. Our leaders have no plans and no answers.'” And, boy, is that ever true. Cuomo and de Blasio don\u2019t have a clue, folks. “New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated. It needs to end now.”<\/p>\n Do you know the recovery rate for people who get coronavirus under the age of 60? Do you know what it is? Ninety-nine percent. Ninety-nine percent of people under 60 who get coronavirus recover from it. Why are you surprised? Because you\u2019re not told. The exact opposite impression is given, that everybody who gets it dies, that everybody who gets it suffers unbearably.<\/p>\n The fact remains and it always has been the case that 98% overall of people who get the coronavirus recover from it. Some take a day or two, some take a week, some take a month. It\u2019s not uniform. But it is not 10 times or 30 times as deadly as the flu, as they have been attempting to get people to believe.<\/p>\n Now, if you get into the higher age ranges where patients have pre-existing conditions, then it is deadly, like the flu is deadly for people in those groups. But let me read you some pull quotes from this New York Post piece by David Marcus.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/APP-052120-Desantis-FOX-3.jpg\")
<\/a>It was just another event like an airplane crashed today or a car didn\u2019t crash today or whatever. It was not… It\u2019s like, do you remember the Donner party? They had to turn to cannibalism to survive their trip over the Sierra Nevada Mountains as they\u2019re going into California. The Donner party had to resort to cannibalism. If you read the diaries written by the members of the Donner party and survival, you know the only reference you\u2019ll find to the weather, which is what forced them to cannibalism?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APP-042220-COVID-04.jpg\")
CALLER: I just wondering why aren\u2019t we seeing models of what would happen if we keep the economy suppressed too long or closed for too long? Will the economy collapse? And if it would, what would it look like? I don\u2019t think anybody thinks, on the Democratic side, that there\u2019s any drawback —<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APP-041720-Money-COVID-100-dollar-bill.jpg\")
RUSH: No, it\u2019d be worse, depending on where. See this is another hideous part of this. These blue state governors are standing by, doing nothing, maintaining their lockdowns, while depending on the red states to bail them out, to create growing economies, to have their people go back to work producing tax revenue and whatever else that can contribute. It\u2019s like playing tiddlywinks right now, but still contribute some to the bailouts and the ongoing sustenance necessary in the blue states.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APP-041720-COVID-Doc-2.jpg\")
And Rich Lowry has a great piece about this<\/a>, too, in addition to his piece on DeSantis<\/a>. What Trump did, what Trump and his administration did in ramping up the PPE, the personal protective equipment and all of this, the masks and the ventilators and the tests, it is a phenomenal achievement because we didn\u2019t have any of that supply chain ready to go. The Obama administration, there was nothing, just like there was in the military.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/APP-NY-Post-TEARAWAY-052120.jpg\")
<\/a>“Last Friday morning, some 3,500 New Yorkers lined up at a Catholic church in Queens to receive free food hours before it even opened. … Catholic Charities has reported a 200 percent increase in demand over the past month and a half. By prolonging the coronavirus shutdown long after its core mission was accomplished, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have plunged tens of thousands of New Yorkers into poverty. It needs to end. Now.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APP-041520-Covid-NY-1.jpg\")
David Marcus is a correspondent in New York for The Federalist website. And he\u2019s tapped my sentiments exactly. The only thing, I just want to remind you, I\u2019ve been on this rant since two weeks after the shutdown, maybe three, I don\u2019t know. It made no sense to me. It literally never made any sense to me. When I first saw the recovery rate for this virus is 98%, the only way it made sense to me was as a weapon to be used against Donald Trump. And the first time I mentioned that, oh, you should have heard the catcalls. “Rush, you know, not everything\u2019s about Trump and not everything is about Republican versus Democrats.”<\/p>\n