RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I need to come clean on something. If you remember — and I just got the pictures of this, by the way. I’ve gotta find a way to get these up to the website. I have them at home. The Tuesday prior to the immaculate inauguration of Barack Obama, I was the invited guest of President Bush for lunch in the dining room off the Oval Office, and that was the occasion where President Bush presented me with a birthday cake, and he and Ed Gillespie sang Happy Birthday to me, and all this is photographed, and I finally got the pictures of this.
I looked at the pictures, the memory and so forth. It was after that I went to the East Room, also by invitation to watch the Medals of Honor being presented to John Howard, Senor Uribe and Tony Blair. It was that night, if you’ll recall, that Barack Obama attended a dinner hosted by George Will for 10 or 11 conservative pundits. I had missed the program that day, but I had not told the audience the day before that I would be gone. I said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ And then the guest host that day, we thought we’d have a little fun with the audience, guest host that day said I had been called out of town to Washington late the night before for a secret meeting. The news of the Obama dinner at George Will’s house breaks, and immediately I hijack the story when I don’t even know anything about it, because the media, ‘Oh, is that where Limbaugh was? We know he was at the White House, we got pictures. Is Limbaugh at that dinner?’ Because the names of the conservatives were not immediately released. They were under guarded lock and key.
I was not at that dinner, and I said that day, the next day, that I had not met with President Obama. But, ladies and gentlemen, I did. I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him to his face I didn’t want his policies to work, that I knew they wouldn’t work, that they would fail, that I didn’t think he had the executive experience to pull all this off, and he looked at me and said, ‘I understand, I understand, but, look, I’m the visionary. I’m going to provide a vision. I won the election. It doesn’t really matter to me what you think.’ So it did happen. I lied to the audience. Well, ‘lie’ is a strong word. I withheld information. It was off the record. It was trying to be respectful here of the situation. But I did meet with President Obama. In a related story from Tuesday on The Situation Room on CNN, Vice President Biden.
BIDEN: I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office, he was a great guy, enjoyed being with him, he said to me, he said, ‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘I’m a leader.’ And I said, ‘Mr. President, turn around and look behind you, no one’s following.’ People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.
RUSH: That’s Vice President Biden describing a conversation he had alone in the Oval Office with President Bush shortly before President Obama was inaugurated. It’s about the same time I had my meeting with President Obama, which I told him to his face that I didn’t want his policies to work, the fact that I knew they would fail and that I was very distressed, that he has to know they’re going to fail, too. And I said, ‘What is your point, why do you want to reorder?’ ‘Well, I won, and I’ve got the vision,’ and so forth. White House aides, by the way, Bush White House aides are denying that Biden was ever alone with the president or ever said anything of the sort to the president, from Andrew Card to Karl Rove to Ari Fleischer to any number of White House aides. They don’t remember this, and I’m sure that Obama’s people will deny that he and I met privately and I told him face-to-face I wanted him to fail.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, I swear, I feel like just stopping here and going back home, getting out of bed, and coming back in and starting all over.
Dear Rush:
We trust you out here. Now you tell us you met with Obama, when before you said you didn’t meet with Obama. Then you say you really didn’t lie. You sound just like Bill Clinton: parsing words. Why are you announcing that you met with Obama now? Because somebody broke the story, so now you have to admit it to us that you lied? And not only this, but at the time you developed this huge story, you told us on the air a couple days later that it was funny, and now it turns out to have been completely fabricated? You made all of this up to cover for an off-the-record meeting with the man you and we want to fail? I will never see you the same way again. I’m extremely disappointed. I am very disappointed. You are no longer trustworthy.
Signed, Doug in Milwaukee.
RUSH: (big sigh) These are days. These are days when I think I’m not paid enough. Let’s go back to the first hour of the program. Let me do this again, for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time via Doug in Milwaukee’s e-mail, in which he claims he was very disappointed, extremely disappointed, and I’m no longer trustworthy. Remember the Tuesday prior to Obama’s inauguration, one week prior, I was invited to the White House for lunch with the president, the dining room off the Oval Office. I went up there and had lunch and then went to the East Room for Medal of Honor ceremony and flew home. This is what I told you. The day prior, on Monday, I slipped up, and I said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Those were the last words I said on Monday’s show, when I knew I wasn’t going to be here because I had the appointment for lunch in the White House.
So the guest host that day, Jason Lewis, informed you — at my direction — that I had received a late-night phone call, an emergency dispatch to go to Washington the next day. When I’m flying home from Washington late in the afternoon, news breaks that Obama’s dining with 10 or 11 conservative pundits at George Will’s house. And everybody wants to know if I’m going. I said, ‘No, I didn’t even know about this.’ The story came I was going to be there, and I essentially hijacked this. And I said, I didn’t meet with Obama. See, I had offered to meet with Obama. He said he would meet with anybody and listen to anybody about alternative ideas. I said I had some. I said, ‘I’ll get there any time you want to talk, Mr. President-elect.’ I said we hadn’t met.
I got up today and I realized, ladies and gentlemen, that it was time for me to come clean, that I did meet with President Obama — after I left the White House and before he went to George Will’s house — and I told him in person. I told him in person that I didn’t want him to succeed. I didn’t want his policies to work. I told him in person. I told him tax cuts would revive this economy. He could be one of the greatest presidents ever. He could inspire people using his talents and his oratorical skills with the teleprompter to inspire people, but the way he was going about it, it wasn’t going to work and I didn’t want it to work. And I said, ‘You don’t have enough executive experience to be pulling this off.’ He said, ‘That’s okay. I’m going to do it my way. I won. I provide a vision.’ I never admitted this until today, when I heard Vice President Biden had said this two days ago on CNN.
BIDEN: I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office — and he was a great guy; I enjoyed being with him. He said to me, he said, ‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘I’m a leader,’ and I said, ‘Mr. President, turn around and look behind you. No one’s following.’ People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.
RUSH: Now, the Bush White House, everybody in it is denying this took place. Biden made it up! He was never alone. In fact, the Bush administration got a policy: if you have somebody from the Senate, you’re going to have somebody from the House in there so that nobody feels upset. But from Andy Card to the chief of staff to the press secretaries to Karl Rove, this did not happen! Biden didn’t go in there and say, ‘Turn around and look behind you, Mr. President. Nobody’s following you,’ and the president did not say, ‘Joe, I’m a leader,’ but he’s out there saying it on CNN! I fully expect the Obama camp to deny today that he met with me. (big sighs) You know, in the old days the way I would have done this? I would have done this without even mentioning Biden. I would have assumed that everybody knew the Biden story and that I was making fun of Biden, that I was illustrating absurdity by being absurd, another brilliant radio bit.
But I knew. I knew today that if I came out here and said, ‘Folks, I lied to you. I did meet with Obama, and I told him to his face, ‘I want you to fail. I want your policies to fail. You said you’ll listen to alternative ideas. Try tax cuts. You could build this country back. This isn’t gonna work, and I don’t want it to work.” I knew if I did that, for three days the story would be: ‘Limbaugh lied!’ The Obama administration would be denying it — and I would be realizing the fact that everybody would know that I’m just making fun of Biden. So today, knowing full well that that doesn’t work anymore, I decided to even put the Biden thing in it — which kills the effectiveness of the bit by 50% but I still did it — and I still get an e-mail (shaking the paper) from somebody who is disappointed, who wants to cancel his damn subscription — cancel it yourself! — and says to me that I ‘can’t be trusted anymore.’ (crumbles up paper) We’re gonna take a commercial break. I normally don’t take commercial breaks at this time. I’m going to take a commercial break. I feel like I’m in The Day the Earth Stood Still.