RUSH: It’s even made the UK Telegraph, ladies and gentlemen. ‘Barack Obama Swats Fly During CNBC Interview.’ US President Obama swatted and killed a fly during an interview with CNBC and then they go on to describe, wow, after killing the fly, Obama said, ‘That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got the sucker.’ ‘As Obama started to respond to a question from the interviewer he became distracted by a fly buzzing around his head and started to laugh.’ We have audio on this. This is how it happened last night on CNBC, chief Washington correspondent John Harwood interviewing President Obama, and they had this exchange about a fly distracting them.
OBAMA: (swatting away fly) Get outta here.
HARWOOD: That’s the most persistent fly I’ve ever seen.
OBAMA: (slapping fly)
HARWOOD: Nice.
OBAMA: Now, where were we? That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got — I got the sucker. What do you think, Gibbs?
GIBBS: That is very good. It’s right there —
OBAMA: Right there. You want to film that? There it is.
O’DONNELL: A persistent fly learned a tough lesson yesterday: Don’t mess with the President of the United States.
OLBERMANN: (music) Mr. Miyagi did it with chopsticks.
LEE: He almost pulled like a ‘Karate Kid,’ like really focused, then swat.
NAJARIAN: He took a lot of basketball with Michael Jordan. This guy knows what he’s doing.
HALL: Mr. Miyagi, just snapped it right up. Look at that intense look.
HARWOOD: It was a Dirty Harry ‘make my day’ moment, and at the end of the interview he picked up a napkin off the table, and said ‘I clean up after myself’ and he picked up the fly off the carpet.
RUSH: What a guy, a Dirty Harry moment wiping out a fly, a sucker. They’re treating this like Obama wiped out Osama Bin Laden, but as I said I did this first. I did it on television, too, my TV show back in 1995. Let’s see, we have a couple sound bites from that TV show.
RUSH ARCHIVE: There’s a fly flying around in here, Dick. Oh, man, it’s a huge mama. (audience laughing) You see? It is. Looks pregnant. (audience laughing) Anyway–
RUSH: Later in the show, I then murder the sucker, but not with my hands like Obama. I used my shoe. And killing a fly with a shoe is a much bigger insult in the fly world than killing an insect or a fly with your hand.
RUSH ARCHIVE: (clapping) All right, I hope you animal rights people are watching. (applause) It worked. Here. (audience reaction) Do you want some more?
RUSH: Now, what you couldn’t see there was I stomped on the sucker. I stomped on the fly and that’s when I said, ‘It worked.’ I lifted my shoe to show the dead fly on the sole of the shoe, and then I asked other flies, ‘Do you want some more?’ And I lifted my shoe again. And aside from those of you who saw the show at the time, did any of you hear about this? Did any of you hear any comparisons to me and Michael Jordan or Dirty Harry or Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid? Did anybody sing my praises what a great fly swatter I am? No. All I got was complaints from my viewing audience for taking up precious broadcast time on an insect.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Oh, by the way, I have forgotten, Cookie reminded me that the fly-killing episode at Rush Limbaugh the TV show was featured on Dick Clark’s blooper show. It also won a Rushie Award. We knew we would never qualify for the Emmys so we gave ourselves awards, highlights of shows every season. (laughing)
RUSH: By the way, we found in our archives the clip from Dick Clark’s bloopers show where I got mentioned, we on our TV show got mentioned killing the fly. This is November 30th, 1995.
RUSH ARCHIVE: You know, we made the Dick Clark blooper show the other night with a clip from this very show. Yes, it’s true, ladies and gentlemen, and I’d like you to see it if you missed it the first time.
CLARK: Here’s Rush Limbaugh and his latest opponent.
RUSH: There’s a fly flying around in here, Dick. Oh, man, it’s a huge mama. (audience laughing) You see? It is. Looks pregnant. (audience laughing) Where is that fly? Look at that thing. See, you thought I was making this up.
RUSH: That was great camera work by one of the cameramen to find that fly when it landed somewhere and he found it, got a close-up of it. So I was wrong. People did notice it. I wasn’t given any special credit for it like capturing Bin Laden or any such thing and the Drive-Bys at the time did not go nutso over it like they are with Obama. Still, all over the news media today is evidence of Obama slaying a fly. I guess he would hurt a fly.