RUSH: Let’s go to the audio sound bites. We have the Washington and media elites upset about Edward Snowden. Folks, let me ask. Didn’t we just go through an election where we were told that the youths of America had all the answers? We had to get the youth of America interested in American politics. We had to get them interested to the point that they cared. The youth of America, it’s their future. The youth vote, that mattered as much as anything, whoever got the youth vote was gonna win. On contraception, gay marriage, immigration, redistribution of wealth, national security, we were told we needed to get with it, because the youth of America all wanted these things.
The youth of America demanding gay marriage. The youth of America demanding contraception any time, anywhere, anyplace. The youth of America demanding immigration and amnesty. The youth of America wanting redistribution of wealth. We gotta get with it. The Republican Party, a bunch of old white men, a bunch of old fogies. Okay, so now here comes a youth, 29-year-old Edward Snowden, an ideal young potential Democrat, except for this. So we have a montage here of media people and inside the Beltway types commenting on the guy.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Snowden is 29 years old, he doesn’t have a high school diploma.
GWEN IFILL: The 29- year-old.
NEIL CAVUTO: The 29 year-old behind these sensational US security leaks.
MARY ANNE MARSH: Twenty-nine years old with a GED.
LOU DOBBS: Twenty-nine year old high-school dropout.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE: Individuals like this, 29 years old.
ANGUS KING: I got a problem with a 29 year-old deciding US national security policy.
CHRIS STIREWALT: A guy with a patchy beard, whoÂ’s 29 years old.
BROOKE BALDWIN: He is 29 years old, a Millennial, the generation known for its independence.
BRIAN KILMEADE: Twenty-nine years old, he feels like he knows it all.
RUSH: It doesn’t sound like they’re so enamored of 29 year olds here, does it? Sounds like the fact that he’s a 29-year-old is a reason to think the guy’s not worth listening to. This is a punk. It wasn’t that long ago, I kept hearing how important it was to find out what the Millennials thought, how important it was to pay attention to what the Millennials thought their future would be. Okay. This is a pretty good example of a Millennial. And now, all of a sudden, the only difference between this guy and a bag of excrement is the bag because he’s 29. He’s just a punk. Not worth listening to. What a creep, who does this guy think he is? That’s the attitude now. Before the election, these guys were Adonises. Yeah, the patchy beard. At least his beard is better than Jay Carney’s beard, there’s no question about it about that.
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RUSH: Rich in White Plains. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, thank you for taking my call. You know, Rush over and over again I see something in the news and I form an opinion and sure as heck, it’s the exact opinion you express on your next show. And the last one was this young man, Snowden. My first reaction was, what did he do to make him so dangerous? And, Rush, what’s interesting is, everybody’s opinion before he revealed himself I think was more concerned about the government having our phone numbers, but now that there’s a person associated with it, they’re going on the attack. It’s almost like they enjoy having somebody to scapegoat. And when you said yesterday that what did he reveal, he revealed a process, unlike Obama, for the sake of Zero Dark Thirty, revealed some real details that could really put people in danger.
RUSH: You know, that is an excellent point. In fact, there have been a couple of stories — I don’t remember where — one of them asked the question, did somebody in the Department of Defense actually give the producers of Zero Dark Thirty literal intel for the purposes of having themselves portrayed wonderfully in the media taking place? It was speculation, but he’s right. There is a substantive publicizing of intel. Snowden didn’t reveal anything. All he did was reveal the process. He didn’t give away any secrets. He didn’t reveal anything that has been learned. All he did — and I don’t mean “all” as thought it’s inconsequential, don’t misunderstand, but he just detailed the “how.” He detailed the capability. But he didn’t divulge one bit of intel.
I don’t think anybody was shocked. I wasn’t. Now, a lot of people are feigning real anger over this, and John Bolton, by the way, we had a sound bite on Bolton yesterday, we didn’t get to it, but John Bolton said, “You know, this reaction that this is getting is hysterical.” And he didn’t mean funny. He said this is an unwarranted hysteria. Every branch of government signed off on this. His point was, there’s nothing rogue about this. Every bit of it happened according to the law. You had the FISA court, judicial. You had the intelligence committees, legislative. You had the president, executive. Every branch of government knew what was going on, every branch of government okayed it. There isn’t one branch of government doing something here without the permission of the other two, and therefore there’s nothing to see here.
Well, wouldn’t you agree with that, Snerdley? Therefore, don’t get so hysterical about it. This is standard operating procedure. This is how intel happens. This is how information gathering takes place in 2013. It’s a dangerous world out there. The United States is a great nation at risk in a dangerous world, and we’ve gotta make sure that the American people are protected. That’s what causes people to start asking questions. Is this about protecting the American people or is it about targeting them? And that’s where this guy’s detailing of the process started raising at least my curiosity.
Now, he didn’t reveal anything that was illegal, which was Bolton’s point. And it wasn’t illegal because all three branches had signed off on it. I guess under that line of thinking, if all three branches signed off on doing something, I guess it’s okay. But Bolton’s point, there was nothing unconstitutional here, there was nothing illegal here, and therefore there’s nothing to see here. Basically this is the sausage making of intel gathering, and nobody wants to see the sausage factory. You want to eat the bacon and the links — well, except for Snerdley — but you don’t want to see how it’s made. At least that was Bolton’s point. I understand it. I’m a mature, relatively mature 62-year-old. But I hearken back to it matters who’s doing it and who has the power, and this regime is targeting Americans it doesn’t like, and that’s why it bothered me, pure and simple. And I think that’s only common sense, it’s not paranoia.