RUSH: Look, this Donald Sterling business, I have to tell you something, folks, this is not news to anybody who has known of this guy. I was telling Mr. Snerdley this morning, this guy’s a big Democrat. The only reason he’s in trouble right now is he did not give enough money to Obama. This guy was gonna get a leadership award from the NAALCP LA chapter, the second one. This guy is a typical Hollywood Democrat. He’s sort of a pretend A-lister. But who he is, his racialist tendencies, everything on these tapes, it’s been so widely known by everybody in the NBA, everybody in the sports media for 10 to 15 years, for however long he’s owned this team.
All of this shock and outrage, I’m gonna tell you something. It is as phony as you can believe. Everybody in the media, from LA to New York, who’s acting shocked about this, I’m telling you, they’ve known who this guy is for the longest time. They’ve known he’s a slumlord. They know that he’s a racist. They know that he’s basically a despicable human being, and now he may be demented, in addition to whatever else he is.
I remember when I first started going out to Los Angeles and started meeting people out there, something happened. I mean, 10, 15 years ago, the name Donald Sterling came up, and I’m asking my friends, “Who is this guy?” and I heard everything 10 to 15 years ago that I’m hearing about the guy over the weekend. And all during this period of time, “Well, how does this guy hang on?”
“Well, the Clippers never win, the second-rate team in LA. The Lakers own it out here and it’s just an afterthought team. Not any big deal. It doesn’t get in anybody’s way.” And he pays these guys decent NBA salaries. But it’s been known. The guy gave money to Gray Davis. The guy gave money to Bill Bradley. He’s been donating to Democrat causes. Doing what you do in Beverly Hills and LA to be in the A-list crowd, this guy’s been doing it, other than the slumlord business, and that may even be some of what you have to do.
If you get anybody in the NBA, anybody in the media world in LA to be honest with, they’ll tell you that none of this is news. Even the fact that he’s had these girlfriends, that he’s a sugar daddy, that’s not new. His wife has known about it. What happened here is, best I can tell, he was getting older, he thinks that what he says is profound, and he wants it maintained for posterity. So he asked this V. Stiviano, the latest sugar baby and a little honey, she’s telling people that he asked her to record it, because what he says is brilliant. He doesn’t have the ability to remember everything he says now ’cause he’s 81 years old and he wanted it kept for posterity. He wanted to have a record of what he had said in case there were any disputes with anybody about what he had said.
So that’s her story, and of course she is going to stick to it. There are over 100 hours of recordings of Donald Sterling, so the real question is, “Why does it matter now?” Folks, you know what I’ve always said? Remember when we had the discussion when they threw the guy from Mozilla overboard? I had a monologue at that point in time about how the left always seems to get away with things ’cause their intentions are good. We’re never supposed to judge the results of what they believe in. We’re never supposed to judge the results of their actions or of their policies because they’re good people, and they’re trying to do the right thing. They have honorable, good intentions. And at the same time they assign ill intention to us.
And one of the things that the left says about people on the right is, like when the Koch brothers, when David Koch gave a hundred million dollars to the hospital, they said he didn’t really mean that. He was just doing that to cover up the fact that he really doesn’t like poor people. He was just doing that to cover up the fact that he really hates people. He was just doing that to keep people from finding out who the real David Koch is. That’s what they say. Well, hello. That’s Donald Sterling. Donald Sterling is giving all this philanthropy, all these awards, to cover up who he is.
They actually do what they accuse us of doing. The Mozilla guy’s Brendan Eich and he’s long gone of course, and what did he do? He gave a thousand dollars to a campaign that believed marriage is between a man and a woman. Can you believe the bigotry. Can you believe the hatred, a guy like Brendan Eich? Now, they’re trying to figure out what to do about Sterling. They can’t take away the team. Legally they can’t take away the team. If they try to take away the team, then Sterling will sue ’em and tie ’em up in court.
The Reverend Sharpton, by the way, is on the case. The Reverend Sharpton, who is going to be awarded at the same banquet Sterling was going to be awarded. The NAALCP LA branch is gonna give the Reverend Sharpton award, the Justice Brothers are on the case. The Reverend Jackson is now comparing — (laughing) — picking cotton to picking basketballs if you have to play for the Clippers. (laughing/coughing) I’m sorry, folks. I cannot shake this. It’s been a month now and I’m doing everything I can. It’s very rude to cough at you like that, I’m sorry. But when I start laughing it upsets the breathing pattern that keeps the coughing in check. (interruption) I don’t know what Sharpton is getting an award for. I don’t care. Sharpton is now on the case. The Justice Brothers are on the case. They’re gonna go after the Clippers advertisers, boycott this and boycott that. They’re gonna shame Sterling out of the picture.
He’s got this sugar baby named V “Dot” Stiviano. (Hell, I don’t know. That could be what she calls herself in the Internet age.) She has three or four aliases, and she’s a groupie. One day she’s hanging out with a guy from the Dodgers, the next night she’s hanging around with a guy from the Lakers, and here she is being kept by Sterling. He bought her a house and a new car. And he gave her, I think, a $1.5 million in cash.
At that point, the ex-wife who still runs the team, said, “Okay, wait a minute. This is getting too far because that’s mine. Now we’re getting into what’s gonna eventually be my money.” So the ex-wife has played a role. V. Stiviano has released a tape because she’s trying to write a book about all this and her theory is, her story is that Sterling asked her to make these recordings of private thoughts.
They are indeed private thoughts that this guy shared. Start thinking about if the NSA was taping your private thoughts and somebody got mad at you and decided to release them to TMZ. I mean, where would you be if anybody cared? (interruption) No they can’t. They can’t legally take the team away. There’s nothing in the bylaws. I mean, baseball, the Cincinnati Reds’ Marge Schott?
It took Major League Baseball years to convince her to sell the Reds. So there’s nothing in the bylaws to take the team away from him. There’s nothing in the bylaws to make him sell it. All they can do is put financial pressure on advertisers, get all the sponsors out of there. (interruption) “What if Obama gets involved?” He already did get involved! I mean, Obama’s involved.
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RUSH: He also said something about Sterling. We got a long way to go, and the Sterling situation proves it!
I’m gonna tell you, folks, here’s the bottom line: The Sterling situation is made to order for the Democrats because racism is a political strategy to them. There isn’t slavery in America. We’ve got a black president. We got a black attorney general. The most popular, well-paid TV person in America is black, Oprah. We don’t have a slave state anymore. We don’t have anywhere near it.
We’re not anywhere near the kind of country these people, the Democrats, want to portray it as being. So Sterling does this, and it would be even worse if he were a Republican. You’ll note that in no story do you see him identified as a Democrat. But this whole racist thing is just a political strategy, and that’s why they’re all salivating here.
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RUSH: No, I… I’m trying to… (sigh) Look, I don’t want to mention any names of people who have told me about Sterling. I mean, folks, this last trip to LA, I went out and played golf with Doc Rivers, who’s the coach of the Clippers. I’d never met him. He’s a former coach of the Celtics and so forth, and the subject came up then. It’s every day.
The real question here is: Why hasn’t the NBA done anything about this before now? You know that Donald Sterling is the longest tenured owner in the NBA. He has owned this team since 1981. Yeah, and I’m just telling you: None of this is a surprise to anybody, if you get ’em to be honest with you. It’s just that now his voice is on tape and they can’t sweep it under the rug.
They have been able to sweep this guy on the rug because the Clippers sucked, because the Clippers were constantly losers. But now the owner of the Lakers passed away and they’re in trouble, and the Clippers happen to be the best team in LA right now. So there’s a lot more attention on them than there usually is.
I mean, they were a cast-off type team. The Lakers owned LA in many ways, not just in basketball, and so the Clippers were an also-ran out there in Disneyland. Well, they play in the same place, but now they can’t sweep it under the rug because there’s actual tape of the guy. It’s not just people talking about it. It’s his voice. But the real question is: Why didn’t they do anything about this long ago?
Why didn’t the previous commissioner, David Stern, do anything about this long ago? The fact of the matter is they had other, more pressing problems in the NBA than this madcap owner. The guy is a slumlord. He has been sued and settled lawsuits for discrimination and all kids of things. (interruption) Well, no. It’s one of these situations where I’m not gonna mention any names.
I’m not gonna say, “X told me.” I’m not gonna bring anybody into this. (sigh) But I’m just telling you. (chuckling) Every time I go to LA, I ask, “Okay, what’s the latest thing Sterling’s done? Please tell me.” They’ve been fun, entertaining stories. Now everybody has this mock outrage, and I’m telling you: It’s not a surprise to anybody.
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RUSH: So people, quite naturally in the e-mail: “What do you mean that Sterling is a Democrat and donates to left wing causes?” Well, I’ll give you a couple of examples here in a second. But, folks, at some point we’re gonna have to move off of this. This is a trap here, this racial strategy, this plays right into the Democrats’ hands. Even though this guy’s a Democrat, they get to point out, they get to say as a strategy, “We still have a racist country.”
What that does is keeps enforcing guilt on people and makes them think that they’ve got to do and say things, such as to pollsters, to show that they’re not racist. It’s almost a form of political blackmail in a sense, the way this issue is used. I mean, this guy got an NAALCP lifetime achievement award in 2009, and he had just been sued by Elgin Baylor, who is a well-known star from the past in the NBA. He had just settled a housing lawsuit, the largest housing lawsuit in history. He had just settled it. He gave big money grants to the NAALCP and other black groups, including the Black Business Association, 100 Black Men, the Special Olympics, the United Negro College Fund, and it was a tradeoff.
He’s giving all this money to all of these black and left-wing causes so he’s able to say and do what he wants as long as the money rolls in. It’s exactly what they say about us, that we only donate to charity to cover up the bigotry and the hatred that we really feel. That’s what they say about us. And look, these are the people that do it. These are the phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ rollers. There’s a lot more important stuff out there.
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RUSH: Now, here comes the NAALCP LA chapter reacting to the Donald Sterling scandal. All this faux outrage, this faux surprise. CNN has even bumped trying to find the Malaysian jetliner for this story. This might become their next miniseries. I just saw some anchorette on CNN waving papers around, “Look at what I found! Look at what I found! This guy has been doing this kind of stuff since 2003.” No kidding! A CNN infobabe waving around, “Boy, you should see what I’ve got him saying here back in 2003.” Right, everybody’s known about this. Every Democrat, every NBA employee, expert, commissioner, you name it, the NAALCP in LA, everybody has known it. It’s just that his money talked.
But now, it’s circle the wagons. It’s CYA. Everybody has gotta act shocked, gotta act saddened, gotta act disappointed, gotta act surprised, gotta act, “Oh, no, how horrible it is,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Leigh Steinberg, poor guy, the original Jerry Maguire, the source for Jerry Maguire, Lee Steinberg, sports agent, he was just on CNN and he made a plea for calm. It didn’t fly. (laughing) He said (paraphrasing), “Can we just calm down? Look, it’s only Monday morning here in California and this only came to light on Saturday. You gotta give the NBA time. They’ll deal with this. They’ll get it right.”
And some African-American woman is the other guest (paraphrasing), “No way. We’re not waiting. You see what the Supreme Court just did, struck down affirmative action Michigan. I’m a woman of color. I’m raising children of color, and we are fed up. We are tired of this.” Ma’am, it’s your own political party that has been covering this stuff up. I just marvel at this. This is the kind of stuff that on the wrong day can make you lose faith in everything. ‘Cause these clowns just get away with it, they just get away with this stuff.
They’re the ones that swept this under the rug. They’re the ones that covered it up. They’re the ones that took his money. They’re the ones that looked the other way. All the players in the league that have signed free agent contracts and gone there have known who owns the team. Now look at that. There are 20 people there at the NAALCP event all lining up waiting to get to the microphone to express their outrage and their surprise and their sadness.
If they’re not careful out there they’re gonna light a match. If they’re not careful they’re gonna make some people mad to the point that they start exhibiting their anger. Yeah. They’re gonna have to be real careful about how far they go with this show of faux outrage. We wouldn’t want this to lead to civil unrest. How long is it gonna be before somebody trots out Rodney King? No, Rodney died, didn’t he? Oh, no. Well, who took his place? Nobody yet? Well, we’ll just wait and hope for calm in Southern California, all the while keeping a sharp eye on the latest developments.
As the latest developments develop, we’ll pass them on to you. (interruption) Mr. Snerdley is just asking, “What else are they hiding?” You mean that they know he said or done, what… (interruption) Oh, oh, oh, oh, that is a good question. Who else are they covering up for? What other left-wing racists or bigots out there give money to the right places and are being covered up and massaged, if you. That’s a good question. Because when there’s one, there’s others. Sterling’s not the only guy.
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RUSH: Donald Sterling, since 1998, has been a registered Republican. Just learned this. But now wait a minute. Wait a minute. That doesn’t change anything. Because it means the NAACP has been giving awards to a Republican all these years, which would have been news. They wouldn’t have done that if they’d known. Nobody knew it. Now, the source for this is the estimable Mother Jones.
Now, wait a second. I want to share with you that even they issue a qualifier here. “On Sunday, Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times columnist, tweeted that local voter records show Sterling to be a registered Republican ‘since 1998.’ We followed up on that, and a search of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s website for Sterling’s name, date of birth, and address confirmed that he’s registered as a Republican.”
But, they say, “There’s little reason to get excited about Sterling’s political affiliation. But if you choose to do so, you ought to get it right,” meaning it doesn’t matter. There’s no ground to be gained by pointing out the guy is a Republican because he’s been donating to Democrats. He’s been supporting Democrat causes. But we want to get it right here, as you know.
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RUSH: Here is Leon Jenkins. Leon Jenkins runs the LA chapter of the NAALCP in Los Angeles. By the way, I’ve got some e-mail asking, “What do you mean NAA’L’CP?” They’re new listeners. It’s the National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People, NAALCP, ’cause they don’t care about the advancement of Clarence Thomas.
And they don’t care about the advancement of any number of black conservatives such as Dr. Sowell and any number of others. The National Association for the Advancement of Liberal (or Leftist) Colored People. So Leon Jenkins had a press conference, and they must have had 20 people at that podium. An unidentified reporter says: How much money did Donald Sterling give you guys?
JENKINS: It was not a significant amount of money.
REPORTER: How much?
JENKINS: I’m not gonna tell you the amount, but it —
REPORTER: Why not?
JENKINS: Because I just said it. It’s an insignificant amount of money, and we’re gonna return it.
RUSH: “I’m not gonna tell you how much money he gave. It doesn’t amount to anything. We’re gonna give it back.” But wait a minute, this was the second lifetime achievement award he was gonna get. (laughing) You mean those don’t cost anything? (interruption) You can’t buy a lifetime achievement award? (laughing) Why else was he getting one? So the reporter said, “Back in 2009, Mr. Sterling was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the NAACP. Any plans to revoke that as well?”
JENKINS: No, he was not. I believe that was a humanitarian award, and that was an award or a decision that I inherited. The prior president had made that commitment and I just honored it.
RUSH: “So don’t look at me, pal! I didn’t do it. Nothing to see here.” That’s the old Bart Simpson defense. “Nobody saw me do it. You can’t prove anything! I didn’t do it! I had nothing to do with it. My predecessor, George W. Bush, gave him that award, and I had nothing to do with it. All I did was honor it.” I’ll tell you, this Leon Jenkins has got a sterling defense down pat. It’s just a sterling defense of the actions of the NAALCP.
“No, it was not a lifetime achievement award. It was a humanitarian award!” (laughing) Well, that’s even better (laughing), ’cause the Reverend Jackson just said that he’s paying all these guys but giving them no dignity. I always thought that the owner had one job. I mean, the boss had one job, and that was to come off with the check. I always thought the check was the dignity.
Now, there are times I wanted to be treated nicely, times I wanted to be respected and so forth, but people are people. If the check came, the check came. Grab 13 and 14. We might as well get these out of the way before we get to the homeless iPhone scandal. This is Chuck, Chuck Barkley, a former friend of mine. He used to be a good friend of mine until I don’t know when.
I guess it was when Obama got elected, and then Chuck started not liking me anymore. This is Saturday afternoon during TNT’s coverage of the playoffs, which the Clippers are in for the first time in like the millennium. It really is an unfortunate thing for these guys, because they are in the playoffs. They’re also-rans. The Lakers own LA. The Clippers are finally there! You know, I wish…
I can’t remember this guy’s name, but Kathryn and I, two trips to LA ago, went to the Grand Havana Club to have dinner. You know why? ‘Cause you can have a cigar. You can have a cigar while you are eating dinner at the Grand Havana Club. You can have a cigar while you’re having an adult beverage. You can have a cigar while other people are eating, and nobody complains.
It’s ventilated. They open the sliding glass doors or whatever. It’s a great, great place, and we decided to eat at the bar. And I sat next to a guy who was a former player for the Clippers. I can’t remember his name. But we got to discussing cigars. This guy loves cigars. I ended up having a box of cigars delivered to his house the next day. I gave him one of my favorite cigars and said, “You have got to taste this. If you like cigars, taste this.”
He liked it, so I sent him a surprise box. I got his address and I had it messengered over the next day. I can’t remember his name. It’s slipping my mind. I’ve been trying to remember it all day, and I think it was former player. He might be a current player with the Clippers, but something tells me he was a former player. We had great conversations all night long. The Grand Havana Club was great.
They have one in New York, too. I just wanted to mention that because any time I can put myself in the middle of a story, I’ll take the chance. (interruption) Well, it does speak to the dignity of it. I mean, he and I had dignity for each other, and the dignity extended to my sending him a box of cigars the next day. In fact, it was more than a box. It was actually a sampler set.
He sent me a text. I’ll bet that’s how I can find it! I’ll betcha I have it right here. I know it’s in here. I’ll find the guy’s name. I don’t know if it’ll embarrass him. I could ruin the guy’s career. (laughing) But it’s right in here. That’s it. I’ll find it. Anyway, here’s Chuck Barkley, Saturday, TNT, during it is Pacers-Hawks playoff game.
Ernie Johnson is the anchor talking to the analyst Chuck Barkley about Sterling and all this. Ernie Johnson said, “You can read these statements over and over, and you still can’t believe what you’re reading.” Ernie, everybody can believe it. Everybody knew it, and I’m getting blue in the face saying so. Here’s what Chuck said.
BARKLEY: We cannot have an NBA owner discriminatin’ against a league that… We’re a black league, Ernie. We are a black league. I don’t know the number, but I probably tell you 80% of our players are black.
RUSH: Well, Chuck, I’m telling you. You’re one of these guys that’s known about Sterling for as long as you’ve been in the NBA. Paul Westphal, the former coach of the Phoenix Suns, has said it. Donald Sterling is the NBA’s worst kept secret. (interruption) What? What are you wagging your finger at me for? What…? (interruption) Did Chuck just discriminate here? (interruption) He’s… (interruption)
Chuck said, “We cannot have an NBA owner discriminatin’ against a league that… We’re a black league, Ernie. We are a black league. I don’t know the number, but…” Well, that’s a good point. How’s Sterling discriminating against the league? (interruption) I mean, yeah, he’s not discriminating against his team. His team’s in the playoffs. He’s paying free agents. It’s a good point.
By the way, what if the NHL called itself “a white league”? What would happen? We’d have big, big problems. “The NHL was so undignified as to proclaim itself a white league, Ernie!” All right, now, here’s Earvin “Magic” Johnson Sunday afternoon on NBC’s NBA Countdown. Sage Steele is the infobabe and she says, “Since your name was brought in by the man believed to be Donald Sterling these recordings, what do you do plan to go going forward,” Magic?
JOHNSON: I’m going to say what I’ve been saying all along. He’s got to give up the team. You’ve got the president of the United States saying that this is bad. You got all the fans around the country, different races of people saying it’s bad. It’s time for him to exit.
RUSH: They’ll find a way to make that happen, by the way. (interruption) Well, no, no. They can’t make him sell it, and they can’t take it away from him, but they can put pressure on the league, put pressure on the sponsors to not have anything to do with it. They can suspend him and they can fine him like a million bucks or whatever, or tell him he can’t go to Spago and it might really ruin his day. There are things they can do, but they can’t take the team away from him. They can’t make him sell it, but they can force him by public humiliation to not want to be associated with it anymore.
(interruption) Well, I don’t know if he — (interruption) who, Sterling? No, no. Well, look, you let nature take its course. What is he, 81 or 88 years old? One of the defenses is gonna be that he’s demented, he’s suffering dementia, asking for this stuff to be recorded. You wait. Suffering dementia, doesn’t know what he’s saying. He may end up trying to make himself out to be a sympathetic figure before it’s all said and done. Apparently he did call V. Stiviano, the sugar baby, and ask her what can we do to make this right, on Sunday, or what can we do to make this go away. That’s again, TMZ.
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RUSH: Cuttino Mobley was the former Clippers player I had dinner with at the bar at the Grand Havana Club. It was back last October.
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RUSH: Right here, Businessweek four minutes ago: “The racism of Donald Sterling was well known in the National Basketball Association before this weekend.” Right there it is in Businessweek. Everybody knew this. All this fake outrage is just that.