RUSH: You know, folks, that election in Israel, the victory, Benjamin Netanyahu, that has really confounded Obama. Do you know what Obama did? He recorded a video address to the people of Iran and blamed the hardliners in both of our countries, he’s telling the people of Iran, for all the mess that’s going on in the Middle East. It’s unprecedented.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
President Obama has used the Nowruz statement to speak directly to the people of Iran. And what he did, he compared Iranian hardliners to Americans who are skeptical of his nuclear deal with Iran. So here’s the president of the United States speaking to the people of Iran. He is in the process of arranging and negotiating a nuclear deal with the mullahs of Iran, which will give them a nuclear weapon in ten years, if we are to believe what we’re being told about the deal.
Obama goes on television in Iran to complain about Americans. And he equates the American people who disagree with him to hardliners in Iran who disagree with their government. He compares Iranian hardliners to Americans who are skeptical of his deal. We must have audio sound bites of this. It’s unprecedented. An American president addressing the Iranians. Here. Just listen.
OBAMA: Hello. To everyone celebrating Nowruz — across the United States and in countries around the world — Nowruz Mubarak. This year we had the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries. Just over a year ago we reached an initial understanding regarding Iran’s nuclear program. I believe that our countries should be able to resolve this issue peacefully with diplomacy. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon.
RUSH: Oh, my, folks, be still my beating brain. What in the world is going on here? So the president of the United States addresses his people, the Iranians. To everyone celebrating Nowruz across the United States? Did we let the kids out of school today for Nowruz? (interruption) Yeah, we didn’t, but we should have. Nowruz is not a national holiday in America? Well, the sacrilege of that. Nowruz and in countries around the world, Nowruz Mubarak he said, Nowruz Mubarak. What in the world is going on here? “This year we have the best opportunity in decades to pursue a different future between our countries.”
He’s talking to the leaders, the people who are imprisoned by the state sponsors of terrorism, the biggest worldwide sponsors of terrorism. “I believe that our country should be able to resolve this issue –” why are we even talking to Iran? Can somebody answer a question, why are we even talking to them? We’re so far gone that we’ve lost sight of that basic question. Why in the world are we talking to Iran? Why are we negotiating the whole subject of nuclear weaponry with them?
General Petraeus, you gotta praise his guts. General Petraeus is out there today saying that Iran is a greater threat to the United States than ISIS, and Obama doesn’t really think either one of them is much of a threat. He doesn’t give ISIS much the time of day. Everything he does is perfunctory there, and now he’s on Iranian TV, and don’t doubt me, folks. A sizable percentage of the Iranian population does not like its government and would love to be able to get rid of it.
And this is one of the problems that has — I think it’s a problem. There have been a lot of opportunities in the last 10 to 15 years to show solidarity with the people of Iran and to help them pose and create and participate in an uprising against their government. We’re never gonna send boots on the ground in Iran. We’re never gonna do anything militarily to effect Regime change there, but there are other ways to influence the outcome of events in that country, and there’s a sizable percentage of the population which does not like the mullahs, which does not like the ayatollahs, the current leadership, and would like a different kind of government. We have really not fully explored encouraging those people.
Now here’s Obama on television siding with the mullahs and telling the people of Iran, hey, you know what? I just got off the phone with the Ayatollah Khamenei, and he’s issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons. Are you kidding me? Does anybody really believe this? That the Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons, and Obama’s on Iranian TV telling them this? “I believe our countries should be able to resolve the issue.” What issue? What are we talking to them about? What is the issue?
If the Ayatollah Khamenei here has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons, then why are we talking to them? What is there to worry about? What the hell are we negotiating? If the Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons and President Rouhani has said that Iran would never develop nuclear weapons, then what are we talking to them about? (interruption) No, I’m not asking it rhetorically. I’m being serious. Why are we negotiating? This doesn’t make any sense. And even if the Ayatollah Khamenei had issued a fatwa against, there’s no such thing as a fatwa against nuclear weapons. You issue a fatwa against infidels. A fatwa is against your enemy.
This is absurd. But it’s beyond absurd. This is surreal. So our ally, Israel, has a presidential election. Netanyahu wins in a landslide, and Obama is so ticked off, he decides that Israel’s not worthy of friendship anymore because this victory of Netanyahu is such a diss that he’s gonna sidle up to the Iranians? Here’s another except from the president’s speech to the people of Iran and all the other nations, including the United States, celebrating Nowruz Mubarak around the world.
OBAMA: The days and weeks ahead will be critical. Our negotiations have made progress, but gaps remain. And there are people, in both our countries and beyond, who oppose a diplomatic resolution.
RUSH: To what?
OBAMA: My message to you — the people of Iran — is that, together, we have to speak up for the future we seek. ItÂ’s up to all of us, Iranians and Americans, to seize this moment and the possibilities that can bloom in this new season. Thank you, and Noroozetan Pirooz.
RUSH: What in the world, folks, is happening here. Why, if there’s a fatwa in Iran against nuclear weapons, why in the world do we need a diplomatic resolution? A diplomatic resolution to what? “There are people in both our countries and beyond who oppose the diplomatic –” What are we diplomacizing here, if there’s a fatwa against nukes? What, are there some rogue elements in Iran developing a nuclear weapon despite the fatwa against it by the Ayatollah Khamenei? “It’s all up to us, Iranians and Americans.” We are allied? We are now allied with the Iranians in that region? Noroozetan Pirooz? Really?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Eric in Margate, New Jersey. I’m glad you called, sir. You’re up first on Open Line Friday. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: Great to talk with you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I wanted to talk about Iran real quick. Two points.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Excuse me.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: In the eighties, when I was in my thirties, the Iranians took our people hostage when the ayatollah took over, and they paraded them around for two years, blindfolded. Which I don’t know about you, but after about six months of it I was getting PO’d. A lot of people out there didn’t live through it but in this Iraq war we just had, the Iranians were smuggling in IEDs that blew up a lot of our soldiers.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: They were killed and maimed.
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: And I don’t see how we’re having any dealings with them at all.
RUSH: My question, too. I don’t know what we’re talking to ’em about either. What in the world…? The only reason to talk to these people is to talk them out of or to give them the lay of the land. “You will not have a nuclear.” But we’re not doing that. But you’re exactly right. Iran manufactures all those IEDs, the improvised explosive devices, that have ruined, wounded, killed American soldiers. The American Hostage Crisis gave us Nightline. That’s another thing. It doesn’t make sense. The world seems like it’s upside down.
Happy Nowruz! Nowruz barakaba!
Yes, how about that.
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RUSH: Deborah in Grand Junction, Colorado. I’m glad you called. Great to have you with us. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you. Good to be here.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Yesterday you were talking about football and how they’re trying to phase it out, and you explained they’re our new gladiators. These are the guys that are disciplined. They’re rough, they’re tough, and they know who they are.
RUSH: Yeah. I think I said what they’re trying to do is eradicate the warrior culture out of our society.
CALLER: Exactly. Well, that’s the reason that Obama does not like Benjamin Netanyahu, that philosophy. This guy was in the IDF. He was an officer, he saw action, he was in Special Forces. He knows who he is.
RUSH: Right. Benjamin Netanyahu is everything Barack Obama knows he will never be.
CALLER: Exactly, and he’s got more of the statesman in his little finger than Obama has in his entire body. He handles himself well. He speaks well. And Obama is so threatened by this, because this is one guy that’s not gonna bow down at the altar of Obama.
RUSH: He is one guy that does not buck, he does not cower, he does not flitter away, he does not act fearful, he does not act awed. He does not act frightened of Obama in any way — and when you stand up to a bully, the bully oftentimes is lost and doesn’t know what to do. I think there are a lot of reasons why Obama doesn’t like Netanyahu.
CALLER: Exactly. But the part that he’s a bully… I thought that especially after Benjamin Netanyahu had come to Congress, he stood there and he’s such a statesman. I mean, he praised Obama. He wasn’t hateful at all, although Nancy Pelosi just wept over this.
RUSH: That is manners.
CALLER: Exactly, and Obama is threatened by this, and to cap things off —
RUSH: I don’t know that —
CALLER: — he’s really serving his country. His country comes first for him, Benjamin Netanyahu. He’s actually a patriot. He stands up there and he lets everybody know.
RUSH: Yeah. I agree with all that. I don’t think that Obama’s threatened. Well, I think he’s threatened by all of his opposition, but I don’t think it manifests itself emotionally that way or even intellectually with Obama. I think Obama takes it as disrespect, an act of insolence by denying him his way on things. I think Obama has an arrogance and a superiority about him, and he expects everybody to recognize and acknowledge that Obama’s better than everybody else and smarter and right, and we’re not to question, we’re not to doubt, and we are certainly not to upstage.
Oh. We are not, and if we do that… Paul Ryan did that one time. At one of these famous Obama symposiums or seminars or Obamacare. I think was at the Blair House, if I’m not mistaken. Obviously it was in the first term. It was before Obamacare had been voted on. And Paul Ryan shows up with the Republican leadership and just lays out the facts about how this bill is an absolute boondoggle disaster, how the numbers don’t add up, the money makes no sense, and the policy is entirely flawed.
Obama was shooting daggers when the camera caught it, because Ryan was engaging in a public show of disrespect. Paul Ryan was showing Obama up. You don’t do that. See, Obama doesn’t care whether the numbers add up. Obama doesn’t care whether the law’s good, bad, or indifferent. That’s not the objective. It didn’t matter. Even now, Obama doesn’t care who has insurance and who doesn’t. He doesn’t care that it’s costing 23% more even with subsidies. He doesn’t care about any of that.
The end result of government being in charge of health care is all that matters. That’s the endgame. That’s the end result. That happened. The United States is supposed to be in charge of happens in the Middle East. Barack Hussein Obama is supposed to be able to dictate what happens in that region, and Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t play ball. Benjamin Netanyahu ran for reelection and had the audacity to win, which Obama takes as a direct threat and insult, an act of insolence.
Bibi was supposed to slink away — and if he knew what’s good for him, was supposed to lose. Bibi’s supposed to understand that opposition is futile. Bibi and all of us are supposed to understand that stopping Obama is impossible, standing up to him is useless, and trying to get others to do so is as well. It’s a mind-set that I dare say, I don’t think… I could be wrong; I’m not intimately experienced in all the people that served in office.
But I feel pretty confident in saying that I don’t think we’ve had a president, commander-in-chief, occupant of the Oval Office with this kind of mind-set and attitude about the country and the world ever. And that’s why I think people are having a tough time coming to grips with the reality. People are still plugging Obama into the usual molds. “Well, he’s a Democrat president; that means X, Y, and Z.” No, it doesn’t. Not with Obama.
It means A, B, C, and D — and we haven’t seen it before, and I think people still have no idea what these next two years have in store for us.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So I checked the e-mail during the break. “Rush, what is your problem? What is so bad about Obama addressing the people of Iran?” Okay. It’s not that Obama was addressing the people of Iran. It’s that he was telling the people of Iran that the biggest problem in our two countries coming to an agreement is hardliners in his country, America. And then we find out he won’t even tell us what the final details of any agreement are, because it’s gonna be classified, we’re not allowed to know what the deal is.
And then Obama, in this joint speech, or whatever it was to the people of Iran, says that the Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in Iran, but nobody can find the fatwa, which gives rise to the question, well, then why are we negotiating with ’em? I want to know why we’re talking to ’em period, but if they really have no designs on a nuclear weapon, then what is the point of having a long, drawn-out diplomatic negotiation with them? What are we trying to talk ’em out of if they’re not trying to build a nuke, or what are we trying to talk ’em into if they’re not doing a nuke?
But the people of Iran want out from under the oppressive government they have just as much as the oppressed people of any nation want out from underneath it. And yet Obama is on TV basically telling the people of Iran that their leaders are hunky-dory, they’re just fine, and that the problem is hardliners in America. So that’s why I have a problem with it.