RUSH:  Back on November 15th, two weeks after the election, people were questioning Trump.  He’d had a meeting with Obama in the White House, was praising him to the hilt. The meeting was scheduled for 10 or 15 minutes, and went an hour and a half, and Trump was going on and on about how much respect he had for Obama and how Obama had promised to help and they were working together and best buds and so forth.  I warned everybody to not jump to conclusions on this, that Trump knows we are precariously balanced as a nation right now. 

We have a very disappointed and angry Democrat Party which is still conducting total control over the levers of power.  We have a president who has been personally repudiated. His agenda has been personally repudiated in this election. Whether he admits it public or not, he knows it.  And his party, as led by him, has been dealt severe setbacks and defeat since 2010.  They’re very dangerous.  I said, “Trump knows this.” 

“The nation is precariously balanced these next two months,” I said back on November 15th.  “We’ve got vanquished Democrats literally deranged, unhinged, and angry.  Trump has to make nice so as not to provoke,” and I think the whole CIA dump on Trump with the Russians hack, I told you a couple days ago, may be the first… I said on Monday this week that I thought the first real mistake Trump had made was attacking the intelligence guys when the news stories first hit about the Russians hacking and the CIA had evidence.

Those first two stories, the New York Times and Washington Post stories over the weekend.  I thought Trump had made a mistake, because the intelligence guys can do any number of things to damage a sitting president.  They can give him false reports, false news.  It’s a very, very dangerous situation, and Peter King (congressman, Long Island) was on The Kelly File last night.  She asked him, “What does it tell you that these agencies refused Congress’ demands that they show prep and share intel?”

KING:  All we’ve heard over at the Intelligence Committee over the last several months says that they could not say that there was any attempt to undermine Hillary Clinton, to help Donald.  The consensus was that there was an attempt by the Russians to put the cloud over the election, to create disunity.  Well, that’s what’s happening right now, and it’s the intelligence community that’s doing it.  This violates all protocols, and it’s almost as if people in the intelligence community are carrying out a disinformation campaign against the president-elect of the United States.  It’s absolutely disgraceful.  And if they’re not doing it, then it must have been someone in the House or the Senate who’s leaking false information and there should be a full investigation of this.

RUSH:  I’m not a big fan of this guy, but he’s exactly right about this, and this is exactly what I was talking about when I said I thought Trump may have made a mistake.  And not that the intelligence people weren’t going to do this anyway, but there’s no reason to egg ’em on.  What the question is about, is the House has asked the CIA to come up and sit for hearings on what is known, and the CIA is refusing!  They say, “There’s nothing to tell you until this is all over.  We don’t know near enough.  We’re not showing up ’til next year!”  So there’s clearly…

All of this has been politicized. 

There’s no question about it now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  By the way, folks, it’s not just the CIA, either.  It is all four intelligence agencies.  The CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department has one, and there’s another.  There four that have been requested by Congress to come up for briefing, which happens all the time. The House Intelligence Committee… It’s all off the record.  Well, no, no.  It’s all behind closed doors.  It’s not off the record.  And these agencies have told them to go pound sand! They’re refusing to testify, claiming, “Well, we’re still gathering intelligence! There’s nothing to really tell you right now.” 

So they keep leaking it to the media that Trump this and Trump that and Putin this and Putin that, but they won’t come up and put it on the record, and it can only mean one thing: It’s because Obama’s telling them not to.  Obama’s fingerprints are all over all of this, as they have been all over everything.  And Hillary’s fingerprints are all over all of those episodes of violence at Trump campaign rallies.  It is Obama who was told, again, in September of 2015 that the Russians were hacking various entities and might be interested in affecting the election.

And he didn’t push back against the Russians, and he didn’t do anything to stop it, and he didn’t tell anybody because of Syria.  This was all in the New York Times yesterday.  We had a caller.  The caller was speaking rapidly.  When the caller finished I did a little bit of a translation, spent 15 minutes explaining this yesterday that Obama was… Of anybody who knew what the Russians were doing, it was Obama.  Now they’re out there saying that Trump knew, that Trump was encouraging Putin to do it!  Here is Josh Earnest at the White House press briefing yesterday during the Q&A.

EARNEST:  …the Republican nominee himself calling on Russia to hack his opponent.  It might be an indication that he was obviously aware and concluded, based on whatever facts or sources he was — he had available to him, that Russia was involved.  The Republican nominee chose a campaign chair that had extensive, lucrative, personal financial ties to the Kremlin.

RUSH:  So does Podesta.

EARNEST:  And it was obvious to those who were covering the race that the hack-and-leak strategy that had been operationalized (sic) was not being equally applied to the two parties.

RUSH:  Would that have made it okay, Josh?  If the Russians had revealed whatever they had found in the Republican hack, would that have made it okay, ’cause that would have made it fair?  Is that really what you guys want to say?  And do you really mean to say, Mr. Earnest, that Trump himself called on Russia to hack the Democrats?  That’s not what happened.  One more time — and again, I just want to remind you, Fox News has a poll out: 59% of the people think this had nothing to do with the election.  It’s imploding on the Democrats. 

Don’t fall for the media making it look like everybody agrees with this like they made it look like everybody agreed with what was going on in opposition to the religious freedom exemption law in Indiana.  It’s a media trick.  They get on something and they cover it in a way to make it look like everybody in the country agrees with what they’re reporting, and they are doing it on this, and it’s not the case.  Fifty-nine percent think this had nothing to do with it and most people think this is a bunch of hot air, a bunch of childish whining, and they’re not being in any way affected by it. 

I resent having to come in here still defend this kind of stuff, but I’ve changed my tack.  I’m not defending; I’m looking at this as going on offense to beat this stuff back.  Donald Trump in a debate, when it came up that there were 33,000 missing Hillary Clinton emails, cracked a joke.  He said (paraphrased), “Maybe the Russians can find them.  If Hillary can’t find ’em and if Comey can’t find ’em and if nobody else in our government can find them, maybe the Russians can find ’em.”  And that’s all.  And that’s what Josh Earnest says is Donald Trump urging the Russians to hack the Democrats? 

He was cracking a joke.  It was hilarious. But they have no ability to laugh at much of anything now, certainly not themselves.  But you’ll notice here that even these people are not alleging that it was the election that was hacked because there’s no way.  Notwithstanding the fact that when there is election fraud, it’s largely the Democrats that do it, as in Detroit.  Do you know in Detroit that there were many more votes counted than were cast?  We learned that yesterday.  Many more votes were tabulated and counted than were actually cast.  Who runs Detroit?  The Democrats run Detroit. 

Anyway, Hillary’s blue wall? It betrayed her.  Trump won those three states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan.  They tried with the recount to prove that there was fraud and the Russians had hacked it.  There was no evidence.  Trump increased his count in every one of those states; I think two of them.  So what they’re now saying is, Earnest says, “And it was obvious to those who were covering the race that the hack-and-leak strategy that had been operationalized was not being equally applied to the two parties,” meaning they only revealed what was in the Podesta emails but they didn’t reveal whatever they learned from hacking the Republicans. 

Josh, would that have made it fair?  If the Russians had hacked the Republicans and had found anything embarrassing and had released it, would that have made it fair?  Is that what you oddballs are saying?  Kellyanne Conway was righteously indignant about this.  Because I mean that is a… That is a dangerously incompetent charge to suggest that the president-elect worked with the Russians to hack the Democrats and affect the outcome of United States election.  And that’s what he said from the White House. 

That means Obama thinks it.  When Earnest goes out there, don’t believe that stuff’s not preapproved and not even strategized.  It is strategized.  They have a meeting — the White House press briefing — usually at one p.m. They have a meeting. “Josh, here’s what they want you to say.” Earnest may throw his two cents in, and they come up with what they want to say, and send him out and say it.  Obama intended this to be said.  Kellyanne Conway, Fox & Friends today, reacted to it.

CONWAY:  That is breathtaking.  It is incredibly disappointing to hear from the podium of the White House press secretary, he essentially stated that the president-elect had knowledge of this, maybe even fanned the flames.  It’s incredibly irresponsible, and I wonder if his boss, President Obama, agrees.  He also congratulated the president-elect and conceded the election results to him as did Secretary Clinton.  Coming from the podium and basically trying to relitigate a political campaign when the president and the president-elect and their senior staff are trying to work together very closely to have a peaceful transition of power in our great democracy with just about a month-plus to go.

RUSH:  Well, see, this is my whole point.  Trump is making it look like it’s peaceful.  Trump is going out of his way to accommodate Obama and to praise Obama and to thank Obama and to tell everybody Obama’s a smart guy.  “Man, I love this guy,” Trump’s saying. “He’s been really helpful, really cooperative.  I’m gonna be seeking this guy’s counsel even after I’m president!” He’s going all the way, and I know why he’s doing it. I’ve told you.  We’re really at a very, very precariously, dangerous time in America now.

Because the people that have been defeated have become unhinged but they still have the levers of power.  And so Trump is doing everything he could not to provoke them.  And still, this is what’s happening.  Still. Because they can’t accept the fact that they lost, which means they can’t accept the fact they’ve been rejected by the people. By the way, I turned out to be right about Janet Yellen yesterday when I analyzed why she raised the interest rate a quarter of a point.  She went out and said… We got the sound bite here. I’ll have to translate it for you.

But essentially I was right, that the economy is starting to really pick up and we need to put the brakes on it so that there’s not too much inflation.  This is the Obama reclamation project right now, the restoring economy.  The news is out there that Trump is inheriting the greatest economy in the last ten years.  That’s also part of the narrative that the media working with the Democrats are attempting to establish, and Yellen’s raising the interest rate a quarter of a point because the economy is starting to pick up, and it’s going so fast we need to put the brakes on so there’s no inflation. 

It’s the Obama reclamation project. 

Now, if you want to look at it the other way, you could say, “Maybe Trump has something to do with this and he’s acknowledging that Obama’s economy’s pretty good as part of the mission not to provoke Obama.”  You can’t look at this one of two ways.  I prefer my original interpretation.  One more bite before we go to the break.  Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA last night on CNN with Jake Tapper.  Question: “Kellyanne Conway the other night said they didn’t like foreign governments trying to intrude in the political process, and they didn’t like the intelligence agencies trying to intrude in the political process.  Mr. Hayden, what’s your response to that? What is the personal response of your friends who are still at the CIA?”

HAYDEN:  There’s a great deal of disappointment and, frankly, disappointment trending towards anger, to be so casually dismissed.  John Brennan, the current director out there, John loves the CIA.  John’s been in the CIA all of his adult life.  There is no earthly reason John would shove the agency he loves out into this traffic lane, where they are now, unless he was compelled to do so on what they believe to be the facts.  And so this is not CIA being political or being politicized.

RUSH:  So Hayden is pretty much saying here the CIA is mad by Trump dismissing them.  He’s mad, the CIA’s mad the way Trump characterized them, and this is their way of getting even.  Normally they wouldn’t get anywhere near anything like this internal politics, but they’re so mad now — exactly why I said on Monday I thought this might be the first mistake Trump’s made. 

I met Michael Hayden once at a Steelers game in Pittsburgh, and I just asked him a question ’cause it’s something I’ve always wondered.  It’s not about any of this.  He’s from Pittsburgh.  He was a fun guy to talk to.  I said, “Does the CIA director know everything that the agency’s doing?”  He said, “No way.  There’s too much going on.  No.  No.”

“Well, then what does the CIA director do?”  The answer he gave me is too long. 

You know, I have this view of CEOs and corporate leaders as in touch and in command of everything going on in their company.  I asked Rumsfeld once.  I said, “Is there one person that knows everything going on in the Pentagon at a given moment?” 

He said, “No way.”  I’m not talking about rogue.  Of course you’re gonna have rogue people doing things. I mean the stuff that’s been ordered, the stuff that’s in the budget, the stuff that is in the mission.  Is there somebody that knows what everybody in the Pentagon — no, not possible.  And it’s the same thing at the CIA.  And in that way, I think you can easily be politicized.  Obama politicized everything else in his administration, why not this?  The fact that they won’t come up and testify before Congress and ask questions pretty much sealed that deal for me.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Reno, Nevada.  This is James.  Welcome, sir.  Great to have you on the EIB Network.  Hi.

CALLER:  Hi, Rush.  Thanks for taking my call.

RUSH:  You bet, sir.

CALLER:  So here’s my question for you.  I know there’s been a lot of effort on the left to delegitimize the Trump administration before it’s even started. So what I’m wondering is if another candidate, another Republican candidate had won the election, like Ted Cruz or John Kasich, would he have gotten the same backlash as Trump or do you think it’s a lot worse because the left knows they can’t control Trump.  He’s not part of the establishment and they’re worried he will do what he said he’s going to do.

RUSH:  They would be trying to delegitimize any Republican winner, but with Trump I think there is an intensity factor increase because Trump was so improbable. They can’t believe they’ve lost.  They just hate Trump.  They have no respect for Trump whatsoever.  You know, Trump is a genuine outsider.  They can’t believe they got trumped by the guy.  They can’t believe it.  There is a deep resentment and hatred for Trump personally and how he won, the fact that he vanquished Hillary. 

But your question is a good one, and it’s a great one for people to learn because they would be doing this — if it was Ted Cruz, it would be close to identical.  Different subject matter, but why Cruz is incompetent and incapable, and they’d be questioning the Electoral College, they’d be questioning the authenticity of the vote. 

Because I guarantee you whoever the Republican candidate would have been the polling would have told them that Hillary was gonna win.  They were convinced Hillary was gonna win, especially against Trump.  But it wouldn’t have mattered.  Whoever the Republican in the future is or would have been in this election, the Democrats are going to try to destroy them, impugn them, and delegitimize the election or/and their presidency no matter — with Trump it is a little bit more intense because there’s a little bit more emotion attached here in the sense they’ve just been totally repudiated and they know it and they can’t believe it. 

CALLER:  Yes.

RUSH:  The reason that I think your question is important is because, James, this is who they are.  This is how they behave every day.  They’re doing this kind of stuff behind the scenes and in public every day and have been my whole life.  This is who they are, and this is why this is a teachable moment.  And I’m grateful it’s happening for one reason, because so many people are now obviously seeing who they are, who may not have believed it or to whom it may not have registered in the past. 

They don’t have to be Trump fans.  I mean, this is clearly, clearly visible by anybody looking, and I’m in one sense thankful that they are doing this.  But they will do this no matter.  They did this to George W. Bush over the Iraq war and supposed anger at torture at Club Gitmo and the photos at Abu Ghraib, and you name it.  They did this to George H. W. Bush. They did this kind of stuff to Ronald Reagan.  This is who they are, James.

CALLER:  Yeah.

RUSH:  Don’t doubt me.  Okay, now, every caller, as you probably know, is offered a brand-new iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus.  Which would you like?

CALLER:  I would love an iPhone 7.

RUSH:  An iPhone 7.  Fine.  What is your carrier?

CALLER:  Verizon.

RUSH:  Verizon.

CALLER:  Yes.

RUSH:  Okay, take your pick of color.  I don’t have jet black in the iPhone seven, but I’ve got any other color you want.

CALLER:  Do you have matte black?

RUSH:  I have matte black.  You’ll have it.  Hang on just a second we’ll get your address and you will have it via the great friends of ours at FedEx tomorrow.  This is the fourth week now, and we’ll do it next week, too, every caller is offered — nobody’s turned one down yet.  Do you find that interesting?  I thought at least one person, “No, I’ve got one.”  Not one person has turned it down.  I’m joking.  I don’t really expect them to.  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let’s go back to Trump.  This was July 27th at Doral, at his golf club down there.  He was actually doing a press conference, and the 33, 30,000 whatever it is, missing Hillary emails were being discussed, and this is what the Trumpster said.

TRUMP:  I will tell you this.  Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.  I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.  Let’s see if that happens.

RUSH:  All right.  Now, that is so classic Trump humor and the reason I recognize it is because it’s my kind of humor.  It’s exactly the way I taunt them. It’s exactly the way I tweak them. It’s the same thing as Trump was at one of his rallies recently, and he said, “Now, don’t tell anybody.  I’m not supposed to announce this ’til next week –” the whole thing’s being televised around the world, “– don’t tell anybody, but the secretary of state’s gonna be Mad Dog Mattis.  Don’t tell the media.  The media’s in the back of the room, don’t tell the media.” 

It’s a technique.  I did it, I’ve done it throughout this entire program, I did it the other day when I warned you not to tell the media, don’t tell Obama that I was gonna give away what I think Trump’s strategy is, don’t tell Obama, it will blow the whole thing.  The media was at this point in time back last July having a cow.  Comey and the emails and what Hillary did or didn’t do and the 30,000 she deleted.

And there were stories that Kim Dotcom and others had them, that WikiLeaks had them and everybody was denying that they had them.  So in the midst of all this Trump is asked about, he says, “Russia, if you’re listening, maybe you can find ’em.” Because the point of the story was that everybody was trying to find them and nobody could.  The FBI couldn’t find ’em.

All this is is just jamming what the media does right down their throats, choking ’em with their own words.  “Hey, Russia!  Hey!  Hey, Vlad, hey, if you’re listening, maybe you can find Hillary’s emails and let the media know.  They really want to know, tell ’em what’s in those emails.”  Well, this is what has served Obama and Josh Earnest and the Democrats now saying that Trump was working with Putin to hack the Democrats and hack the election.  That sound bite. 

And I’m sure you remember it as a listener to this program, you remember when we originally aired that and laughed ourselves silly with it, ’cause it’s hilarious, and they have no sense of humor.  So here’s Earnest doubling down today on the idea that, no, Trump wasn’t joking, he was seriously asking Putin for help.

EARNEST:  You all have it on tape that the Republican nominee for president was encouraging Russia to hack his opponent, because he believed that that would help his campaign.  This is not in dispute.  Now, I recognize the defense from the Trump campaign is that he was joking.  I don’t think anybody at the White House thinks it’s funny that an adversary of the United States engaged in malicious cyber activity to destabilize our democracy.  That’s not a joke.  Nobody at the White House thought it was a joke.  Nobody in the intelligence community thought it was a joke.  I’m not aware that any members of Congress, in either party that was briefed on this matter multiple times dating back to the summer, thought it was a joke.

RUSH:  It was a joke.  It was a great joke because it was making fun of all of you, Mr. Earnest, which is something you apparently have no sensitivity.  You can’t recognize it, because I guess you people are so special and so, so, so elite that it’s just not permissible to laugh at you, I guess, and when anybody does, it’s unacceptable. 

The idea that Trump was urging Russia to hack Hillary with that comment.  You know the context, the media going haywire trying to find out what happened to Hillary’s 33,000 emails and Comey said they couldn’t find them.  Everybody was saying they looked for ’em, they couldn’t find them, where were they?  We had interviews with the guy who supposedly wiped her server, this bleach bust guy, the context of this makes it even funnier. 

All the while, here we have Trump supposedly trying to help the Russians destabilize our democracy?  When, in fact, folks, all the way back in September of 2015 Obama was told by intelligence agencies the Russians were hacking, hacking the political parties, hacking the DNC, trying to hack the White House.  Obama knew all the way back to September 2015 and didn’t do a single thing about it, nor tell anybody.