RUSH: Are you ready for this? Now, it’s CNN, so consider that. Headline: “Republican Senators [Republican senators!] Call for Russia Investigation, Flynn Testimony.” Are you ready for the lede?

“The Senate’s second-ranking Republican and other GOP senators are calling for an investigation into connections between President Donald Trump and Russia, and want former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to testify. Sen. John Cornyn, who has called for an investigation into Trump’s tie to Russia before Flynn resigned, told reporters Tuesday that the Senate standing committees with oversight of intelligence need to investigate Flynn. Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also told KTRS radio he wanted to speak with Flynn. Blunt told KTRS radio that an investigation ‘needs’ to happen.

“‘I think everybody needs that investigation to happen,’ he said. ‘And the Senate Intelligence Committee — again, that I serve on — has been given the principle responsibility to look into this, and I think that we should look into it exhaustively so that at the end of this process, nobody wonders whether there was a stone left unturned, and shouldn’t reach conclusions before you have the information that you need to have to make those conclusions.’ …

“Sen. Lindsey Graham also said he wants an investigation into Flynn’s conversations with a Russian ambassador about sanctions. ‘I think Congress nees [sic] to be informed of what actually Gen. Flynn said to the Russian ambassador about lifting sanctions… And I want to know, “Did General Flynn do this by himself or was he directed by somebody to do it?”‘” So it turns out that I was right about all of this except for one thing: It’s the Republicans now that are demanding this. Senator Graham thinks that Flynn was discussing the lifting of sanctions with the Russian ambassador, Obama sanctions on Russia for hacking the election.

So I guess the Republicans are content with that premise to survive, that the Russians hacked the election, and that maybe is why the Democrats lost and then Flynn went and made a call to the Russian ambassador in December. Now Senator Lindsey Graham wants to know if Flynn made that call on his own or if he was directed to make that call by somebody — and if so, who, and did they talk about the lifting of sanctions that Obama had slapped on the Russians?

So it is clear now that the Republicans think that they can nail Trump, too. According to CNN, they are out front demanding an investigation into Trump and Russia, with Flynn the bit player. Flynn’s just the guy that made a phone call, and the Republicans in the Senate don’t think Flynn did that on his own. Somebody had to give him orders to do it — and, if so, who? Let’s go through the names. Was it Kellyanne? Was it Spicer? Was it Bannon? Was it Stephen Miller? I mean, take your pick whoever they want to get rid of. Was it Sally Gates? Sorry, Yates. Was it Sally Yates? (laughing)

Did Sally Yates tell Flynn, “You know, you ought to call the Russians and discuss this sanction stuff with us,” the Obama administration holdover? Well, there you have it. I mean, the Republican-led Senate is taking the lead on getting to the bottom of Trump’s relationship with Russia. Here is Elijah Cummings, a member of Congressional Black Caucasians. He was participating in a House Democrat press conference to talk about the resignation of Flynn. This was just before the top of the hour. Here is what Congressman Cummings, who’s from the Baltimore area, had to say…

CUMMINGS: Flynn was secretly communicating with Russian officials at the same time that Russia was attacking our democracy!

RUSH: You see?

CUMMINGS: Flynn may have violated the Logan Act by discussing the sanctions imposed by the United States in response to Russia’s attacks. We have no idea why Flynn was doing all of this and why he was trying desperately to help Russia. And I know he’s now resigned. But he’s not gonna get off that easy. We need some answers to a whole lot of questions. But the obvious questions are, “What did the president know –”

RUSH: Right!

CUMMINGS: “– and when did he know it?”

RUSH: “What did the president know…?” The obvious question here, why was Flynn trying to help the Russians. Notice his opening line: “Flynn was secretly communicating with Russian officials at the same [laughing] time that Russia was attacking our democracy.” See, the Democrats, they just cannot have lost that election because of their ideas! They cannot have lost that election because Obama was wrecking the economy, destroying health care. No, no, no, no, no! It had nothing to do with that.

They lost because the Russians want Trump to win. Look, we’re gonna JIP this thing when it starts. It’s anybody’s guess. Let me start on the phones here so I can get some people who’ve been holding for a while in on this. I do have this piece from Foreign Policy magazine I want to share. It’s owned by Washington Post, to give you a heads-up. But it’s alternately funny and fascinating. We’ll get to that, all of that in due course. We’re gonna start with Sean in Philadelphia. Hey, Sean, I’m glad you called. Great-of-you on the program.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, big fan. I’ve been listening to you since ’89. I just wanted to call. This Flynn thing is making me sick to my stomach, and it’s not just because the Democrats are swarming around, they taste blood, they just want to drag this out around Trump. What really angers me is that the Republicans are silent. I mean, just imagine if the shoe was on the other foot, this was a Democrat president and the Democrats had control of both the House and the Senate? If this happened to their NSA adviser, do you think they’d be silent? No! They’d be up… They’d be counterattacking on the phone. They’d be trashing people. Where are our people backing up this president?

RUSH: Wait a minute. Do you think the Republicans would be attacking Obama if this were reversed?

CALLER: No, I think the Democrats… I’m saying the Democrats would protect their own. The Democrats would protect their own president if —

RUSH: Oh.

CALLER: — the shoe was on the other foot.

RUSH: Oh, you.

CALLER: The Republicans are silent when it comes to Trump.

RUSH: No, they’re not.

CALLER: It’s almost like they want to see him fail! They want him to go down!

RUSH: Oh —

CALLER: And these Republicans, they do not have a pulse on what we feel out here, because, you know, we’re still angry at them!

RUSH: Sean?

CALLER: The reason we elected him is because of the Republicans’ failure! They takeover the House, they say they’re gonna repeal Obamacare; then they do not do it. We give them the Senate; then they do not do it. They say, “Oh, well, we don’t have a president.” We give them a president. Where’s the repeal of Obamacare? What’s going on? And then these guys are swarming and they’re trying to bring down Trump with the Democrats!

RUSH: Every time I take a breath to speak here, he keeps going.

CALLER: Now I hear you say they announced that they want hearings? I mean, this is unbelievable!

RUSH: Well, the Russians are… (chuckling) The Republicans are not being silent, Sean. You may not have been listening to the program while you were on hold, but… See, I’m almost afraid to tell you this. Did you hear what I said about the Republicans, say, just the last five minutes?

CALLER: I think I heard something about that they called for hearings —

RUSH: (chuckling) Oh-ho!

CALLER: — and I hope that was a mistake. I hope I didn’t hear that.

RUSH: Well, here you go. “The Senate’s second ranking Republican…” These are the guys you think are being quiet and that they ought to pipe up and start defending the president. Ready? The Senate’s second-ranking Republican and other GOP senators are calling for an investigation into connections between President Donald Trump” and his connections with Russia, and they want Flynn to show up and testify. “Senator Lindsey Graham…”

CALLER: (interrupting)

RUSH: Hang on. “Sen. Lindsey Graham also said he wants an investigation into Flynn’s conversations with a Russian ambassador about sanctions. … ‘And I want to know, “Did General Flynn do this by himself or was he directed by somebody to do it?”‘ Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intel, told reporters he hasn’t made a decision yet on whether Flynn should testify.” But “other GOP senators are calling for an investigation into connections between President Donald Trump and Russia…”

CALLER: (disgusted sigh)

RUSH: That’s right.

CALLER: This is sickening.

RUSH: It is.

CALLER: It’s absolutely sickening.

RUSH: You think they’d be coming to Trump’s defense and badgering the Democrats. No, they’ve joined the Democrats in wanting to get to the bottom of this. This is according to CNN. So take this under advisement. It could be fake news. But they’ve got a lot of this stuff in quotes from these Republicans. (interruption)

No, McCain hasn’t said anything, but he may as well have — Lindsey Graham speaks. Six and one half dozen or the other. The press briefing is underway. It looks like they got Mnuchin up there speaking, Treasury secretary, so it’s gonna be a while before the sharks get out of the cage and start taking their chunk bites out of Spicer. Anyway, I’m really sorry, Sean, to have to impart that information to you, ’cause you’re right. I guarantee you that you had people standing up and cheering when you were expressing your desires of the Republicans and why you voted for Trump. Does any of this — are you still there, by the way?

CALLER: I am, I am, I am.

RUSH: Let me just ask, is any of this Flynn stuff, does any of this assault on Trump by the media, is any of it starting to make you question Trump?

CALLER: No, no, Trump is doing exactly what Trump said he would do, and if there’s a couple missteps, you know, administratively, well, the guy’s not a politician. I’m not worried about it. Flynn didn’t do anything wrong, you know, unless he wasn’t accurate with the vice president, but other than that these guys are making it seem like he did something as bad as Susan Rice or Hillary Clinton. But of course, no, our people don’t attack them, you know, we just attack our own. This is disgusting.

RUSH: Well, this is all premised, I’m telling you, from the Democrats’ standpoint and the media this is all premised on the fact that they should not have lost this election. Everybody knows Trump should have lost with only 20% of the vote. Everybody knows Hillary should have won in a landslide, the polling showed that, common sense said that, Hillary should have won, she should be president.

The only thing explains this is Russia, Russia and Putin, and obviously there’s a love affair they have with Trump. And Flynn proves it. ‘Cause he was on the phone with the Russian ambassador, and they think he was telling the Russia ambassador be cool, we’ll lift the sanctions once we get rid of Obama and get Trump in there. They don’t have any idea that that happened. I’m sure that’s what they think happened. So now the Republicans obviously think the way they think.

They think the American people are buying hook, line, and sinker what the media is saying. And even if they don’t think that, folks, look there’s no mystery here. This is the establishment versus the outsiders still, and it was always going to be. Let me take a break and we’ll judge when to JIP the White House press briefing according to what happens there.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: These Republicans are making such a mistake. Here, listen to this montage that we put together. Republicans are joining Democrats demanding that Trump be investigated.

MCCAIN: I think the whole issue of Russia and our relations with Russia and our approach to Russia, all those questions should be answered.

GRAHAM: I think Congress needs to be informed of what actually General Flynn said to the Russian ambassador about lifting sanctions, and I want to know did General Flynn do this by himself or was directed by somebody to do it.

KING: The President should discuss, you know, what he knows and what happened. You’re talking about some sensitive issues, but for the most part I think it’s important for the President to lay out what happened, yeah.

RUSH: Yeah, so the Democrats start raising hell, and the Republicans think they’ve gotta get on board with that because that’s what the media’s demanding and you gotta stay on the good side of the media. You just can’t run the risk of making the media mad, so you gotta join the Democrats. So now the stories are out there, CNN has one, Republicans joining with Democrats demanding that Trump and Flynn and their relationship with Russia be investigated and explained.

I’ll tell you what, this reminds me in a way of some of the battles between the legislative and executive branches during Reagan. You know, in normal times, the legislative and executive branches are at war with each other for power. Folks, that’s normal. That’s by design. You just haven’t seen it because the Democrats ran the legislative branch first six years of Obama and they just gave him every bit of power they could. They just laid down and they invested total Democrat power in Obama.

Well, now they want it back, now that Trump’s in the White House, and now you’re gonna see these battles, executive versus legislative, and Trump’s gonna have to defend his turf. “You want to investigate me? Well, screw you! I’m gonna investigate you!” Anyway, it’s gonna be fun to watch. It’s gonna be frustrating, too.