RUSH: The big controversy today… I first got wind of this last night. There’s a headline out there CNN has an “exclusive.” This is not quite fake news, but it’s almost as bad. “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down Recent Trump-Russia Stories.” Now, first let me tell you what “the Trump-Russia stories” are. There are three of them. The first from the New York Times last October, in which nameless sources told the New York Times that agents of the Trump campaign were in contact with Russia during the campaign and discussing ways to sabotage the Hillary campaign.

That story came long after the narrative that the Russians hacked the election, the Russians stole the election. “Hillary should have won! Trump’s victory is illegitimate. That makes his agenda illegitimate. It makes his Supreme Court nominees illegitimate. It makes his cabinet illegitimate. In fact, nothing about Trump is legit, because he was elected by virtue of fraud. That’s the narrative that’s used to describe the Trump presidency since the night of the election or the day after.” They haven’t changed it. They’re only doubling and tripling down on it.

With that foundation having been laid, there came a story in October: “Guess what! Not only did the Russians hack, not only did the Russians tamper,” which is a preposterous impossibility. “The New York Times story claims that there were people in the Trump campaign talking to the Russians.” No evidence. The New York Times was very clear, deep down in the story: No evidence to support this. It was just sources saying so. The New York Times ran the same story about three weeks ago with “updates.”

There weren’t any updates. They just reran the story.

They claimed to have a little bit more sourcing. But even in the story three weeks ago experts have yet to find any concrete evidence. There is no evidence! Now at the same time the New York Times story three weeks ago ran, the Wall Street Journal came out on a Wednesday night with a news alert alleging the same thing, that Trump operatives were in contact with Putin and Russian government operatives during the campaign for the express purpose of sabotaging.

It turned out that the Wall Street Journal the next day also contained basically the same stuff. No evidence to support this. It’s just nameless sources saying so. So in the CNN headline, “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down Recent Trump-Russia Stories,” those are the stories that this CNN exclusive is about. That headline is very misleading, because it’s not what happened.

I have to take a break now, but I will complete and continue the story when we get back.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to get back to this and wrap this up, because this is another example. Headline: “FBI refused White House Request to Knock Down Recent Trump-Russia Stories.” What does somebody who reads that headline think? What they think is that somebody in the Trump White House got so ticked off at all of these stories filled with lies about the Russians that they called the FBI, and they asked the FBI to tell the media to stop.

I checked with my little tech blogs today. Every damn one of these foolish kids thinks that’s what happened here. They think it’s the greatest assault on the rule of law they have ever seen — and, of course, they never thought anything Obama did was an assault on the rule of law. The Drive-Bys, CNN, Millennials everywhere think, “This is the greatest outrage we’ve ever seen. Why Trump actually had somebody call the FBI and tell them to tell reporters to tell them to stop reporting lies?” That’s not what happened.

There’s a name involved in this story by the name of, a man by the name of Andrew McCabe. McCabe is the deputy director or senior deputy director or the third or fourth secretary or deputy whatever at the FBI. Does the name Andrew McCabe ring a bell to any of you? (interruption) Oh, come on! Let me take you back to October 24th, Sunday night. “[T]he Wall Street Journal reported,” on October 24th, a couple of weeks before the election, “McAuliffe’s political action committee…”

Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia, “gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe in her failed effort to win a seat in the Virginia state senate in 2015. Dr. McCabe was reportedly recruited by Gov. McAuliffe and other state Democratic Party officials to run for the seat. Her husband, Andrew McCabe, was serving as an associate director of the FBI during the state senate campaign. He was later promoted to deputy director of the FBI and assumed an oversight role in the Clinton email investigation.”

Well, that happens to be the guy who told Reince Priebus that the FBI knows that these stories in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are not right. What really happened here — and the CNN story even says it. It’s the headline that’s filled with lies: “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down Recent Trump-Russia Stories.” What’s anybody to think reading that? Okay, here are the first ‘graphs of the CNN story: “The FBI rejected a recent White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to US intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign, multiple U.S. officials briefed on the matter tell CNN.

“But a White House official said late Thursday that the request was only made after the FBI indicated to the White House it did not believe the reporting to be accurate.” The CNN story never says that the Trump administration lied! The CNN story doesn’t allege anything other than the opposite of what happened. Let me construct for you a hypothetical. Let’s use Reince Priebus, because he’s a central figure in this story. Let’s say you’re Reince Priebus and you’re in the White House. Your either West Wing office or you’re somewhere.

Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI, comes up to you and says that they know that the reporting in these New York Times stories on Trump and Russia isn’t accurate. Okay, so you’re Priebus. You haven’t done anything yet. You’re minding your own business. The FBI, McCabe, comes over and tells you this — and this story says that this is what happened. They write it later on in such a confusing way that even though they report factually what happened, it’s under a very misleading headline, and then you get deeper into the story and they purposely confuse it so that you’re not sure after you read the story who initiated contact.

But if you know how to read these things, as I do — because I’m a professional, highly trained in these matters — all of this was the equivalent of Priebus minding his own business, not bothering anybody. And somebody in the FBI came along and said, “Hey, Reince we know the stuff in these stories isn’t accurate.” Now if you’re Priebus, what do you with this? You’re minding your own business. You haven’t called the FBI! This headline is not correct. Well, it might be correct. “FBI Refused White House Request…” See, but that headline doesn’t give the timeline or the actual genesis of this story at all.

So you’re Priebus, and you know that this is the story that’s propelling every other lie about Donald Trump and his presidency since the day after the election. Well, even during the campaign they tried to sell this. So here comes the number two guy at the FBI and he tells you that they know. Te FBI is sourced in these stories, by the way. FBI is part of the intel community. FBI is the credible sources, nameless sources. The FBI comes up and tells you that they know what’s in the New York Times story about Trump and Russia are not true. What do you do if you’re Priebus?

Do you say, “You know, it would be great if you guys would tell the New York Times this,” or do you say, “Gee, why are you telling me this? I can’t quote you! This kind of thing is off the record. I can’t go out there and say that you’re telling me this”? So Priebus’s hands are tied. There’s not much he can do with this, and if he asks McCabe to go to the media and tell the media that the FBI knows what they’re reporting is BS, well, then all McCabe has to do is tell the media. “You know Priebus is asking me to talk about this.”

Then you get a headline: “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down…” The way this happened, it was initiated by McCabe and the CNN story makes that clear. “A White House official said late Thursday,” last night, “that the request was only made,” meaning the request to the FBI to tell the media to fix it. That request “was only made after the FBI indicated to the White House,” i.e., told the White House “it didn’t believe the reporting to be accurate.” So I’m thinking, “Is there a setup here? Why would McCabe even tell Priebus this?”

It could be any number of… Folks, the possibilities here are limitless. Maybe Comey is getting tired. Maybe McCabe wants to run the place. Maybe McCabe is trying to get close to Priebus. Who knows? If I wanted to speculate on it, I could spend the rest of the hour coming up with credible-sounding reasons for this to happen. “The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual,” CNN reported, “because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI…”

Well, the FBI originated this — and, by the way, the AP backs this up. “White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked a top FBI official to dispute media reports that President Donald Trump’s campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents…. The official said that Priebus’ request came after the FBI told the White House it believed a New York Times report last week describing those contacts was not accurate.” So AP and even CNN, both say that all of this was started by the FBI.

And it ends up in a headline, “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down…” as though the stories are true and the White House wanted the FBI to lie. Not so! CNN doesn’t even say Priebus lied. They don’t allege anything. They’re just playing a game here with the timeline in their headline, and trying to make like we’ve got a bunch of authoritarian Russian associates bending on the FBI, leaning on the FBI, to hammer the media. This is… Folks, this is a classic demonstration of collusion, because CNN knows exactly what happened here.

They know the FBI initiated this, and that doesn’t matter. All that matters to them is what reportedly Priebus did. Put yourself in Priebus’s place or anybody else and FBI comes and says, “Hey, we know what you’re saying about you isn’t true.” It’s the FBI saying this! It’s not some aide. It’s not some junior associate. It’s the FBI, the deputy director coming in and telling you that they know what’s in the New York Times story is BS. What do you do?

“Gee, thanks?”

I have to take a break here, folks, but I had to get this stuff off my chest. This is just outrageous these stories.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is why Donald Trump refers to CNN as “fake news.” Okay. Now, two questions here. First question is: FBI tells Priebus, “Hey — wink, wink — we know that the reporting in the New York Times story about you guys and the Russians is not accurate.” How does that conversation get to CNN? Who told CNN that this even happened? Did McCabe call CNN and tell them? Did Priebus call CNN? Well, we can rule Priebus out. Who might have overheard this? We have no idea. But how does CNN learn about this?

McCabe knocks on the door, comes into Priebus’s office or wherever it happened. I don’t know if they were in the Oval Office. I have no idea. But McCabe says to Priebus whatever he says.; CNN reports it. How does CNN know? In other words, who is leaking? How does CNN find out about it? The second thing is, why isn’t the headline of this story: “FBI Backs White House, Says New York Times Stories About Trump-Russia Contacts Is Not Accurate”? Why isn’t that the headline? Because that’s the story!

The story is that the FBI told Priebus (paraphrased), “We know that these New York Times stories — and the Journal, too — about your dealing with Russia is not accurate.” That event produces a headline at CNN: “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down Recent Trump-Russia Stories.” How do you get there? Well, you get there because apparently Priebus responded somehow. I don’t know if he asked McCabe, “Well, can you tell the media that? Why are you telling me! Can you tell the media?” Or, “Can I share what you’ve just shared with me?”

Who knows, folks? This is above my pay grade in terms of the dynamic. But the thrust of the story, the real news in this story is that the FBI knows the story is flat-out BS. That’s the story, and CNN knows that’s the story. Yet not if you read CNN or watch it, and they spend hours with panels discussing how the Trump administration’s flouting the rule of law and trying to co-opt and politicize the FBI. This is why people say the media is in bed with the opposition to Republicans. There’s no question about it! There’s no doubt the media is. It’s like the flag business at CPAC today.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The AP headline on the CNN story: “White House Adviser Asked FBI to Dispute Russian Reports,” by Julie Pace. No, no, no, no, no! That’s not what happened. And even in the AP story later on, that whole headline is debunked. The headline to this news ought to be: “FBI Tells White House No Truth to New York Times Stories About Trump and Russia,” because that’s what’s been revealed here! Why isn’t that the headline all over the media? Well, you and I know the answer to the question. Again, to set the table here.

Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI, tells Reince Priebus (summarizes), “By the way, that New York Times stuff on your administration and Russians? That’s not accurate. We know it’s not accurate,” and then apparently Priebus said, “What…?” I don’t know what Priebus said, but they’re reporting — the headline is — “White House Adviser Asked FBI to Dispute…” No, no, no, no! The FBI told the White House that the New York Times stories were inaccurate! (snorts) This could not be simpler.

This could not be a greater illustration of exactly how corrupt the media has become. CNN is leading the way with their phony headline, “FBI Refused White House Request to Knock Down Recent Trump-Russia Stories.” That headline clearly conveys to a low-information person that the White House called the FBI and they wanted them to lie. That’s what the headline is trying to convey, that the White House called the FBI and wanted the FBI to lie and tell the media that the stories are not accurate. The stories never say that Priebus lied or asked anybody to lie.

They never say that.

The only thing these stories say that’s really newsworthy is that the FBI told Priebus that the New York Times stories are inaccurate. Why isn’t that the headline? And here we come with AP: “White House Adviser Asked FBI to Dispute Russian Reports.” You people in the media, you want to know why you’re corrupt? You want to know why people call you “fake news”? You want to know why the president goes after you the way he has? This is it. It’s not the only example. It just happens to be the latest.

But again, I want to read to you from the AP: “The official said that Priebus’s request” of the FBI to tell the media that the stories are BS. “The official said Priebus’s request came after the FBI told the White House that it believed the New York Times report was not accurate.” The FBI started this ball rolling. The White House purely reacted. But this headline makes you think that Priebus or somebody called the FBI and said, “You tell the media that that’s BS,” and that Priebus wanted them to lie. That’s what they’re trying to convey here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right. All right. I’m happy to see this. I’m just watching Fox. Melissa Francis is doing a great job of explaining this phony-baloney, plastic banana, good time rock and roller CNN story. She’s talking to Ari Fleischer and she spelled it out exactly what happened. Exactly. These are my words. The headline to this story ought to be: “FBI Confirms to White House that New York Times Story on Trump and Russia Is Inaccurate,” because that is what happened. Reince Priebus — minding his own business — gets a call from Andrew McCabe of the FBI.

McCabe says (paraphrased exchange), “Hey, guess what? The stuff from the New York Times is not true.” Priebus says, “What do I do about it?” “Well, call me. We’ll talk some ideas.” Priebus calls him. McCabe says, “Sorry, nothing I can do.” Somebody tells CNN that Priebus called the FBI asking them to tamp down some stories. It’s just absolute BS the way CNN is reporting this crap! Anyway, I was happy to see somebody else get it right out there. I always feel buoyed when that happens. Congratulations to Melissa Francis at Fox News.

RUSH: As I said, we’ve got a lot of packing to do. We’ve got to unpack some stuff, pack it back up, and get ready to go. I want to go back to Dr. Arnn’s speech, because I interrupted myself about ten times. I want to do that. Anyway, Trump addressed this. Trump addressed this in his speech, talking about fake news. He didn’t specifically reference this. (interruption) No, no. I know. Look, it is a good question. Why would Andrew McCabe, deputy director — whose wife wanted to be a politician, a Democrat. She wanted to be senator in Virginia. Why would McCabe call Priebus?

Folks, you realize the answers to this are many. I don’t even want to start speculating. I’ll give you one. Suppose Comey is getting tired. We don’t know anything. Suppose Comey is getting tired. Suppose Comey is thinking about resigning. McCabe is a deputy. Maybe he wants the gig. Maybe he’s calling Priebus to suck up. The real question is: Who told CNN about all of this? This is a conversation between Priebus and McCabe. How did CNN find out about it, and how was CNN told about it?

And CNN’s story has all the details. It’s this headline and the way they’ve been discussing it on TV that has bastardized this whole thing. And this is… Folks, I’m sorry, but this is so crucial because it is the foundation for every story the media is doing on the illegitimacy of Trump and his mandate and his agenda and his presidency, because the media is trying to concoct this scenario that the Russians sabotaged Hillary.

And that’s the only reason Trump won, ad therefore it’s open season on Trump because he’s not legitimately elected. That’s what’s propelling all of this! All these protests, all these stories, are based on that lie. And CNN comes out today furthering it with a headline saying that the White House tried to get the FBI to “knock down” — and tell the New York Times to stop running — this stuff. And that isn’t what happened.