RUSH: The news of the day, the independent… No, no, no. The special counsel. Not the independent investigator, not the special investigator, not the independent prosecutor, not the special prosecutor. The special counsel. It’s a guy named Robert Mueller, who’s run the FBI. He’s done everything. He’s the epitome of an establishment guy, who happens to be approved of and highly rated by everybody involved. I understand the Trump White House was only given a 30-minute heads up yesterday that the Department of Justice was gonna go the special counsel route.

Now, I think one of the things guiding this on the Russia-collusion side, is we’ve been at this for over a year, or coming up on at least a year. No, it’s over a year, because Obama was talking about this March and April of 2016. So it’s over a year. It really intensified after the election with the Clinton campaign. By the way, speaking of Hillary Clinton, can you imagine what a victory this must feel like for the Clintons? She single-handedly — the Clinton campaign single-handedly — invented this vast Russian conspiracy 24 hours after the election.

We know from this book entitled… What is it? Surrendered? Succumbed? I can never remember the title perform. But it was about Hillary’s campaign, why it was so bad, why they lost. There was a bunch of infighting and so forth. And we learn from this book that 24 hours after the election, the Clinton campaign decided to blame their defeat on the Russians colluding with Trump to affect the outcome of the election. And that allegation ends up being taken so seriously by so many supposedly rational people that now even so-called Republicans are talking about impeaching Trump.

And I, of course, predicted this back on November 22nd of last year. Hillary never had this kind of success with her invention of the vast right-wing conspiracy. She tried, but that bombed out compared to this. Back then, it was her husband that ended up being impeached despite her conspiracy theory. But, sadly, now the chants of “lock her up” are just a distant, bitter memory, and the Trump administration is in the crosshairs. And I think some of the thinking here… Now, I’m just wild guessing and supposing here.

The thing has been going on for so long that there’s no evidence that at some point we’re gonna have to get a conclusion on this, and we’re gonna have to get a conclusion from somebody that everybody accepts as credible, and that’s who this Mueller guy is. Well, I shouldn’t call him “this Mueller guy” because he’s not unknown. It’s Robert Mueller, and he’s worked for both parties. He’s held positions in both party administrations. He’s former FBI director. He’s been at this level for a long time, done it all. He has a reputation for being a straight shooter, nonpartisan, independent, can’t be led by the nose down one path or another.

You know, absent the Flynn side of this, I mean, this investigation’s got a year’s worth of investigating already done. So Mueller, all he’s gotta do is take a look at that. We could theoretically be talking about this being wrapped up in months. But somehow I don’t think that’s the objective of some people who want the special counsel. I think, for example, the Democrats want it to go on interminably, and there will be continued leaks from the deep state while the investigation’s going on that the media will claim, “Hey, we need to add this to the investigation. We need to throw this in the hopper.”

The idea is not to get to a conclusion if the Democrats and the media have their way. Now, arguing against — other than common sense. Arguing against a relatively quick conclusion here is that this investigation will include whatever has been done or not done by Michael Flynn. And if the special counsel decides that there need to be indictments, well, then you can forget about a quick wrap-up to anything. If there are indictments, subpoenas, investigations, if there’s gonna be trials, then you can throw rapidity out the window.

Now, I made mention of something on the program yesterday that James Comey seems to be in great conflict here with the revelation of his memo that the media has turned into this special counsel. The memo that he has after his dinner with Trump when Trump supposedly told him to put it on hold or to wrap it up or whatever the terminology was. Comey’s on record as testifying (it happened on May 3rd) that there was never any attempt by anybody to impede, to stop, interrupt, to shape or flavor this investigation in any way, shape, manner, or form. So that sets the table for what’s coming.

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RUSH: Yeah. It was on the third of May that James Comey, then the FBI director, testified under oath that the Trump administration had not pressured his agency to halt any investigation for political purposes. Yet Comey’s got this memo out there that the New York Times just accepts and has made an entire narrative and news cycle out of. And the premise of the memo is that Trump asked Comey to shut it down. Shut it down! There’s nothing here! “[L]et it go,” or whatever. And yet Comey himself had testified that there had never been any pressure on him or the FBI from anybody in the administration. That’s all the way back on May 3rd. He said that Trump doesn’t obstruct investigations and had not ever tried to do so.

It’s an amazing the web of deceit that has been woven here.

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RUSH: Okay, let’s now head to the independent — sorry: The special counsel. I don’t know what your reaction to this was. I was kind of surprised. It caught me off guard. These last couple days or three days, folks, have been hectic and distracting for me. But when I heard this yesterday afternoon, I thought, “What the hell happened? Who did this? I mean, the only people clamoring for this are the Democrats! What the hell?” My initial reaction was, “Why do the Democrats get what they want in every damn one of these things?” Then I had to stop and catch myself. It’s not just the Democrats.

This is the Washington establishment. This is exactly what this is. As I looked at it, digested more, I started reading this universal love and admiration for Robert Mueller. And I started saying, “Everybody’s happy with this! This is the most acceptable outcome there could have been. There couldn’t have been a better choice. There couldn’t have been anybody better to look into this because the result, whatever he’s gonna come up with, is going to be universally accepted.” Okay, do you really want to tell me…? You want me to believe that if — and I’m not even sure we’re ever gonna get this.

But if there is an exoneration of Trump and collusion with the Russians to affect the outcome of the election, you think that’s gonna make the Democrats go away? Do you think that’s gonna make the deep state shut down? Is that gonna stop people in the intelligence community trying to overthrow an elected president? Because that is what is going on here. I don’t care what you want to call it. You can call it the deep state. You can get specific and you can say that it’s members of the permanent government (and there are plenty of those) that are in the intelligence community that simply will not accept the results of the election.

You can say that all of the Democrat Party is made up of people like that, and that they are all unified in literally overturning that election and either getting rid of Trump or rendering him so powerless that he has no choice but than to resign. And the Republicans are running around, talking about… They’re starting to whisper “President Pence” and the word “impeachment” is being bandied about. And it’s too late to go back and ask, “Okay, what could somebody have done? What could the administration, what could Trump have done to have prevented us from arriving at this point?” But it is a shocking display.

It’s a sobering display of the power of the Washington establishment, that with innuendo, fake news, and totally made-up news, we can create enough criminal suspicion to justify yet another investigation into all of this. There are countless investigations that have been ongoing for a year already, and none of them have found any evidence. And yet none of that is relevant; none of that seems to matter. Now we have to go all-in on the special counsel. And it is clear to anybody who wants to honestly admit what’s happening here, and that is that the… Call it what you want.

The establishment is doing everything it can to overturn a duly elected presidency and president. And their allies, of course, are those in the media. Without the media, none of this would be possible. So the media’s feeling its oats today, and Dan Rather’s out there saying (summarized), “God bless the media! Thank God for the media! We all owe the media,” and, of course, from their perspective, they do. The most recent flashpoint, the most recent sign of guilt, is a leak to the New York Times from somebody who’s unknown.

That James Comey kept memos of every dinner and meeting with Donald Trump, and he memorialized those meetings in those memos for the express purpose of establishing a timeline and a narrative of his own version of events should there ever be any investigation into those meetings and dinners. And in one of those meetings — one of those dinners — it was, of course, stated (alleged in the memo) that Trump asked Comey to basically set it aside, to end it. I forget the exact term that was used here. But it was not a demand. It was nothing more than a, “I hope you can see clear to letting this go,” much like a psychiatrist says to a person who’s obsessive compulsive: “I hope you can just let this go.”

And that is being amplified now into Trump obstructing justice and trying to shut down the investigation.

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RUSH: This is A. T. in Dallas. It’s great to have you. I’m glad you waited, sir.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Hello.

RUSH: Oh, I’m sorry. It’s a woman. I didn’t know. It says A. T.

CALLER: Oh! (laughing) Yes. (laughing) We have initials to. You know that Comey asserts the authority of the Department of Justice, and there were many other irregularities in how he covered the Clinton server scandal —

RUSH: Mmm-hmm?

CALLER: — enough to get him fired, doesn’t this justify reopening the Clinton investigation and perhaps appointing a special counselor with a broad assignment?

RUSH: See, when this happened yesterday… As I say, I have been somewhat distracted the past two or three days, so I didn’t know this happened until, like, two hours afterward, until I got home. So I saw this, and my initial reaction was… I was muttering obscenities. I was mad about it. I said, “Who the hell caved on our side? What the hell?” I’m going through all these emotions. “They lost the freaking election! Why are we giving them what they want?” I was going through all that. I said, “Okay, what’s this cover?” And I looked at it, and it’s only Trump and Russia! There’s nothing about the Clintons! There’s nothing about their illegal server. There’s nothing about any of their violations.

CALLER: No.

RUSH: “What in the name of Sam Hill are we doing? Why don’t we just commit suicide? Why don’t we just point the gun at ourselves and be done with this?” That was my initial reaction to this. Now, to the extent that it depends on what the investigation turns up. But, no, this counsel is not gonna be looking into any of that. That would be another one. And who do you think —

CALLER: Wouldn’t they be justified in opening another one? I mean, they made the case for her mishandling everything.

RUSH: They’d be more justified in opening that than this one, absolutely right.

CALLER: And whatever they discovered about Trump and Russia would pale by comparison to what we know they’d be finding out about Hillary and all the Clinton bandage.

RUSH: Just the trafficking and classified data alone on that server —

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: — which we’ve already been told she did. The only reason she wasn’t prosecuted was Comey said she didn’t mean to, which is not even part of the statute.

CALLER: He usurped authority. I mean, he didn’t have the authority to even make that call.

RUSH: Why don’t we get a special counsel on that Loretta Lynch letting Slick Willie on the airplane? I mean, the stuff that’s happened here, that the Democrats engage in, and there’s never any call for any investigation much less special or otherwise. I’ll tell you what would happen here, A. T. Let’s say that somehow, some way, a special counsel was appointed to look into Hillary’s illegal email server and trafficking in classified documents. Can you imagine the media’s reaction to that? “This is just sour grapes.

“This is to cover up the obvious crimes Trump has committed!” The media would just… It isn’t gonna happen. It isn’t gonna… It’s ex post facto now. Well, it isn’t, but politically it is. All of this stuff has to have political pretexts. And since there’s nobody in Congress demanding a special counsel for the Clintons, nobody demanding any of that, it’s not gonna happen. So I’m glad you called, A. T. I really appreciate your patience in waiting. This is Joe in Evansville, Indiana. You’re next, and it’s great to have you here, sir.

CALLER: Hi, buddy. How you doing?

RUSH: Just fine.

CALLER: I’ve been listening since 1993. What I called about was Republicans can never learn. Can never learn. They keep thinking, “If we agree with them, they will like us! The media will like us.” I got a news flash for you: They’ll never like you and they don’t respect you. If they were to stand up on the Capitol steps and say, “Trump is our president and we’re gonna make this country great again. You can either join us — and this is an engraved invitation to the Democrats. You can join us in making our country great again or you can lead, you can follow, or you can get out of the way.” But this distraction with Trump and all these unfounded rumors just like if the Democrats were doing this. That’s what they would say. They would lie, obfuscate, and never give a moment’s credence to these claims. If they had a Democrat in the White House, never give a moment’s notice to ’em. They would just let it slide off the back. The Republicans are trying so hard to get everybody to like ’em, and it’s not ever gonna happen.

RUSH: Well, let me ask you. How much of this in this instance do you think that is a factor?

CALLER: How much what?

RUSH: The Republicans not standing in the way of the special counsel, the Republicans starting to whisper the word “impeachment” —

CALLER: Yup.

RUSH: — the Republicans slowly, softly accepting it. McCain is the Republican ringleader here, and he’s not afraid of the media.

CALLER: And Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham’s another one. You know, you can’t stick a microphone in front Lindsey Graham —

RUSH: Right, but they’re not doing it… My point is, they’re not doing it in this instance. I agree with you that, on balance, they’re quivering and cowering in corner against the media, but not in this. They’re not afraid of the media. That’s not why they’re not supporting Trump here. This is establishment versus outsider, Man.

CALLER: I understand that.

RUSH: This is McCain (impression), “You… You want to call me a coward for getting caught, Trump? Right? Right? Well, let’s… Let’s see who’s standing here in a couple years!” That’s what’s going on here.

CALLER: Well, every time I see a Republican on TV saying, “Yes, we need to get to the bottom of this Russia thing,” I’m thinking, “The bottom of what? ” There’s nothing there.

RUSH: Exactly.

CALLER: Why are you saying that?

RUSH: Exactly right.

CALLER: I mean, just couldn’t they just possibly say, “You’ve had a year.” You just got through saying a few minutes ago yourself. “You’ve had a year, and you have no evidence.”

RUSH: Right. Right.

CALLER: “So we’re gonna move on to the people’s business.”

RUSH: They may be currying for the media there, but I think largely it’s they’re trying to stay on good side of donors and media secondarily. In this particular instance, in this Trump instance, this is clearly insider-versus-outsider, establishment-versus-interloper, however you want to describe it. All of this should have been… I know it’s easy to sit here with 20/20 hindsight and Monday morning quarterback and all that. But this was so predictable that all of this was going to happen, so predictable — and the point of that is, if it was predictable, it could have been defensible.

(sigh) I will tell you something, folks, it was February, and I found myself at Mar-a-Lago. I’d been invited over to Mar-a-Lago, and I was talking to some people over there. And I said, “Are you guys surprised by all this outrage?” “Yes, we are.” I said, “You are?” “Yes, we are.” “What were you expecting?” “Well, we were expecting a lot more unity a month after the inauguration.” I said, “Are you kidding me?” “No. We thought after they got it out of their system that there’d be a little bit more…” I was dumbfounded. He was el flabbergasted-o. I probably let the cat out of the bag.