RUSH: Looky here, folks, from a website called DC Whispers, the headline: “Members Of Congress And Media ‘Stunned’ That Trump Is Still Standing And Fighting Back.”

By the way, did you see the economic growth? 3.3%. Did I not tell you yesterday it was gonna exceed 3%? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of the great economic news. So members of Congress and the media are stunned that Trump is still standing and fighting back. Robin Roberts on Good Morning America today was in tears, “Why does Trump still have his job and all of us are losing ours?”

And then Wolf Blitzed over on CNN: have Democrats lost the moral high ground on sexual harassment? I am gonna explain all of this. I’m gonna answer every question anybody has about this today. And, as an added bonus, I’m gonna keep adding to the reasons for getting rid of net neutrality.

We’re gonna continue the burial process of Fauxcahontas and her little financial bureau here that they tried to set up as a private little money-laundering operation, And of course the sad tale of what happened at NBC today with Matt Lauer. The latest details on the Matt Lauer situation, these things have a life span, “Oh, my God, we didn’t know! Oh, no! This just came out of the blue! We didn’t know!” And then we start hearing from the people who knew.

Well, actually a lot of people knew about this for a long time, began to trickle out in various tweets and blog posts. And it turns out a lot of people knew about this for a long time. The particular complaint against Matt Lauer is three years old, goes back to the Sochi Olympics. According to the New York Post Page Six, the sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Lauer go back to the Sochi winter Olympics in 2014.

If that’s true, it means that NBC sat on this for three years. They’re claiming they only found out about it on Monday, which is two days ago. But it happened three years ago. That’s even longer than NBC said on Juanita Broaddrick’s rape allegation against Bill Clinton. Oh, speaking of which, folks, the DNC has asked us to help them get the word out. They are issuing a pre-apology for whatever happens between now and the end of the year during the holidays. Bill Clinton has been enlisted for this pre-apology, and we have it for you here.

ANNOUNCER: Now a holiday pre-apology from former President Bill Clinton.

CLINTON: To save all the hassle and embarrassment of a public apology after the fact, the Democrat National Committee has asked me to deliver this seasonal pre-apology to you, the women of America. Long before you head off to that holiday party where you may be groped, assaulted, or worse by one of our leading icons, powerful media allies, or just Al Franken, so here it goes.

We, the powerful men of the Democratic Party, are truly sorry for any of our words or actions that may have caused you to feel any pain. Please understand that we never, ever intended for it to be taken that way. But if you had just gone along with the program, you could have had some fun and maybe moved up in the world. Better luck next time, baby.

ANNOUNCER: After signing a release holding us harmless of any alleged assault, please accept a heartfelt holiday gift, your choice of either a copy of Leaves of Grass or a 10-pound bag of ice to keep the swelling to a minimum.

RUSH: The Democrat National Committee pre-apology to any women who will be harassed, groped, or abused during the holiday season, very thoughtful pre-apology delivered by Bill Clinton.

Okay, now, back to Matt Lauer for a minute. The New York Post Page Six says the sexual misconduct allegations against him go back to the Sochi Olympics 2014. And again, NBC says they only found out about this, Andy Lack, on Monday. But if that’s not true, they sat on it for three years.

Page Six — this is worse yet — Page Six says that Matt Lauer’s firing only came on Tuesday because of rumors that several news outlets were working on stories of Matt Lauer’s alleged sexual misconduct. The New York Times was working on one, and there were a couple of other news organizations that are sniffing around this.

In fact, according to CNN — did you see CNN? (laughing) CNN is boycotting the White House media Christmas party. (laughing) Did you see Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweet? (paraphrasing) “Happy holidays. There’s at least some good news. CNN’s not showing up at our party.” Do you not love this?

So here’s CNN all over their high horse (imitating CNN), “Well, harrumph, harrumph, because of the mistreatment of our brave journalists the world over we are not gonna attend the White House Christmas party on Friday night.” And Sarah Sanders (paraphrasing), “Good. We’ll miss ya!” (Laughing) They are gobsmacked. They don’t know what hit ’em.

They did think they would have dispatched Trump by now. They thought they would have dispatched Pence by now. They thought by now that by hook and crook of the Constitution they would have gotten Hillary back in there or Crazy Bernie. They are gobsmacked, folks.

Anyway, CNN says that reporters for the New York Times have been investigating Matt Lauer for several weeks. So the implication is that NBC might have covered up for Matt Lauer forever if it weren’t for these other investigations. That’s not my implication. That’s not my inference. That is from Page Six and CNN claiming that the timetable here was moved up by NBC because they found out other news organizations were looking into this.

Now, I want to take you back, folks, and explain some things here. Take you back to the Access Hollywood video that was released sometime in October 2016. And I’m sure you all remember this. Now, this comes under the rubric here of members of Congress and media stunned that Trump is still standing and fighting back. And I’m telling you that they are being truthful when they admit to this. And it’s not just members of Congress, media. It’s Republicans. And it is conservative Never Trump media types.

Believe me, the entirety of the Washington establishment literally is in a state of stunned disbelief over the fact that not only have they not gotten rid of Trump, they haven’t dented him. When you get right down to it, they haven’t even put a dent in him. He’s not just still standing; he’s dominating. It’s not that he’s just barely hanging on and teetering on the edge.

He is dominating. He is authoring, if you will, the daily narrative. He is totally controlling the media, whether they know it or not. And one of the reasons that they’re shocked is because they were convinced that the Access Hollywood video back in 2016, back in October, would spell the end of Donald Trump. It didn’t.

Now, I want to play for you what I said about this back then. This serves a dual purpose. It will remind you, but will also illustrate for you my prescience and complete understanding of the lay of the land, because there is something that the swamp dwellers — the establishment, the media, Never Trumpers — Republican and Democrat alike still do not understand about their own country.

It’s something they still do not understand about the people who voted for and continue to back up and support Donald Trump. It’s something they still do not understand. I’ve explained it numerous times, and I’m gonna explain it again. But first, here is an audio recap of me, October 10th, 2016. This is our first show after the NBC Access Hollywood video was released, and that’s the Billy Bush video where Trump and Billy Bush are chatting with one another about the power of celebrities and what that power allows celebrities to do with women.

And that’s the video that had the Trump comment, “Yeah, yeah, they let you grab their” bah bah bah, and that just sent shocks of outrage and disbelief… I mean, it was reverberating, ricocheting throughout every sector of the Drive-By Media, and they thought Trump was toast. And I dare say, many in the Trump campaign probably thought he was toast. I want to admit something here, but first here’s the audio of what was said by me on this program. Listen to all of it.

BEGIN ARCHIVE CLIP

RUSH: [T]his whole release of that tape — and I’m not excusing what’s on it, but he’s not the only person to ever speak this way. He’s not the only person to ever seek office. He may have said these things, but the Democrats have nominated and elected and celebrated people who do these things. And where is the outrage over it? You know, I find it ironic that the Democrat Party wants to throw down the morality card. The Democrat Party, which is responsible for the dissolution of morality in this country.

The Democrat Party which is for all these progressive new attitudes in our culture, and now all of a sudden acting like a bunch of prudes, acting like, “Oh, my God, I have never been this outraged. Oh, this is just beyond the pale.” These are the architects of this kind of stuff. If Trump were a Democrat, they’d be covering it up and privately inviting him to parties and yukking it up. But the reason this happened — and it’s gonna happen again — they can’t afford. Folks, this is what it looks like. I kept telling people over the weekend when people were asking my opinion on it, I said, “This is what it looks like when you take on the establishment. This is exactly what it looks like. It isn’t gonna be pretty.”

END ARCHIVE CLIP

RUSH: I’ll tell you something. I may have told you that I did this on a previous occasion but I don’t remember. I seldom… In fact, I could count on one hand the number of times I have called a campaign or a candidate in the midst of a campaign to either react or even request an interview. I just don’t do it. It’s not an active thing. It’s something in my subconscious. I just don’t do it. It’s not my bailiwick. It’s not my level of expertise. I don’t pretend to know how that business operates. But this time I did. This time I called and I emailed people in the Trump campaign.

I’m not gonna tell you who because that doesn’t matter. What I told them is what matters, and I said, “Whatever you do, do not overreact and grovel. Do not fall prey to this. Do not go on the defensive because of this.” I said, “The one thing that you may not understand,” I’m telling them in the Trump campaign, “is the American people are fed up.” This was an October Surprise. This tape had been in possession of people for years. The Washington Post actually revealed this tape. They’re the ones that released it. NBC had been sitting on it for a while.

Everybody knew about this, and nobody had cared, and nobody had released it, and nobody had even talked about it because there was no way that it was useful for them in damaging Trump. But now all of a sudden, he’s running for president, and this is what they do. In fact, this is what the Democrats primarily do; the Republicans also engage in their own versions of October Surprises. But I told the Trump people, “Your voters are not gonna abandon Donald Trump over this. What you need to know is that Trump voters are fed up with this kind of stuff determining who wins and who loses elections.”

I said, “What you need to know and never forget…” And I’m sure they did know it. I was not taking any chances. I wanted to make sure. But I’m sure they got it. “…your voters are supporting you because of serious things and issues in this country. Your voters think we’re down to the last chance. Your voters think that this country is on the precipice of being transformed into something it was never intended to be, and Donald Trump stands as the one guy who can stop it, and his voters are not gonna abandon him over this. They’re not gonna abandon him over tweets.

“They’re not gonna abandon him over the traditional and typical ways that Democrats and the media try to take out and destroy Republican candidates. So don’t think that you’re in trouble with your own voters over this.” I made a point of saying, “It’s not that they don’t care, and it’s not that they’re not gonna have second thoughts about you. But they’re not gonna let this kind of thing — this kind of typical, last-minute political trick… They’re not gonna let it work this time. They’re fed up with it,” and I told them to be confident that they’re not going to lose any support from their base because of this.

The reason I went out of my… Well, it wasn’t out of my way. The reason I made the point is because this was an earth-shattering thing and it’s the kind of thing that can trip up a campaign and cause defections and lack of confidence or loss of confidence, and I wanted to make sure that that didn’t happen. Because the American people — as we now know, a majority — who voted for Trump, firmly believed this country was in crisis. The people in Washington D.C. do not. They never have thought that the country is on the precipice of becoming something that it was not intended to be because their lives are fine.

They live in the financial capital — they live in the power capital — of the world, Washington D.C. Life for them, circumstances for them do not mirror the circumstances for average Americans who do not live in Washington. Open borders, this never-ending stream of people coming into the country and not assimilating, threatening the very fabric — social, economic, financial — in this country. People are just fed up. They’re angry. They’re angry at the Republican Party for not listening to them. They’re angry at the Republican Party for pretending to hear them on the campaign trail but then abandoning them after they get elected and not implementing policies they promised to.

Furthermore, I told them that the people voting for Donald Trump are fed up with this double standard. The Democrats excuse Bill Clinton and all these other sexual abusers and make them heroes. They rise to the top of the ladder in the Democratic Party power structure and apparatus and they’re never held accountable for the things that they do. I said, “This tape is nothing more than something you said. So don’t kowtow to it.” I don’t even know if the message was conveyed to Trump. (thump) Sorry about that. I just hit the table. I heard it reverberates. I don’t know if the message was conveyed to Trump. You know, in massive organization like this, you don’t know. But I was proven right about this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: On Good Morning America today, Robin Roberts… Now, keep in mind, the Drive-By stars are dropping like flies because of sexual abuse and sexual harassment of women, and this is not how it was supposed to be. It was Trump on tape bragging about what powerful guys get to do with women. But all he was doing was talking. Now these Democrats are getting caught. Robin Roberts cannot believe it.

ROBERTS: People keep going back to, you know, the president — President Trump — just tweeting about it as well, and people are — are saying (sputters), “People losing their jobs, and yet in other positions in politics,” and not just with President Trump, but other politicians who are accused of these types of actions, they still have their jobs. And people are trying to kind of reconcile ’em and trying to understand that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: (whispering) This is not over yet.

RUSH: No. That’s George Stephanopoulos, who ran the war room of the Clinton campaign helping destroy women who came forward to accuse Bill Clinton. Robin Roberts (impression), “Why does Trump still have his job? Why…? Why is…? Why are media stars losing their jobs? Why — why — why does Trump still have his?” I can explain this. It’s real easy. In fact, you know what, Ms. Roberts? I’m gonna explain to you why Trump still has his job when we get back from the break, and why he hasn’t lost any support, despite you.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s Nathan in Monroe, New York, we head back to the phones. How are you doing, sir?

CALLER: Very well. Thanks for taking my call, Rush.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: Rush, I’d like to, you know, going on your premise about the media cracking up, I think it needs to be helped along. And the way to do that is to point out this, that the product of liberalism is really the breeding ground for this problem. We’ve been told that rape is not really about sex, it’s about power. And liberalism is about power and increasing people in positions who can leverage that power to abuse people in this way. And I think it would be very helpful — I know the establishment wouldn’t do it — but I think it would be very helpful for us to point out that these people who are committing these offenses fit the exact mold who are told, you know, commit these kinds of offenses. They’re guys in power, they happen to be white guys in power, and, lo and behold, they’re all liberals. And, lo and behold, liberalism leads to more guys —

RUSH: This is interesting. Let me see if I understand what you’re saying. You may really be on to something. Your premise starts with — by the way, this belief, this theory that rape or sexual abuse is not about sex, it’s about power, can be traced back to a feminist author named Susan Brownmiller who wrote a book in the seventies. I forget the title of it, but if you wanted to date a feminist in the seventies you had to read this and you had to be conversant in it. I know because I did.

CALLER: Wow.

RUSH: But this is where the theorem was advanced that rape or sexual harassment is not about sex, it’s about power. So your theory is that she’s right and that liberalism is the breeding ground for this power and that we’re actually seeing it on display, that the Charlie Roses and the Weinsteins and all these guys are not doing this really for sex; they’re doing it for the exertion of power over people.

CALLER: Well, if for no other reason than their power affords them the opportunity. So liberalism, you could point out or you could make the case that it is self-fulfilling in this way. That people get powerful and they start to misbehave because they’re powerful. And it’s all on their side, really, right now.

RUSH: Yeah, but how does that distinguish from, say, conservatives in power? I mean, power is power no matter who has it and where it is. How would you distinguish it?

CALLER: Well, I mean, as a political ideology, conservatism is technically the antidote where we’re trying to reduce the institutional power and give that back to the individual where they’re more accountable. Whereas, you know, liberalism, you’re building bureaucracy, and you’re putting people into positions and — by virtue of that fact — putting them in the position to abuse women who work for them.

RUSH: Yeah. Okay. And you know how it extends even further? Then you use that power to put a net around everything so that the word of it doesn’t get out. For example, how about this news that there has been $15 million in payouts to silence women who have been abused and harassed by members of Congress? And there has been a big movement on to have these people named and identified. It is the power structure that keeps their names hidden. It is the power structure that keeps their deeds and activities hidden.

But you’re right about all this. Liberalism is about the pursuit of power for the purposes of using it against other people and for the advancement of your own agenda, while liberalism portrays itself as fair and tolerant and open-minded and understanding and gentle and snowflaky and all of that. It’s an interesting point. I like it. The quest to further enable Americans to understand liberalism and how liberalism actually breeds the circumstances for all of this liberal, male, abusive, power-related behavior.

By the way, the Susan Brownmiller book title: Against Our Will. And I’m not kidding you. If you wanted to date a feminist woman in the seventies, I tell you, you had to know about this book. And you had to fake like you understood it and agree with it. And even then the dates were blah. I mean, who wants to talk about this stuff? But back then for women, this was emancipatory stuff. (interruption) Who calls it the…? (interruption) TIME ma…? Yeah, TIME magazine calls it, “The book that changed the whole” what structure?

“Sexual discussion structure of the country.” Yeah. Well, in their world it probably was. But, see, TIME magazine’s world is not the American world. Maybe at one time it was when Henry Luce ran it, but TIME magazine’s never been a magazine for and about America. TIME magazine’s been for and about the establishment for I don’t know how long. The U.S. Open. Take a look at the celebrities the U.S. Open, the tennis tournament. Golf’s totally different.

At the U.S. Open tennis tournament, you’ll find Matt Lauer sitting in front of Charlie Rose sitting behind who knows. I mean, it’s the New York-Boston-Washington corridor establishment. It’s just one of the things they do, and then they have their polo tournaments out in the Hamptons, and then they do their whatever else they do out there. But wherever they go — either Manhattan or the Hamptons or Washington — they all gather and do the same things, and you can’t be part of it. The news media is all focused on what’s going on within that world and what happens in that world happens to be what’s happening in America, except that it isn’t.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The Senate has confirmed President Trump’s ninth federal judge, making America great again.

NBC is editing Matt Lauer out of the televised coverage of the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas tree.