RUSH: I’m sorry. I’ve gotta deal with something CNN has been doing the past couple of days, CNN and the Drive-By Media. And it’s time to once again interject a little common sense here.

As I’m sure you know, CNN has been breathlessly reporting that Michael Cohen, all these tapes with Trump and Trump said all these incriminating things and then that Michael Cohen said that Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting that his son took with the Russian honeypot and all of that and that Trump has denied knowing anything.

By the way, Cohen doesn’t have any evidence for this. He has literally no evidence, and even CNN’s been forced to admit this. But let me just try to cause you to have no concern about this. Robert Mueller is relying so little on Cohen that he gave that case to the Southern District of New York. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York has the Cohen case, not Mueller. If Cohen had anything that would help Mueller do anything with Trump, he wouldn’t have handed off the case.

So what Cohen is doing here is trying to get the best deal he can get from the U.S. attorney’s office, Southern District of New York. He’s trying to make it look like he’s got all kinds of dope on Trump and he’d be willing to give it up. But the thing that you have to realize here is very simple. This is not Mueller’s case. He gave it away. He gave it away weeks ago. He transferred anything to do with Cohen to the Southern District of New York like he’s done with pretty much every other charge that he has made in this case. He’s sent it off to some other court, some other jurisdiction.

The other thing that they’re trying to make hay about is Trump and Mueller all of a sudden interested in Trump’s tweets. It’s preposterous. I don’t know where CNN is getting its information, who’s leaking to them, but Donald Trump has been tweeting since his campaign. The idea that Robert Mueller just now got interested in ’em? I mean, if that were true — and it isn’t — but if it were true it would mean that Mueller doesn’t have anything. But the idea that Mueller’s been ignoring these tweets all this time?

But about the tweets. The tweets are not evidence. The tweets don’t show anything. They’re nothing more than what Trump’s thinking or saying at the time. There’s nothing actionable in the tweets. This is like trying to say that exit poll results count more than real votes. There’s nothing here.

In fact, if any of you are still concerned about this, there isn’t going to be an indictment of Donald Trump from the special counsel. The only concern that everybody should have about this is impeachment. That’s where this investigation has always been going. And this investigation’s phony anyway. The Mueller investigation is an offshoot of all of the illegality that took place on the Democrat side and on the Hillary side.

It is simply to cover up all of that, because, remember, when this campaign began, the Department of Justice, the Democrat Party and everybody in the Obama apparatus had to make sure that Hillary was exonerated of any crimes involving her illegal server and trafficking in classified data, and all of this has been about exonerating her and framing Donald Trump.

But there isn’t gonna be any indictment of Trump, he hasn’t obstructed justice, he hasn’t colluded, and so all there’s gonna be is a report that’s gonna question Trump’s fitness, maybe his thinking, maybe his reactions, and it will be setting up an impeachment proceeding if the Democrats win the House. And as an ancillary thing, maybe they’re gonna try to once again drive Trump’s approval numbers down.

But this stuff that CNN’s hyperventilating with today over Cohen, you just need to stop and think, it’s not even Mueller’s case. Oh. And speaking of that. I have a piece here by Julian Zelizer, CNN political analyst. “Trump Sounds Normal in Private. It’s All an Act.”

CNN thinks they figured Trump out. They have been listening to the tapes with Trump on the phone and Trump talking to Cohen. And they have concluded that he sounds normal as anybody else does on the phone. He doesn’t sound crazy. He doesn’t sound mean. He doesn’t sound insane. And so obviously the Trump that appears on TV is acting.

And you know why he’s acting? Because he knows that you, his supporters, are a bunch of lamebrain idiots that he has to act for. He has to perform in such a way to make you think that he is a continuing victim, that everybody’s out to get him. He has to talk in these mean-spirited, bigoted ways to relate to you. Oh, yeah. That’s CNN’s latest big discovery.

“Reading anything into a short, grainy tape recording is difficult. But from the moment that CNN’s Chris Cuomo shared one of the Michael Cohen tapes, experts have sliced and diced the audio to figure out exactly what then-candidate Donald Trump knew about a payment to keep his alleged affair with former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal off the front pages.”

As an aside, there isn’t even any crime here. You know, Rich Lowry has a piece at National Review, and it’s also an instructive piece in how this stuff doesn’t work, why it doesn’t work. He makes the point that I have made over and over again. This stuff that the Democrats have been pulling on Trump would have gotten rid of every Republican candidate or president in the past.

And one of the reasons the Democrats and the media are frustrated is because they can’t get rid of Trump using the time-honored techniques that they’ve always succeeded with. They were able to destroy Romney. They were able to destroy George W. Bush. They’ve been able to engineer the resignations of Mr. Newt and a bunch of other people in Congress. And what they do doesn’t touch Trump. And they don’t figure it out. They just keep trying to pile on more of the same.

For example, Lowry says this incident on tape with Trump talking to a fixer about paying off a Playboy playmate would sink anybody, particularly any Republican candidate. Why doesn’t it sink Trump? Well, we’ve been through all the reasons for this. One of Lowry’s explanations is that the bar has been set so low with Trump that no new revelation is gonna shock anybody, not after the NBC Access Hollywood video. And so there just isn’t anything that’s gonna shock anybody. Trump’s already survived numerous such attempts to take him out.

So something like this, as far as Trump supporters are concerned, there’s nothing new here. No reason to get upset. But I think it’s far more than that. I think not enough credit’s being given to the sophistication of Trump supporters. And it is that it doesn’t mean anything, when compared to what these people think is really important, like saving the country, like growing the country, like saving our culture. Whether Trump’s running around with Playboy playmates is not relevant to them.

And they’re not gonna allow the media to take another Republican out. There’s also that part. They’re just not gonna sit by and let this happen again. Because it happens every election cycle. The media goes after some Republican or whichever effective public figure they want to target, and somebody’s scalp is usually claimed. They’re not gonna abandon Trump. They’re not gonna let it happen. They’re far more sophisticated this time around than any of these critics realize.

But I wanted to get the stuff out about Cohen because CNN, once again, is falling all over itself thinking they’ve found the smoking gun, they’ve found the magic bullet. And now with Cohen saying, “Hey, Trump knew about that meeting that Donald Jr. had with the Russian honeypot in Trump Tower.” Trump is on the warpath claiming he didn’t know about it and he’s really letting Cohen have it. And now CNN’s forced to say that Cohen doesn’t have any evidence for the claim. But the bottom line is, it’s not even Mueller’s case.

Now, you might be saying, “Could he get it back, Rush? Could he get it back?” He’ll work with the SDNY but the point is he gave it away. He’s known about Cohen for who knows how long. The special counsel and his 13 witch-hunt specialists have known all about this. They’ve looked into all this and stuff we don’t even know about that they’ve looked into. They didn’t just decide that Trump’s tweets may hold some gold. They didn’t just decide that Michael Cohen may actually have the smoking gun bullet.

They long ago concluded that he doesn’t. Otherwise, the case wouldn’t have been passed off to the Southern District of New York.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I just went to the audio sound bite roster, and I found a couple things. My buddy Andy McCarthy was on Fox last night making the same point that I just made about Cohen. Question that was Laura Ingraham last night, “What do you make of this latest claim that Cohen says that President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting with” the Russian honeypot?

MCCARTHY: I’ve always thought that if Mueller believed that Cohen was somehow the key to proving a collusion case against Trump, there’s no way he lets that case walk to the Southern District of New York. So I’d be surprised if this links up to anything that’s serious in the way of collusion like an espionage conspiracy. It seems to me that the Mueller investigation is winding down to a conclusion.

RUSH: Yeah, I don’t know about that. You know, they keep adding things that supposedly Mueller is just deciding to look into, like the tweets. But Andy has a comment on that too. But look. This is correct. There’s no way. If Cohen has any kind of goods on Trump, Mueller doesn’t give the case away Southern District of New York. So the next question, “Okay, how do you obstruct an investigation with public comments?” This is the tweets. I mean, how in the world can tweeting represent obstruction of justice?

MCCARTHY: The whole thing is preposterous. To have state of mind or a criminal state of mind is irrelevant unless you’ve done something that actually can amount to obstruction. The president cannot obstruct justice by taking lawful actions that are within his constitutional prerogative, like pardoning people or firing Comey or weighing in on whether somebody should be prosecuted. I understand the style problem, like they don’t like the way Trump goes about things. But you still gotta kind of like prove the thing that’s a crime before you start worrying about what somebody’s state of mind was.

RUSH: Right, and they still don’t have that. There has been a crime announced to pursue because it’s always been a counterintelligence operation, which is why there isn’t gonna be an indictment. Now, this next one I just want to play you for the fun of it. Yesterday afternoon Sheppard Smith on Fox spoke with A.B. Stoddard who has moved again. She’s now over at Real Clear Politics, the associate editor.

She’s been everywhere. She worked everywhere in that town. And, you know, Shep is all excited. We know that the president was involved in the payout to a former porn star. We know that he’s talking to a lawyer. Shep is all excited. Shep really thinks this Cohen stuff is gonna amount to something. He’s all excited, and A.B. Stoddard has to tell him that Trump voters don’t care about any of this.

STODDARD: If Republican voters say that this is fine with them, that it wouldn’t have changed their minds — that they heard the Access Hollywood tape in October of 2016 and went ahead and voted for President Trump anyway — then all of this personal conduct is off the table and anything —

SMITH: What about the cover-up?

STODDARD: — federal level. This general perception that he was paying off girls to sort of get them out of the way and protect his marriage has been really accepted by all of his supporters generally if you look at the polls, including he’s very strong and devoted evangelical Christian base.

RUSH: They can’t believe it. They simply can’t. They can’t believe it. You know, Shep is looking to A.B. Stoddard to tell him that Trump’s gonna be had. Something’s gonna happen. “We’re gonna get Trump! We’re gonna get Trump! This is the best chance we’ve had, the last straw,” and she’s right. You know, Access Hollywood video is the baseline, and so far they haven’t had anything go below that — and if you survive that, then all the rest of this is just noise.

Trump voters have made it very clear they’re not gonna let this guy get derailed the way the political system has always been able to derail political enemies of the system, of the deep state or of the establishment. And they keep, you know, hoping that some new development is gonna cause all of you Trump voters to snap to and to wake up and realize that you should abandon this guy because of his style, his lack of sophistication.

But then remember this CNN piece where they think they’ve figured it out. Because Trump isn’t who you all think he is. He’s a normal, average guy. You can hear it on the tapes. He’s not extreme. He’s not wacko. He has very plainspoken English, very easy to understand. But when he gets on TV, he has to start performing for you Trump idiots, you see, and that’s when he starts dumbing himself now. This is what CNN thinks they have figured out by listening to a couple of sentences of Trump on the tape of his fixer or lawyer, Michael Cohen.