RUSH: Neither the Drive-Bys nor the swamp dwellers can ever imagine anybody quitting government. They can’t imagine anybody quitting the United Nations. They can’t imagine anybody quitting and leaving Donald Trump more in charge of anything than he already is. They’re beside themselves. Nikki Haley is quitting. Furthermore, nobody leaked it! They didn’t know about it; that makes it illegitimate. Something’s not right!

So they immediately began speculating. “Nikki Haley,” they said, “has to be leaving in total anger and frustration over Trump and Kavanaugh,” that Nikki Haley “obviously disapproves of Kavanaugh, disapproves of him being on the Supreme Court, disapproves of the way Trump handled it and can’t handle it anymore and she’s quitting. The fact that that is the case is buoyed by that there was no leak,” meaning that her reaction has been knee-jerk and sensible and so forth. And they’ve been all hot to trot about it all morning long over on CNN.

Even Fox! Even Fox is sitting there, a bunch of panelists, analysts and so forth, really worried, wringing their hands. “Oh, no! What does it mean? I can’t… I don’t… Oh, no! What’s the reason?” Because everybody in that town — I don’t care if they’re one of us, I don’t care if they’re swamp-dweller leftists. They’re paranoid. People leaving government? It’s not done — and if somebody’s leaving Trump, then people are waiting with bated breath for the whole Trump administration to collapse because this is what the swamp still thinks of Trump.

It turns out that Nikki Haley is just burned out. She’s been doing this; prior to that she was governor. She has been on an intense pressure-packed schedule every day for eight or more years, and it turns out she had told Trump that she was probably gonna resign after his first two years. She will remain the ambassadorette to the United Nations ’til the end of the year, making it two years. There’s really nothing to see here.

Now, the swamp then began to concoct a bunch of rumors that would explain this and foretell what was going to happen. The best and biggest rumor running around was that Lindsey Graham was going to announce his resignation from the Senate and become attorney general. This, of course, would require Sessions to either quit or be kneecapped, and then after Lindsey Graham leaves the Senate then Nikki was gonna run for the Senate in South Carolina to replace Lindsey.

Because we can’t lose a Senate seat, and if Lindsey was gonna go over to the attorney general spot, Nikki could probably get it. None of that. None of that has any basis in fact. It’s all just rumor, and it’s one of these things that isn’t complicated. It’s one of these things that is what it is, and people in Washington just can’t get their arms around it ’cause it’s not normal. People just don’t quit government. They just don’t! I mean, unless they’re upset about something, angry about something, hiding a scandal that is about to be revealed or some such thing.

So the Drive-Bys were waiting with bated breath!

A couple of examples. “Poppy” Harlow, infobabe, CNN. This was her speculation earlier today…

HARLOW: Back in December 2017, when the president’s accusers were coming forward, she said, all of the accusers, including the president’s accusers, quote, “should be heard.” Look at what the president has said in the past few days about Dr. Blasey Ford. Now, we don’t know why she’s a resigning. I’m just pointing out areas where she has publicly disagreed with the president.

RUSH: Right. So you see? (paraphrased) “She believed Blasey. She believed Blasey Ford. She was righteously indignity and offended over the way Trump treated Blasey Ford; then this Kavanaugh gets confirmed, and she can’t handle this anymore! Now, we don’t know this. I’m just pointing out areas where she’s publicly disagreed with the president.” Poppy Harlow had no idea what she was talking about, nor did anybody else. You know what this is a classic example of? They found out that Nikki Haley…

I’m gonna be approximate with the time here. They found out that Nikki Haley was gonna resign at 10 o’clock, and for an hour cable news had nothing but speculation as to why. They couldn’t just wait. They couldn’t just wait for the announcement and the videotape from the Oval Office where she and Trump were seated in bright yellow chairs by the fireplace. Couldn’t wait. Nope! They had to fill that time with speculation, and that’s when people really get dumb. When there’s all kinds of wild-guess speculation, that’s where people try to show their smarts, folks.

That’s where all these analysts and commentators try to demo their insider status and their operative knowledge and so forth. Some of the things that I heard being bandied about simply made no sense. But much it, as they say, made for great television. It wasn’t complicated at all. She just wanted to leave. It had nothing to do with Kavanaugh. It had nothing to do with Blasey. It had nothing to do with the Supreme Court.

It simply had to do with the calendar and something she had said was going to happen long ago. In terms of the idea that she’s upset, there’s another rumor that’s been going around since she announced she’s gonna resign. “She’s gonna run against Trump in 2020! She hates Trump. She is embarrassed of Trump. She just — just — just can’t stand it and is gonna run for the Republican nomination in 2020!” So she headed that off at the pass before the press even started asking questions.

She says, “No, I’m not running in 2020. The only thing I’m gonna be doing is campaigning and supporting this guy,” and she pointed at Trump. You could hear the wind come out of the sails collectively of the Drive-By Media, who were convinced that a woman was abandoning Trump because of Blasey, because of Kavanaugh. Here’s our old buddy Nic Robertson, maybe our all-time favorite CNN foreign correspondent. It’s Nic Robertson this morning on CNN, you know, guessing back and forth with the infobabe, “Poppy” Harlow, about Nikki Haley’s reasons…

ROBERTSON: On the issues that our allies have wanted to see President Trump be tough on, in particular Russia, because that’s one, uhhhh, that he seemed to be sensitive on and not one that he’s wanted to push as allies in Britain and France and Germany, uhhh, the Baltic states have all wanted him to be, Nikki Haley has been a source of comfort. So if you’re one of the United States enemies and Nikki Haley steps out of this position, then perhaps you breathe a tiny bit easier.

RUSH: I… Look… (sigh) I’m just a radio talk show guy here, and Nic Robertson is a seasoned broadcast journalist. But I’m sorry. This is so full of it. Let’s go back to the top of his sound bites. (impression) “On the issues that allies have wanted to see Trump be tough on, in particular, Russia, because that’s the one that he seems to be sensitive on and not one that he’s wanted to push, as allies in Britain and France and Germany and the Baltics states have all wanted him to be” tough. Has everybody…?

Nic, have you forgotten how Trump reamed Angela Merkel for making a deal, a side deal at the G20 with the Russians? Have you forgotten that it was Donald Trump who was tough on the Russians and that it was Angela Merkel who made a side deal with ’em for natural gas? And that it was Donald Trump that could not believe it and called her out on it and suggested that she could have purchased natural gas from any of her allies in the G20, the G8, the G15, or the G whatever?

Trump has been tough on Russia to the extent that the people promoting a Trump-Russia collusion story have been discredited thoroughly! Trump has not been a Russian puppet. Quite the contrary. But you wouldn’t be able to convince Nic Robertson of that. Oh, no! They get these ideas in their head. “Trump and Russia got together! They steal the election from Hillary! Trump is a Russian stooge. Trump has money ’cause the Russians saw to it; Trump owes Russia because of that. Trump, therefore, is soft on Russia.”

Now, “Nikki Haley is leaving, and that means nobody’s left to be tough on Russia and our allies are scared to death.” That is a total, 100%, front-to-back, top-to-bottom crock, folks. I guarantee you, our allies are probably happy to see Nikki Haley go because she is tough and she is pro-America. She believes in America first just like Trump does. Not at the expense of our allies. She wants everybody brought along. But she’s not a pushover.

These people don’t know what they’re talking about! They get these notions in their heads, these fantasies — or these “narratives,” as they call them — and they are reality, whether they touch on the truth or not. Here is Trump and Haley with her resignation announcement in the bright yellow chairs. I got emails today from people. “God, I hate those chairs, Rush! You got tell ’em to get rid of the chairs.” I said, “Are you telling me that’s what you notice here?

“You’re watching Haley resign and Trump’s sitting next to her and they got a great presser going and you’re telling me the chairs are too yellow?” That’s what makes me think we got no prayer. We got no hope. We have a serious thing going on the Oval Office and I get emails, “Oh, my God! The chairs, Rush!” The chairs? Well, anyway, no chairs on radio, folks, because no pictures except those that I intricately paint for you with my clever use of verbiage, diatribe, rhetoric, and resistance. Here is a bit of that sound bite…

THE PRESIDENT: (camera clicks throughout) Nikki Haley, ambassador to the United Nations has been very special to me. She’s done an incredible job. She’s a fantastic person, very importantly. But she also is somebody that gets it. She has been at the United Nations from the beginning with us, from the beginning, and working with us on the campaign. It’s been really a long time, very intense. And she told me probably six months ago, she said, “You know, maybe at the end of the year — at the end of the two-year period but the end of the year — I want to take a little time off. I want to take a little break.” So we’re all happy for you in one way but we hate to lose you. Hopefully, you’ll be coming back at some point.

HALEY: (laughs)

THE PRESIDENT: Maybe in a different capacity. You can have your pick. But I just want to let you to know that at the end of the year Nikki will be leaving and will be in constant touch.

RUSH: She has been a great in the United States ambassador to the United Nations. She was a very good governor. She is a solid, quality person. She has done great work in this administration and as governor of South Carolina. I know a lot of people, period. I know a lot of people in South Carolina who live there love Nikki Haley. It is gonna be a great loss. She was fearless at the United Nations.

She was undaunted and unintimidated by that Star Wars bar scene, surrounded by a bunch of thug-dictator tyrants in that room. She gave ’em the business and what-for in defense and promotion of America each and every day. I guarantee you Trump is sad to lose her. Here’s a little bit of what she had to say. John Roberts, White House press corps, said, “Ambassador Haley, you list a long list of accomplishments. Why would you want to leave all that behind? Is it really a personal decision because you’ve been away from your family for so long or something else?”

HALEY: My family is very supportive. So, no, there’s no personal reasons. I think that it’s just very important for government officials to understand when it’s time to step aside. And I have given everything I’ve got these last eight years, and I do think that sometimes it’s good to rotate in other people who can put that same energy and power into it. I want to make sure that this administration, the president has the strongest person to fight. It was a blessing to go into the U.N. with body armor every day and defend America, and I’ll always do that.

RUSH: Yeah, and so she’s just gonna take it easy. We don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know how soon she’s gonna get the itch to get back in it. But you heard president say, “Come back, take your pick, whatever you want.” There’s nothing really to see here. The fact that it didn’t leak has people (the swamp dwellers) stupefied.

And because it didn’t leak, because they didn’t know about it in advance, then they are highly suspicious of this. And they were hoping and praying that it had to do with Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh. So it is what it is. It was fascinating to watch an hour’s worth of speculation about what it could possibly be, and there was no… In all of that hour’s worth of speculation, there wasn’t one positive suggestion.

Every idea or wild guess was rooted in doom or trouble, negativism of some kind. There was very little time given to the fact, “Hey, you know what? It just could be that she’s tired.” Even if it was just that, she had to be tired of Trump. She had to be fed up trying to represent Trump. This is what they all want to hear. It’s what they expect to hear. And when they don’t hear it, they make it up.