RUSH: Everybody wants to be first with news. Everybody wants to be the first to report it, the first to know it and that kind of thing. Here is what we do know about the… They’re calling him “the MAGA Bomber,” the Make America Great Again Bomber to try to identify the guy with Trump. Department of Justice spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores tweeted earlier this morning the guy’s in custody.
They’ve got his van, they have it wrapped in a blue tarp, and they’re taking it somewhere. It looks like they’re on I-95 at the Turnpike. They’re in Plantation, where this guy is, but that’s just… For those of you don’t know, Plantation, Florida, is due west of Fort Lauderdale, and it’s not far from Hard Rock Stadium. It’s the Miami… the Miami general area, closer to Fort Lauderdale. He’s in his… He’s 56 years old, so mid-fifties.
He has prior arrests for terror-related activities. He’s “a former New Yorker, white male,” although his name indicates that he might be Latino or Hispanic. The 56 year old, “arrested previously for terroristic threats.” He has written letters to judges. He is well known to law enforcement here. He’s not a person unknown. He’s well known. Apparently, cameras at postal kiosks helped identify the guy.
He’s got all kinds of stickers and decals on the windows of this van so that you can’t see in there on the two back windows and on some of the side windows. I’m being told what the decals are, but I can’t see that myself; so I am reluctant to pass on anything. I can’t confirm for myself here.
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RUSH: NBC News: “Mail Bomb Suspect Cesar Sayoc Jr., in Custody for Allegedly Sending Pipe Bombs to Trump” Critics. Trump “targets,” excuse me.
Keep in mind, it’s NBC reporting this. “A Florida resident…” This is from the article. “”A Florida resident was identified Friday as the suspect who sent a dozen pipe bomb packages to prominent critics of President Donald Trump, several law enforcement officials said. DNA evidence played a role in the arrest of Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56…” They have seized his “white van, which had pictures of Trump and the presidential seal plastered to the windows…”
He’s got pictures of Trump and he’s got GOP stickers all over the windows.
So law enforcement has a press conference slated for 2:30 this afternoon. They don’t know if there are any more pipe bombs out there or if he has sent everything that he had. The latest two recipients, by the way, are Cory Booker (the New Jersey senator) and the former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. They were the recipients today. Also, Fox News is reporting that law enforcement is telling them that some of these bombs…
None of them have gone off, but some of them had been detonated because they were judged to be so unstable that they couldn’t even transport them to a Quantico, Virginia, FBI lab to study them. They had to go ahead and detonate them and blow ’em up because they might have blown up in transit, although none of them have gone off, none of them, if they were ever intended to. There’s still a lot that isn’t known here.
And a lot of people are rushing in, trying to fill in blanks. And is typical during events like this, everybody becomes a journalist and everybody wants to have the first news on everything, everybody wants to be the first to learn something, the first to pass it on. And until law enforcement says what they’re gonna say about this, it all is speculation. Now, law enforcement’s undoubtedly gonna be leaking between now and 2:30 to various members of the media that they like, trust, or what have you.
So there’s going to be a deluge of information. What happens during these periods is that the first thing people hear is what they end up tending to believe. The first thing they hear, the first thing they see makes the first impression. And that is why during this whole week, some people have been concerned that the media, without waiting, just went ahead and assigned this guy as a pro-Trump, anti-Democrat guy.
They were identifying the people as “Trump targets,” the Make America Great Again Bomber, the MAGA Bomber, because it creates first impressions. It created this worldwide presumption that the bomber was an angry Trump supporter fed up at the people Trump is fed up with. This is the narrative, if you will, that the Drive-Bys attempted to establish before anybody knew anything because everybody knows first impressions are what matters.
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RUSH: I’ll get… Well, it’s not a mug sh… Well, it is a mug shot. It’s from a previous arrest. When we get it ready, we’ll throw it in the switcher here on the Dittocam. “Native American Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc, 56,” has been named. “Native American Trump supporter.” Now, I’m reading this from the Metro U.K. newspaper. This is Metro U.K., whatever that is.
“Suspected [Make America Great Again] Bomber Identified ‘Native American Trump Supporter’ Cesar Sayoc … 56 … of Fort Lauderdale … belived [sic] to have been arrested in Plantation…” I think he’s from Aventura, actually. “Online records show Sayoc, who has a criminal record, has owned companies called Native American Catering & Vending, as well as Proud Native America One Low Price Drycleaning.”
(switcher) There he is. That is the mug shot from a previous arrest that has been published in a U.K. paper called Metro something or other, which, I frankly have never heard of. But there it is; it’s out there. They’re not the only one to have this stuff here. But you’ll notice now the media is identifying him as the Make America Great Again Bomber, “Native American Trump supporter,” and naming him as Cesar Sayoc, 56.
We also have a close-up shot of the van before they put the blue tarp on it, and I’m just gonna put it up. Is it ready to go? Let’s switch to it. If you’re watching on the Dittocam, you’ll see this. We’ll get ’em up on RushLimbaugh.com as soon as we can. (switcher) You’re looking at a window there plastered with stickers and decals. There’s a picture of Mike Pence. It looks like a bumper sticker “CNN Sucks.” A whole…
Every window is plastered with some sort of political message or ID. So this is what I just want you to see. Those of you who are listening here and watching this on the Dittocam, this is what is being reported in a number of different publications now. I just want to caution you that since this is what’s being reported, first impressions are now being registered by people as they hear all this. I am reporting it to you under guidance. I’m telling you, I…
I’m just telling you what I’m finding in various publications that are floating around. There has been a madcap desire to ID whoever was sending these bombs as a Trump supporter all week long, and they have not waited. They’re moving at light speed to make this association, such as in this headline: “Suspected [Make America Great Again] Bomber Identified ‘Native American Trump Supporter’ Cesar Sayoc … 56.”
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RUSH: Okay. So that is the sound of the unidentifiable website identifying this guy as a member of the Green Party being ripped to shreds. Now, because of the stickers all over Cesar Sayoc’s stylish white van, the Drive-By Media are concluding that he’s a right-winger. He’s a right-winger, and he’s a Trump-loving, deranged individual. Now, according to Florida voting records, he is a registered Republican. Full name Cesar Sayoc, Aventura.
His party affiliation as of March 4th, 2016, was Republican Party, and he’s been active as a registered Republican since March 4th of 2016. His voter status is also active. Now, that information is from Heavy.com, who claim they got it from the Florida voter search site, which they might have done, but they would have had to know his birthday to get it.
We don’t know his birthday; so we can’t double-check the claim here. So this stuff just happened to happen right as the program is beginning. I have a flood of data. You know, as a highly influential major media figure, I have all kinds of people trying to influence me with what I’m seeing, flooding the zone with things they want me to repeat. Now, Sayoc is a Philippine name.
The guy’s family seems to have come from the Philippines, but they’re calling him “Native American,” and again, flooding the zone here with information for you as I receive it. And whether or not any of this stuff is true, keep in mind it’s what’s making first impressions. Again, I can’t emphasize that enough. Now, the Drive-Bys have stopped their coverage and have joined President Trump. There is…
In fact, let’s listen to a little bit ourselves. He’s got a big powwow heading up there. Well…
THE PRESIDENT: — for the media. Thank you very much. I thought I’d do that. And we feel very strongly. Again, congratulations to all law enforcement. We have the best in the world, and they just showed it. Thank you very much.
CROWD: (cheers)
RUSH: It’s the Conference of Young Black Leaders at the White House.
THE PRESIDENT: Now to the subject at hand.
CROWD: (cheers)
THE PRESDIENT: And it is my great honor to be with so many brilliant, and that’s what you are, rilliant, courageous —
RUSH: All right.
THE PRESIDENT: — patriotic, and proud Americans.
RUSH: So let’s bump out of this because he’s now getting on to the real meeting, the reason for the meeting there, which is unprecedented, by the way. It’s a leadership committee of hundreds of young black leaders in America that are gathering at the White House. There’s been a lot of prepub about this. I guess the president made an acknowledgment to law enforcement for their great work in tracking down the bomber and bringing that story to a conclusion.
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RUSH: This guy’s van. Cesar Sayoc’s van. He lives in a van down by the river. This van, every window has stickers, decals, bumper stickers! There are so many of ’em, you can’t see out these windows. The first reaction I had when I first heard — when I first was told and believed it — that this was the guy’s van, my first reaction, “How in the world does a van like that in south Florida not get defaced?”
Do you realize how…? There are a lot of Democrats down in south Florida. There are a lot of people that hate Donald Trump down here. This guy driving that van? That van would have tomatoes all over it and rotten eggs. Swastikas would have been painted on it. Any number of things would have been done to deface this. There is no way that you could hide in that van. There is no way that you could remain obscure, invisible. It’s just the exact opposite!
That van screams, “Notice me!” That van yells out, “Notice me! Listen to me! See me!” This guy is sending bombs all over the place. He’s already supposedly well known to law enforcement because he’s had his-run-ins with the “lawr” (as they say in New York) for many, many years. He’s been on terror radar. Not Islamic terror-type terror, but just terrorizing people, terrorizing law enforcement and property. Also, none of the stuff on that van, the stickers and the decals…
Very little of it looks faded, meaning it doesn’t look like it’s been there very long. Certainly, this guy’s van is parked outside; he’s been driving around in this thing. We have inclement weather hear in south Florida. There’s been some rain. But it’s a hot, baking, wet sun. And even if these stickers are plastered on the insides of the windows, there would be some fading of this stuff. Now, if you look at guy’s Twitter feed… (interruption) Oh, yeah, Cesar Sayoc has a Twitter feed, and the best I can tell it can be traced back to 2016.
This guy sounds like a well-educated, straight-down-the-middle conservative. As best I can tell, his twittering or tweetering dates back to 2016, which is quite timely. Now, I don’t know that any of my thoughts here mean anything, obviously. I’m just sharing with you some of the thoughts that I have had — and I’ve processed ’em. You know, I just didn’t blurt these out when I first started noticing this stuff. But let me go to audio sound bite No. 26.
There is a “CNN Sucks” sticker on this van. (chuckles) He goes to post office kiosks where there are cameras to mail these bombs. None of them went off — and from what I’m told from reliable law enforcement, none of them could have. Now, there’s also a story out there that some of them were so unstable that law enforcement had to detonate ’em rather than transport them to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. You know, these watches… (crash)
Excuse me second. I’m okay. I’m okay. I did not fall. You know, these new watches have fall detectors on ’em, meaning if you fall — if the watch detects that you have fallen — it will offer to call emergency services for you. If you’re incapacitated, all you have to do is do nothing. If you do nothing after the certain number of seconds pass, it’ll call EMS. It’ll call 911 where you are. It also gives you the opportunity say, “No, no, I didn’t fall. I’m fine. I’m okay.”
This thing goes off on me twice a show while I’m sitting here. My wild gesticulations — my expression-filled manner of speaking — is triggering my watch into thinking that I have fallen and I can’t get up. It starts vibrating. (interruption) No, you know what? This is a great health feature that a lot of people are buying this watch for grandma and grandpa because it works. They’ve tested this watch on Hollywood stunt actors and stuntmen and women, and it works. But it also… Nothing wrong with this.
It comes back with false positives. But my hand doesn’t even hit the table. It doesn’t… I’m just wildly gesticulating around hearing my fall alert has been triggered on the watch. That’s what just interrupted me. My point is that this guy here has been screaming, “Notice me!” and how here comes Dana Bash from CNN just this afternoon. There is a “CNN Sucks” sticker on this van. “CNN Sucks.” (laughing) Here we go…
BASH: That image, “CNN Sucks…” Of course, the president didn’t direct this. He’s not technically responsible for this. But he is responsible for not just allowing the chant “CNN Sucks” at his rallies, but stoking it, making clear that he likes it. And all you need is one — forgive me — crackpot. And we’ve been saying this for two years. And looks like one may have emerged. And that is the danger and that is the reason why leadership is the way it is. And you can have an enemy, you can have a political discussion, you can have political discourse. But when you cross the line, it is extremely dangerous, and that is what has been a giant omission in everything we have heard from anybody at the White House.
RUSH: Okay. So in CNN’s eyes, that’s Trump’s van, and it’s Trump’s bombs. And in a vacuum and in a sterile world, what Dana Bash just said here would be perfectly fine. But the thing that really irritates me about CNN and the rest of these people in the leftist media is that they permit themselves to say all of these incendiary things about anybody they want.
They permit themselves to attack the character and the intentions and the decency and the honesty of any of their targets. And they can call any president Hitler, like they did George W. Bush, like they do Donald Trump. They can accuse these people of some of the most outrageous things in the world — and, of course, there’s never any danger that one of their crackpot viewers is gonna take action.
Except that there is! A crackpot CNN viewer shot up a Republican baseball practice! Crackpot CNN viewers storm buildings where there are Family Research Council members and think about letting loose with gunfire. We have example after example of attempted violence against conservatives and right-wingers. In fact, one of the central elements of Democrat strategy in this campaign is the public threatening and the public bullying and the public harassment of Republican elected officials in restaurants, in public places.
These are genuinely threatening people, and they are confronting people and demanding that they leave, and there’s never any condemnation of this. You never hear CNNing any of this kind of behavior. They chalk it up, “Well, you know, this is what Donald Trump has wrought. This is what Donald Trump’s presidency has meant. This is what Donald Trump is doing to people. He’s making them insane. He’s creating all the…”
So it’s a one-way street with these people! Now, I believe Donald Trump is reacting, by the way. CNN starts this with their unfair, biased coverage, and unlike other Republicans who just sit there and take it and spout the stuff, “Well, this is politics. You know, it’s hardball. You got be able to take it, and I’m sure the people at CNN are fine people people.” Instead of that, Trump fires back at ’em, and that’s what hasn’t been done before.
Trump fires back at ’em, and a lot of Republicans are very excited about this fighting back, because for too many years we’ve had to sit here and watch powerlessly as CNN and others in the media have taken potshots at us and our issues. They have lied about them, misstated them, mischaracterized them. They have attempted to impugn the character and honor of conservative people, spokesmen, policy people and so forth.
Now all of a sudden, when an actual Republican gets shot by a gun and a bullet, there is no wringing of hands over what’s happening to our politics. Because the shooter was a Bernie Sanders supporter. So we chalk it up, “Well, of course, yeah, uh, he was mentally unstable. Trump would do that to anybody.” It always comes down to Trump. A lot of people said, “But, Rush! But, Rush! You sound like two wrongs make a right.”
I’m not talking about two wrongs make a right. I’m simply… I’m not talking about who started it. I’m talking about these people that want to sit there in high judgment over everybody else while exempting themselves. Whereas they say Donald Trump is perfectly capable and responsible for any behavior on the part of his supporters, CNN isn’t. They’re not responsible for how any of their viewers act or how any of their people on their side of the aisle act.
And it is this demand that they have for insulation and to be exempt from having any impact on people that, frankly, offends me. But this van… I mean, if you (chuckling) If you wanted to decorate and dress up a van that says, “Notice me!” — and if you wanted everybody in the world to know that you are a Trump supporter who is unstable and little over the top or major over the top — this is what you would do. So that’s my two cents for now.
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RUSH: Now, looking at another close-up of one of the big windows of the van, guess what’s on the sticker on this van? Hillary Clinton in the crosshairs and a Michael Moore in the crosshairs. They are evenly… I mean, they’re not just slapped on there. These things look like they have artistically aligned, professional… (interruption) Okay, whatever. I’m just saying that they look like they are proportionately placed so that every sticker fits the space. There’s no overlap, none of ’em are just slapped on there at haphazard angles. It all fits on every window.
Every window is a mosaic and artful.
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RUSH: For those of you watching on the Dittocam, here is a shot that has three windows filled with stickers put in there by Cesar Sayoc in his van, and as is the case with all of these, they will eventually be at RushLimbaugh.com so everybody could see them. No, I could withhold them and have them only for Dittocam usage.
But that would be cheap and unnecessary. We’re just taking advantage of here of the tech, being able to use the switcher to show you these things. If you look at that big van window there on the left, you will see. On lower center, you will see… Well, you may not be able to tell, I don’t know what side of the screen you’re looking, but it’s Hillary Clinton in the crosshairs of a rifle scope. And just beneath here as you’re looking at this to the left is Michael Moore, also in the crosshairs of a shotgun.
And then two stickers over from Michael Moore is the “CNN Sucks” sticker or whatever. But the thing to notice, there are three total windows in the van. There’s no way anybody could see in or out of these windows. These are in the rear, by the way. They’re on the side of the van. You’ve got Pence in the upper left. Look how evenly proportioned every sticker is.
Look how nothing is off line. There isn’t any overlap. Nothing has been slapped up there in passion or anger or any of that in either of the three windows that you see here. No, no, nothing is faded. This is south Florida sun. This guy has been driving around who knows how long. Nothing’s faded. This screams, “Notice me!” This would be defaced.
You’ve got a bunch of people down in south Florida that don’t like Trump. They see this van parked somewhere and you know that somebody would be throwing things on it or scraping it with keys or getting a paintbrush and tomatoes and rotten eggs. Who knows whatever. This van is pristine! The van is almost like a work of art.
RUSH: Here is Chris in Las Vegas. Glad you waited, sir. You’re next here on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, sir. It’s an honor and a privilege.
RUSH: I appreciate that, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: I just wanted to say about the only thing this guy’s van was actually missing were some spotlights and a giant neon sign that said, “I did it! Arrest me!”
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: That’s all the guy was missing.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: I mean it can’t stick out any more than it already has. It’s ridiculous.
RUSH: Yeah. This guy’s apparently been on law enforcement radar for a while. They’re claiming DNA. They got some DNA off, I guess, some of the packages here. He’s been arrested and on law enforcement radar. But you wonder how long this van’s been decorated like this, how long it’s been driving around down there unnoticed or unobserved or what have you. It does… It just… I don’t know. There’s something about this that… (sigh) I don’t know. It’s like watching —
CALLER: You’re a hundred percent right, sir. You’re a hundred percent right. Like, it looks too good. It’s been out there in the sun for as long as it has been. People in that state openly can despise the president and probably have for the longest time, and nothing’s happened to this guy’s van. It’s like somebody tossed this guy the keys and tell him, “Hang out for 20 minutes. The cops will be here,” you know, and then “you just take it from there.” It’s like how much more of a setup can this look like? Even if this guy was part of the Republican Party, the guy needs help, and he doesn’t represent anything but a small fraction of some extremism. He does not hold a candle to what this party actually is, period.
RUSH: True. Very true. Goes without saying. You got me imagining pictures now. This van driving around and you see people would notice it. I mean, I notice a bumper sticker on the car in front of me if I think it’s Looney Tunes. This van… There’s no way that this van doesn’t get noticed and doesn’t have people reacting to it in certain ways. So you think what, then? You think that this guy is being used?
CALLER: It smell kind of like a setup. Like I said, there’s always a chance that this is completely legit and this guy is off his rocker and he’s just in need of some medical help. But, Rush… (laughing) I mean, you’re the expert.
RUSH: You know what? If he needs medical help, he just needs to say has a transgender, and that will be the first step toward some leniency.
CALLER: You’re right. (garbled cell)
RUSH: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, look. Chris, I appreciate the call. Thank you. Thank you much. (interruption) No. I’m not surprised people have this reaction at all.
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RUSH: Apparently, a couple of more bombs have been received. MSNBC is saying that Kamala Harris, the senator from California, got a bomb, and CNN is saying that Tom Steyer — a household name in American politics, Tom Steyer — got a bomb. Tom Steyer is a California billionaire in the alternative energy business who’s a gigantic supporter, proponent, and propagandist for man-made climate change. So he got a bomb, CNN says, and Kamala Harris of California got a bomb.
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RUSH: State your full name in Bainbridge, Ohio. Welcome. You’re next on Open Line Friday. Hi.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for having me on.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: At about 1 o’clock, I looked at Cesar Sayoc’s name on Facebook, and a profile picture came up of Kathy Griffin holding Trump’s severed head. So I looked at the page, and it said, “Republicans are Nazis,” “Vote early,” “Blue wave coming,” “Let’s flip Florida.”
RUSH: This is Cesar Sayoc’s Twitter page, you say?
CALLER: Facebook.
RUSH: Facebook page.
CALLER: And then it disappeared. The page disappeared 10 minutes later.
RUSH: Surprised —
CALLER: I couldn’t get back on it.
RUSH: Surprised it was ever up in the first place.
CALLER: Me, too.
RUSH: Well, he’s got a bunch of… What is it? He follows a bunch of people like that too. He follows people… On his Twitter page, the people listed as those he follows are a bunch of radical leftists. Look, as I say, I don’t even want to put forth even a theory yet, folks. It’s enough for you… I’m conjuring some up, but I don’t want to give voice to them yet until I get more data here, but I do not have any doubts about things I think are totally possible here.
You’re just gonna have to stick with me here and trust my instincts on being patient. There’s gonna be all kinds of time next week or whatever when this stuff continues to break and whatever all happens. I appreciate the call. I know what you’re saying, Susan.
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RUSH: Frank in New Baltimore. Welcome, sir. You’re next. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: Just real short here. I think Mr. Cesar is a dupe, No. 1. No. 2, the van was a setup, period, and I think if there’s anybody —
RUSH: What do you mean “a dupe”? What do you mean “a dupe”?
CALLER: That he was set up by other people, or there’s other people that are helping to do all this, send all those things across the country, which would be my last point. That is that if there’s anybody that thinks that man could have initiated and followed through with all those mail bombs across the country, on his own, I think they are delusional and that van was just a setup just so CNN and MSLSD (sic) could swallow it, and they did — hook, line, and sinker.
RUSH: So when you say “dupe,” do you mean that the Democrats or somebody found this guy and are setting him up and he doesn’t have any idea what just happened to him, or that he has been convinced to play along and be a part of it? Which do you mean?
CALLER: (sigh) A little bit of both. We’ll find out in the future, I’m sure. It’s just —
RUSH: Will we?
CALLER: — that —
RUSH: Will we?
CALLER: “Will we?”
RUSH: Will we find out? You said, “I’m sure we’ll find out.” Will we?
CALLER: Uh, hopefully.
RUSH: Hopefully now! Okay. So if this guy was a dupe, if he was minding his own business going to strip clubs and doing everything —
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: — and all of a sudden finds himself in jail and came out of his house one day, saw his van with all that stuff on it and now is in jail for sending pipe bombs? (chuckles) You think that’s possible?
CALLER: A little.
RUSH: A little. But more likely you think he was a dupe, he was in on it somehow but is still being run. Do you think he was persuaded? Do you think he was persuaded to take the fall if he was a dupe?
CALLER: Mmmm, yes.
RUSH: Okay. All right. Well, I’m sorry. What was that? What were you saying?
CALLER: I think that, uhh, he just felt that, uhhh, just to get his name in the paper or he had nothing else better to do with his life and figured, “Hey, I’m gonna make a name for myself and be on the 6 o’clock news,” and, uh…
RUSH: Well, I tell you what: This guy made it to the news before 6 o’clock, I’ll guarantee you that.