RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number 1 — for three weeks now they have been doing this.
DON LEMON: If he doesn’t do this, the Rush Limbaughs and the other conservative media will go nuts.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The (crosstalk) president of the United States is a Dittohead. He’s doing literally what Rush Limbaugh calls his people, those who “ditto” everything.
JONATHAN CAPEHART: It’s about keeping Rush Limbaugh from criticizing him.
HOWARD FINEMAN: …tribal chieftains like Rush Limbaugh.
RUSH: “Tribal chieftain”?
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: Rush Limbaugh took the president on and started attacking him.
JOE LOCKHART: He said he’ll sign the bill, and then Rush Limbaugh told him not to do it.
JAMES CARVILLE: Rush Limbaugh went crazy and he had to change his mind.
ANA NAVARRO: …president of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh — and, look, he has allowed these right-wing conservatives to take him hostage.
RUSH: Right. I thought I was “a guy in Palm Beach with a golf shirt.” Now I’m a “tribal chieftain.” For three weeks, these clowns!
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RUSH: Here’s Jim McGovern, Democrat from Massachusetts today, on the House floor…
MCGOVERN: Mr. Speaker, why should Americans go hungry just because the president wants to appease someone like Rush Limbog? (sic)
RUSH: Did he say “Limbog”? So I am “a guy in a golf shirt in Palm Beach,” “tribal chieftain,” and now responsible for hunger among the children in America. Americans are going hungry because of me. Here is CNN, Nia-Malika Henderson. I guess she’s some commentator.
HENDERSON: We live in a Washington where there is a president that really is looking to see what Ann Coulter has to say, what Rush Limbaugh has to say, what the whole, entire kind of conservative tattling class, uh, had to say.
RUSH: So they’re sticking to this idea that Trump is sitting around waiting to hear from me — his tribal chieftain in a golf shirt in Palm Beach — before deciding what to do. They can’t let go of it. Do you think they really, really think this is happening, or is this just a twofer for them: A way to rip me and Trump at the same time? Don’t be surprised if they actually believe this, folks.
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RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number two. This stuff is… what’s the word? It may be happening now more than it’s happened in the past. That’s tough to say. But these people just will not let go of this.
SHAHEEN: For the last several hours we have heard compelling remarks from a number of our colleagues. And I thank all of those who have come to the floor to talk about the lasting and negative effects of this senseless shutdown, a shutdown that is all about President Trump yielding to Rush Limbaugh and the right-wing commentators who told him he wasn’t being tough enough.
RUSH: Jeanne Shaheen, the senator, Democrat, from New Hampshire. They won’t let go of this. Now, did you notice last night Chuck and Nancy didn’t blame me. Chuck and Nancy when they were doing their response, they didn’t chide Trump for listening to me. They didn’t chide Trump for being afraid to cross me.
But everywhere else, all of these Democrats on the floor of the House, on the floor of the Senate or on cable news — what that tells me is that they’ve created this talking point and that they’re advocating all of their television commentators, media people to use it because they’ve got obvious focus group data that when liberals hear my name, they erupt and they start writing checks, I think is what happened.
They hear my name and they start writing checks. I’m second to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In fact, the Democrats would do everything they could to make sure I keep doing this, in their minds, because I’m such a great fundraiser for them. Because why not blame me when you’re on national TV and you want to humiliate Trump and you want to blame Trump and you want to be consistent with your messaging, how come none of us right-wing provocateurs get mentioned? ‘Cause they really don’t think it. It’s just more media drivel that they’re engaging in for talking point purposes.