RUSH: Vero Beach, Florida. Mary, great to have you. How are you?

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m great. And so are you. I just want to say that everything President Trump has ever done or said regarding the Mueller so-called investigation was never obstruction of justice. What he was communicating at all times was his objection to injustice. Every time I hear “obstruction of justice” I substitute “objection to injustice” because that’s what it was.

RUSH: You know, that is an excellent way to put this. And for those of you who think that it’s a little bit too cute by half, let me put this in context ‘cause I understand exactly her point. She’s saying that Trump did not obstruct justice. It was the exact opposite.

Here’s Trump. He hasn’t done anything that is being alleged, and he knows it. Furthermore, not only does he know that he didn’t collude with Russia, but he did this on his own. This is one of his, maybe the greatest, achievements of his life, and he did it without the usual network of help. You have to realize that not his entire party, his entire party was not behind him. There were many in his own party who wanted him to lose, were trying to undermine his effort.

So he’s sitting there — this is one of the greatest achievements in his life. In fact, there’s a story on this. There’s an AP story today that attempts to impugn Trump by claiming that his great fear of the Mueller report is that he would be exposed as a fraud. Well, that is the selective use of words designed to further impugn Trump.

Here it is. “Trump depicted in Mueller report feared being tabbed a fraud.” That’s not what it was. He was afraid they were gonna take this achievement away from him. He got elected president. He did it on his own. He knows he didn’t do any of this. He didn’t collude. He did not obstruct justice.

And he’s not stopped the investigation into this, which he knows was not an investigation. He knows that the deck is totally stacked against him. He’s just supposed roll over and let them have at him, let them try to destroy him? He said, no way. More on this in a minute.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, I made a mistake. I just decided to listen to a little bit of this hearing. You know, I’m getting to the point… I’m getting to ticked off; I’m close to exploding. I may need a break here, folks, ’cause I’m just… I watched Chris Coons — I guess he’s from Delaware — senator, Democrat, just continue asking Barr about two things that have been nuked to smithereens as irrelevant and didn’t happen. He’s asking Barr about them as though they did happen and that everybody knows it, and doesn’t Barr agree that Trump should have been called out on it?

The first one: He just sits there and cites this Papadopoulos meeting. This has been destroyed! (Groan!) He’s up there saying (paraphrased), “We know this investigation began when George Papadopoulos of the Trump foreign policy team was bragging to people that the Trump campaign knew the Russians had Hillary emails.” Don’t worry, I’m not gonna go through the true story. You’ve heard me do this 12 times. That’s not my point. He’s continuing to mischaracterize! That’s not when the investigation began, and that didn’t even happen!

Papadopoulos has even mentioned it himself in countless interviews, podcasts, and elsewhere, that he was set up! Now, what I don’t know is if Coons doesn’t know this or if he knows it and is lying about it. If he doesn’t know about it, there’s no excuse. The next thing he lied about (paraphrased): “The Russians offered the Trump campaign ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton, and they didn’t report that to the FBI.” This is the famous Trump Tower meeting where (Coons impression), “The Russians called up Trump Jr. and offered’ dirt,’ and Trump Jr. said, ‘Hell, yes, we’ll take the dirt!’ Mr. Attorney General, that is reprehensible. It may not be criminal, but we simply cannot have that in our politics. Don’t you agree?”

(Barr impression) “Buh, buh, buh…”

Barr knows it didn’t happen. It didn’t happen! The Russians… That whole thing was another setup. It was a setup by Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS with the Rush honeypot, Veselnitskaya. (disgusted sigh) The problem here is the lack of power that the truth has on members of the Democrat Party. It’s a frustrating thing. Going back to what I was talking about with Trump just a moment ago, Trump’s sitting there these entire two years knowing none of this happened, that there was no colusion. The Russians did not help him beat Hillary Clinton.

He did that on his own, and they are trying to take that accomplishment and that achievement away from him. And, in addition, they’re trying to attach criminality to him! And all this time, he knows it didn’t happen. So there is a frame job being run on him, there is a silent coup being run, and he’s supposed to just roll over and let it happen because if he opposes it in any way, this is obstruction of justice? There’s no justice in a silent coup like this! This was no justice in this operation against Trump.

So Trump attempting to make sure this investigation didn’t get anywhere was simply Trump trying to protect the truth,a nd it gives us stories like this story today that run in the… (pause) It’s AP, wouldn’t you know it? “Trump Depicted in Mueller Report Feared Being Tabbed a Fraud.” That’s not what he feared. That word “fraud” is designed to make the reader think that Trump really didn’t win, shouldn’t have won, and Trump was afraid the investigation was gonna uncover that he cheated. That’s not it at all.

“As the Russia investigation heated up and threatened to shadow Donald Trump’s presidency, he became increasingly concerned. But the portrait painted by special counsel Robert Mueller is not of a president who believed he or anyone on his campaign colluded with Russians to interfere in the 2016 election. Instead, the Trump of the Mueller report is gripped by fear that Americans would question the very legitimacy of his presidency.” What is wrong with that? He knows he didn’t do it. He’s sitting there knowing he didn’t do it.

And he’s watching the total immersion of the American media with the American intelligence apparatus/the Democrat Party conspire to convince the American people that he is not legitimate — that he’s an illegitimate, unjustly elected president. He wasn’t “gripped by fear.” He was gripped by anger! “Instead, the Trump of the Mueller report is gripped by fear that Americans would question the very legitimacy of his presidency.” That’s exactly what these people were attempting to do, was create the idea in the minds of American voters that Trump had cheated.

He’s sitting there the entire 2-1/2 years knowing it didn’t happen. What would you do? And in spite of this, he didn’t obstruct it. He let this phony, bogus investigation play out. They turned over millions of documents — a million pages of documents — 500 witnesses, who knows how many hours of grand jury testimony, and not a shred of evidence was produced. And yet here we are with Chris Coons, Democrat senator, once again claiming the investigation began because a member of Trump foreign policy team told people that they knew the Russians had Hillary Clinton emails.

Total BS!

And then the mischaracterization again of the Trump Tower meeting. The real truth of this is the FBI was trying to plant spies in the Trump campaign. The FBI is worried. Their version is that they’re worried that the Russians have infiltrated the Trump campaign. Well, why didn’t they tell the Trump campaign? They’re getting mad at Trump for not reporting that the Russians offered dirt on Hillary. What, is offering dirt on Hillary some kind of crime? Hillary was out there creating and making up dirt on Trump. It’s called the Steele dossier.

Is accepting dirt on Hillary Clinton a crime? Yes, it is if you’re in the Washington establishment, if you’re in the Democrat Party, or a member of the stinking, rotten media. What happens if you are a woman running for president and your campaign is imploding and can’t get any traction, and your name happens to be Fauxcahontas? Well, you issue the following tweet: “AG Barr is a disgrace, and his alarming efforts to suppress the Mueller report show that he’s not a credible head of federal law enforcement.

“He should resign — and based on the actual facts in the Mueller report, Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against the President.” Barr has not done anything of the sort! He has not suppressed, he has not changed, he has not mischaracterized, and Mueller has not accused him of doing so. And yet here comes this brain-dead, phony Indian of a Harvard Law professor lying in every word of this tweet, and we’re supposed to sit by idly.

“Well, Rush, this is just politics. You gotta calm down. This is just how politics is played.” Yeah, politics is played like the Democrats get to lie, make it up, destroy, impugn, ruin people’s lives, and we’re just supposed to sit there and let it happen because that’s the rule. Breathtaking, all of this. Let me go back to the phones here while I simmer down. Gene, Charlotte, North Carolina. Welcome to the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, pleasure to talk with you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: I just am wondering: If the Mueller report is correct and the Russians didn’t start trying to hack Hillary’s emails until five hours after Trump asked them to, then that would mean that the WikiLeaks statement is true. They did not get the emails from the Russians.

RUSH: Hmm. Let me put this in the timeline grinder. Let’s see… (muttering) WikiLeaks starts in October of 2018. … The emails, phishing attempts… not from hacking… The Democrats claim that Russia supplies WikiLeaks; WikiLeaks denied it. But Russia did not start looking at Hillary’s emails ’til after…? (stops muttering) You may have a point. (interruption) Well, that’s how fast I was processing the timeline. You may actually have a point. If the Russians only started hacking Hillary’s emails after Trump’s joke, then maybe WikiLeaks didn’t get what they got from Russia, which they didn’t. (laughing) Podesta, the fool, fell for a phishing attack.

The Russians didn’t hack Podesta’s emails!

That’s another big lie that’s out there.

Anyway, Gene, I’m glad you called.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, I did it again. I just tuned into these hearings and I’m telling you, folks, I had to watch that smarmy Dick Blumenthal from Connecticut try to entrap Barr. (impression) “Mr. Attorney General, have you discussed cases and their outcome with anybody in the White House?”

“No, I don’t think I have.”

“You don’t remember a single case?”

“No.”

“Would you recuse yourself from any of this?”

“No. I’m not gonna recuse myself.”

“All right, then, well, let’s go to a couple of presidential lies that he told in December of 2016 when he said he didn’t know if it was the Russians or the Chinese or some fat guy in his pajamas in a bedroom that could have been tampering.”

“Yeah, and?” It’s almost like we’re watching a replay of the Kavanaugh hearings here except that Barr is Kavanaugh and there is no Blasey Ford here. Ah, I guess Mueller is Blasey Ford. I don’t know.

Ron in West Sacramento, California. Great to have you with us on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Longtime listener, first-time caller.

RUSH: Thank you, sir, it’s great to have you here. You’ve probably been a listener for over 30 years since you’re out in –

CALLER: Yeah, I met with the Davis mayor that you debated with and that was a sort of a funny thing —

RUSH: Oh, yeah, the mayor of Davis. Those were fun days. On the Channel 13 out there, which was the ABC News affiliate at the time, I debated the mayor of Davis who was a socialist two or three days a week on the 5pm news out there.

CALLER: Well, anyway I wanted to say —

RUSH: He was like a Mayor Pete, was like a Mayor Pete, but he wasn’t —

CALLER: Yeah. Oh, yeah. These guys here, I have never seen the stupidity of these people in my lifetime. I have never seen the Democratic Party just go so to the left in all my years. This is a death sentence for the Democratic Party. I really think it is. I hope Mueller gets up there and I hope they subpoena Weissmann and Jeannie Rhee and I hope they just go down the line. I want these investigations to keep on continuing because I tell you what, they are signing their death certificate. That’s all they’re doing, Rush.

RUSH: You’d like to think so. You know, a lot of people think that the Democrat Party behavior in this circumstance is the equivalent of rendering themselves a really tiny minority. The problem is that they’re doing this, in large part, because their base voters are demanding this. Now, not that these Democrats in this committee don’t have it in them to do this anyway. They do, and they may in fact hold these ideas themselves, but I guarantee you that a lot of this is performing for their base voters.

Their base voters are genuine lunatics. I’m not throwing a word around casually, by the way, folks, like lunatics, idiot, wacko. It’s a purposeful use of the word. And how much it’s gonna harm them, it isn’t gonna harm them with their base. And I think it’s safe to say that whatever standards of decency that our society used to have have long been blown through, and I don’t think they hold anymore.

You’re talking about a day in the past where this kind of behavior would repulse independent, nonpartisan, you know, halfway interested in politics people, that this kind of behavior would just repulse them. “My God, what’s happened to these people?” But we’ve blown past those standards of decency now. And they no longer govern.

That’s one of the problems that we face is that the guardrails, the standards, the institutions that always provided the backstop against radical, insane, off the wall behavior and actions have deteriorated and they’re not there in nearly number or strength that they used to be. So while I wish that what you were saying was true, and acknowledge that in days gone by it would have been, it’s not necessarily the case.

In fact, to a lot of Americans these Democrats with their questions and treatment of Barr today and behavior are heroes. And they are lying through their teeth. They are continuing every lie about this investigation that so-called proved Trump collusion after the Mueller report comes out and says there wasn’t any! They are continuing to lie about everything that has been blown to smithereens and dispelled. I appreciate the call, Ray.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I mentioned Chris Coons and Richard Blumenthal.

Coons, these people are just continuing the lies that have been dispelled by the Mueller report, in fact, on how the investigation began. Here’s Coons. He is a senator, Democrat, Delaware, telling Barr why he thinks the investigation was started in the first place.

COONS: The reason we had this investigation in the first place was George Papadopoulos was told the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, the Russians had a direct contact to Donald Trump Jr. and offered to give dirt about his father’s opponent. Donald Trump Jr. said, “I love it,” and invited the campaign chairman and president’s son-in-law to — the campaign chairman —

BARR: Who did you say offered it? Who did you say offered it?

COONS: In a second instance it was, um, Russians made an offer to Donald Trump. I have 30 seconds.

BARR: Okay.

COONS: Let me get to a question if I could.

RUSH: That’s the Trump Tower meeting. And I don’t know, folks. You’ve heard these stories so many times, you don’t need me to tell you how Coons is either misinformed or lying, and I don’t know which it is. I’m telling you, do not think these people are paragons of intelligence. Do not think they take the time to learn the truth. They get it in their heads what they think happened here.

I mean, I can’t tell you the number of people to this day who still think the FBI started this investigation because Papadopoulos was running around bragging that the Trump campaign knew the Russians had Hillary emails. It is patently ridiculous. It has been dispelled and blown to smithereens. Coons wasn’t finished. Here’s the next bite.

COONS: Going forward, what if a foreign adversary — let’s now say North Korea — offers a presidential candidate dirt on a competitor in 2020, do you agree with me the campaign should immediately contact the FBI? If a foreign intelligence service.

BARR: A foreign government? A foreign intelligence service? (crosstalk)

COONS: A representative of a foreign government.

BARR: Yes.

COONS: Says we have dirt on your opponent.

BARR: Yes.

COONS: Should they say, “I love it, let’s meet.”

BARR: If a foreign intelligence — if a foreign intelligence service does, yes.

RUSH: Now, let’s not forget the fact that over here, completely uninvestigated is Hillary Clinton colluding with a foreign government to create a phony document called the Steele dossier that was then used as legitimate intelligence to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Republican presidential candidate. Let’s not mention that. No instead let’s ask Barr, “If a foreign government offers dirt on a political opponent, should you report it to the FBI?”

What if your opponent is colluding with a foreign government to subvert your campaign? What do you do then, Coons? This is why this crap has to be investigated. The stuff that the Democrats did, that Hillary did, Fusion GPS, Steele, it has to be investigated, it has to be reported, uncovered, and it has to be divulged to the American people. And the people who did it have to be held accountable.

There wasn’t any criminal activity on behalf of the Trump team or the report would have said there was. Believe you me, if they had a chance to designate anything the Trump team or family had done as criminal, they would have done it.

Here’s Blumenthal. This guy, this is grates on me. This is Hanoi Dick. This is a guy that lied about being a Marine in Vietnam and serving with valor and fighting the odds to go into the heat of combat to save the wounded, and he was never there. This guy is the walking embodiment of smarm, and you’ll hear it here in this sound bite.

BLUMENTHAL: Wouldn’t you recall about — whether you gave information to somebody in the White House about an ongoing criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York or the Eastern District of New York or the Eastern District of Virginia or the Department of Justice?

BARR: Yeah. I mean, I just don’t recall providing any substantive information about a case.

BLUMENTHAL: Is there anything that would refresh your recollection?

BARR: If I probably looked over a list of cases and thought about it. But I don’t recall —

BLUMENTHAL: You know what those investigations are. We’ve discussed them at your confirmation hearing, correct?

BARR: I think you’ve 12 or 18 cases, right?

BLUMENTHAL: You don’t know what those investigations are?

BARR: I do generally, but, you know, I can’t remember each —

BLUMENTHAL: Let me ask you one last time. You can’t recall whether you have discussed those cases with anyone in the White House, including the president of the United States?

BARR: My recollection is I have not discussed those.

BLUMENTHAL: But you don’t recall for sure?

BARR: I can say very surely I did not discuss the substance of —

BLUMENTHAL: Will you recuse yourself from those investigations?

BARR: No.

RUSH: What do you think you just heard there? You just heard entrapment. This is how perjury traps are laid. Hanoi Dick there is trying to make everybody think that he’s got information that Barr did share information with the White House, and he’s trying to get Barr to say it never happened and you’re waiting for Little Dick here to announce, “But wait!” But he never does. Sharing information with the White House — I don’t know. These people are just indescribably despicable.

And now Cory Booker just had his turn. He’s running for president. Kamala Harris is sitting there in her arrogant condescension. She just started a moment ago. She’s from the Mazie Hirono school. And given that she’s a Democrat presidential candidate and hasn’t found any traction since Joe Biden and Crazy Bernie are running that show, we’re liable to get anything out of her too.

So we’ll keep the tape rolling — well, the digital chips digitally chipping. And we’ll take a brief time-out here at the — we don’t use tape anymore. But, you know, it’s like “xerox” for meaning copy.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ted Cruz was just — I’ll have to paraphrase this, but Ted Cruz said to Mueller, “I’ve been watching this today, Mr. Attorney General. Let me see if I understand something. The Democrats say that you hid something that you’ve released. That Mueller submitted the report and then you wrote a summary and then you waited two weeks to release the rest of it ’cause you had to go through redactions, what’s been released. Anybody can see it. And they’re trying to tell everybody that you are still hiding what you have released. Have I got that right? That you are hiding what you’ve released that anybody can now see? They’re just mad that you took two weeks to do it? Is that right?

“Pretty much so, Senator, yes.”

“Well, if that’s their argument, then it seems to me that’s pretty damn weak, if all they can say is that you’ve released what they claimed you waited to release.” And of course what’s Barr supposed to say? Starts chuckling at it. But, you know, what it illustrates is, folks, when you sift through all this today, they don’t have anything.

They don’t have anything. And they spent two years certain that they were gonna get collusion. They believed their media. They believed the New York Times. They believed John Brennan. They believed Clapper. They believed Comey. They believed that Trump had colluded. They believed Mueller was gonna find it. They believed Trump had obstructed. They believed all of this. They couldn’t have really lost this election. Hillary couldn’t have lost. They really believed it was gonna happen.

And then they released the report and nothing. Everything they had been banking on, everything they had lied to themselves and the lies they had accepted, everything that they had devoted the substance of their lives to for two years has blown up on them, and they don’t have anything. And we’re watching today what happens to a bunch of people who thought they had the bird in the hand and the eggs hadn’t even dropped yet.

I mean, they’ve got nothing, and they’re trying to make something out of nothing. They’re recycling all these old lies. Papadopoulos, Trump Tower meeting, all this stuff that’s been dispelled because they’ve got nothing.

And then there was this exchange between Senator Graham, the chairman, and Barr. And no matter how the Democrats try to portray this as something that it isn’t, this remains the core of where we are now. Lindsey Graham: “Do you share my concerns about the FISA warrant process?”

Barr: “Yes.”

“Do you share my concerns about the counterintelligence investigation and how it was opened and why it was opened?”

Barr: “Yes.” Translation: You still think Trump was spied on, we gotta look into it? Yes. That last I’m throwing in. That’s what the Democrats know is next. And they’re trying to do whatever they can to taint everybody involved in this next investigation so that when they reveal whatever it is that they have been colored and tainted as partisan and so forth.

We’re actually watching people flailing about in the sense of hatred-driven panic. Put yourself in their shoes. Something you know is gonna happen that’s gonna get rid of the person you hate the most and you’ve banked on it, you’ve counted on it for two years, you know it’s coming, it blows up in your face. And you’ve got nothing.

And you look over and the best chance that apparently you have is Joe Biden being the guy now that’s gonna get rid of Trump, and then you know you’re screwed. Right, Mr. Snerdley?