RUSH: And now the Drive-By Media is saying that Trump is indecisive, can’t pull the trigger, doesn’t know what he’s doing. They’re also out there saying that this this is Trump doing an Obama. The Drive-Bys are actually ripping Obama today in order to rip Trump. You know what they’re saying? “This is no different than Obama drawing a red line for ISIS and then not doing anything when ISIS crossed the red line.” I mean, it’s gotten to be pretty bad when they’re willing to rip Obama in order to be able to say Trump is doing the same thing.

Except that it’s all caca when it comes to Trump. You don’t need to read the New York Times. You don’t need to read any of this. You just need to read Trump’s tweets to find out what happened. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather believe Trump than especially the New York Times when… You know what we learned today? The Washington Examiner has a story. Michael Schmidt… Now, Michael Schmidt’s a reporter for the New York Times. He was the guy Comey was leaking to, okay?

Michael Schmidt called the FBI during this whole Russia collusion thing. It was Michael Schmidt of the New York Times that called the FBI and tipped them off that Jared Kushner might be meeting with some Russians. The FBI was getting tipped off by the media! Now, we shouldn’t be surprised because the FBI was using media reports that they leaked to the media. I mean, the media was reporting things the FBI had told them about, and then they’d turn around and put those media stories in FISA warrant applications.

I mean, it’s just bogus as it can be, trying to pass off leaked news stories as legitimate journalism and legitimate evidence. But now we find out the New York Times was tipping off the FBI. The New York Times… We shouldn’t be surprised, because we know that the media was working with the Washington deep state to undermine Trump. This is just more/further evidence of it. So yesterday afternoon, all the Democrats were told that we were gonna hit Iran. You know, Trump had a big meeting, brought up committee chairmen/chairwomen, which includes Democrats.

They had a big meeting there in the Situation Room, and left the impression with them that we were going to hit Iran, that we’re gonna attack ’em. No. We’re gonna “retaliate.” And, of course, the Democrats were not able to keep this to themselves. I mean, there’s video of Chuck You Schumer and Nervous Nancy outside the White House fist bumping and clapping to each other after the meeting! And last night, the Democrats were all trashing Trump on Twitter for, quote, “going to war.” They couldn’t wait. They were all excited.

They thought this just add it to the column where people are gonna hate Trump even more and elect Democrats. They thought they had it made to order, and then they wake up this morning and find out Trump didn’t pull the trigger. So they immediately began to wonder what happened. They concocted a new story, and the new story is, “Trump’s indecisive! Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing! Trump’s weak!” Now they’ve concocted this thing (I’ve got the sound bites coming up), “Why, this is the same as when Obama drew the red line and refused to enforce the red line!

“That just showed ISIS that we were not gonna be all opposed to what they were doing. This is as empty a move at Obama.” A strange way to have to categorize Trump by comparing him to an Obama mistake. Well, here are Trump’s tweets today about this, and I’m gonna read them all to you in context and in order, chronological order. President Obama made a desperate and terrible deal with Iran – Gave them 150 Billion Dollars plus I.8 Billion Dollars in CASH!”

That was what was on the tarmac flown at Tehran Regional Airport. “Iran was in big trouble and he bailed them out. Gave them a free path to Nuclear Weapons, and SOON. Instead of saying thank you, Iran yelled… Death to America.” Death to America! Trump writes, “I terminated deal, which was not even ratified by Congress, and imposed strong sanctions. [Iran is] a much weakened nation today than at the beginning of my Presidency, when they were causing major problems throughout the Middle East. Now they are Bust!”

Here comes the meat of Trump’s tweets: “On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters,” over international waters. “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.” Trump says that he made the decision to cancel this because killing 150 people was not proportionate to an unmanned drone of ours being shot down.

 

He says, “I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting & more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the USA, and not against the WORLD!” Now, the media and the Democrats have prepared a narrative that Trump is indecisive and weak and dangerous because he saber rattles, gets the world prepared for war, and then doesn’t have the courage to follow through on it.

He backs down — which, they say, is just gonna create rampant confusion among our enemies, and it’s gonna cause them to amp up their military plans of action against us, that Trump is a doddering old fool, that he’s a busybody. He’s a big braggart, a big braggadocious buffoon and he doesn’t know what he’s doing and this is really, really, really dangerous. Well, of course, that’s (chuckling) kind of crazy. But remember the thing about Kim Jong-un and Trump’s philosophy.

When you’re dealing with a madman, it may not hurt to make the madman think that you’re mad too. Trump has all kinds of different ways of dealing with people. A message was no doubt sent here, and the Iranians know that it was 10 minutes away, and they can’t afford to invest in the Democrat narrative. They can’t afford to invest in the Democrat media narrative that (impression) “Trump never intended to do it because he’s just huffing and puffing.

“He just has to be the biggest guy on the block, he’s just a buffoon.” They can’t afford to treat it that way. They’ve gotta treat it the exact opposite. Now, yesterday Trump also tweeted… Well, actually he didn’t tweet this. He said this in a meeting the Oval Office, and this calmed the markets. It calmed the temperature, lowered the temperature, everything he said. He said (summarized), “You know, I’m not certain that this was intentional.

“This could have been a mistake. Somebody sitting in a burning somewhere hits the wrong button. I’m not convinced that this was a legitimate strategic and planned attack.” Well, let’s go to the audio sound bites. Jack Keane is a retired four-star general in the Army. He’s a Fox News military analyst, and he was on Varney & Co. today, and the question he got was this: “Any idea why there was a stand-down? Why did Trump call back these strikes?”

KEANE: I have more than an idea. I know what happened. The president planned to conduct a strike, directed that strike, and it was largely against the means that delivered the blow to knock down our drone. In other words, radar missile command-and-control, et cetera. But we see initial information that followed the president’s instincts. If you remember when he was in the Oval Office he said, “You know, my instincts tell me that this could have been a mistake, possibly.” But later they got information that confirmed just that, that the Iranian national leadership was furious with the tactical commander who shot down the drone, ’cause they clearly did not want that provocation to take place. Based on those facts, new information to the president, he called off the strike.

RUSH: All right. Now, so there’s Jack Keane. “I know what happened.” This is not speculation, as far as Keane is concerned as far as what he said on Fox Business today. He said, “I have more than idea. I know what happened. The president was all ready to go, directed that strike largely against the place that launched the drone, found out that 150 people would die, and that the Iranian leadership was furious with the tactically commander what shot down the drone.” Now, the left is gonna say, “Keane doesn’t know what he’s talking about! He’s just out giving Trump cover-up. That’s all he’s doing. He’s a Trump loyalist and so forth. He knows Trump (muttering).”

But the bottom line, it all adds up, it all makes sense. I don’t know about you, but if it’s a contest between believing what’s in the New York Times (chuckles) and Donald Trump, it’s not a contest to me, not after the last three and a half years of one lie after another four times a day for 2.5/three straight years on the collusion with Russia story. There is not a single day I’m gonna believe what’s in the New York Times, especially when Trump is out explaining his own version of things and when it all makes sense.

So what Keane is adding here is Trump said that it was the report that 150 people would die if we conducted this attack. Keane is saying, “Yeah, that plus the fact that Trump’s instincts were right, that this was actually a mistake.” Kevin McCarthy, House minority leader, was on Fox & Friends this morning. He was at the meeting at the White House yesterday. Brian Kilmeade said, “What can you tell our viewers about what took place or didn’t take place at the White House in that meeting?”

MCCARTHY: The president brought both sides in, showed them the information and able to ask any question you have. The president was very clear of what he wants to achieve with Iran. To never allow them to have a we were. The president said that this cannot stand, to be shooting down an American airplane. And he was very clear that there will be action. He has a long-term game plan here, and it doesn’t mean that you have to act within the few hours. He understands what he’s doing, and I would not second-guess him.

RUSH: Now we move on to the next bite. This is a montage, various members of the Drive-By Media claiming that Trump created this conflict with Iran by pulling out of Obama’s deal, that the only reason that the Iranians shot down our drone is because they’re ticked. (summarized) “We were perfectly fine with Iran — we had great, friendly relationship! Iran was on the way to get be nuclear weapons because of Obama, and then Trump canceled that. That made the Iranians mad, and that’s why we’re where we are.”

Listen to this absurdity…

RACHEL MADDOW: The president has created a destabilizing situation for the Middle East and for the world.

CHRIS CUOMO: Iran could easily be argued as a situation that this president created.

BEN RHODES: This was very predictable when Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement.

ADAM SCHIFF: The situation we’re in now was so eminently predictable that if we backed out of the Iran nuclear deal…

GLORIA BORGER: … getting into this situation in the first place by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.

EUGENE ROBINSON: We should have stayed in the Iran nuclear deal.

AARON DAVID MILLER: The Iran deal. You want to get out? Fine, but have a strategy.

JOHN KASICH: We tore it up and Iran was not violating the agreement.

VAL DEMINGS: We pull out of the deal and now here we are.

JUAN WILLIAMS: Blame the United States for having created this crisis by putting so much pressure on the Iranians.

RUSH: Now, you know what you just heard there? What you just heard is what I have been describing the last couple of weeks in earnest. This is the postwar, post-World War II world order establishment that the United States set up where our best and brightest believe that in order for the peace to be kept, the United States must not behave as a superpower. “We’ve gotta hide that! We should not laud it over anybody, ’cause that’s just provocative.

“We need to… If the United Nations or some other entity wants to screw us in a trade deal, then we should let it happen — you know, because we’re big enough to be able to do that. We don’t need to provoke any of these people. These people are unstable; they’re dangerous. The way to keep the peace is to let them have what they want,” like nukes in the case of Iran. And we have somebody in the White House now who is diametrically opposed to this.

He doesn’t think that way, doesn’t believe in subordinating the United States, does not believe in hiding our superpower status, does not believe in pretending that we’re not a superpower, does not believe in the notion that we are the bad guys. But you listen to every one of these comments: “We started this! The United States started this because Trump pulled out of the Iran deal. We made ’em mad!” We have had to deal with an insane bunch of lunatics in Iran for 40 years.

There’s nothing new about the way the Iranians behaved since the arrival of the Ayatollah “Hominy,” as Pierre Salinger pronounced his name. We all called him “Khomeini” back in 1979, 1980. But this is classic. (impression) “The president created the situation! It was very predictable when Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.” See, it’s always our fault! It’s always our fault. We are causing the destabilization. We are causing the world to be on edge. “The United States made a deal, and now we’ve pulled out of it, and it was a great deal, and was made by our great president, Barack Obama. No wonder the Iranians are all upset.”

Trump has simply pulled out of the deal. It was bad for the United States! It should never have been made. It was a deal made within the structure of the belief system that we somehow have to bend over and grab the ankles now and then as a superpower so that we don’t provoke people. This is how the United States has become a pincushion around the world, if you want to be honest about it. This is how the United States has become … not a joke. I mean, people still respect and fear us in ways, but they know they can have their way with us.

The United Nations and all these member nations know how to get what they want out of us because of this world order that was established which somehow has a value system that’s based on the fact that we must hide our goodness and we must hide our greatness and we must allow our pockets to be picked now and then. We must allow renegade, rogue regimes to be renegade, rogue regimes. The difference is that if a 9/11 happens and somebody attacks us, we’ll respond to that. But even that was our fault, now that he reminded myself!

Even that was our fault.

The State Department, after 9/11, had a big symposium they convened: “Why do they hate us so much?” And what we’re watching, folks — what we have been watching since Trump ran and since he was inaugurated — is a complete reordering of the position in the world of the United States. Our preeminence is being asserted. Our leadership is being asserted. Our good guys’ goodness is being asserted, and none of these people from the swamp are comfortable with it. So it’s Trump’s fault; it’s not the Iranians’ fault.

“The Iranians shot down our drone!

“They’re justified. We pulled out of the Iran deal.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here is Terry Moran of ABC News. This was Good Morning America today, Cecilia Vega filling in (not that that matters). Question: “Terry, we know there have been divisions in the president’s own circle. There are hardliners who have been advising him and openly advocating for a strike on Iran.”

MORAN: That’s right! No question, national security adviser John Bolton has openly advocated regime change in Iran, uh, this year! Uh, and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is also a hardliner on Tehran, but he doesn’t go that far. And then there is Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson who is openly urging the president to stand down! We know he listens to them.

RUSH: All right. So, ladies and gentlemen, we are seriously being told by ABC News — which, reminder, again, led the destruction of Joe Biden as Democrat nominee yesterday. We’re told by ABC News that Donald Trump… I mentioned this yesterday. He’s got all kinds of people that have been itching to take Iran out for decades, and they’re urging him to do it. But! But! Tucker Carlson, Chatsworth Osborne Jr., doesn’t want Trump to do it. So Trump is weighing the advice from Chatsworth Osborne Jr. or John Bolton and deciding with Chatsworth. That’s what they are telling us.

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RUSH: One other thing that General Keane said last night in addition to the sound bite we just played where he said that Trump did get confirmation that the drone strike may have been a boo-boo. General Keane last night suggested that we might be very conservative on our hit on Iran here regarding the drone. We might kind of hold our cards here because of the ChiComs. Now, this is a fascinating theory. The ChiComs are one of the biggest importers of Iranian oil, and we’re in the midst of some pretty serious trade negotiations with the ChiComs.

Do you want to know how serious those trade negotiations are? As you well know, I, as a hobby, read all kinds of different things besides political news and regular news. One of the things I read is tech blogs because I’m fascinated with gadgetry and gizmos. And this has not yet made it to the so-called mainstream news, but it’s going to pretty soon. The chairman of the gigantic company that assembles Apple products… The name of that company is Foxconn; they just opened a factory in Wisconsin. They make over 90% of all iPhones.

They assemble them in China near Shenzhen. They’ve got factories that employ 1.5 million people. Because of these trade negotiations and the rising likelihood of more tariffs, the chairman of this company (Terry Gou is his name, G-o-u) is suggesting that Apple get serious about moving production out of China, at least 30% of it. It’s not something that can be done overnight. He wants to move some of the production to Taiwan. Terry Gou is gonna run for president of Taiwan. He just stepped down for chairman of Foxconn and they got a new guy coming in on July 1st.

But this guy Terry Gou is an (chuckling) amazing, amazing success story in and of itself, to have risen to the point of there would not be iPhones made as cheaply and abundantly and as affordably if not for this guy and his company. Well, Apple has a lot to say about how their products are manufactured too. But they actually make it happen. Now, there are other companies that assemble other Apple products, but Foxconn’s the big one, and when this guy starts talking to Tim Cook and Apple…

“You might want to seriously start thinking about relocating some of your assembly process outside of mainland China strictly because of the tariff war, the trade negotiations,” that is a sure sign that everybody thinks this is gonna go on for a while. I’ll tell you how it’s gonna end. It’s gonna end with Trump winning, because the ChiComs need our market, and they need iPhones to be made in mainland China, not Taiwan or India or Brazil or Vietnam, which are all possible locations for new sites. But it would… Man, it would take a long time.

The supply chain for iPhones is all right there in mainland China within driving distance of these factories. But the ChiComs need our market. Everybody in the world needs this market! They need you. They need the American consumer. They need your dollars. They need your commerce. There’s no market in the world comparable to the United States market, meaning economy, and that’s eventually why Trump will prevail here. So General Keane is suggesting that we may have held our cards on this strike because of the negotiations with the ChiComs on trade. They get the vast amount of their oil from Iran.

They’re the biggest importers of Iranian oil, and with all of these negotiations going on with the ChiComs, it may not be bad to have them owe us one, meaning the ChiComs. So we pull back. We announce that we’re gonna hit, then we don’t, and we could say to the ChiComs, “We were thinking of you, Xi Jinping. We don’t want to do anything that might upset Iranian oil shipments to you.” We’re also building… According to General Keane, we’re building a European coalition against Iran, not just us, to bring them back to the table.

But like I said yesterday, Trump is surrounded by people who want to wipe Iran off the face of the earth, and they’ve wanted to do this for 30 or more years. I think Bolton may be one of them. And I will guarantee you that when Trump decided to cancel the hit, there were some pretty ticked-off people there. But they have to deal with it. Trump’s the boss. But make no mistake. They are still there. Now, to illustrate this, a couple more sound bites.

This is Douglas Macgregor. He was on with Tucker Carlson last night, former U.S. Army colonel, and Tucker said, “Look, I don’t want to be paranoid, but I’ve watched all this before. It does seem as if the president is strongly opposed to conflict with Iran. He knows it will define his administration. He knows that it probably does not serve American interests. But people who work for him are pushing the U.S. in a position to where war is very likely, if not inevitable. Am I imagining this?”

MACGREGOR: No, I — I don’t think you are. He is surrounded by people in the defense department, in the chain of command, in his own National Security Council staff, in the State Department who are absolutely committed to finding ways to attack Iran. I think the president understands that an attack on Iran would result in an all-out war. The notion of limited strikes is absurd. The Iranians would respond with everything they have because their economy is in ruins; their backs are against the wall. He knows that.

RUSH: Exactly what I told you yesterday, that are there are people in Trump’s immediate orbit who want to wipe ’em off the face of the earth. Now, Macgregor’s theory is that if we do this little proportionate response, hit the area, the military base or whatever installation that launched this drone — if we just hit that, his theory is — the Iranians would respond with everything they have because their economy’s in ruins, their backs are against the wall, and Trump knows this. If your economy’s in ruins and your back’s against the wall, why do you let it all hang out after a proportionate response like that would be?

I mean, you would think that the Iranians would have to think that this is it. “We got one chance here to save ourselves. So we hit their drone! We knock their drone out. Trump hits the installation that launched the drone, so we’re gonna respond with all-out warfare, which might effectively wipe us out.” That’s what Macgregor said there. He would know more than I. He’s the former military guy. Sounds strange to me. One sound bite remaining. Chris Wallace, America’s Newsroom, Fox News Channel today, Sandra Smith said, “What do you make of it when we learn this morning — via tweet — from the president that he did confirm he called off those strikes which he learned about potential casualties?”

WALLACE: I have to say, I think it raises as many questions as it answers. The idea that 10 minutes before the strike, as the president says, you’d suddenly ask, “Well, gee, how many people are gonna be killed if we go ahead with those strikes”? That usually is discussed — and in depth — a great deal before that, hours before that ever happens. So it does raise the question: Does the president really have the stomach to launch this kind of attack and get more deeply involved, perhaps, in a confrontation with Iran?

RUSH: So he didn’t say… He didn’t draw any analogies to Obama’s red line. Other people have done that. But this is one of the reactions: “Trump chickened out! Trump pulled out. It was a big bluff and Trump lost.” That’s what the Democrats and the media are attempting to sell as they embark (or continue on their course) of portraying Trump as an accidental incompetent, very dangerous, doesn’t know what he’s doing, gotta get him out of there as soon as we can, blah, blah, blah.

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RUSH: So, “Trump’s a coward. Trump was bluffing! Trump doesn’t have the guts to go through with it! Trump is putting the United States in a very defensive, precarious position.” Whatever happened…? Remember all those days during the Iraq war when George W. Bush was going to Iraq and we had operations in Afghanistan? Remember all the Democrats and Drive-Bys saying, “Bombing doesn’t work!

“You start that and you’re just gonna create more terrorists! Killing them creates more terrorists. It outrages the Arab street.” Whatever happened to all of that? They want Trump to go out and create more terrorists. They want Trump to engage in bombing that, all this time, they said didn’t work. They’re the ones that are contradictory and hypocritical and have to explain themselves. Of course, it’ll never happen.

By the way, I’ve been… We’ve got a whole ‘nother little segment on the continuing saga of Joe Biden. We had ABC’s hit piece yesterday. You know what I think? There’s another piece today that just devastates Biden in practically every which way, but it’s in the Washington Examiner. Page Six in the New York Post has another very detailed and in-depth expose of Biden’s kid, from the cocaine to the philandering, to the ChiComs and all.

You know, I’m beginning to think that maybe the Democrats are having trouble getting mainstream press operations to run these stories, ’cause now they’re leaking to the Washington Examiner. Nothing wrong with the Washington Examiner, by the way. We love them here. We love the Washington Examiner. But if you want to take Biden out, that’s not where you do it. You do it at the New York Times and ABC, and I’ll betcha some Democrats are trying to leak some stuff. Like, they got ABC to run that piece. They may be having trouble getting others (like the New York Times, Washington Post, AP) to actually run these Biden pieces.

Somebody wants him gone at the party level, not just one of his opponents.

Okay. As promised to the phones we go, we’re gonna start in Shelton, Connecticut, with Rob. Great to have, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Good afternoon, thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: Yes, sir.

CALLER: I’d just like to make a point about the Iranian situation that I think President Trump made the right move with not bombing that country or retaliating. Right now, obviously they’re under a great deal of pressure with their economy, and I think a strike against them — even if it’s retaliatory — would just unite the people of Iran against the United States, and that would buy more time for the Iranian government. It’s almost as if they want us to retaliate so it buys them more time. They cannot take another four years of Trump, and I think their economy doesn’t last much longer if he stays in there.

RUSH: Let me ask you about that. Okay. So what you’re saying is the Iranian people would turn from friendly to us to angry at us if we struck them militarily and then caused the Iranian mullahs to launch a bigger strike ’cause their economy’s in the tank. You’re saying they’ve got four more years with Trump. What’s gonna happen? What do you expect had to happen? You think the people are gonna have a successful revolution and throw the mullahs out?

CALLER: I believe that there was a good chance for that under the Obama administration, and he did nothing to help those people, and the ayatollahs or whoever it is over there, they probably have to be really worried about their own people — more than President Trump — turning against them.

RUSH: Can you tell me the last time that the people of an Islamic nation overthrew the dictatorial regime that keeps them under the thumb?

CALLER: No, I can’t really… I can’t really name that.

RUSH: Right. In fact, Libya, we did that for ’em. Hillary Clinton went in and took out Khadafy and turned the place over to a bunch of terrorists named ISIS and others. But I don’t… I hear all this talk. I’ve heard this talk about the Iranian people. “They need us! We need to support them. We need to show them that we’re on their side.” What are they gonna do? They don’t have the means to revolt. I hear all this talk about how the Iranian people are gonna mount this revolution at some point, and then how the mullahs are gonna lose control of the country ’cause their economy is in the tank.

Well, the Cuban economy has been in the tank from the first day of the revolution, and what’s happened there? Nothing but continued abject poverty. (sigh) People of Venezuela? If anybody was gonna revolt against dire economic circumstances, it would have happened there. They were put down when they tried because not that many of them tried, and they didn’t have weapons to do it anyway. I’m not disagreeing with your theory that it was wise for Trump not to hit them. That’s not it. But the idea that in four years something’s gonna happen with the mullahs, I don’t believe it.

I think people like this have to be turned out of office. I don’t believe they leave, and the (sigh) instances of a population successfully revolting against tyrannical regimes like this without any external assistance — and you’re specifically saying we should stay out. I just don’t… There could be examples, but I can’t think of any. (interruption) Well, Eastern Europe, but (chuckles) we were heavily involved in pressure pointing that. I mean, that didn’t happen of its own volition. We were largely responsible for that happening. We did not stand down. We didn’t fire any shots; we didn’t have to. But the same type of thing is not happening in Iran.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I want to spend just a couple of more minutes on this Iranian situation, then I want to move off because there’s all kinds of other stuff. We’ve covered the Iranian thing. If you want to call about it, fine.

Do you remember the mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake? She went to… What, did she go to jail? Was she indicted or something, or am I confusing her with somebody else? Anyway, she’s not in office anymore, but she was on CNN last night with Jake Tapper, and she was an expert guest on to talk about Trump and his failure to respond to the drone strike by the Iranians. Jake Tapper said, “So where is the public’s appetite when it comes to a military conflict with Iran right now?” Why are they bringing this woman in? Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the former mayor of Baltimore? Anyway, “Where is the public’s appetite when it comes to military conflict with Iran right now?” This is what she said…

BLAKE: We can’t have a president that talks tough all the time and then finds excuses for Iran, which, everything is clear! They said they did it; they did it on purpose. We can’t sit back and act like it was anything else. You can’t allow people to keep poking and poking and poking without having a response.

RUSH: Who are these people? I don’t recognize them! These are the same people who said (sputtering), “You can’t… You can’t hit them ’em. You’re just creating more terrorists!” Every time we hit them, they say, “You can’t launch missile strike!” These are the people that said we shouldn’ta done anything in Benghazi. These are the people that accused George W. Bush of “creating more terrorists” by going into Iraq.

These are the people that wouldn’t retaliate against people that hit us no matter what. Now all of a sudden, they’ve become warmongers. But let’s not forget who this woman is. April 25th, 2015, the Baltimore mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, held a press conference explaining why her government was so impotent in dealing with the violent protests that were burning down her town over the Freddie Gray circumstance. During the Q&A, a reporter said, “Did you have any idea that all of this would go on toward the Inner Harbor?”

BLAKE: I’ve made it very clear that I, um, work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their, uh, right to free speech. It’s a very delicate balancing act because while we, uh, tried to make that they were protected from the cars and the other, y’know, things that were going on. We also gave those who wished to destroy, space to do that as well.

RUSH: Remember this? “We also gave those who wished to destroy, space to do that as well.” Had you forgotten that? Noooo! So, “Yeah, we managed our protesters really well, and we knew that some of them wanted to destroy things so we gave them the space to do that,” so that they could get it out of their system, I assume. Anyway, this is the woman offering advice on what to do with Iran last night on CNN.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Back to the phones we go to Cedar Rapids, and this is Matt. Welcome, sir. Great to have you with us.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. My question is, is it possible that people are pushing and egging President Trump to strike Iran not so much because they’re anti-Iran but because they’re anti-Trumpers or they’re Never Trumpers and they know that if they kill scores of people in return for the downing of an unmanned UAV, that that will negatively impact his reelection bid?

RUSH: Well, in the first six months to a year, I would have said no question that there are possibly saboteurs up close and personal in the Trump administration. I guess it’s still possible that people like that are there. Whether they’re in the very close orbit now? (sigh) I would think that they’ve been weeded out by now. Now, don’t misunderstand. There are people around Trump who want to hit Iran because they personally want to hit Iran, because they personally think Iran deserves to be hit and wiped out.

And whether it hurts or helps Trump, that’s of secondary importance to them.

I’m not making this up. I’m not gonna name any names, but there are people who believe they’re citizens of the world and that Iran is a troublemaker and it’s gotta go. No matter what, no matter who the president is, they would be advising this. Your question: “Are there saboteurs there who want Trump to do this precisely because it would hurt him?” I can’t flat-out say “no” to that ’cause I know that in the first year of the administration, there were saboteurs there. They were all over the place. There are all kinds of Obama holdovers still there, like Sally Yates. There was a ton of ’em in there. But I would think most of those have been weeded out by now.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: I think by this time Trump has the lay of the land. I think Trump knows who’s who. Even if they are there, and even if they were advising Trump to do this — because they wanted Trump to do something that would inflict great harm on his presidency — he didn’t do it. So if they were advocating it, they bombed out. Now, Trump is gonna appear on Meet the Depressed on Sunday with F. Chuck Todd. The interview’s already been taped. NBC released an excerpt of the interview as a promotional technique, and we have the sound bite. It’s about 42 seconds, and it’s Trump explaining why he pulled back at the last minute in deciding not to hit Iran.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, here’s Trump. After you hear this bite, I’m gonna tell you what the… I mean, I don’t know it yet, but I can imagine what the predicted response to this will be. Well, I think I have heard this predicted response. I’ll share it with you anyway. Here’s Trump. Chuck Todd says (summarized), “Why’d you pull this back? Why — why — I mean, it sounds like we’re ready to go, everybody’s revved up, and all of a sudden we’re not going. Why not?”

THE PRESIDENT: They came and they said, “Sir, we’re ready to go. We’d like a decision.” I said, “I want to know something before you go. How many people will be killed?” In this case, Iranians. I said, “How many people are going to be killed?” “Uhhh, sir, I’d like to get back to you on that.” Great people, these generals. They came back and said, “Sir, approximately 150,” and I thought about it for a second and I said, “You know what? They shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it, and here we are sitting with 150 dead people.” That would have taken place probably within a half an hour after I said, “Go ahead,” and I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was… I didn’t think it was proportionate.

RUSH: Now, some people are already saying, “Wait a minute. That should have been part of the original planning. You don’t find that out. You don’t have to ask that. I mean, casualty assessments are part of the full-fledged assessment. ‘In this attack, Mr. President, we feel that 150 people — some guilty, some innocent — might perish,'” and Trump is saying here that he had to ask, that the generals didn’t provide it. But they’re great people because they got back to him on this real fast? So just keep a sharp eye.

I guarantee you that this answer’s gonna be picked apart. This is one of the reasons why NBC is leaking it. Well, not leaking it. I mean, they’re being used as a promo for Trump’s appearance on Meet the Depressed on Sunday so they can take shots. They’re basically gonna say Trump’s lying. They’re gonna continue here Trump chickened out, Trump refused ,and they’re gonna start or they’re gonna continue drawing analogies to Obama. They won’t have any problem doing it. Obama’s gone. Obama did establish a red line with ISIS and he allowed them to cross it, didn’t do anything. They can’t deny it. So, eh, if it takes a little dent in Obama in order to damage Trump then I think they’ll make the assessment and go ahead and do it.