RUSH: Devin Nunes had a good point. Devin Nunes was on Fox last night. He was on with Hannity. Hannity played him a sound bite of me from yesterday’s program. This is what I said a few times on the program yesterday.

RUSH ARCHIVE: I really think that the model for what’s gonna happen this week is the Kavanaugh hearings. It was a never-ending parade for about a week and a half. As every person they brought forth to try to destroy Kavanaugh failed, there was another one waiting in the wings. And I will guarantee you that it is the same strategery they’re gonna employ here this week getting started with public impeachment hearings.

RUSH: So that was the sound bite that Hannity played last night. That’s from yesterday’s program. And, by the way, it’s not impeachment hearings. It is a show. This is a total show. But here’s Devin Nunes’ reaction, and he’s got a good point here.

NUNES: As you know, nobody likes to disagree with Rush Limbaugh, but I think in this case, Rush Limbaugh only has it about half right. At least during the Kavanaugh hearings the Republicans had the ability to bring up people who were supporting Kavanaugh. We don’t even have that.

RUSH: Right. So let’s talk about that. That is absolutely true. Devin Nunes has a good point. The Republicans are being frozen out here. Schiff is talking about what his procedure is in a grand jury. There’s a problem with that, though. Grand juries are never public. Grand juries you’re not allowed to know what went on in there unless somebody leaks, which is against the law. And Schiff is trying to give himself cover by saying that what he’s doing with this starting tomorrow is the equivalent of a grand jury. It isn’t. He’s running a show.

And the Republicans are not gonna have a chance to object, to call their own witnesses. Schiff has exerted total control over the proceedings here. So let’s talk about this just a little bit. The media, the Drive-Bys are — oh, Sam Donaldson is out there. He’s worried. Sam Donaldson was on CNN last night with Don Lemon. This is the show that airs before Fredo’s. And Don Lemon said, “So much at stake in the televised show. It will be momentous. What do reporters need to be on the –” here is Don Lemon asking Sam Donaldson, what do reporters need to be on the lookout for in this impeachment show. And here’s what Sam Donaldson said.

DONALDSON: The Watergate committee hearings on Capitol Hill, the summer of ’73, I covered that. But, millions of people were watching. Now there were only three networks then. There was no VCR, there was no Internet. They got their news by watching television. The newspapers helped, of course, and the daily Monday through Friday evening news broadcasts helped. And it took over two years to get the public to the point where, yes, they thought maybe this guy was a crook, Richard Nixon. Now the Democrats this time have, what, a couple of weeks? My concern is there’s not enough time.

RUSH: He’s lamenting the loss of the media monopoly. He said we had a monopoly; it took us two years to screw Nixon. And now the Democrats are gonna try to do it in two weeks. Grab audio sound bite number 1. I heard this driving home yesterday, folks. I had on Fox News on the satellite radio driving home, and as soon as I got in the car, I heard somebody saying — I didn’t know who it was at first. It was Bret Baier sitting in for the now gone Shepard Smith. And it turned out he was talking to Harold Ford Jr.

Harold Ford Jr. has got a history of going against the grain of the Democrat Party. He has been an elected official from Tennessee. He has been a Wall Street banker and financier and investor. I have appeared on several stages with Harold Ford and I’ve always enjoyed being around him. The last time I was with him was at an event in Los Angeles, the Milken Institute, back during the Obama years.

And Bret Baier said to Harold Ford Jr., Democrat, Tennessee, “We’re getting ready for the public show on impeachment. How much do you think this factors in on the campaign trail?” This is a great question, by the way, because this is being conducted entirely independent of the Democrat presidential primaries. It’s like Pelosi and Schiff have determined that this is the 2020 campaign issue. And yet don’t tell Fauxcahontas that. Don’t tell Crazy Bernie.

Crazy Bernie is now fourth place in New Hampshire, by the way. The bottom’s falling out. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is in free fall panic mode over this because she’s thrown in entirely with Crazy Bernie. Now, she wants Crazy Bernie’s audience, his voters, don’t misunderstand. But she needs Crazy Bernie to succeed first because if he doesn’t, who knows where those voters are gonna go, because they can’t go to her. She’s not running for anything right now.

So Bret Baier’s question is, “How much do you think this impeachment show factors in the campaign trail? What 2020 candidates are talking about this ahead of the debate in Atlanta?”

FORD: By Wednesday evening I think we’re gonna have a very strong sense. I think by Wednesday evening, and perhaps Friday afternoon after the ambassador comes forward, we’re gonna have a much better sense if Nancy Pelosi, who I think has been the most mature of all the politicians in DC around this issue, ‘cause I don’t think she really wanted to do this. But, if she does not feel that Democrats can have a sound vote, bipartisan vote, and maybe even move to the Senate with a chance to remove the president, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t pull this in the next several days, if this first week does not go well.

RUSH: Wow. Who have you heard say that? You haven’t heard anybody on the Democrat side allude to Pelosi pulling it if it doesn’t go well. And the definition of it not going well — this is all now on Schiff. And I have an important point to make about Schiff here in a moment, but Harold Ford Jr.’s basically saying if she doesn’t perceive this thing moving toward a bipartisan vote with a legitimate chance of removing the president, then she’s gonna pull it, pull it in the next several days if the first week doesn’t go well.

When I heard that, I said, “Wow. I can’t see her caving that quickly on this, not after all this time.” He’s right that she’s never wanted to do it, but at some point she made the decision to throw in and go all-in, and she made the decision to do it with Schiff. She made the decision, an active decision to make Schiff the face of this, and I think it’s rather risky ’cause Adam Schiff is a lying sack of excrement, folks. What’d you think I was gonna say? You thought I was gonna say it, didn’t you? You thought I was gonna say it, didn’t you? You thought I was gonna say something other than “excrement.” But, no, I am a highly trained broadcast professional and specialist. I would never do that.

But he is. We’ve documented the lies. The guy and Swalwell were inseparable in this. They both claim they’ve got evidence of Trump colluding with Russia. They both say it’s clearly obvious, it’s clearly visible, it’s right there. They’ve never produced it ’cause they don’t have it. Schiff is the guy who lied about the contents of Trump’s phone call.

So let’s now put this together. The Drive-By Media now saying that Trump is about to face his worst week ever. And Devin Nunes thinks it’s gonna be precisely because the Republicans are not gonna have a chance to push back, to fight back as they did during the Kavanaugh fiasco.

Well, how many times, though, have we been told in the last – we’re getting close to three years now — how many times have we been told this is Trump’s worst week? How many times have we been told the walls are closing in on Donald Trump? They are too numerous to count. I think the first time they said that Donald Trump had no prayer was on his way down the escalator in June of 2015. And then after his opening remarks announcing his candidacy that everybody was laughing at, “You don’t have a prayer. You can’t say that kind of stuff about Mexicans. Donald Trump has no prayer.”

So we’ve been hearing this for three years. And every poll that they have ever published has predicted Trump would be wiped out in the next test, be it a special election, be it a primary, be it a piece of legislation, whatever was next on tap, Trump was going to lose. Trump was going to be wiped out.

But let’s go back to Harold Ford Jr. What does Harold Ford Jr. know? He knows something. He is connected. He’s a Democrat praising Pelosi as the most mature politician in Washington, acknowledging that she didn’t really want to do this.

She’s now put Schiff, not Nadler — this is key. She had Nadler or Schiff. She could have directed all of this to happen with Nadler’s committee. But she chose Schiff. She chose a bug-eyed, lying sack of excrement to be the face of this. And I’m telling you, folks, that carries with it a lot of risk.

This could end up being one of Trump’s best weeks, because the curtain is now being pushed back. And people who have not been following this so-called impeachment inquiry are now not gonna be able to avoid it, because the Drive-Bys are gonna televise all of it. If they have to invent networks to put this thing on, they will do it. You’re not gonna be able to miss it.

But, yes, you can miss it. Tune in here tomorrow. We’re not going wall-to-wall about it. I might do some play-by-play of it, but we’re not gonna go wall-to-wall. We did no OJ none of time too. We didn’t go wall-to-wall with OJ. It kind of ticked off my LA affiliate at the time.

But I said, “Look. Everybody else is doing this. Why you want to jump on that cart? I want to be the one place not doing it.” So I was the one place not doing. Our audience level skyrocketed during the OJ trial. We were one of the few major outlets not going wall-to-wall with it. We’re not gonna go wall-to-wall with Schiff. But everybody else will be.

How many of you think Adam Schiff presents a good face for the Democrat Party? The Republicans are gonna try to object. The Republicans are gonna try to do some things, but they’ve been frozen out of this. And that is going to be obvious as well. But I think there are gonna be millions of Americans who are going to have the chance, anyway, who haven’t been following this wall-to-wall like you and I have been, to see what a partisan sham this whole thing is.

And they’re not gonna hear from the whistleblower. Everybody’s heard about the whistleblower, but he’s not gonna show up. Oh, by the way: new complaint filed with inspector general alleges possible improper fundraising by Trump Ukraine whistleblower. This is an exclusive to Fox News.

“A newly filed complaint to the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) alleges that the whistleblower,” Eric Ciaramella — is that how you pronounce his name, Snerdley? How do you pronounce his name? Ciaramella? Ciaramella, like Russell Wilson’s wife, Ciara. Okay. Ciaramella. The Pajama Boy.

Anyway, the intelligence community inspector general alleges that Eric Ciaramella, the whistleblower, “whose allegations touched off House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry –” Stop and think about that, because that’s right. We’re only here because of this guy, and this guy never heard the phone call. Now he’s not even gonna testify. Now he’s not gonna even show up. The guy that got this whole ball rolling is invisible. He’s not gonna be there.

I’ll guarantee you people have heard about the whistleblower. I’m sure Schiff will cover by saying he’s been secreted away in a private location because of Donald Trump death threats. Or something. Ciaramella, like the charcoal sound, Ciaramella. Is that right? Ciaramella, not shar, char, hard c-h, like chair, except you pronounce it char, like charcoal, Eric charcoal Ciaramella is the whistleblower. And the inspector general alleges that this guy “may have violated federal law by indirectly soliciting more than a quarter-million dollars from mostly anonymous sources via a GoFundMe page.” So the whistleblower has set up a fundraising page at GoFundMe.

“The complaint, which was filed last week and obtained by Fox News, alleged the donations from roughly 6,000 individuals ‘clearly constitute’ gifts to a current intelligence official that may be restricted because of the employee’s official position pursuant to 5 CFR 2635.203 –” that’s a statute, for those of you in Rio Linda, “– and other statutes. To date, the GoFundMe has raised over $227,000.”

Six thousand donors. Who are they? I wonder how many of them are foreign. I wonder how many of these donors are foreign and what the hell is the whistleblower doing raising money on a GoFundMe page in violation of the law? Anyway, I think these hearings are gonna be a replay of Jerry Nadler’s earlier public hearings back before this so-called impeachment show was declared to be official by Pelosi.

Those hearings were universally declared to be an unmitigated disaster for Nadler and the Democrats. And I keep reminding you that every time they have gone public with things that have been private and behind closed doors, it’s been a disaster for them. You know it. I know it. Mueller was a disaster when he went public. Blasey Ford, the rest of them, it was a disaster when they went public. This stands the chance of being as well.

And one of the reasons that Pelosi gave this to Schiff is because Nadler and the Judiciary Committee, the official inquiry blew up. Do you remember it? You don’t even remember it, do you? Here I am talking. Do you remember Nadler’s televised — they were a disaster. Nobody remembers them. How could you not remember an impeachment inquiry? But nobody does because that’s how bad they were.

Now, the thing about this is Nadler was able to hide — he’s a rabid partisan. He’s as rabidly partisan as any Democrat in that town, but he was able to hide it, he does a better job of hiding it than Schiff does. So it’s possible here, folks, the American people are gonna finally see Schiff’s goggle-eyed, rabid hatred of Trump on full display. They’re going to see the rabid partisanship of other Democrats on that committee.

They’re not gonna be able to help themselves, and people are going to quickly realize what a total farce this whole exercise is. That is as big a possibility as this being a disaster for Trump. Trump didn’t do anything. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a disaster. It depends on how clever they are and so forth, but I’m not as pessimistic as a lot of people are about this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I want to acknowledge that I may be a bit too optimistic. We’ll just have to wait and see. One thing the Democrats count on is the low-information crowd — which is a major, major part of their base — not being able to follow the legal arguments. In fact, they have now dropped “quid pro quo,” and they’re replacing it with the word “bribery.” They’re gonna try to turn this into morality play soap opera, is really what this is gonna be.

But they believe that “quid pro quo” is too hard to understand and so they’re dropping that in favor of bribery. Now, bribery also happens to be mentioned, the specific word mentioned in the impeachment clause in the Constitution. Quid pro quo? I mean, you get lost. That’s a lot of syllables, a lot of words for the low-information base to follow. Start talking Latin; the average Democrat’s not gonna understand what it is. Most of them speak Spanish.

But it’s still a fascinating thing, dropping quid pro quo. They’re dropping the whistleblower; they’re dropping quid pro quo. They’re now moving on to things like bribery, and they’ve got a challenge. They gotta try to dumb this down. At the same time, they’ve got to employ a lot of discipline to keep they are rabid hatred for Trump under wraps. Now, a reporterette for PBS has let the cat out of the bag.

“PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor … told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell that Democrats are hoping to make viewers ’emotionally attached’ to this week’s impeachment hearings by bringing ‘blockbuster witnesses,'” and one of those witnesses is gonna be Marie Yovanovitch, and Marie Yovanovitch is gonna testify early because it’s said that she “cried during her deposition.” (sobbing) She was so upset over what Trump had done, she couldn’t stop crying because of what Trump did,” and they want somebody in tears under oath describing what Trump has done.