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RUSH: I’m gonna pat myself on the back. I rarely do this. Other people do. I rarely do it. You know what I’ve been striving to do? I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to put all this Ukraine stuff in the context of Donald Trump’s understanding of it and his relationship to it.

I did it throughout the program yesterday and one time I did it in an intense way. We’ve got a transcript of it at RushLimbaugh.com if you want to log in and see it because it explains this. I have seen so many people today incorporate elements of my context point yesterday. Of course, they’re not mentioning me, and that’s not my point. It’s just, it’s damn good because it’s crucial. Even Devin Nunes yesterday in his questioning attempted to explain the context, which makes everything Trump did totally common-sensical.

Everything Trump did with Ukraine makes perfect sense if you understand the context in which it all happened. Now, the Democrats are not presenting the context by design and on purpose. And we even had a call that we didn’t get to yesterday that I really… I thought about it all day. I wish I’d a gotten to it. The guy’s point was, “Look, the way you’ve explained this, Trump should have just copped to everything and used your explanation for why he’s done all this, and everybody would understand” — and they would!

If Trump were to simply say — if he had said at any point, laid out the context of what he found in Ukraine when he became president and then why he did what he did,  including sending Rudy, including trying to make sure there was no further corruption before handing over U.S. dollars and before demanding evidence that they had cleaned up the corruption in Ukraine — it would make perfect sense to everybody.

Which is why so many people are using elements of my explanation yesterday and incorporating it into their analysis today. If you missed it, I’m gonna go through it again today. It’s the kind of thing that repetition will not hurt. It will only help further understanding. And, you know, unlike others, I’ve taken notes. I’ve watched what happened here this morning.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The major context that’s missing is Ukraine was a corrupt hellhole under the president prior to the current one. Not Zelensky. The president prior to him. During the Obama administration, Ukraine was a corrupt hellhole, and it was during that era that Biden arranged the deal with Burisma for his son — 49-year-old Hunter Biden — at $83,500 a month, three-point-some-odd million dollars a year, for being on the board of this natural gas company, Burisma, natural gas and energy, something Hunter Biden knows literally nothing about.

During that period, Russia attacked Ukraine. We did not provide any aid whatsoever, despite being obligated to do so. The Obama administration refused to help Ukraine as Russia came in and took Crimea. It’s important to understand Russia attacked unopposed. The United States failed to defend Ukraine. We didn’t lift a finger. And all of these people crying (sobbing) about the desperate need (sniffles), the desperate need to send military assistance to Ukraine denied that very assistance for eight years.

The reason is he didn’t want to irritate Vladimir Putin. Obama had a very, very soft relationship with Putin, didn’t want to make him mad, didn’t want to disappoint him, what have you. Remember the open mic, Obama was caught speaking to the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, “Tell Vladimir I’ll have more flexibility after I win reelection 2012,” talking about disarming American nukes. So all that happens and Trump is elected.

And during the campaign as we now know — despite Fiona Hill’s testimony — Ukraine is actively attempting to undermine the Trump campaign. They are working with the Democrats and they are working with the FBI and the DOJ to help concoct this scheme that Trump’s colluding with Russia and all of that. Ukraine was up to their eyeballs in this, folks, the corrupt regime of Ukraine prior to President Zelensky. Now, Trump knows this. Trump’s elected. He’s now president. He knows that Ukraine is a corrupt place dependent on U.S. aid.

Donald Trump has just run a campaign where this policy of just handing out U.S. dollars willy-nilly all over the world is over. We got a new day in America. Make America Great Again. We’re gonna have direct aid to people who believe in America, are supporters of America, who agree with American foreign policy, and who are people that support us. Trump thinks it’s silly how much money we’ve been spending around the world and getting nothing for it.

We’re gonna have allies and we’re gonna have enemies. We’re not gonna give aid to enemies. We’re not gonna give aid to people that we don’t seriously believe are our allies. He’s not going to continue Obama’s foreign policy of funding corrupt regimes for whatever reason just because the State Department or whoever else says this is the way it’s always been done. Trump is there to clean this stuff up. He is there to get United States out of meaningless relationships and wasteful relationships.

He’s in there to get the United States treated fairly around the world in places like NATO. It’s one of the reasons he was elected. It’s one of the big points that reverberated with the American people. And today this, Trump had to take on the entire United States foreign policy, the national security apparatus. They were in favor of the status quo. They were in favor of and fully expected Hillary Clinton to continue existing Obama foreign policy.

Trump wanted to upend it. So there were two things. Trump’s not wanting to just — without any concerns or assurances — fund a regime that’s not gonna reform itself, a regime that attempted to undermine his campaign. You cannot look at what happened in Ukraine, you cannot judge Trump’s relationship with Ukraine without understanding — without taking into account — his awareness, his knowledge of their attempt to undermine his campaign.

It’s not like you get elected and all that stuff didn’t happen, clean slate, move forward. That’s not who Donald Trump is. You wrong him and he remembers it and it’s not gonna change until you correct the mistake. He doesn’t want to perpetuate corruption. He doesn’t want to fund corruption. He doesn’t want to be responsible for all the dangerous stuff being done with United States money. It makes perfect sense they would ask Ukraine for some sign they were serious about reform before providing U.S. aid, which was ultimately provided.

Ukraine got their defense aid from Trump. Ukraine was not forced to announce an investigation of the Bidens to get that aid. The president of Ukraine has said he felt no pressure from Trump, absolutely none. In fact, the Ukrainians were not even aware that funds for military aid had been withheld temporarily. That’s how short a period of time the withholding was. It was not even long enough for them to discover it. At the end of the day, Trump did what Obama never did. Trump actually provided defense support for Ukraine.

But he didn’t do it until he was assured that the new president was cleaning up the corruption that existed in that country, that had also impacted his campaign. It makes perfect sense! It makes perfect sense that Donald Trump would make these people prove they were worthy of being a United States ally. He would make them prove and indicate their desire to be a good, trustworthy ally. That’s what his campaign was all about.

He had promised the American people these days of the Americans supporting anything around the world are over. There’s a gotta be a value preparation beneficial to the United States in every one of these arrangements — and if there isn’t, we’re not gonna do it. There’s been too much stupidity from our leadership, he said, over and over again. So he’s elected president. A country that attempted to undermine his campaign is now eagerly hoping with a new president for military aid and official recognition as a U.S. ally.

And Trump says, “Prove it,” and one of the elements of proof, “What are you doing? We got a corrupt vice president’s son deal with Burisma. Are you working on cleaning that up? I mean, you want to talk about corruption in Ukraine? You’ve got some of the biggest corruption going with Vice President Biden’s son with a job in a business he knows nothing about being given $3 million a year.” It makes perfect sense in the world, everything Trump did here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: A bunch of leftists are out asking, “What about Rudy? What about Trump sending Rudy?” It makes perfect sense that Trump would send Rudy. It makes perfect sense Donald Trump would not trust the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama State Department foreign policy apparatus, folks. They’ve just spent years trying to undermine his election — and by the time we’re talking, this timeframe, they’re still running a scam, a hoax, a coup to get the election results overturned.

The very people supporting that, Donald Trump’s supposed to trust their advice on foreign policy? Ukraine was an absolute mess because of U.S. foreign policy. Trump wants to fix it. He wants them to be an ally. So he sends somebody he can trust as an emissary to tell Ukraine what it’s gonna take, and that was Rudy Giuliani, and the president of the United States can send anybody he wants as an emissary to any nation in the world — and just because it offends people like Alexander Vindman or any of these other witnesses, so the hell what that it offends them!

They don’t make foreign policy, despite their own self-inflated narcissism. They don’t coordinate foreign policy. By the way, I’ve looked into this Vindman, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. Some of the things I’ve since learned reading transcripts of his behind-closed-doors testimony that’s been revealed, this guy may have been more involved in setting all this up than we know. I’m gonna trying to share that with you before the program ends today.

I find myself in the usual position here of trying to cram so damn much into every minute because there is so much. My only point to you is if you understand the context of this, if you understand that you are up against a national security apparatus and a State Department and an intelligence community which is trying to ruin you, has already falsely accused you of being a Russian traitor/Russian agent, accused you of being illegitimately elected, of having colluded with the Russians when there’s no evidence…

Why in the world would you seek advice or counsel from those people in establishing foreign policy in Ukraine with the people that were currently responsible for it? You wouldn’t. And if you’re demanding that Ukraine straighten up and be a legitimate U.S. ally, it makes perfect sense you’re gonna demand that they show evidence that they’ve rid themselves of the kind of corruption that was permitted during the Obama years, before handing over gazillions of dollars for military aid to them. It makes perfect sense what Donald Trump did in the real world.

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