RUSH: You may not believe me on this, but don’t doubt me. They’re panicking big time on the left. They are panicking over Pelosi not sending the articles over to the Senate. One of her big witnesses in the Schiff committee has written a piece claiming, “You can’t even say he’s been impeached yet if you don’t send those articles over there.” And then there are two polls out today that finally reflect what we all know to be true.
JOHNNY DONOVAN: And now, from sunny South Florida, it’s Open Line Friday!
RUSH: Yes, siree, wrapping up yet another barnstorming week of broadcast excellence here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. Great to have you with us, as always, folks. Telephone number is 800-282-2882. The email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.
One of the star witnesses during the Adam Schiff so-called committee hearing was Noah Feldman. Noah Feldman is a Harvard Law professor. He was made up and had his hair made to look like he was a 1930s or ’40s film star. He is a rabid and arrogant elitist, who literally hates Donald Trump, just despises him, despises Trump so much he can’t even tell you why. It’s class related. It’s institution related. I’m sure there are some other personal reasons for it.
He was one of the three academics who showed up to offer their enlightened academic opinions of just what a rotten reprobate Donald Trump is. They attempted to explain how he had abused his power, how he had obstructed Congress. They were not persuasive at all. But they are rabid, Feldman, all these guys. And look, I’m not comfortable calling people names, but I want to be descriptive. And if you don’t remember who I’m talking about, the guy’s just very snobbish. He looks down his nose at most everybody who’s not in his circle. And none of us are, in his view. So I think they’re panicking.
We’ve got two polls out there. One’s a CNN poll. The other is a YouGov poll. Trump is trouncing Democrats in both of these polls. CNN is having an on-air meltdown over it today. They can’t figure out why. We’ll try to help ’em understand. Now, the Feldman piece, “Trump Isn’t Impeached Until the House Tells the Senate.” His point is that, “According to the Constitution, Impeachment is a Process, Not a Vote.”
He’s not happy at all with Pelosi. See, these people think they’ve made the case. They think they’ve made the case that Trump should go, that a trial would be a slam dunk, that Trump would be convicted, he’s gotta go. There’s no other way to see it, in their view. And now he’s all worried that Pelosi’s blowing this by not sending the articles over.
So all the leftist and Democrat analysts on TV today are trying to cover up for it by claiming, “No, Pelosi has leverage. Pelosi’s got all the leverage.” Pelosi doesn’t have any leverage. As Mitch McConnell said — I’m gonna paraphrase, and this was a great line — McConnell said how in the world can she have leverage when she won’t send us what we don’t want? He doesn’t want those articles. He’d be very happy if she never sent them over, just declare a mistrial and be done with it.
She has no leverage because she has nothing to say about how the Senate conducts its business in this. She could hold out for what she claims is a fair trial, but a fair trial is something always afforded the accused, not the accusers. But it’s not her purview anyway. Once the House voted the articles, the only thing left is for those articles to be presented to the Senate, then the House is done, other than the trial where the House managers would present the case.
But she cannot dictate, for example, that Senate call new witnesses, that the Senate continue the investigation that the House didn’t too. She can’t demand any of that. And by withholding the articles claiming she has leverage, McConnell said, “Leverage? She’s not gonna send us something that we don’t want in the first place. How in the world has she got leverage?”
So this has got these people in panic. They’re trying to cover-up up for this by saying, “No, no, this is Nancy outsmarting everybody,” the leftist commentators.
By the way, you know, it’s fascinating. I purposely didn’t watch much of the debate last night ’cause, frankly, I’m worn out. I’ve reached a point where I can’t handle any more of their rhetoric. I can’t handle any more of the perfunctory lying-through-their-teeth statements. Just my mental health, I couldn’t put up with it.
But people send me their reactions to this stuff all the time, and it’s amazing. I got a lot of reaction last night that Biden was an abject disaster. And yet I get up today and I read all the analysts like John Podhoretz thinks this was Biden’s best ever, Biden owned it, Biden was wonderful, Biden finally was the Biden we think he is.
So now I’m curious. Which is it? I had people sending me stuff saying Biden blew the Winston Churchill question, how old he is, didn’t know that Winston Churchill was prime minister of the U.K., had to be reminded that Winston Churchill was not an American, the question had to deal with American presidents and their age. And I get up and I read all these analysts, “Oh, Biden.” There’s three or four of them that Biden just mopped the floor with people last night.
I’m kind of at a disadvantage ’cause I didn’t see it. But it’s fascinating to me the reactions that different people have. Obviously, the people think think Biden did well wanted him to do well and are literally hoping that somebody can beat Trump on that side, and they think Biden’s probably only person who can and so that’s why they think Biden — he didn’t stumble. He acted like he knew where he was. I mean, the bar is very low for Plugs. All he’s gotta do is act like he knows where he is and what time it is and it’s an improvement over the last debate, right?
So, anyway, back to Noah Feldman. “[A]n indefinite delay would pose a serious problem. Impeachment as contemplated by the Constitution does not consist merely of the vote by the House, but of the process of sending the articles to the Senate for trial. Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution: The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment.
“And the Senate must actually hold a trial. If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.” Let me tell you something. For Noah Feldman to write that, he is panicking. He doesn’t want to write that! He doesn’t want to have to consider that Trump is innocent of anything in his life.
The worst thing that could happen to Noah Feldman is exactly what’s happened, for none of this to go forward from this point. I’m telling you, Feldman writing these few sentences here had to be painful. Again: “If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, it hasn’t actually impeached the president. If the articles are not transmitted, Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached…” That is the worst of any preliminary outcome! Now, the worst outcome’s gonna be if he’s acquitted.
Pelosi knows her articles are nothing. Pelosi knows her articles cannot get votes of acquittal. Pelosi knows she doesn’t have a case. She knows Trump would be acquitted. She doesn’t want that; so she’s withholding the articles. But now her allies and her aides are panicking that this may be the wrong “strategical” move. Noah Feldman says, “That’s because ‘impeachment’ under the Constitution means the House sending its approved articles of to the Senate, with House managers standing up in the Senate and saying the president is impeached.
“As for the headlines we saw after the House vote saying, ‘TRUMP IMPEACHED,’ those are a media shorthand, not a technically correct legal statement. So far, the House has voted to impeach (future tense) Trump. He isn’t impeached (past tense) until the articles go to the Senate and the House members deliver the message.” Now, we had a call about this yesterday. I have to admit that I was taken a little bit aback by this when I saw it.
We had a call yesterday asking me, “Hey, Rush, is Trump really impeached?” I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. The House action is what it is. Impeachment is a two-part process. They voted to impeach him. That’s done.” Well, it turns out the caller may have been on to something, if Feldman is right. Now some other people are chiming in and saying, “Yes, yep, this is absolutely true,” and some other people chiming in, “I said that first!” which is normal.
But it is clear that none of this is going the way they figured. None of it — literally none of it, folks. So keep in mind, Trump hasn’t been impeached and won’t be until Pelosi lets the managers go over there and present the case. Now, a companion story from Bloomberg: “Trump Lawyers Ask If Pelosi Delay Means He Isn’t Impeached Yet.” Pull quote: “The White House legal theory, according to a person familiar with the legal review, is that if Trump has been officially impeached, the Senate should already have jurisdiction.
“Backers of the theory would argue that the clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives the Senate ‘the sole Power to try all Impeachments’ indicates that the impeachment isn’t formalized until the House reported the charges to the upper chamber.” So until the Senate has been notified and then is prepared to conduct a trial, the House vote — according to Noah Feldman and the White House lawyers — doesn’t mean anything yet. It’s kind of like: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s there, did it make a noise, did it make a sound?
If the House votes for impeachment but don’t take the case to the Senate, is there an impeachment? Apparently, the answer’s “no.” So Trump has not been impeached yet, and he won’t be. Pelosi is now saying she isn’t gonna deliver anything over this ’til January 7th because she sent the House home. There will be no votes on anything until they get back next year, January 7th. Now, in the midst of all of this, polling data.
Washington Examiner, Paul Bedard: “President Trump is starting to run away with the 2020 election. In the second poll in two days to show his advantage, the latest YouGov/Economist ‘electability’ survey found the president leading the top tier of Democratic challengers from six points to 41 points among registered voters, even amid” the he’s-not-impeached-yet period. “In the survey, 40% said that … Biden would ‘probably beat Donald Trump.’ But 46% said Biden would ‘probably lose to Donald Trump.’ Against [Crazy Bernie], the margin favored Trump 57%-31%.”
In other words, this is not a poll of, “Who are you gonna vote for? Who do you think…?” This is a poll of, “Who do you think’s gonna win? What are the odds such-and-such will beat somebody else?” They call this an “electability” poll, and it’s the second one like it in two days — and YouGov is not an outlier bunch. They are widely accepted by the Drive-By Media as mainstream. So’s The Economist. So, again, 46% in this poll say that Biden would lose to Trump, 46% to 40%, a six-point edge for Trump.
That Trump would beat Crazy Bernie 57% to 31%. That Trump would beat Elizabeth Warren 57% to 27% (that’s 30 points) and that Trump would trounce Mayor Pete 59 to 18%. Now, look at those margins. Now, let’s stop and look at this for a second. Does this sound sensible? These margins, when you hear them or if you read the piece yourself, does this sound reasonable, believable, or does it sound like, “Whoa! This is so unlike any other poll I’ve seen out there, I don’t know if I should believe this.”
See, to me, this is the first poll to come along that makes any sense whatsoever. The Democrats are not making a case to the majority of this country to reelect them or elect them. They’re not even close to it. The amount of pro-Trump energy out there is expanding, and it’s growing, and even the polls that the mainstream media cite show this, that Trump is gaining support during impeachment; the Democrats are losing it. This makes total sense.
Can Mayor Pete, really…? Living an illusion that Mayor Pete’s gonna be elected president? There’s no way that’s gonna happen, and there’s no way Elizabeth Warren’s gonna be elected president. It’s nothing but media mythology to believe that these kinds of things are as close as they are. Now, let’s go to CNN. Audio sound bite number 5. The same thing is happening in a CNN poll. This this morning on CNN New Day, and this is the senior politics writer, Harry Enten.
ENTEN: (excitedly) Back in October, Biden was up by 10! So his lead has been cut in half! Bernie Sanders is up by nine — his lead has been cut more than in half — and Warren was up eight, and now she’s only up one! And Buttigieg was up six, and now he is down one! This is massive movement towards the president of the United States, at least in our poll at this particular point.
RUSH: They are in horror over in CNN Land, because their poll is showing massive swing toward Trump in head-to-head polls with Democrats. Here’s part two of the sound bite…
ENTEN: … 76% of the country say we have good economic conditions! Just 22% say we have poor! That is, in fact, the best numbers that we’ve had since the beginning of not just this past decade, but the last decade! So take a look at his favorability rating. Now his favorable rating, 46%. The president is becoming more popular, in part, I believe, because of the strong — what people view as a strong — economy.
RUSH: Right. That’s only part of it. “The president is becoming stronger” because people are reacting horribly negatively to what your pals in the Democrat Party are doing, Mr. Enten. So after he mentioned all this, little Alisyn Camerota said, “Gee, can you explain this? Why is this happening?” They’re clueless. They live in a world where every day they are destroying Donald Trump, and they think since Pelosi impeached him that he’s just about dead now. It’s just a matter of time. They have thought this for three years. It backfires on them each and every time.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So here’s the bottom line: At the moment, registered voters don’t think any of the Democrat frontrunners are gonna beat Donald Trump. This according to the YouGov/Economist poll. The CNN poll is trending the same direction. Now, there are reasons I think this poll — this electability poll showing Trump winning by such wide margins — is true, and I can’t make the case during the closing segments of this segment. But we will when I get back. Look at the debate last night. Elizabeth Warren’s a classic illustration of what’s wrong with the Democrat Party.
But it’s not just that, because she articulated things that they always say. They do not adjust for relevant circumstances in America at any time. They just continue to paint this country as dark and doomed. It is the way they have always sought to relate to a majority of Americans and get them on their side, to portray America as dark and gloomy and dismal and most people have no hope, most people have no prayer — most people, the deck is stacked against ’em.
It’s the stupidest thing in the world to say during this particular time with economic unemployment at a historic low of 3.5%, African-American unemployment at an historic low. The other positives look at it: African-American employment and Hispanic employment at all-time highs. Stock market through the roof. Most people’s 401(k)s or other instruments are invested in the stock market are they’re doing well because of it. And here come the Democrats continuing to portray this country as a nation in decline where most people have no chance, no prayer, because of evil Republicans — and it’s just not selling, thankfully.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So this is funny. CNN found an “impeachment law scholar” at Tulane. An impeachment law scholar! Something that’s only happened four times, there is an impeachment law scholar at Tulane. Anyway, they went and found this guy — his name is Ross Garber — to talk them all off the ledge. This guy’s saying (paraphrased), “Well, Professor Feldman may not be right. It may not be correct to say that Trump has not been impeached until a trial starts, until the articles are delivered over there,” because, believe me, folks, when Noah Feldman published that piece…
He wrote a column at Bloomberg News saying, hey, he doesn’t like the fact that Pelosi is not sending the articles over to the Senate. He writes a piece saying that this means that Trump has not been impeached yet; Trump can run around and say, “I haven’t been impeached.” Noah Feldman is panicking, thinks Pelosi is engaging in a bad strategy here. Feldman thinks that because he’s one of the witnesses, Trump is going down, because he testified Trump is guilty.
So the Drive-By Media today has been very, very alarmed at this — “Oh, my God!” — because they’ve been reporting all day long that Trump has been impeached, all day yesterday, all last night, and Feldman comes along. So they went and found a guy to say (impression), “No, it doesn’t quite mean that. Uh, Professor Feldman is correct that the Senate is now in total charge, but it may not necessarily mean so.” They’re all breathing big sighs of relief, ’cause they desperately need to be able to say that Trump has been impeached because it’s all about the blemish.
It’s all about the asterisk.
It’s all about the black mark.