RUSH: Now, you know I have always believed that the Democrats have known that Trump was not gonna be convicted in an impeachment trial in the Senate.

So why do this? What’s the purpose? The worst thing that could happen is for Trump to be acquitted. I mean, here they’ve got this three-year investment into Trump being a traitor and a Russian spy, a Russian agent, whatever else they have said he is. With all of it, they don’t have an impeachable offense. They’ve got these two really pathetic articles of impeachment — and in order to keep the base of the Democrat Party energized and engaged, Pelosi had to go ahead and present the articles.

She totally bombed. She was waiting to present those articles for some bombshell event, some bombshell bit of evidence to come up that would force the Republicans to have to investigate in the Senate. But nothing happened, so she has to present them knowing there’s gonna be an acquittal. Why do this? The worst thing can happen is have all this horrible stuff said about Trump for all these years and then at the moment of truth — a trial on all of these outrages — Trump is found not guilty or acquitted. I think — and they’ll never admit this.

I think the Democrats have given up on beating Trump in November. Now, you might disagree, and you might think it’s too soon, and you might think, “No, they’ll never concede those kinds of things, Rush. You know them well enough to know that that’s not true.” I think… We’ve heard enough of them say, “If we don’t impeach Trump, he’s gonna be reelected.” Look, folks, they have their own internal polls. They know that things out there in America are rosier and better than they have been in many people’s lifetimes, that there is no reason under the sun to change horses here.

They know this. I believe they never thought they would actually be able to remove Trump from office via impeachment, either. I think as I’ve watched these things happen in the past, well, weeks and days, I think they obviously want to dirty Trump up. They want to put an asterisk next to his name. There’s some Clinton payback here as well. This is all about the 2020 campaign, but not for the presidency. They’re not gonna give up on it — I don’t want to be totally misunderstood — but they know that their odds there are very long.

But what if…? What if they could find a bunch of Jeff Flakes in the Senate to go against Trump and then lose their reelection? The Democrats could take the Senate, hold the House, and then totally thwart whatever Trump agenda, whatever Trump judicial nominees there are? I think this, my friends, is the key. I think they hope to use this Senate trial to win control of the Senate in November and effectively neuter Trump’s second term.

Now, Democrats hope to accomplish this by forcing… There are four so-called vulnerable Republicans: Martha McSally, Joni Ernst, Thom Tillis, and Cory Gardner. Those four so-called vulnerable Republican senators, the Democrats are gonna try to force them into defending Trump, thereby harming their reelection efforts. They’re looking for a bunch of Jeff Flakes. But what happened to Jeff Flake? (chuckling) He’s gone.

The Democrats are seriously putting the country through all of this — not to mention establishing this precedent that impeachment now is just a traditional political operation that can be used constantly against a president of the opposing party, all of this — in order to try to defeat four Republican senators and win control of the Senate, which is the epitome of abuse of power for personal political gain. Can you think of anything else? You talk about abuse of power, this phony impeachment scenario for personal political gain?

The Democrat Party, that’s what they’re accusing Trump of. They are actually engaging in it. But you know what else, folks? When you’re out a whole broadcast week like I was, and when you’re not… It’s a different mind-set when you’re just consuming, but you’re not consuming for the purposes of commenting, discussing, whatever. There’s a difference in it, and it is infuriating that we even have to talk about this impeachment.

The whole thing just infuriates me, that this has not been dismissed, that the Republicans cannot come up with a way to just dismiss it, that they’re afraid of what the media will say or what the Democrats will say. “Well, there are some witnesses that need to be…” The Republicans, many of them, are still stuck in this belief that the Democrats set the agenda, the media sets the narrative — and it, thus, must be responded to rather than just quashed. It just is infuriating to hear Republicans debating whether to call additional witnesses.

(chuckling) The Republicans weren’t allowed to call a single witness when the Democrats and Schiff were running the little shade show in the basement room in the Capitol. Why should the Democrats be able to introduce new testimony from ludicrous, ludicrous characters who are facing prison for election meddling, hiding a million dollars from the Russians? Why in the world should the Democrats be able to introduce testimony from people like this, when the Republicans aren’t even allowed to call the so-called whistleblower who started this whole charade in the first place — or even Joe and Hunter Biden?

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RUSH: I think people have forgotten what this original Ukraine mess was about as it relates to the Bidens. And of course this original Ukraine mess, the thing to remember is that Ukraine got its aid and, in fact, it got more than it asked for. All the stuff that happened prior to that doesn’t matter.

The Democrats, the whistleblower, nobody forced anybody, Trump or anybody else, to come through with the aid. It all happened. There’s nothing here. It’s ridiculous to have to keep talking about this. But what was the original thing that Trump asked when he’s talking to Zelensky? He said, among other things, that we want to find out what role Ukraine played in the 2016 election in the United States.

And then he wanted Ukraine to announce and perform an investigation into the Bidens for the sleazy deal that put Joe’s kid on the board of an energy company with which he’s got zero experience and was paying him gobs and gobs of money, Trump wanted to get to the bottom of it, wanted to find out what this was about. And the Democrats and the whistleblower said, “Trump was trying to dig up dirt on his potential 2020 opponent.”

What if that’s not what this is about? What if we have a corrupt country that everybody acknowledged and recognized was corrupt as the day is long until this new president came along, Zelensky. He was a reform candidate, gets elected on the basis of cleaning the country up in a number of ways. What about the very real possibility that Joe Biden, if he was ever elected president, would be subject to profound blackmail threats from this country based on the sleazy, slimy deal that his kid got and that his brother got?

The Biden family is more corrupt than people know. It makes sense that Trump would want to, for the purpose of — Trump believes in America, Make America Great Again — find out whether or not Biden has done things that make him a blackmail target. Ukraine and Russia, symbiotic relationship. If you look at it from that standpoint, “Come on, Rush, Trump wouldn’t care about that.” Who says Trump wouldn’t care about that? I think Trump would pointedly care about that.

Anyway, let me get started on the phones. We’ll start with Jill in Spokane, Washington. Great to have you on the program. Hello.

CALLER: Oh, hi, Rush. It’s so wonderful to talk to you. Mega dittos.

RUSH: Thank you. Thank you very much for calling.

CALLER: Welcome back. I’m glad you’re better. My question is about the upcoming trial. What, if any, positive or negative effect do you think Chief Justice Roberts would have?

RUSH: Look, all this stuff needs to be answered with caveats, reservations. But I don’t think the chief justice… (laughing) I’m on the verge of saying something here and as I say it I know how ridiculous – the chief justice doesn’t set the rules of the trial. Mitch McConnell, the Senate sets the rules. He’s just there as a timekeeper. But then, on the other hand, the guy rewrote Obamacare to make it constitutional, not necessarily to screw Republicans, to make sure that he, Roberts, didn’t get screwed by history by proclaiming the first big legislative effort by the first African-American president ever was unconstitutional. Didn’t want that on his resume.

Roberts is not a concern of mine in the trial. Now, it could be shown to be careless in that concern as the trial gets going, but the top of it here, I understand the concern because of what happened with Obamacare and we’ve heard that the guy hates Trump, like all establishment Washingtonians do. What’s your fear? You obviously have one. What do you think he would do?

CALLER: Well, just what you were saying, what he’d done in the past, is if there was an opening to somehow permanently, you know, keep him from serving the rest of the term —

RUSH: If you go back to the Clinton impeachment trial, sorry, can anybody tell me who the chief justice was? Anybody know who the chief justice was during the Clinton impeachment trial? Anybody know? Anybody? Probably many of you, “I don’t know. Who was?” That’s exactly right. That’s how much of a role he played. Zip, zero, nada.

His name was William Rehnquist. And he hated it. He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want any part of it. He tried to stay in the background. He was a timekeeper. I don’t know how much of an activist Roberts is. It’s always a wild card, with Trump you never know. But he’s not at the top of my concerns of the Senate trial.

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RUSH: This is Scott in northern Colorado. Glad you called. I appreciate your patience in waiting too.

CALLER: Dittos from “the oil patch,” Cory Gardner country, Rush.

RUSH: Hey, great to have you, sir.

CALLER: Thank you. Hey, what happens if they call witnesses or whatever and let’s say Hunter decides to claim the fifth?

RUSH: Well, let me ask you what happens in any trial when somebody claims the fifth. What happens before they claim the fifth?

CALLER: Well, I assume they’re —

RUSH: “Mr. Biden, did you accept $38 million a year as a board member of an energy company after having zero experience in anything?” “I’m sorry. I’m pleading the Fifth Amendment.” “Oh, really? You must be guilty!” The question that is asked that generates the plea of the fifth is relatively… In court, you know, trials are a show. A lot of people resent this, but they are an art form. They’re not just pursuits of justice, and they are not simply an attempt to get to the truth. Jury manipulation, if you want to call it that.

How many times do you see lawyers asking questions that they know the judge is going to say, “You must disregard everything that stinking lawyer just said!” It’s impossible to disregard what the stinking lawyer just said. “You may not consider that in your deliberations.” So the jury says, “Okay. We can’t make it part of the deliberations, but they can’t tell if we did and we don’t admit it.” (sigh) I know you’re reacting to Senator Graham. Senator Graham said…

I think it was on Fox News Sunday yesterday. (summarized) He said, “If they’re gonna call witnesses, fine, then we’re gonna call witnesses. We’re gonna ’em all. We’re gonna call the Bidens. We’re gonna call this, we’re gonna call…” I’ll believe that when I see it, by the way. It would be great if they did. But pleading the fifth? I don’t know. Look, until we learn what we’re dealing with here in terms of the rules — and McConnell does. He’s got this. He’s not gonna let this get out of control, he says. If they try to turn it into a circus, he’s gonna kill it.

Remember, he runs this. They put together the rules. The Republicans run the Senate. They’re gonna make the rules of this trial, not the chief justice. The one thing — and I think numerous constitutional authorities will back me up on this — is the chief justice as judge does not control the courtroom like a judge does in his own courtroom. This is the United States Senate, and the Senate majority leader is Mitch McConnell, and he runs it. So I appreciate the call very much, Scott.

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RUSH: Okay. So why is Trump really being impeached? Well, this is the rub. He’s being impeached because he’s too successful, and that’s never what impeachment was intended for. Now, I’m not gonna join the crowd of people sitting here wringing my hands over, “What have the Democrats done? They’ve now destroyed the whole concept,” ’cause the Democrats have been destroying things — the left has been destroying things — my whole life, and to act like this is something new?

It isn’t new. They just continue to cross thresholds. This is what they do. You know, they make this big joke about the solemn nature, the prayerful nature, and then they go out and get drunk. They start consuming adult beverages in a party after they do all this, and they get caught and the media says, “Oh, my God, the Democrats should have covered up that party.” Not that they shouldn’t have had it, that they should have made sure there weren’t any pictures of it.

Of course, the Democrats are corrupting it. The Democrats, the American left today is destroying and corrupting everything it touches. I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if it’s sports, I don’t care if it’s Hollywood, I don’t care if it’s politics, this is what they do. You know, there’s a story here in the Stack. Let me grab it. If it weren’t the other things that it is, it would be hilarious.

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RUSH: So here’s why. Here’s why Trump is being impeached. It’s very clear what’s happening. He is being impeached by the Democrats in the House because of his very successful policies, massive improvements in controlling borders. Do you realize — and I’ve got the stories here in the Stack, and I talked about this before I left — the numbers of illegal immigrants attempting to get into the country has dropped significantly because we ended catch-and-release? They’re not being permitted in.

It’s a very quiet story. It’s under the radar. This ticks off the Democrats. That’s their voter-registration scheme. Donald Trump is being impeached because he is preserving private health insurance. If you listen to the Democrats in their debate, which we’re gonna do here in a minute, Medicare for All, single payer, whatever. If you have your health insurance at your job, they’re gonna take it. They’re gonna take it away, and 160 million Americans get their health insurance that way.

The Democrats are gonna take it away and they’re gonna replace it with Medicare for All, single payer. Trump is not gonna let it happen. “Damn it! Gotta get rid of him.” Donald Trump is being impeached because he’s standing up for the Second Amendment. He’s being impeached because he’s lowering taxes. He’s being impeached because he is resurrecting an economy that was crippled by design via the policies of the previous administration. He’s being impeached because he has totally destroyed the Obama effort to create Iran as the power base in the Middle East.

He’s being impeached because of massive improvements in America’s trade relationship with major industrial powers like the ChiComs and otherwise. He’s being impeached because he has rebuilt the military. He’s being impeached because he’s investigating corruption. Save the best for last: He’s being impeached because he wants to blow the whistle on Joe Biden and his own corruption and family, and that threatens every other dirty Democrat deal that may exist out there that we don’t know about.

Donald Trump is being impeached for the appropriate and successful use of presidential executive power. He is being the impeached because he is the most successful anti-Democrat president we have had in our lifetimes. He’s being impeached because they can’t stop him at the ballot box, they can’t stop him in the media, they can’t stop him on Twitter, they can’t stop him on Facebook, they can’t stop him in Russia, they can’t stop him in Ukraine, they can’t stop him anywhere.

So they’re gonna try to impeach him. He’s being impeached because they don’t know what to do. They can’t stop the guy, and he is single-handedly — with his supporters and his administration — doing more damage to decades of Democrat success, leftist success, establishment success than any president in our lifetimes. That’s why he’s been impeached. The Democrats are out there cynically fundraising, giving their base a phony impeachment to remain relevant. He’s being impeached because his successes threaten great damage to the Democrat Party.