RUSH: So, I got a bunch of questions over the weekend. “Rush, what’s next? What’s gonna be the next Kavanaugh? What’s gonna be the eleventh-hour bombshell before the Wednesday vote?” Now, a lot of people asked me this Saturday on the golf course, “Rush, why did they delay the vote? Why not do the –” The answer is that there’s gonna be something. There always is. There’s 10 months to go.

I don’t know if the Democrats are gonna launch something to stop the acquittal vote on impeachment, but there’s no doubt they’re gonna have something that will be along the lines of Trump-Russia, Kavanaugh, you name it. I just don’t know when.

Now, this delay that was built in, actually from what I heard, the White House wanted the delay, folks. The White House wanted the delay so that the president’s lawyers could do a kick-ass closing argument, which is gonna happen this afternoon.

And then we have the State of the Union and then the vote to acquit. And that vote to acquit, that’s gonna be what history records. That’s all anybody in the long term is gonna remember. This is what the Democrats have known since this began. Donald Trump didn’t do it, no matter how hard they’ve tried.

And, you know, the evidence here, there’s a story I have in the Stack here. It’s about Schiff is not sure he’s gonna call witnesses in the House. “Schiff Won’t Say Whether House Will Subpoena John Bolton.” Really? Why not? If Bolton holds the key to this, if Bolton is the root to getting rid of Trump, then why not call him?

I told you all last week they didn’t really want to call witnesses. They didn’t really want to go there. This interview yesterday, Schiff on CBS News was asked if he’s gonna subpoena Bolton. He said (paraphrasing), “Well, I don’t know. Not sure we’re gonna do it.” I’ve been telling you for weeks they didn’t really want to hear from Bolton. They didn’t really want to hear from witnesses. They don’t want to open that up.

It was just like everything else. It was an attempt to pressure everybody, the Republicans in the Senate to go along with it, to cave on this or that. But I think they knew it wasn’t gonna happen. Schiff said that his excuse — Trump would have tied ’em up in the courts for months and that if he calls Bolton for renewed hearings in the House it’s gonna be tied up. Well, they knew that last week.

I think so much of what they’ve done has been exposed as — call it what you want — PR, an attempt to sway minds. But look. Here’s the bottom line. You go over to MSNBC or you go to CNN, you watch them today or you watch ’em over the weekend, Chris Matthews says he’s not happy with any of the Democrats running for president. He doesn’t think any of them can beat Trump. He says all the Democrat candidates have obvious problems.

Now, he didn’t just figure that out today. He didn’t just figure this out yesterday. This has nothing to do with how — well, it actually does, the fact that he mentioned it has everything to do with the fact they bombed out on impeachment. Impeachment was their effort to get Trump off the ballot. It was a long shot. It was never gonna work. But they decided to roll the dice and hope for a Hail Mary.

But they know they got nothing. Even with Bloomberg — and we’re gonna get into the Democrat situation and circumstances as the program unfolds. Jeffrey Toobin on CNN reminding everybody on CNN: Look. All history is gonna record is Trump was acquitted. Trump didn’t do it.

But, again, that doesn’t mean that they’re not gonna launch some other bombshell discovery, some leak about something from somewhere. They’ve got 10 months to go. And there are a couple Democrats on record saying this is not gonna be the last time Trump is impeached.

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RUSH: Back to politics. Did you see…? We’re gonna move to the Democrat primary here, the Hawkeye Cauci, because, folks… (chuckling) Here we’ve got Chris Matthews now admitting they don’t have anybody can beat Trump. Now that this impeachment thing, now that Russia… I mean, it’s kind of hit them. They’ve bombed out. At the moment, today, they have failed to get rid of Trump, and Trump is stronger than ever, and the economy is going gangbusters.

Now they realize Trump’s gonna be acquitted, which they all knew before this began in the first place, and now the real worry is Crazy Bernie. They are really worried that Crazy Bernie is actually going to win the party nomination. Now there are stories about John Kerry saying to people at dinner, “I gotta do something! I gotta move in. Maybe I can run again. We gotta stop Bernie from taking over the party and ruining it.”

You know, let me give you Democrats a little hint. The difference between Joe Biden and Crazy Bernie is so infinitesimally small. You Democrats who think your party has not gone full-fledged socialist left need to wake up. What do you think Fauxcahontas is? What do you think Pete Buttigieg is? What do you think all of your frontrunners are gonna end up being? Bernie may be the most left wing of them, but there’s nothing centrist about the Democrat Party.

There’s nothing moderate about the Democrat Party. That’s why it doesn’t matter who you nominate. Whoever the nominee is, is gonna be seen as incompetent or too old or too left and (no matter how you slice it) way out of the mainstream media of American culture, and they know it. They know it by virtue of this mounting attempt to get rid of Crazy Bernie. They know it. Did you see the Democrat National Committee made a change in debate rules? It’s gonna destroy this party.

There were two requirements to get into the next Democrat debate, and they changed one of them to permit Doomberg to get in. One of them, you had to have certain strength in polling. The other you had to have a certain amount of individual donors equaling a specific amount of money, and Bloomberg doesn’t have that. The money that’s been donated is all his, and they changed the rules to permit Bloomberg on the stage in the next debate, blatantly, and it’s got other Democrats ticked off, like Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang.

It looks like what it is, is an attempt to stop Bernie Sanders, which they successfully did in 2016. Does anybody really think there’s any difference in Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton when you get down to brass tacks? When you get down to policy, what the left-wing policies are, there’s hardly any difference with Bernie Sanders. It’s just Bernie Sanders is more up front and open and honest about it — and that’s what they’re really afraid of.

This guy is going to take the mask off all the way, and illustrate for one and all who they really are. But Bernie’s not on an island all alone in that party. The Des Moines Register refused to release the final edition of the Iowa poll. The Des Moines Register partners with… Let’s see, who do they partner with? (muttering) “The Des Moines Register, CNN, and Selzer & Company have made the decision….” It’s Mediacom — Des Moines Register/Mediacom — poll.

They did not release the final poll, because they said there was something wrong with it.

This is huge.

You know, it’s amazing, too, folks, to look at the media reaction to this poll not being released. If you have any doubt how crucial polling is to political news — and not for reflecting public opinion but shaping it — take a look at the panicked reaction to the Des Moines Register canceling the release of the Iowa poll on the eve of the Hawkeye Cauci. Now people are speculating, “Was it so good for Bernie Sanders that they had to cancel it? Were the poll results so positive for Bernie, that this was the last chance to manipulate the vote?”

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RUSH: I just wanted you to hear Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington. This is today, NBC special coverage of the impeachment trial where they’re still holding out hope — ha-ha-ha — still holding out hope that something is going to happen.

MITCHELL: I think that they must be concerned as well that they are not gonna hold all of their Democrats, and that would give President Trump a tremendous political talking point to say it was a bipartisan acquittal.

RUSH: Yeah, it was always gonna be this way. This is the thing, everybody knew this. Look, I don’t want to be one of these See, I Told You So guys. I could do it every day. But this, folks, how many times on this program did we sit here and make the point, what are they doing? No matter what happens, there’s going to be an acquittal, no matter what evidence they had, because Trump didn’t do anything. There’s no impeachable offense, there’s no crime. No matter what they can lie about and manufacture, try to convince people of – so why do this?

They’re reduced now to trying to dirty up the acquittal. Grab audio sound bite number 2. Another thing I predicted. They’re trying to dirty up the acquittal, but it isn’t gonna work because of what Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, just said. Here’s sound bite in 2. Three, two, one. Hit it.

CHRIS WALLACE: Top Democrats in Congress say that the failure to call witnesses is going to put a taint on any acquittal.

NANCY PELOSI: You cannot be acquitted if you don’t have a trial, and you don’t have a trial if you don’t have witnesses and documentation.

PETE BUTTIGIEG: I don’t think that it has the legitimacy of vindicating this president.

KAMALA HARRIS: They cannot walk out of this building and allege and assert that there has been a true acquittal. There will be no true acquittal.

CHRIS MURPHY: This can’t be a real acquittal.

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: No vindication, no victory, and certainly no acquittal.

CHUCK SCHUMER: A permanent asterisk next to the acquittal of President Trump.

RUSH: Nope. Nice try. But there’s not gonna be asterisks next to it. He’s acquitted. And now you have Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, three Democrats are gonna join. There are some Democrats in Trump districts. They care about reelection. The American people know Trump didn’t do anything, or at least the enough of them do, that this all matters. Sound bite number 5. Jeffrey Toobin, CNN. Let that rip.

TOOBIN: Trump won. You know, he’s gonna win this trial. He won on the issue of witnesses. He’s gonna get acquitted. And that’s how history will remember what went on here.

RUSH: All right. Now, along these same lines, there’s two fascinating stories from the Drive-By Media — by the way, hang on, your phone calls are coming up here. New York Times: “While Stained in History, Trump Will Emerge From Trial Triumphant and Unshackled. His acquittal in the Senate assured, the emboldened president will take his victory and grievance to the campaign trail, no longer worried about congressional constraint.”

The New York Times makes you wonder what they were trying to accomplish when they could see this very result. So blinded by poisoned rage and hatred that they ended up shooting themselves in the foot all along the way. Now they admit with Trump’s victory he’s gonna feel emboldened. He’s going to feel confident. In their world, their fear is that Trump thinks he’s now free to become a dictator. That is delusional. “No longer worried about congressional constraint.” Meaning nobody can stop him from doing anything.

The point is that they’re all beginning to realize that it’s not a tainted acquittal, that it’s not an asterisked acquittal, and that this is a major, profound victory for Trump over them and over the Democrats and that they couldn’t stop him. They’re not finished trying to stop him, do understand misunderstand. But they realize what has happened here.

“Ralph Waldo Emerson –” this is how this New York Times story begins – “Ralph Waldo Emerson seemed to foresee the lesson of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. ‘When you strike at a king,’ Emerson famously said, ‘you must kill him.’ Mr. Trump’s foes struck at him but did not take him down.”

CNN, meanwhile, very outraged, very upset that Trump is not gonna apologize. Very upset, very outraged that Trump is not gonna admit any wrongdoing like Bill Clinton did. Well, Trump doesn’t have anything to admit. Everything they’ve said about him has been made up. Every so-called abuse of power, every so-called cover-up, every so-called obstruction of Congress, it’s all been made up. Why should Trump apologize? Trump doesn’t apologize, period, no matter what.

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RUSH: Anthony in Pittsburgh as we head to the phones. It’s great to have you, sir. Glad you waited. Hello.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, thanks. First-time caller after 30 years. It’s great to be on. Hey, I’ll get right to the point. But, you know, I have a theory, too, about this impeachment, and I do believe that the Democratic National Committee — which is probably the most corrupt body I’ve ever seen or heard — has really tried to knock out Biden. I do believe they went — this whistleblower his buddy went — to Schiff. Schiff took the bait; Pelosi had to back the Democrat —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. (chuckling) I love this. Hang on just a second. You think that the whistleblower’s original purpose is the DNC wanted to take Biden out?

CALLER: That’s exactly right. Okay, they couldn’t —

RUSH: They want to take Biden out, so they go get this investigation? They were hoping and praying Trump wins to get this investigation of Biden?

CALLER: Well, hope that Trump… Well, these guys… The whistleblower comes on to Schiff; Schiff takes the bait. He says, “Hey, look!” He goes to Nancy. “We’re gonna impeach Trump, okay, but at the same time we’re gonna get…” They’re saying, “We’re gonna get Biden as well, once they start bringing up Burisma,” and you know the Democrats brought up Burisma more than Trump did over the past three months. So, now, with Biden tanking, they were hoping to push Warren.

RUSH: Well —

CALLER: Warren, unfortunately, is tanking now, too, and who’s rising? Bernie. They’re in a panic — a total, total panic.

RUSH: Well, wait a second. If you think they wanted to take out Biden, who do you think they wanted to fill the gap?

CALLER: I think they wanted Warren.

RUSH: Well! Well, she’s —

CALLER: Of course. I mean, you’ve got the squid or The Squad or whatever; they’re pushing Warren. They’re pushing the Communist Manifesto for these guys.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: It’s unbelievable.

RUSH: That’s right.

CALLER: And I think the Democratic Party wanted Bernie out last time. They can’t… They know he’s —

RUSH: Look… Okay. I appreciate the theory and I love listening to people think. I love how their minds work, and this is a unique one. We haven’t heard that this was really a way to take Biden out and that Schiff fell for it. I don’t agree with this. I think this was literally all about getting Trump. I think these people have destroyed themselves intellectually, emotionally. I don’t know that this had anything to do with the Democrat primary.

I mean, you could go deep in conspiracies all you want. Okay, so you have a trial. That keeps Crazy Bernie, Fauxcahontas, Klobuchar, everybody but Biden glued to the Senate. Biden would thus own the campaign. If he had the stamina and the wherewithal, if he knew where he was every day, he’d be able to go out and own the campaign. He couldn’t. Even with these guys locked in the Senate, Biden couldn’t take advantage of it.

Now, I know when ABC ran that story on Biden and Hunter and Burisma back in May 2019, I thought this was the first phase of them trying to take Biden out. And the reason I thought they were trying to take Biden’s out is ’cause he can’t win because of his age and he’s history. He’s never won any presidential primary that he has entered. But I just want to reiterate:

Folks, do you realize Hillary Clinton has a far more left-wing voting record in the Senate than Bernie Sanders does? Bernie Sanders is not alone in representing the Democrat Party as a socialist party. That’s what the entire party is. Don’t fall for this idea that they’ve gotta get rid of Crazy Bernie ’cause he’s taking the party down the tubes. They’re all gonna take the party down the tubes. That’s the reality.

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RUSH: Just a couple days ago from The Daily Wire: “Pelosi Warns Democrats That If They Support Certain Candidates, They Will Lose – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Democrat voters on Saturday that if they support the far-left wing of the party in the primaries, they are setting themselves up to lose to President Donald Trump in the general election.

“Pelosi has repeatedly tried to push back on the far-left candidates running in the Democrat primary, the two most notable of which are Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). ‘What works in San Francisco does not necessarily work in Michigan,’ Pelosi told Bloomberg News in November. ‘As a left-wing San Francisco liberal I can say to these people: What are you thinking?’”

What are you thinking? What have you been thinking of this impeachment business? These people don’t even know who they are. Or they’re in some kind of state of denial. If they support certain candidates — how do you think this impeachment has been perceived? Do you think this has been perceived as a bunch of moderate, normal, mainstream Democrats trying to take out Donald Trump? For crying out loud, it’s as clear as a bell who’s been behind this. And, Madam Pelosi, that you green-lit it.

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RUSH: Sue in Davenport, Iowa. I’m glad you waited. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I’m really nervous. But I had a theory —

RUSH: Now, wait. Why are you nervous out there, Sue?

CALLER: ‘Cause my husband would admit this, but I am obsessed with your show, and I don’t know, I just think you and President Trump have done wonderful things for this country.

RUSH: Well, you’re so kind. But you don’t need to be afraid of me. I understand the nervousness. I’ve been a caller before. You’re sitting out there and you’re waiting and you’re waiting and somebody comes, “Okay, you’re next!” “Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” And then you hear my voice, “Okay, Sue in Davenport.” “Oh, my God. I hope I’m gonna remember what I’m gonna say.” It’s kind of the way it is, right?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Well, you don’t sound nervous. Let me just tell you that. You sound —

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: — totally composed and confident and ready to unleash.

CALLER: Well, I have a theory on the Iowa caucuses tonight. I think whoever wins the Democrat caucus tonight will be who the Democrats want to win. ‘Cause it seems like they — I don’t know how recently they changed the rules, but they changed some rules on the Democrat side of the caucus. And I’m sorry I can’t explain what those changes are, but I know they changed them. Plus, in 2016, if my memory is correct — I can’t claim to be 99% correct — but I could swear there were found votes for Hillary which put her over the top.

RUSH: You’re right. You’re right. They were found on buses and a bunch of stuff from out of state.

CALLER: I mean, I might be remembering that wrong, but —

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: — it was close. And she ended up on top, and I think the last —

RUSH: Very quickly, isn’t that the case every year? Whoever wins the Hawkeye Cauci, the Democrat wants to win, or is it only this year that you think that? ‘Cause you’re essentially saying it’s rigged tonight. So you think it’s rigged in favor of — whoever wins, the DNC’s rigged it for that person to be the nominee?

CALLER: I think so.

RUSH: All right. Okay. Well, we’ll keep a sharp eye. We’ll remember that as we watch the results tonight. Interesting theory.

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RUSH: Tom Brokaw warning the Democrats that in a strong economy it’s really hard to vote for socialism. Only in a strong economy it’s really hard to vote for socialism. Maybe another time, he thinks.

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RUSH: Okay, Raymond in Mission, Texas. You’re next, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Rush, it’s an honor speaking to you. First-time caller. Probably two- or three-year listener. My question is… Let me preface it with this: I don’t care who the DNC throws at Trump, I think he’s gonna win no matter who. But it’s kind of enjoyable watching them trying to pick their nominee, and with what happened to Bernie in ’16 when they kind of railroaded him, it’s kind of rearing its ugly head again. Do you think Bernie will say, “Screw you, DNC. I’m gonna run as an independent?”

RUSH: Well, it’s an interesting question. I’ll tell you why. Because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has alluded to doing this, has she not, for Bernie, that Bernie — that they — would go third-party? AOC and The Squad are very, very upset. They’re part of this nut-ball bunch that thinks Democrat Party is not left wing enough.

I listen to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; she thinks Democrat Party is too cool, moderate, mainstream. There’s no moderate mainstream in the Democrat Party. Now, you might say, “Come on, Rush. There’s gotta be some of these people. I look at some of these senators; they look as dryball, dull, as your average rich Republican.” Look at how they the vote!

I don’t care how they look, don’t care where they come from. These people are gigantic… Look, there isn’t any crossover between Democrat and Republican. What do we have in common with ’em? They want to upset and rip apart every aspect of the Trump agenda. They want to take everything that has led to the unleashing of our free-market economy for the benefit of everybody — starting with tax cuts — and what do they want to do?

Eliminate it. Why? Why would…? We are in the midst of robust peace and prosperity. Why tamper with it? Why wouldn’t the Democrats be saying, “Yeah, the economy’s great. We can do even better”? Why wouldn’t they say this? Even if they didn’t mean it, why not even acknowledge that things are good?

They can’t even do that, even the most so-called moderate mainstream of them. They’ve gotta do everything they can — philosophically, ideologically — to disagree and tear apart anything to do with conservatism or Republicanism because it is, to every one of them, the enemy. Now, I will allow that I don’t know them all personally. There may be an exception.

There may be some moderate, New Democrat centrist somewhere that I don’t know. But they’re not running for president. Every damn… You’ve got the Yang guy saying it’s time to move everybody to higher ground because of climate change. Speaking of which, do I have…?

I have a great story here that’s confirming every point that I’ve ever made about climate change. (sigh) What did I do with it? I mixed my stacks together not long ago, and they got conflated in there. Yeah. It’s somewhere. I’ll have to find it. Maybe it’s… One last chance. (shuffling) No, not it. Anyway, folks, don’t doubt me on this. There’s no mainstream.

Audio sound bites. I’ll give you some evidence here. This is Friday night in Clive, Iowa, during a Bernie campaign event. He had some members of The Squad, including Rashida Tlaib from Michigan, and there was a Q&A. The moderator and Tlaib are talking about Hillary Clinton.

DIONNA LANGFORD: I don’t remember if you guys remember last week when someone by the name of Hillary Clinton said that nobody —

CROWD: (booing)

DIONNA LANGFORD: We’re not gonna boo! We’re not gonna boo! We’re classy here.

RASHIDA TLAIB: Oh, no, I’ll boo!

DIONNA LANGFORD: We’re classy.

RASHIDA TLAIB: I’ll boo. Boooooo!

CROWD: (laughter and cheers)

RASHIDA TLAIB: You all know I can’t be quiet. No, we’re gonna boo! That’s all right! The haters… The haters will shut up on Monday when we win.

RUSH: “We’re gonna boo Hillary!” Now, why are they booing Hillary Clinton? Why do you think? Because she’s too moderate? Because she’s not…? She’s got a more left-wing voting record than Bernie Sanders does. They’re booing Hillary Clinton ’cause she won’t go away. You know, she’s out there saying, “Nobody likes Bernie.”

No, nobody likes Hillary. She has worn out her welcome. No. She will not leave the stage. She doesn’t have a prayer of winning and they’re mad that she will not just shut up and go away. Up next is Ilhan Omar. Same place, Clive, Iowa, Bernie Sanders campaign event, and this is Ilhan Omar talking about when she first came to America.

OMAR: When I first came to the United States, I remember one of the first things that I saw was homeless people sleeping on the sides (sic) of Manhattan when we arrived in New York. And I remember turning to my father and saying, “This doesn’t look like the America you promised.”

RUSH: She says the minute she got here, she saw homeless people in New York, and America was not what her father said. Has she been to San Francisco lately? Has she been to Pelosi’s district? Has she been to Dianne Feinstein’s hometown?

And who runs New York? Who has run it? So, anyway, you’re not gonna find moderates. Will they go…? Will Crazy Bernie go third party? It depends on if he thinks that he has been purposely taken out by the DNC as opposed to legitimately defeated by some of the other candidates.