RUSH: And greetings to you, music lovers, thrill-seekers, and conversationalists all across the fruited plain, the shut-down fruited plain. I have to tell you something, folks. I’m really happy to see more and more people talking about opening up now. I mean, I was out there all alone, as I usually am ’cause that’s what being on the cutting edge of societal evolution means. But all kinds of people are coming up with great ideas. And we’re gonna throw some of our own into the mix today.

I must say, this is gonna be a bit of an organizational challenge. You know, someday I’m gonna tell you all how this program comes together. You will not believe it. And I am amazed that I have not had a health breakdown between 11:30 and noon every day for the past 10 years. That’s not a complaint. But it is intense. I work all night the night before and then all morning, and from 11:30 to noon it all comes together and I’ve gotta put it all together. I’m not complaining.

I’m not gonna tell you how the sausage is made. I’m just telling you it’s an organizational challenge, so it may be hopscotching all over the place today. And you have to listen to all three hours to get it, which you do anyway. And that’s why there are three hours to make sure that we get it all in and get to it all. As always, folks, thank you so much for being with us. Cannot thank you enough. It’s such a great ongoing pleasure and uplifting aspect of my life to be able to be here and to know that you’re out there and to know that it all has meaning. It’s terrific. Telephone number, if you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882. The email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.

Would it be okay to point out that last week was not as bad as everybody was predicting it was gonna be? I think that’s pretty good news to have to report. It wasn’t Pearl Harbor last week. Remember, they told us the next week and a half could be very, very bad. It wasn’t as bad. None of it has been as bad as has been forecast. None of it has been as bad as has been predicted, which, of course, is a classic trait of the doomsayers.

Now, it is fascinating today. The Drive-By Media, the Democrat Party, the health and medical elites have all decided to unify around a premise today — and they actually got started late last week and over the weekend — that Trump was unprepared for all of this. That Trump was the last guy to see anything coming. That President Trump got duped. That President Trump wasn’t paying attention. That President Trump is incompetent. And all this is, it is a continuation of the failed efforts to get Trump on Trump-Russia collusion, to get Trump on Stormy Daniels, to get Trump on Avenatti, to get Trump on Michael Cohen, to get Trump on the phone call with Ukraine, whatever. It is just a continuation of that.

And this shutdown as advocated by many of the people continuing to advocate for it, this shutdown is a political effort to get rid of Donald Trump in the election this November. Now, it’s interesting, Catherine Herridge of CBS News. She used to be at Fox. She’s at CBS News. And Mr. Barr, the attorney general, with his appearances on Fox News late last week, the Catherine Herridge story was said to be a scoop on Friday afternoon.

Newly unredacted footnotes from the Inspector General Horowitz report on Crossfire Hurricane reveal the FBI was aware the Steele dossier was bogus. That’s not a scoop. You who’ve been listening to this program regularly know full well the Steele dossier was bogus, that it was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton, the Democrat National Committee. That they used Fusion GPS as the cutout to pay the law firm, Perkins Coie, that made the financial connections so as to give plausible deniability to the Hillary campaign, the DNC.

The Steele dossier was bogus. The Russians sources in it were bogus. There was nothing in it that was ever true. And yet we get some late Friday afternoon scoop, unredacted footnotes from Inspector General Horowitz’s report reveal the FBI knew it, the FBI knew that portions of the — folks, this is crucially important. You may think, “Hey, Rush, what about the coronavirus?” Stick with me. It’s all related. It’s all related to the effort that they have mounted since — well, I think it’s before Election Day 2016. You know what Barr said. Barr said it’s one thing for these people to try to sabotage a campaign. But they didn’t stop. After Trump was elected, they continued the efforts to sabotage the presidency. And they all knew.

If you want to put a different flavor on this rather than the fact that there was some kind of big scoop on Friday afternoon showing the FBI was aware the Steele dossier was disinformation, here’s the way to put this in perspective: Obama knew. Hillary Clinton knew. Joe Biden knew. James Comey knew and was an instigator. John Brennan — Obama’s CIA director — he knew and was intimately involved in the effort to get rid of Trump.

Andrew McCabe at the FBI knew. Peter Strzok Smirk and his paramour, Lisa Page, knew. The CIA at large knew. MI5 knew. MI6 knew. The professors at Cambridge knew. The professors at Oxford knew. The professors at Harvard knew. The State Department knew. They all knew that Trump was innocent! They all knew there had been no collusion. They all knew the Russians had not tampered with Trump’s campaign or his presidency.

They all knew that what they were doing was bogus. They all knew that what they were saying was bogus. They continued to smear Donald Trump, and to this day they continue to smear Donald Trump by saying he wasn’t prepared for coronavirus, when he was, and was the first… It was Fauci and others — as you will hear in a moment — who in January, February, March were assuring everybody there was nothing to fear.

This effort to portray Trump as unprepared is as bogus as the Steele dossier. It’s as bogus as the phone call to Ukraine’s president. It’s as bogus as anything involving Stormy Daniels, the Trump-Russia collusion bogus hoax — which is a silent coup. They all knew. Tom Fitton has done yeoman’s work in uncovering all of this, and he has tweeted that they all knew.

They all knew Trump was innocent. They all knew they were lying. They all knew Trump didn’t do it — and they continued, as Barr said. They sabotaged. And it’s ongoing. The reason I’m talking about this is that it hasn’t stopped. It hasn’t stopped. They are continuing the effort to get rid of Donald Trump. And, folks, I’m here to tell you that those advocating — many, not all.

Many of the people advocating this ongoing economic shutdown are doing it in hopes it’ll damage President Trump. There is no question about it. This is so unsustainable. It is so unnecessary to this extent. But the real key is whenever anybody brings up any idea, any strategy, any plan to reopen, they universally reject it all. If you see anybody universally reject the concept of reopening, then I’m telling you they’re telegraphing their politics.

I’ll tell you something else that’s going on here. The American left is looking at this shutdown, and they’re saying, “You know what? This is great. This is a forerunner to the Green New Deal.” Their guys are saying, “We are proving that we can shut down this economy, clean air, stop pollution, stop CO2, eliminate the use of fossil fuels, and still — by virtue of government spending (i.e., socialism) — keep people fed without them having to go to work!”

They are saying that this is exactly what needs to happen to save the planet and that we are in the midst of proving that it can be done, and the proof is that we can get people fed and we can keep them secure and safe in their homes not doing anything — and we can fine them for going to church now. In Michigan, you can’t even go see a friend without being fined. In Michigan, you can’t go to your vacation home. The governor there is out of control.

They’re pointing out that this is a golden opportunity to “save the planet,” and sure enough, reading my tech blogs over the weekend, there already maps, charts, and graphs demonstrating how much cleaner the air is in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey since the shutdown. The left is on the march. They have many objectives. All of their objectives are tied… Most of them. I can’t say all.

Many of their objectives are tied to this shutdown continuing. At the top of the objective list is getting rid of Donald Trump. Now, the next opportunity they think is gonna be the election in November. I don’t think they seriously believe that they can start brand-new impeachment hearings, and Pelosi says she’s not bringing Congress back ’til the end of May. So there’s no way they’re gonna be able to mount new investigations and new hearings, new witnesses.

They don’t have enough time. So the election is it. That’s what they’re targeting. That’s when they get rid of Trump, and that’s what they’re trying to do in maintaining the economic shutdown, which is not sustainable, folks. This simply cannot go on. And it’s time to start paying attention — anytime you see it — to people advocating for it going on. Let me share with you some headlines that are indicative of what’s coming here.

New York Times: “He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus.” They go on and detail Trump’s travel ban, how he got fooled at every turn, how he wasn’t paying attention, how he didn’t care because he doesn’t care about people, how his instincts are bad, how he listened to the advice of the wrong people.

They have anonymous sources in this story. They don’t have any evidence in this story. They’re misrepresenting the Peter Navarro memo supposedly warning Trump of massive amounts of death, that Trump ignored and didn’t pay any attention to because Trump is incompetent. We’ve got audio sound bites to back this up, as you will hear. But there’s a counter to all of this that’s mounting.

There is a massive effort underway to reject the left-wing political claims, and they are taking place under the guise of being public service oriented and health related. The New York Times wants you to think that their only concern here is public health and that Trump endangered it and risked it. They have no desire for you to understand that this is a political objective.

From a website called Tech Startups, “Did Public Health Officials Mislead Us?” Pull quote: “Coronavirus is not a major threat for the people in United States, and this is not something the citizens should be worried about.” Who said that? (interruption) You think it’s a pull quote from the Tech Startups? Let me read to you again: “Coronavirus is not a major threat for the people in United States, and this is not something the citizens should be worried about.”

Who said that?

Answer: Dr. Fauci on January 21st, right in the middle of when the New York Times says that Trump was unprepared, that Trump was asleep at the wheel, Trump wasn’t paying attention, Trump doesn’t care about people. “That was not the only time Dr. Fauci…” By the way, folks, when it comes to his health credentials and qualifications, no objection from me to Dr. Fauci. I have no intention of attempting to discredit Dr. Fauci in his area of expertise.

But I’m sorry. Whether we reopen schools or have elections or reopen the economy, I don’t think Dr. Fauci should be turned to as the decision-maker. The fact that the media goes to Dr. Fauci for the answer to these questions is also a political indication of the objective at hand. “Coronavirus is not a major threat for the people in the United States, and this is not something the citizens should be worried about,” said Dr. Fauci on January 21st.

He was “asked about how deadly the virus is and if Americans should be worried… That was not the only time Dr. Fauci made such a misleading statement. In an unearthed audio from January 26,” five days later, “Dr. Fauci assured Americans that the coronavirus is nothing to worry about. ‘The American people should not be worried or frightened by this. It’s a very, very low risk to the United States,’ Dr. Fauci said on The CATS Roundtable [hosted by] John Catsimatidis.”

He’s a grocery store magnate in New York. “Dr. Fauci added: ‘It isn’t something that the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about.’ Notwithstanding what Dr. Fauci had said, U.S. President Trump decided to issue a travel ban five days later.” Now, how does Dr. Fauci get away with this?

If you want to talk about promoting unpreparedness, how does Dr. Fauci get away with not being held accountable for the things he said — and he’s not alone. Other people were saying similar things back then, many of them Democrats in New York and in California. Why does only President Trump face any accountability, and why is it that President Trump’s the only guy said to be unprepared here? Because this a political hit job taking place right before our very eyes.