RUSH: There are growing protests all over the fruited plain, the American people demanding that their states open for business. Your host is single-handedly being blamed for these protests. Now, the difference is that most hosts being blamed for something like this would gladly accept the blame, would gladly accept the responsibility. Most hosts would like being thought of as having that kind of power.

On the other hand, I, Rush Limbaugh, America’s Real Anchorman, I know that I have this kind of power and I have not utilized it. I have not urged one protest. I never do this. I don’t urge people to call Congress. I did it one time to show what would happen if I did it. We shut down the switchboard. I do not do this. I do not do activism on the radio. I have never told people to cut up their Exxon credit cards and send ’em somewhere. I just don’t do it because I believe you people have enough intelligence and self-mindedness to do what you want to do.

You are not mind-numbed robots. And this ongoing allegation that I, your host, am responsible for the protests is essentially an attempt to say that all of you who are demanding that your states open up the economy are nothing but a bunch of mind-numbed robots, which they’ve been saying about you since this program debuted in 1988. That you’re essentially brain-dead, that I am a Svengali, a pied piper. You tune in here every day to find out what to think, what to do, what to be mad about. And of course it’s ridiculously absurd.

For 31 years this accusation, slash, allegation has been made. For 31 years they know they’re lying about it, the media. For 31 years they know they’re making it up. But it has become — I mean, it’s not a cliche. It’s become a narrative. Grab audio sound bite number 7. I want to thank fellow broadcast colleague Tucker Carlson — Chatsworth Osborne Jr., known affectionately here — on his Fox program last night tried to put this in perspective.

CARLSON: We have protests against lockdowns across this country. You may like them; you may not. But what does that tell you? Why are they happening? Did Rush Limbaugh do all that? No, he didn’t. Here’s the truth. If Americans had confidence that the government’s response to this virus was wise and thoughtful and thoroughly rooted in science –

RUSH: Which it’s not.

CARLSON: — they probably won’t be protesting against those decisions in the numbers they are. But they don’t believe that, and they don’t believe it for good reason.

RUSH: Exactly right. Now, again, most hosts would be arguing with Tucker Carlson if they had been blamed for causing the protests and Tucker Carlson said they got nothing to do with it. They’d be insulting Tucker Carlson as not knowing what he’s talking about. But see, my friends, I’m not burdened or shackled or distracted by the silly little ego requirements that some people have to tell themselves they matter. I know I matter.

So it ticks me off. It literally ticks me off because what it ultimately is is an insult to all of you and to the people protesting. And of course whenever the left protests, which is a way of life, we never hear anybody blamed for it other than the people they are protesting. Isn’t it fascinating? When the left starts protesting something, it’s always the fault of the people they’re protesting. The protesters are right. The protesters must be listened to. The protesters have just cause.

Whenever there are anti-government protests, anti-mayor, anti-governor, anti-Washington protests, why, the protesters are mind-numbed robots, stupid idiots, don’t even know what they’re protesting. They’re just following orders issued to them by insane conservative media. And you can book it every time it happens. The reason these protests are happening is ’cause people are fed up. They want to go back to work.

Look, you can’t suppress the news. The left might think if they ignore what we have learned from the Stanford research in Santa Clara County — and just to repeat that if you missed it yesterday, some researchers at Stanford. Stanford is not Hillsdale College. It’s not a hated right wing institution. It’s a very, very vaunted, protected, esteemed left-wing citadel in academe.

And they sent some researchers out to Santa Clara County, and they found that the infection rate is 50 to 85 times higher than the official reported number. The number of deaths is the same. It means that if the infection rate is 50 to 85 times higher, it means the mortality rate for COVID-19 is way, way down, like .01 .012, putting it in the neighborhood of the flu. It means if that many people in Santa Clara County have had the disease, have been exposed to it, have antibodies and didn’t know they had it, it means a lot of people get this infection and don’t even know it. They can be contagious. A lot of people get it who do suffer from it.

The key number then following that is hospitalizations. And hospitalizations are way down other than in one place, and that would be the New York metro area. And Dennis Prager has a piece today at American Greatness and has an excellent question. Can I share with you the question that Dennis Prager asks?

If half of the country’s deaths were in Montana, would New York shut down? If half the nation’s deaths were in Missouri, if half of the nation’s deaths were in North Dakota or South Dakota, or pick a state that they never even heard of, you know, like Wyoming. They hate Wyoming. Well, Wyoming’s got a couple left-wing cities in there. Just pick a state. The point is pick a state and if half the deaths were coming from state, would New York shut down, would Governor Cuomo shut down? Would the rest of the country shut down?

“According to the New York Times coronavirus report, as of Sunday, April 19, 2:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, there were 35,676 COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Of those deaths, 18,690 were in the New York metropolitan area.” Now, the number is 42,000 now. Still, the percentage of deaths nationwide — over half of them — are in the New York metro area: 52% of all deaths occurred New York metro area. “Now let us imagine that the reverse were true.

“Imagine that Georgia and North Carolina — two contiguous states that, like the New York metro area, have a combined total of 21 million people — had 18,690 COVID-19 deaths, while metro New York had 858 deaths (the number of deaths in North Carolina and Georgia combined).” This is as of Sunday. So 18,690 deaths in the New York metro area, and 858 combined in North Carolina and Georgia.

“Do you think the New York metro area would close its schools, stores, restaurants and small businesses? Would every citizen of the New York area … be locked in their homes for months? Would New Yorkers accept the decimation of their economic and social lives because North Carolina and Georgia (or, even more absurdly, Colorado, Montana or the rest of what most New Yorkers regard as ‘flyover’ country) had 18,960 deaths, while they had a mere 858?”

Would New York shut down?

“It is, of course, possible,” writes Mr. Prager, but he continues by saying, “I suspect that anyone with an open mind assumes that New Yorkers would not put up with ruining their economic and social lives and putting tens of millions of people out of work because of coronavirus deaths in North Carolina and Georgia, let alone Montana and Idaho,” Mr. Prager writes, “(and, for the record, I would have agreed with them).”

(summarized) If I were a New Yorker and I only had 858 deaths in the metro area and a couple states out there have 18,000 deaths, I’m not shutting down for that in New York. “In his latest column, a New York Times columnist Thomas [“Loopy”] Friedman,” whose expertise is supposedly in foreign policy. “Loopy” Friedman’s a guy who thinks we need to be more like China.

Thomas Friedman, back during the Obama years, wrote (summarized), “Isn’t it wonderful how they operate in China? They have like 11 or 12 people that decide everything — the best and the bright, the smartest people — and it gets everything done. They can build things right away, like that moment! They can make any decision and implement it that moment.

“They don’t have to worry about Congress, don’t have to worry about the Senate, don’t have to worry about bickering back and forth. The Chinese model,” said Dr. Friedman (ahem), loosely spoken, “is what we should aspire to.” He is an abject idiot. Like Paul Krugman, economics columnist at the New York Times, is an abject idiot — and yet they hold on to their precious reputations of expertise. At any rate…

“In his latest column, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman inadvertently revealed how New York-centric his view of America is. Friedman, like virtually all his colleagues at The New York Times, opposes opening up any state in America at this time. He writes: ‘Every person will be playing Russian roulette every minute of every day: Do I get on this crowded bus to go to work or not?

“‘What if I get on the subway and the person next to me is not wearing gloves and a mask?’ Only a New Yorker would write those two sentences,” because only in New York do people go to work on buses routinely and mass transit. Same thing with subways. Illustrating one of the big differences between New York and the rest of the country in mass transit.

By the way, the subways were not shut down. They were deemed necessary to get essential employees to their jobs. Is it any wonder that there’s been such a rapid rate of the spreading of the virus in New York? Anyway… “Only a New Yorker would write those two sentences.” Prager lives in Los Angeles, and he says, “In the 40 years I have lived in the second-largest city in America, I have never ridden on the subway or any other intraurban train or bus.

“In fact, it is common for New Yorkers to look at Los Angeles with disdain for our ‘car culture.’ Like the vast majority of Americans everywhere outside of New York City, in Los Angeles, most of us get to work, visit family and friends, and go to social and cultural events by car — currently the life-saving way to travel — not by bus or subway, the New Yorker way of getting around.”

He’s not trying to stoke rivalries here, just making a valid point. This shutdown in many ways has not been necessary nationwide. A one-size-fits-all policy that necessarily hasn’t fit. In the early days, you can understand it maybe, but as evidence has continued to pour in, this is why people are protesting. The American people get it — and at some point, they’re willing to take some risks.

I mean, how long do we go? How long do we go with this watching careers and jobs and businesses and livelihoods literally be shuttered and watching what’s happening to the oil industry, when the data on which all this is based may not even be accurate? Grab sound bite number 6. This is Louisiana senator John Kennedy. He was on Mornings with Maria Bartiromo today on the Fox Business Network.

She said, “Are you worried that we’re opening too soon, Senator?”

KENNEDY: Sure, I’m worried. We all are worried. We don’t know. We’ve never been here before. But we gotta eat! We get save lives and we gotta save livelihoods. It’s a miserable choice. But this much I do know: We cannot leave this economy shut down or it’s gonna collapse. The Federal Reserve is holding it together with spit and duct tape — and if the American economy collapses, the world economy collapses. Now, some of the preening elites says, “Well, Kennedy doesn’t care about human life.” Yeah, I care about human life. You can die from poverty too! I care about saving lives and livelihoods. And I think that’s the way most Americans —

RUSH: That’s not the problem. That’s not the… What Kennedy thinks of the critics, that’s not the problem. Of course, everybody of any common sense knows we’ve gotta open up. The problem is people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who came along celebrating the destruction of the oil industry yesterday. She said, isn’t it a beautiful thing? “You absolutely love to see it.”

You “love to see” all the jobs lost. She quickly deleted it, but it’s out there. The point is, there are millions of Democrats who are hoping this goes on, who are hoping for the very… I’m not kidding. You may say, “Rush, it’s little over top saying people care about this and actually want this.” It may be over the top if you don’t know Democrats and liberals like I do.

But you don’t even have to know them like I do. Just listen to them! Just watch them! The last thing on their mind is opening up, and they’re all Democrat governors at this point. They do not want to do it. They’ve got an election to win in November, don’t you know? By the way, my friends, there could be another way of both spreading and acquiring the coronavirus, and we owe this discovery to our great friends in Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Company.

SWAN: Luckily, we wear a mask, which covers our farts all the time. I think that what we should do in terms of social distancing and being safe is that, um, a policy on the part of the entire Australian population should be that you don’t fart close to other people, and that you don’t fart with your bottom bare. No bare-bottom farting.

RUSH: That is a real broadcast at Australian Broadcast Company’s Coronacast podcast. The cohost Tegan Taylor said to cohost Dr. Norman Swan… Norman Swan, the doctor, is who says we gotta stop farting, and we gotta stop farting… You know, most people have a natural mask. I remember when I got in trouble way back long time ago for suggesting we can make the roads safer if we made women stop “farding” in their cars while they’re driving. Now here are people out there saying this. People (muttering) routinely.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We start with Cindy in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Great to have you Cindy. Thank you for waiting. Hi.

CALLER: Hello there, Rush. Prayerful dittos to you.

RUSH: Yes.

CALLER: Yes, I have a question for you. My question is — I don’t know if you saw this — but over the weekend there was a protest, Open Up America protest in Denver, and there were two health care workers who stood in the street in traffic while these protesters, who were protesting safely, and they were just standing there, and there’s pictures all over — I don’t know if you’ve noticed it. But what would you say to the argument that we are putting our health care workers at risk if we do open up the country? And I want to open up the country because I’m furloughed. I have a daughter with special needs I haven’t seen in six weeks, I haven’t hugged her, I am so ready to open up the country. But what would you say to that?

RUSH: To health care workers saying we shouldn’t?

CALLER: Yes. Because we are putting them at risk.

RUSH: Well, they’re at risk anyway. They are treating COVID-19 patients as they show up at the hospital anyway whether we’re shut down or not, correct?

CALLER: Yes, they are. But they have become the new heroes. So I’ve been watching dialogues when I see things, you know, on Facebook or on places that when a health care worker starts to get into the argument and how we are putting them at risk, it seems that then we’re all shamed into believing that we shouldn’t —

RUSH: Are you saying that you’re not totally believing these are actual health care workers going online and recommending this?

CALLER: I am. In fact, I’m questioning even the fact that those two health care workers who stood in the street, that they were health care workers.

RUSH: Oh, yeah, I saw the picture of one of those guys on the Drudge Report that, yeah.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: I think your instincts are right on the money. Look. There’s politics all over this. And there are people — whenever you see — and this is just me. You obviously are free to disagree. I’m just telling you what I think. When I see any group or individual advocating, actively advocating and promoting the continued shutdown, my red flags go up, my antennae go up ’cause that’s not natural, that’s not normal. We can’t do that. It isn’t sustainable. That’s economic and national suicide to keep this country shut down as is with no end in sight or until there’s some impossible reality like a vaccine, we may never have a vaccine for this.

People that are that rigid on keeping the country shut down I’m immediately suspicious, and I’m suspicious what their politics is. I want to know what their politics is. And the left is very adept at coming out, we’re hailing health care workers, you’re right. The president, Governor Cuomo, everybody, they’re heroes. And they are. I’m not disputing that. So then that group of people has a couple that go public and say, “Opening the country will put us, your heroes, at greater risk.” I don’t see how. They’re at risk already if they show up and go to work and deal with COVID-19 patients that show up. Their theory —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — is the disease is gonna be spread even more if we open up and they’re gonna be overrun. Well, that’s why we flattened the curve. That’s why we’ve shut down to prevent that from happening. And it only happened in one area, Cindy. It happened in New York, the New York metro area.

CALLER: Right. And I’m from California. I’m 1,000 percent sure we had this in December, in January, February. In fact, I worked for a company that is in the public. It’s a large entertainment company. And we had workers that were sick with something, we couldn’t figure out what it was. So we are 1,000 percent that this was happening —

RUSH: Yeah. See, it is a well-practiced and widely used tactic of the left to bring forth advocates who are unassailable. You can’t criticize ’em ’cause be mean-spirited. Like you can’t criticize kids. You can’t criticize somebody disabled who might be showing their disability in a political commercial. You can’t argue with that, you can’t dispute it because they’re just untouchable. You can’t be critical of seasoned citizens who might be advocating for a certain thing because you must show them respect. It’s a time-honored tactic that the Democrats use to shut down and eliminate any opposition or debate. Glad you called, Cindy. I really am.