RUSH: The White House says that Trump was not briefed on this, the Russians offering a bounty on the Taliban for every American soldier killed.

So Drive-Bys… There was a press briefing in the last hour that was held by the press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, and the Drive-Bys were having an orgasm. They were going back and (sniveling), “Well, Trump said that he didn’t need an intelligence briefing every day. Remember, Kayleigh? ‘Cause he’s so smart, Trump didn’t need one — and because he didn’t get the briefing now he says he didn’t know about this!”

So they’re trying to bring this all back to Trump, that whatever happened, Trump is responsible for it either because he didn’t know about it or because he wasn’t told about it because he didn’t want to deal with the briefing, or because he doesn’t care. Whatever they want to try to make stick is what they’re trying to do here. It is just…

This pile-on of an American political figure is something I have not seen in my lifetime, and I have believed on the course of these three to four years that a peak was hit a couple times, that there’s really nothing more these people can do. But they keep proving me wrong, because they just keep coming up with the most outrageous things.

For example, here is a tweet from Charles Gasparino. I don’t know where he is. He used to be at CNBC. He’s a New York economics guy of some sort. I know the name. I know he’s been with MSNBC and CNBC for a while. (interruption) He’s still at CNBC. Okay. But what was he before? Was he anything? CNBC hired him away from somewhere. That’s what I can’t remember. It’s no big deal whether that’s true or not.

Here’s the deal.

“GOP operatives are for the first time raising the possibility that @realDonaldTrump could drop out of the race if his poll numbers don’t rebound,” and if it looks like he will take the Republican Senate with him, he might just drop out of the race and quit. (laughing) Excuse me. Folks, who does he think he is, Pope Benedict? We don’t have presidents drop out! They don’t quit like this.

“Well, Rush, you’re saying he wouldn’t get out of the way for maybe another nominee that might have a better chance?” Not at this stage. But he’s not a quitter! Where does this come from. He says, “Over the weekend I spoke to a sample of major players; one described Trumps current psyche as ‘fragile.'” Gasparino says, “I’m not convinced yet; he’s got time and he’s running against an opponent who is literally hiding in his basement.

“Plus the public isn’t focusing yet on just how left wing @JoeBiden has become, so much so, he can bring himself to denounce rioting.” Biden isn’t anything. Biden doesn’t know what he’s saying. Biden knows what they put in front of him to say. That is the damn truth about this. The idea that Joe Biden has some kind of invigorated, excited, enthusiastic base is one of the biggest lies in American politics.

Biden doesn’t have anything. The only thing Biden has going for him is he’s not Trump — and because of that, they think he can count on at least 46 to 47% of the popular vote, period. Anything other than that, somebody’s gonna have to work for and earn. Now, that may be true. I mean, there are 46 to 47% Democrats gonna vote against Trump no matter, and now you’ve seen the stories.

You’ve seen the stories today. “Bernie Sanders voters are starting to come around to Biden!” Why? What’s Biden done to make Bernie Sanders voters come around? Joe Biden is… I think is… What’s the word? What’s the term? It’s elderly abuse, what is being done. I’m serious about this, what’s being done to him, and I’m not trying to sound falsely sympathetic or sensitive.

I think it really is. Now they’re talking, some people, about Tammy Duckworth as the vice presidential nominee? I mean… Well, anyway. Mr. Gasparino continues. “That said, the speculation indicates how tense Republican operatives are about Trump losing and the party losing the Senate and having their entire agenda abolished in a leftist wave election.”

Would somebody tell me, since this has been brought up here, the party losing the Senate… Can somebody tell me what the Republican Senate’s objectives are? What is the Republican Senate’s agenda? “Well, that’s easy, Rush. I mean, that would be Trump’s agenda.” Well, you would think so, but I just don’t see it. I don’t see it. The Republican Party is the focal point, should be, of the opposition to the effort, the attempt to take over this country.

I don’t hear much, and I don’t see much opposition.

You know, you can blame Trump, but what is the Senate doing to get itself reelected? What are individual senators doing? They can run around and complain and whine and moan about Trump — and clearly Trump plays a role, don’t misunderstand — but what are these guys doing to draw favorable attention to themselves? It’s not as though they serve and do everything they do, and it’s up to the president to get ’em reelected.

A lot of these people, the same people, didn’t think Trump had a chance in 2016.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Michael, Athens, Georgia. Great to have you with us on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Mega prayers.

RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.

CALLER: I know you talked about that they’re waiting to go to November, but I feel like the other catch to this is, I feel like they want to make the environment so dangerous that people don’t want to get out to vote. That you can expect to see Black Panther members at voting polls threatening people, and making the atmosphere just completely dangerous for people to go out and vote for Trump.

RUSH: Well, you know, that’s an interesting piece. He’s talking about these blue state governors who are in favor of the violence continuing, in favor of the lockdowns, in favor of the economic slowdown continuing. Michael’s theory here is that an additional or maybe the main reason they’re doing it is to keep people out of work and, in addition to that, to suppress voters in November. Now, are you thinking that they’re desirous to make people afraid to go vote because of the potential violence like the Black Panthers in Philadelphia in 2016?

CALLER: Yes. It will be a combination of fear from the violence and fear from COVID.

RUSH: Okay. So the fear is two-pronged. Fear of getting the virus and fear of being physically assaulted if they go to the polls. There could be elements of truth in both. There could be elements of truth in all three of these things. But here’s the thing they don’t get about that, Michael. Of course I do. I’m being a smart-ass here.

If Biden is ahead by 12 to 20 points, why wouldn’t they want all these people showing up to vote? If the Democrats are so believing they’re gonna just swamp Trump… If Trump is polling so bad, he’s thinking of quitting, if only 5% of the American — this is polling data — if only 5% of the American people think the country’s headed in the right direction, then what do the Democrats have to fear?

Why would they be afraid of people voting if they believe their polls that show Biden up by 12 to 20 — in battleground states, I might add? Well, the obvious answer is they don’t believe their bogus polls, and they don’t believe that only 5% of the country think we’re headed in the right directed and blame Trump for it, if your theory is right that they’re trying to suppress the vote. If that’s true — if there’s any part of that that’s true — it is abundantly clear that they don’t think Trump can be beaten.

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RUSH: I’m told that this is excellent, Kayleigh McEnany. Now, I think sometimes we fall into a trap on the conservative side, and it’s what I call the performance trap. We hear a conservative anybody really ream the left, really push back, and we say, “Man, you got hear this! Man, this is great,” and it does sound great and so forth.

But what does it actually accomplish? Because there’s a gigantic disconnect. The left is totally unaffected by what you’re gonna hear. They don’t get embarrassed. They don’t even look at any of this as a debate. They can’t even possibly lose a debate that they don’t even think is valid and justified. As far as the left is concerned, we are invalid.

Our existence is invalid. But I want to play it for you anyway because it is push back. She was being hit from all sides in the briefing this afternoon. A reporter said, “If the president hasn’t been briefed, how is he certain that Russia did not put out these bounties?” Number 22. Sound bite number 22. Three, two, one…

MCENANY: The New York Times falsely claimed Paul Manafort asked for polling data to be passed along to Oleg Deripaska before having to issue a correction. In June of 2017, the New York Times falsely wrote all 17 Intel agencies had agreed on Russian interference before having to issue a correction that it was only four agencies.

And 2017 — February of that year — the New York Times published a story claiming that Trump campaign aides had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence, which even James Comey had said was almost entirely wrong, New York Times. The New York Times published a column in March of 2019 by a former Times executive editor that asserted the Trump campaign and Russia had an overarching deal that the quid of help in the campaign against Hillary for the quo of a new pro-Russian foreign policy.

That’s what we call the Russia hoax, which was investigated for three years with taxpayer dollars before ultimately getting an exoneration in the Mueller report. It is inexcusable, the failed Russian reporting of the New York Times, and I think it’s time that the New York Times and also the Washington Post hand back their Pulitzers.

RUSH: All right. So that was great, pushback. She didn’t answer the question. The question was if the president hasn’t been briefed, how’s he certain that Russia didn’t put out the bounties? Now, what she’s saying is, “You’re lying. The story is BS. But she didn’t say it that way. She came out and gave us a recitation of how wrong the media has been,” and a lot of people are cheering.

“Yay! Right on! Exactly! Right on!”

You notice the left never does this? The left never gets into things that we do. They just accuse us. We leave it up to the American people to figure out, like Kayleigh did. We present the case here. “Yeah, look at what they say is wrong here, wrong there, wrong…” They lie! They’re lying! “The whole story is a lie,” is the answer.

That’s what the left does.

The left puts out a story saying that Rush Limbaugh’s telling you that vitamin C will cure COVID-19. I never said a thing about vitamin C and COVID or the common cold or anything else. They just out-and-out lie about it, and then the people they lie about are forced on a defensive posture. I’m not ripping Kayleigh. Don’t anybody misunderstand here. I’m saying our standards for successfully pushing back against the left need to be adjusted.

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RUSH: Are you ready for this? This was an actual question for the president today. It was from Ryan Lizza, who is where? Politico, Washington Post, BuzzFeed. I forget which. Listen to this question. “Does President Trump believe it was a good thing the South lost the Civil War?” (pause) “Does President Trump believe it was a good thing the South lost the Civil War?”

Kayleigh McEnany said, “Your first question is absolutely absurd. He’s proud of the United States of America.” To even have to say, “The president is proud of the United States.” (Snort!) “Does the president believe it was a good thing the South lost the Civil War?” The hatred… I tell you, the amount of poisonous hatred running through these people…

But something doesn’t fit here. If they really think this guy’s cruising for the biggest landslide defeat, what’s with all of this? If they really believe all this polling data that they’re putting out there, that Plugs is 12 to 20 points ahead, where’s the happiness? Where’s the glee? Where’s the satisfaction? Where are these people acting confident?

Well, the answer is, they don’t believe jack, folks, when it comes to Trump losing. They don’t believe Plugs is gonna win by 12 to 20 points. They don’t believe their own polls — and it’s a good thing, ’cause their polls are not true. Their polls are trying to shape public opinion rather than reflect it.