RUSH: I always like being able to come back during times of panic to tell people that there’s no reason to panic. There really isn’t any reason to panic. None. I think it’s so obvious to more and more people what is going on. Every day now it’s something new — every day — and it’s gonna be this way all the way up until the election, and none of it’s gonna matter. None of it’s gonna be true.

Very little of it’s gonna be solidly true. There may be elements of truth in some of these scandals, but it’s just so transparently obvious what is happening here. They’ve got nothing on Donald Trump, and they are attempting to make it up even now, like they tried to make up the Russian meddling scandal. They tried to make up the Ukraine business on impeachment, and they’re trying to make this stuff up with the Woodward book and the panic and the COVID-19.

And then, of course, The Atlantic story, supposedly calling the dead American heroes “suckers” and “losers.” That story’s fallen apart. Nothing to it ever. Anyway, I love being able to come back and calm the waters. It’s one of the things that I do best, including make the complex understandable. Great to be with you, folks. I woke up again today, thanked God that that happened, and right here we are behind the Golden EIB Microphone.

The telephone number if you want to be on the program is 800-282-2882, and the email address, ElRushbo@eibnet.us.

The Bob Woodward book. I know that many people ask, “Why would Trump even do it? Why would he give Bob Woodward so much time?” I’ll tell you why. There are a couple of primary reasons. Number one: Donald Trump thinks that this is what all serious presidents have done since Bob Woodward has been writing. They all sit for an interview. Trump sat for, whatever, 18 times, interviews, hours, whatever the number is.

The second reason is that Donald Trump believes that he can charm these people one on one. He’s never gonna change in that belief. That’s what he thinks he’s capable of. He thinks that he can turn these people. Even now, my friends, I’ll guarantee you that he thinks that he can unify the country after he wins reelection. He thinks that he has the ability to charm.

He thinks that he has the ability to make people like him, eventually. He thinks that he can outlast them, and this is just the way he goes about life. He’s an ultimate optimist in this regard, but he also knows… While thinking and hoping that those things can come true, he also knows that, if they lose, meaning if he wins (chuckles), you think that we’ve been through Democrat Party hell the past four years? You don’t know hell.

We had somebody call last week, “Rush, what’s gonna happen if the Democrats lose? Is it gonna be…?” It’s gonna be bad, folks. It’s not gonna be, “Well, we gave it our best shot and we’re now out of ammo and let’s go back and regroup for 2024.” It isn’t gonna be that at all. It’s gonna be ramped up beyond even what they’re doing today to try to get rid of Trump and pronounce the 2020 election illegitimate.

Just get ready for it. We’ll have more on this as the program unfolds. But I have to tell you, this Trump fellow is a very, very clever guy. Stop and think of this. Look at the foresight that Donald Trump had. He gives Bob Woodward 18 interviews so that the Woodward book would come out just in time to knock that Atlantic magazine story off the front pages. What prescience!

What an ability to predict the future. I mean, here comes the Woodward book, and what does it do? It totally knocks off The Atlantic story about Trump calling dead soldiers “losers” and “suckers.” There was ever been anything to that story. Even John Bolton said he was there and said it didn’t happen. Nineteen people now have said that they were there and that it didn’t happen.

Folks, none of what they’ve alleged happened. This is the thing, starting with Trump-Russia collusion and whatever story that you want to try to remember. From the day Trump was elected, then the day Trump was inaugurated, none of it has been true. Not even elements of it have been true! It has been one of the most gigantic collections of accrued falsehoods and lies.

In fact, it may be unprecedented. Now, think about the Woodward book too. Here’s the first thing that I noticed. I knew by the time I got here behind the microphone that everybody else would have mentioned this. So Donald Trump tells Bob Woodward all of this supposedly damning stuff, that he knew it was bad. It was really bad! It was much worse than Trump wanted to admit, but he didn’t want to panic anybody.

That’s the big story. That’s it. That’s what Woodward’s got. After all these conversations, that’s it. Why didn’t Woodward put that on page one of the Washington Post seven months ago when he got it? I mean, that is a newsworthy story, is it not? But what did he do? He sat on it. He buried it. He kept it. For what? Money! He kept it for his book, which is what journalists these days do.

They embed with candidates. They embed with people they’re doing stories on, and they learn all kinds of big stuff, and then they hold it for their book. They hold it for the big payoff. And then when they release it as their item to sell the book, why, it’s released as something monumentally huge, gigantically big. “This proves that Trump doesn’t care about people! He doesn’t care if people die.”

Well, Bob Woodward, you had this seven months ago, and you sat on it. It can’t be that big. Woodward spoke to Trump 18 times, right? The worst that Woodward could come up with was that Trump told him he didn’t want to cause a panic over the coronavirus? We have said for years that Trump must be the cleanest person in Washington, meaning there isn’t any dirt.

They’ve been trying to dig up dirt on Trump. They have overturned everything where dirt might be underneath; they haven’t found any. That’s the takeaway, folks. They haven’t found any dirt. They haven’t found any scandal. They haven’t found anything they’ve alleged that has happened. Stop and think of this. You know what? I think most Americans are well aware of this, and I think most Americans are well tired of this.

I don’t think these people in the media today and the American left have the slightest bit of empathy for how what they are doing is being seen, received — how it’s being read — by the American people. It’s not, “Oh, my God, look! Look what Trump’s doing! Oh, gee, do you believe this? (sputtering) Why, Trump did… Trump…” That’s not the reaction people have. The reaction people are having is (sigh), “You mean they’re trying something else?

“You mean they’re trying something new? You mean the media and the Democrats…?” Like this latest whistleblower. Why does this guy wait until now to come forward with his big whistleblowing news, something about Trump and Russia? Why are these people waiting? Why did Woodward wait? Why do these people wait? Why do they wait until now? It’s because it’s getting closer and closer to the election.

This stuff is supposed to move peoples’ opinions when it comes to for whom they’re gonna vote. I’m gonna tell you: The Woodward book isn’t gonna change a single vote. You think so, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) You think it might, sadly? You think it might, sadly, change votes against Trump? It might cause Trump to lose some votes? Oh… (interruption) Tell me why. Tell me, why do you think this. (interruption)

Right. (interruption) Okay. So, Mr. Snerdley believes there are a lot of people who think that Trump already botched COVID, didn’t do a very good job with it. Now they’ve learned that he knew it was bad, but he didn’t want to panic anybody. He didn’t want to tell anything how bad it was. So it got worse with Trump not helping anybody. (sigh) We’ll see. I think it’s too much, too late.

A lot of people say the phrase is “too little, too late.” It’s too much, too late. I think the American people have reached what I call their absorption level. There’s just… They’re worn out. All of these supposed rotten things that Trump has done that are gonna get people killed, gonna get people hurt, gonna get the country damaged? None of it ever happened.

None of it ever really proves out. None of it comes true. But the point is that every day it’s something new. When’s the last time, ladies and gentlemen, you saw a good story? When’s the last time you saw a positive story about Donald Trump in the Drive-By Media? You haven’t. They haven’t done one. Do you think the American people don’t notice this?

Do you think the American people aren’t aware of what’s going on? I think they’re far more sophisticated and aware than what people want to acknowledge. But I realize there’s a lot of people on our side like Mr. Snerdley who think this stuff is gonna work because, in their minds, it has worked. It’s gotten rid of certain Republicans in the past or it succeeded in damaging others.

But I think Trump’s a different ball game, a different ball of… (interruption) Well, I am usually right about this stuff. But, again, remember I learned of this distanced from it. I learned of this while I was away. I learned of this as a consumer learns of it, not as someone on the radio, ’cause there was nothing I could do about it. I was not gonna be on the radio the next day when I learned about this.

All I could do was think about when I was gonna be back, and I wasn’t sure. I mean, this is the first Thursday of treatment week that I’ve been able to get back in here. Last time was the first Friday of treatment week — and earlier this week, I didn’t know I was gonna be back. You never know. So, I’m receiving this news as consumers receive it, and to me it was (chuckling), “Bob Woodward? Here we go. Typical.”

And at the end of the day, has any…? Mr. Snerdley, search your memory here. Woodward has done books on George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush. He’s done books on — let’s see — Ronaldus Magnus. Can you remember any of these Woodward books that have done great damage, have ended presidencies, have destroyed the presidency of anybody Woodward has done a book on?

No, you can’t. But do you know why? Because at the end of the day, there’s a pattern with Woodward books, and the pattern is the Woodward book comes out and the worst part of it is the only thing anybody hears. In this case, Trump didn’t want to cause a panic — and after a while, people will read the whole book. You know what they’re gonna find? They’re gonna find Trump’s very reasonable.

They’re gonna find Trump was very open, very honest, and there’s not much scandal in this book all. That is the history of Woodward books, and they do not destroy their subject. Woodward books have not destroyed the presidency of anybody Woodward’s written about yet. Books! Now, I know I can hear you shouting, “Watergate” and “Nixon.” But in terms of actual books?

Somebody’s gonna have to correct me if I’m wrong about this, but I don’t believe that I am. You know, Woodward’s “bombshell,” it’s not even new news. Trump told reporters around the same time that he didn’t want to cause panic. I remember this like it was yesterday. I remember during a lot of these coronavirus task force press conferences in the afternoon, Trump would be queried by the media.

And his answer frequently was, “I’m trying to keep calm. I’m trying to keep order. I want the country to remain calm.” How many…? This isn’t even news. The fact that he didn’t want to cause a panic isn’t news. Woodward doesn’t even have a scoop here. If I assigned Cookie a project this afternoon, “Cookie, go out and find me some examples of Trump in March and April at the coronavirus task force — in answer to a media question — talking about how he wanted calm; he didn’t want to create panic,” we could find one.

We could find numerous examples with a simple keyword search. March 30th. I’ll give you one myself. Trump told reports, “The statements I made are because I want to keep the country calm. I don’t want panic in the country. Do we want a president that’s gonna panic the country? Isn’t the president’s job to calm everybody? Do we want somebody that’s gonna cause a panic?”

Is that what the scandal with the Woodward book is? “Trump should have caused a panic! He should have told everybody how rotten it is. He should have told everybody they’re gonna die. He should have told everybody that they’re toast. He should have told everybody they’ve got no prayer. He should have told everybody, ‘We’re done!'”

Is that what he should have done? I thought presidents were supposed to dial it back. I thought presidents were supposed to provide leadership. Cookie, go find it on March 30th. I just gave you the take-away date there — and guess what? We’ve already got it! Let me find it. Audio sound bite… Do I have time? Yes, I do. Audio sound bite number 7.

Are you ready? In three, two, one. It’s a press conference, and it’s Jim Acosta, CNN, and Acosta’s questions is, “What do you say to Americans who are upset with you over the way you downplayed this crisis over the last couple of months? What do you say to Americans who believe that you got this wrong?”

“I wanna keep the country calm. I don’t want panic in the country. I could cause panic much better than even you.

It would make you look like a minor league player.”@realDonaldTrump clashes with @Acosta after being accused of “downplaying the crisis for months.” pic.twitter.com/zhSPUIku6i

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 30, 2020

THE PRESIDENT: That statements I made are I want to keep the country calm. I don’t want panic in the country.

RUSH: Uh-oh!

THE PRESIDENT: I could pause panic much better than even you. I could do much… I would make you look like a minor league player. But you know what? I don’t want to do that. I want to have our country be calm and strong and fight and win. And it will go away.

RUSH: So why does Bob Woodward even have a freaking scoop? Why does Woodward even have a scoop, my friends? Why? That’s the big thing. That’s the big selling point. “Trump said he didn’t want to cause a panic!” Yeah, he told the entire world that, not just Bob Woodward in an interview. Let’s grab sound bite number 8. This is Bite Me, Joe Bite Me, February 28, Sumter, South Carolina. He said this about the coronavirus outbreak…

BIDEN: I want to take a moment to say, it’s not a time to panic about coronavirus, but coronavirus is a serious public health challenge.

RUSH: Whoa! “[I]t’s not a time to panic,” except he didn’t tell Bob Woodward. He told the world just like Trump did. Yet we’ve got a scandal? “We’ve got a scandal! Trump said he didn’t want to panic the country, and he told country himself after having told Woodward, maybe before he told Woodward!” So what is the big scoop that Bob Woodward has?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Stay with the audio sound bites here. Let’s go to back to January 31st, 2020, Fort Madison, Iowa. Joe Biden had this to say about the coronavirus outbreak and President Trump…

BIDEN: We have right now a crisis with, uh, the coronavirus emanating from China.

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

BIDEN: In moments like this, this is where the credibility our president is most needed —

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

BIDEN: — as he explains what we should and should not do.

RUSH: Right, right, right, right, right.

BIDEN: This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia —

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

BIDEN: — hysterical xenophobia to —

RUSH: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

BIDEN: — and fearmongering —

RUSH: Oh no.

BIDEN: — to lead the way instead of science.

RUSH: Instead of science! He wouldn’t know science if it slapped him upside the head, folks. Science this, science that. I can’t wait ’til we get into science explaining what’s going on in California. But at any rate, here’s Biden calling the China ban — the travel ban that Trump instituted — xenophobic, saying it’s scandalous!

By the way, Dr. Fauci on Fox News yesterday said, “I didn’t see any discrepancies between what we told the president and what he told the public.” That right there is the end of the Woodward story, and the Woodward story never had anything anyway because it was not even a scoop! The big Woodward bombshell is something Trump himself said during a coronavirus task force.

Here is Dr. Fauci. Question: “The president said he always wanted to play it down ’cause he didn’t want to create a panic. You were there. Was that the playbook or was the president just on his own?”

FAUCI: I don’t think so, John. I mean, I don’t recall anything different than in our discussions that we had with the president, that… He said things quite similar publicly. When we would get up in front of the press conferences — which were very, very common after our discussions with the president, he really didn’t say anything different than we discussed when we were with him. I didn’t really see any discrepancies between what he told us and what we told him and what he ultimately came out publicly and said.

ROBERTS: Did you get a sense that he was or wasn’t playing this down?

FAUCI: No. No, no, I didn’t. I didn’t get any sense that he was distorting anything.

RUSH: Of course not. “I didn’t see any discrepancies between what we told Trump” meaning the scientists, the doctors, “and what Trump told the public.” He wasn’t off on his own. He wasn’t off on his own rampage there. So, I mean: End of Woodward story. The Woodward story was never anything, folks. That’s the bottom line.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, I’m sitting here thinking about Bob Woodward. I think the only… Mr. Snerdley, the only person whose reputation has been damaged by a Bob Woodward book is Bob Woodward. Remember when he somehow got an interview with a comatose William Casey? William Casey was the CIA director for Ronaldus Magnus. William Casey was there at the founding of the CIA.

William Casey was one of those guys there with Wild Bill Donovan, who built the CIA back in the day when there were no rules. These guys were among the super patriots of their day. They founded the CIA, they put it together, they constructed it, and Bill Casey was one of the primary founders along with Wild Bill Donovan. He ended up being the director of the CIA for Ronald Reagan.

He had had a brain aneurysm or some such malady and was in the hospital. He was in a coma — he was more than unconscious — and yet Bob Woodward snuck into his hospital room and got an interview. Bill Casey spoke to Bob Woodward while he was in a coma, about Reagan and about Reagan’s mental state, and about Reagan this and Reagan that, about Iran-Contra, how Reagan was off the beaten path and so forth.

Nobody believed it. Nobody believed that William Casey woke up and gave Bob Woodward a bunch of quotes and then went back into his coma. But that’s exactly the story that Woodward put out. That’s Woodward’s story and he’s sticking with it. So the only book to do damage to anybody in the Woodward series is Woodward.

All right. Let me get started on the phones. We’re gonna go to Detroit. This is Jody, and I’m glad you called. Great to have you with us, Jody. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. First, mega prayers for your continued recovery.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Thank you, thank you very el mucho. I appreciate it.

CALLER: (chuckles) I just wanted to say that regarding Woodward’s book, it is a total nonstarter with me. I remember when Trump was doing the coronavirus updates every day, and it was like I had a date with my TV. I watched him every day because he was the only thing that kept me home and sane. I had family members and friends freaking out around me.

RUSH: Ah, sure.

CALLER: I was supposed to be taking a trip to Florida. I couldn’t do it because now, “Oh, my gosh! You’re actually gonna leave the state? That’s dangerous.” I was watching, and I was listening to him and Fauci. And, I mean, he was the only thing that kept me sane. That’s what a cheerleader does is calm people down and, you know, take a breath.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I think, contrarily, the Democrats are the ones that are completely inciting violence and hysteria about the coronavirus, about, you know, race relations (crosstalk)

RUSH: Oh, there’s no question. Exactly! If there’s any group of people that’s trying to incite any kind of unrest and panic —

CALLER: Yep!

RUSH: — it’s the Democrat Party and these blue state mayors and blue state governors and what they’re doing to people who live in their cities. I’ve got a story in the Stack today. I have been trying to warn everybody that New York City may be dead because of what they have done to the pricing of commercial real estate, and Cuomo is blind to it.

Cuomo hasn’t slightest idea what he’s doing. He’s out there with these unhinged, threatening comments about Trump. (impression) “If Trump comes to New York, he better have a lot of bodyguards. If Trump ventures into New York, he better be prepared to be seriously wounded.” You know, this kind of childish stuff that Andrew Cuomo is engaging in.

Meanwhile, what is happening in New York in terms of real estate — commercial and private — property values, it’s just terrible. They’re killing the city. All of these Democrat mayors are. They’re inciting violence. They’re promoting violence. They’re creating panic. They want the chaos. You’re exactly right, Jody.

CALLER: Gretchen Whitmer is guilty. She has told us now that nothing is gonna change in Michigan. The lockdown in our state is gonna continue until there’s a vaccine.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: And, you know, it’s just… She’s killing Michigan. She’s tromping all over our state.

RUSH: Well, look, that is the bottom line, and Trump is not causing these problems. He is actually a blanket of calm. I just was watching CNN, and I saw the graphic at the bottom of the screen which described what their panel was discussing. It said, “Trump tries to defend comments revealed in the Woodward book.” Trump tries to defend comments revealed in the Woodward book?

Trump made the comments outside his conversation to Woodward. He announced to the American people in a coronavirus task force press conference that he wanted to keep the country calm, that he wanted to avoid a panic. You know, there’s another thing that Trump did that Woodward has revealed. He lashed out at the generals that he thinks were not serving him.

He “lashed out at generals in a conversation with Peter Navarro, who is one of his economic advisers, according to Woodward’s new book. According to excerpts from the book,” the book is called Rage, by the way, “Trump said that his generals are a bunch [pussais] in a conversation with Navarro at one point,” meaning they’re just, you know, a bunch of pansies out there.

They’re not warrior generals. He said they’re more concerned with their “alliances.” They’re more concerned with the bureaucracy. They’re more concerned with political correctness. They’re more concerned with doing what they’ve gotta do to climb the Pentagon ladder of success rather than actually be warrior generals — and we’ve commented on this over the course of the recent past on this program.

There are all kinds of generals and leaders in the Pentagon, warrior generals, politically correct generals, others that are devoted entirely to the bureaucracy. Trump said of these guys, “They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals,” and it was very, very frustrating thing for him to have to deal with them — and that’s something that the Woodward book has revealed.

You don’t call generals, you know, a bunch of “pussais,” usually.

But Trump did.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Robin, Punta Gorda, Florida. Great to have you with us. Hi.

CALLER: Hi there, Rush. Thank you so much for taking my call, and we are continuing to pray for you.

RUSH: I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.

CALLER: Oh, my pleasure. Earlier you talked about President Trump downplaying the coronavirus — and if that’s the case, it’s good that he did because people are creating their own panic. At least in our area, it was alarming how fast the grocery stores he might of basic necessities like toilet paper and hand sanitizer and bleach. I mean, I’m 60 years old, and I’ve never seen shelves look so bare, even in Florida when we are expecting the biggest hurricane. It was amazing how people were already panicking, and it wasn’t the president.

RUSH: You know, this is a great point. This is an absolutely great point, folks. There was a run on toilet paper at the beginning of COVID, and toilet paper’s got nothing to do the virus. But people were out there buying it up — she’s right — like a hurricane was on the way in Florida.

So the idea that Trump, you know, didn’t to want stoke a panic? The panic in large measure was taking care of itself, and Trump was trying to calm it down and to prevent people from behaving in a way that was out of control and not helpful for themselves or the population at large. I’m really glad you called, Robin. Thank you for that.