RUSH: Yeah, we’re working on the audio of it right now. I just watched the White House press briefing, a little bit of it. In fact, I wasn’t watching it. I had it on in there. And I had the audio button turned to TV audio, and I heard this incessant yelling and shouting and two and three people talking at the same time. I said, “Ah, somebody’s replaying the debate.” And I looked up and it was the White House press briefing. It was outrageous.
It’s like the press corps has decided to do the debate. It’s like they’re so ticked off at what Trump did that they decided to conduct the White House press briefing today and replicate what made them mad about the debate. They asked Kayleigh McEnany a question — and, by the way, every question, “Will the president finally denounce white supremacy?” She was asked this question five times. Maybe more than that. And she kept answering the question. She kept offering the evidence. He has constantly denied white supremacy. He has condemned it. He’s never spoken in favor of it. Not once. Not ever.
They kept demanding, “Will he denounce white supremacy?” And two and three of them at the same time. And when she was answering, the reporter or reporterette would continue talking. I looked up, and I said, “What the hell is this?” These people are ticked off at this debate. Honestly, it looked to me like the White House press corps got together and they decided to turn the press briefing into what they thought the debate was, how the debate sounded, you know, with Trump and Biden talking all over each other and Chris Wallace trying to get in there and impose some sort of order on the circumstance.
It was the height of unprofessionalism on the part of the media. Kayleigh McEnany read about five — we’re working on the audio of this. You can tell me if you think I’m overplaying it or exaggerating a bit, but I don’t think so. Kayleigh McEnany read about five quotes, but they weren’t good enough for the press corps. It’s like she wasn’t answering the question. And they kept hammering. They kept hammering question after question, trying to make Trump look like a racist.
Then I thought, “What is this? I mean, what really is this?” And you boil it down, it’s desperation. In the first place, Trump hasn’t ever not condemned white supremacy. He’s never spoken in favor of it. I said, “It’s ridiculous.” As I pointed out to you yesterday, he quit the Reform Party when David Duke joined it. This is back in the 1990s. It was Ross Perot’s party. Good Lord, the man has done everything he possibly can to denounce it. One of his best buddies is Herschel Walker, the great football player the University of Georgia, the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys, and Herschel Walker is out there endorsing Trump left and right.
There’s not a racist bone in his body, there’s not a racist bone in his vocabulary, and yet they keep hammering this. It’s all they’ve got, the race card. You think everything else they’ve thrown at Trump would work: Russia collusion, Ukraine phone call, impeachment, whatever, COVID-19. Now they’re back to what? The old reliable race. They are so desperate to paint Trump as not just a racist, a white supremacist. It seems to me they’re just gonna keep asking the question every day ’til the election ’cause it’s all they got.
Now, we can’t play, we don’t play, we never play audio sound bites three and a half minutes. But we’re gonna give you a taste of it when get the audio. It’s just moments ago, so we are still working on it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have the audio sound bites from the press briefing that I opened the program with describing. And I just want you to hear this. Now, remember, I’ve got the audio on. I’m not looking at the TV. I’m doing other things with show prep. But I’m hearing cross-talk, two and three people, sometimes four people sounds like, shouting at each other. Nobody is stopping to listen to anybody.
I said, “What the hell is this?” I look up, and it’s the White House press briefing. And I’m convinced that the media has decided to treat Kayleigh McEnany the way they think Trump treated Biden. I know that’s what they were doing. That’s what it looked like. I mean, the media wouldn’t shut up. They’re asking her constantly, “Will the president condemn white supremacy?” She says, he has, he has, whatever her answer was, they weren’t even letting her make the answer. They were talking over her. Here’s how some of it sounded.
MCENANY: This has been answered yesterday by the president himself, the day before by the president himself on the debate stage, the president was asked this. He said “sure” three times. Yesterday he was point-blank asked, “Do you denounce white supremacy?” And he said, “I’ve always denounced any form of that.”
I can go back and read for you in August 2019: “In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.” In August of 2017, “Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.” I have an entire list of these quotes that I can go through with you. He has condemned white supremacy more than any president in modern history.
RUSH: Okay. So there’s her statement. That’s the first time she was asked, and it wasn’t enough. We have John Roberts of Fox News here.
ROBERTS: But just to clear it up this morning, can you, naming it, make a declarative statement that the president denounces it.
MCENANY: I just did. The president has denounced this repeatedly.
ROBERTS: You read a bunch of quotes from the past.
ROBERTS: No, I’m not.
MCENANY: — and a narrative.
ROBERTS: I’m just asking you to put this to rest.
MCENANY: I just did. I read you all the quotes.
ROBERTS: You read past quotes.
MCENANY: If you need to see them in writing, I will put them in an email.
ROBERTS: Can you right now denounce white supremacy and the groups it espoused.
MCENANY: I just did.
RUSH: You heard her. You heard her. The sound bite’s 40 seconds long where she denounced, all the quotes. I’ll share with you in a minute what he’s getting at. It’s so obviously a setup. Up next is Paula Reid. Paula Reid is the CBS White House correspondent, and she goes at it with Kayleigh McEnany.
REID: His record is very mixed on this issue.
MCENANY: His record is not mixed in the slightest. (Reid interrupts)
REID: It is very mixed.
MCENANY: And when you go back in history you can see that — (Reid interrupts)
REID: I have that history right here.
MCENANY: — that Jesse Jackson has praised the president as someone who served underserved communities. This president with Mar-A-Lago, it was the first Palm Beach club open to African-Americans and Jews. And in fact — (Reid interrupts)
REID: But his record is mixed. He has not been consistent on the issue of white supremacy.
MCENANY: He has been entirely consistent. (Reid interrupts)
REID: Has this White House – (crosstalk)
MCENANY: Let me speak, Paula. Paula, we’re not having a debate on a cable news network. Right now you need to let me finish. (Reid interrupts)
REID: You’re saying he condemns it. I have the record right here.
MCENANY: You need to let me finish. (Reid interrupts)
REID: His record is mixed.
MCENANY: It’s quite funny the media goes haywire about interrupting in debates and then chooses to pursue that very same tactic themselves. This is a White House briefing. You ask the question and give me time to answer.
RUSH: She’s exactly right. I am convinced they decided to replicate what they thought the debate was and they were going to pretend they were Trump, she was Biden, and they were not going to let her answer anything, interrupt everything constantly, even though Biden’s the one that started all the interrupting.
But you heard the press. “But his record is mixed, his record is mixed, he’s not been consistent on the issue, the record is mixed. You’re saying he condemns it. I have the record right here. And his record is mixed on it.”
Now, here’s John Roberts, grab sound bite number 27. This was back on Fox News after the briefing. Trace Gallagher said to John Roberts, “Kayleigh McEnany said that yesterday post-debate the president did denounce white supremacy. Was there ambiguity in that statement? What is all this?”
ROBERTS: It was my wife, Kyra Phillips, of ABC, who asked —
RUSH: Oh.
ROBERTS: — him that question yesterday.
RUSH: Wait a minute. Whoa. Stop the tape. Now it’s all abundantly clear what’s going on here. His wife, Kyra Phillips, asked the question yesterday that got this — I see. Okay. Back to the top of the sound bite in three, two, one.
ROBERTS: It was my wife, Kyra Phillips, of ABC, who asked him that question yesterday. And she said to him, “Do you denounce white supremacy?” And he — he got a little bit worked up at her about it. And — and said, “I denounced it, I’ve always denounced that.” But I don’t understand why he wouldn’t say, “I denounce white supremacy. I’ve always denounced white supremacy.” For some reason they’re not saying the word. And that’s what’s very puzzling.
RUSH: John, are you serious with this? But they are. “The president will not say the words white supremacy. So we want to know why. Yeah, he’s denouncing it, but he won’t say what he’s denouncing.” Well, you’re asking him: “Will you denounce white supremacy?” He has always — you know, this is not about white supremacy. It’s about creating the impression Trump’s a racist for a certain portion of the electorate.
It’s just like the Russian hoax and scandal. Comey goes and testifies. “I don’t remember any of this.” They’re still selling it. They’re still out selling Trump-Russia collusion. They’re still out selling that Trump is a white supremacist and loves white supremacists and protects them. All because he will not say he denounces white supremacy. He says he denounces “it.”
The questions all say: “Will you denounce white supremacism, will you denounce white supremacy?”
“Yes, I denounce it.”
“Why won’t he say, ‘I denounce white supremacy?’ Why won’t he say those words?” They’re trying to create the illusion that Trump is a white supremacist and is trying to not to anger his friends who are white supremacists by trying to remain vague. It is so pathetic.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ll tell you, folks, if there was ever a time to turn off the news on television and listen to El Rushbo, that time is now. There is so much crap out there, lies, bogus narratives. You just gotta turn it off.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: It’s getting comical now. CNN has a chyron graphic at the bottom of the page: “White House Will Not Outright Denounce White Supremacy When Pressed.” Well, except that they have. We’ve been here before. This is campaign tactics. You can’t look at CNN as a news organization. They’re Democrat operatives now under the guise of journalists and so forth.
Private property has been destroyed. People’s businesses, their dreams have been looted and destroyed in Democrat-run cities and states. Not once has the mayor, the governor of any of these states or cities — not once has Joe Biden — been asked to denounce the people that are doing this destruction. “Antifa? That’s not even people. It’s an idea.”
It’s not an idea. Ideas do not start fires. Ideas do not burn down people’s property. This is ridiculous. Black Lives Matter? A well-known — up-front, openly admits that they are a — Marxist, communist organization, and Biden nor his spokesbabe are being demanded to denounce any of this. And yet Donald Trump — who has never promoted white supremacy.
He has never spoken in favor of it, does not believe in it, is not a racist or white supremacist — denies it left and right, thousands of times — and it’s as though… Well, they’re just not letting him do it. They’re not letting him get away with… It’s not even “get away with.” They’re just ignoring it. I went and I found a flashback. TIME magazine accurately reported Trump’s Charlottesville remarks.
This story is from August 14, 2017: “President Trump condemned the violent attack on a crowd of counterprotesters in Charlottesville, Va., that left one dead and 19 injured Saturday. Speaking from the Diplomatic Reception Room in the White House Monday afternoon, Trump said plainly that ‘racism is evil’ and that members of the Ku Klux Klan, neo Nazis and white supremacists are ‘repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.’
“‘As I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws. We all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God,’ he said. … ‘Based on the events that took place in Charlottesville over the weekend, I would like to provide the nation with an update on the ongoing federal response to the horrific attack and violence that was witnessed by everyone.
“‘I just met with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack that killed one innocent American and wounded 20 others. To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.
“‘As I said on Saturday,'” this is the president speaking, “‘we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence. It has no place in America. And as I have said many times before, no matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag and we are all made by the same almighty God. …
“Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs including the KKK, neo Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.'” That’s the president, TIME magazine, on August 14, 2017. So what the hell is all of this about? What the hell is all of this dishonesty aimed at?
CNN is repugnant. CNN should be ashamed and embarrassed, but they are such low character people they don’t have the sense nor the ability to experience and feel shame over what they are doing — and they have no idea what they are doing. They have no idea the number of people they are enraging with this. What do they think they’re doing?
Why this panic? And why this issue? After all of this — after Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election and campaign, after the so-called horrible phone call with the president of Ukraine, after all of these impeachable offenses — all they’ve got is to go back and throw the tired, worn-out, overused and ineffective race card again? Why are they running this risk?
Because if you talk to them, they all think that the election’s over, that Trump has already lost, that Biden has won. The betting markets say so. The polling data says so. “It’s only a matter of time!” Except, there’s a problem. There’s just a problem. Everywhere Trump goes, literally tens of thousands of people show up wanting to be part of the event. Joe Biden can’t draw more than a hundred people anywhere he goes.
There is no enthusiasm for Joe Biden. There’s no pushing down the door. There’s no people, no group of people demanding Biden be president. He has no personal bond of connection with anybody out there. We’re into a new chapter of — and we’ve been here, done that before. “You must say black lives matter.” This is the Drive-By Media’s equivalent of making people say Black Lives Matter.
Where are the demands that Black Lives Matter and Antifa be denounced? They are nowhere. There’s one more sound bite from the press briefing at the White House today. I’m convinced the media decided they were gonna turn the press briefing today into a carbon copy of the debate. They were going to play Trump and Kayleigh McEnany — the press secretary — was gonna be the victim.
They were gonna interrupt her, and they were not gonna believe anything she said, and they were gonna act like whatever she was saying was a lie and they’re gonna keep demanding she say the same things over and over again. They were gonna make her go through what Trump put Biden through. I’m convinced that’s what these yokels thought they were gonna do. We played you the sound bite where they tried to do it.
So there’s one more sound bite. This is the CNN infobabe who wanted her shot at this. Her name is Kaitlan Collins…
COLLINS: He was given about —
MCENANY: Justin?
COLLINS: — 12 hours, more than that since from the debate from when he was asked to clarify yesterday, and he didn’t come out and clarify yesterday. Instead he did what you did when John asked you to unambiguously denounce these groups. You just pointed to past things that you’ve said. I just don’t understand why you knew you were going to get these questions and you don’t have a statement ready, to just say, “We do unambiguously denounce these groups.”
MCENANY: Kaitlan, do you know why people have lost trust in the media? There was a reporter from your network yesterday, your network, and in a tweet said —
COLLINS: (shouting)
MCENANY: — quote, “The president…”
COLLINS: I don’t even know what you’re going to (crosstalking) bring up but that has nothing to do with what I’m asking you —
RUSH: See, like the slug line here: “Kayleigh Buries CNN Reporter When She Wanted Her…” The reporter didn’t get buried. These people are incapable of thinking they got buried. The reporter, no doubt, thinks that she won the confrontation simply by raising the question again.
The White House is out there saying Trump has denounced white supremacy. They must have said it a zillion times and yet the press keeps asking, “Will the president denounce white supremacy? Why won’t he denounce white supremacy? Why will he not directly denounce white supremacy?” And they’re out there reporting that he hasn’t and he won’t.
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