BRETT: It’s incredible to watch the political drama playing out on the stage, driven in large part by someone who clearly has no script, and that is, well, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. This pivot from what ought to be focused on — the notion that the border is in crisis — over to gun control in the last 24 hours has been, well, expected.
I wouldn’t want to be talking about the border in meltdown if I were Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. But it’s the weak ham-handedness that we see from this administration as it relates to restricting your Second Amendment rights that continues to just absolutely blow my mind. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh Show. I am Brett Winterble.
Our phone number on this Friday to have a conversation is 800-282-2882 — 1-800-282-2882 — and be sure to check out RushLimbaugh.com for all the latest, best content, information, analysis. You name it, it is all right there for you. We remember yesterday the press conference with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Somebody who hadn’t been seen in like 12 or 13 days. She was tasked with becoming the border czar, never showed up for that job. But there she was with the president, Joe Biden, announcing a new set of executive actions and legislative proposals on gun control, saying that gun violence is a public health crisis. Among other things, here’s President Biden.
BIDEN: No amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can’t yell crowd… You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded movie theater (mutters) call it freedom of speech. From the very beginning you couldn’t own any weapon you wanted to own. From the very beginning the Second Amendment existed, certain people weren’t allowed to have weapons. So the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we’re recommending are contrary to the Constitution.
BRETT: When he freelances on the big issues, it’s not pretty. It’s not pretty. We can certainly, you know, hit him for transpiring words. You can’t yell “Crowd!” in a fire theater… I’m sorry: You can’t yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, all that sort of stuff. But when he gets off the script, he gets twisted up because he doesn’t understand the fundamentals of the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
The Second Amendment. The sacred right of people to defend themselves. Not from bad guys, not from their neighbors, not from deer who might attack you, not from people who may be lurking on your property causing you to go out on your balcony and fire two rounds of shotgun blasts from the balcony (laughing) which he advised back in 2013, as vice president.
Just in case the home had been breached by bad guys and Jill Biden had to take that Mossberg out there on the balcony and bust some caps in the air. Certainly, a surprise to the Secret Service agents, no doubt. But I digress. But it’s not about that. It’s about the Constitution. This is not about whether any right or freedom is absolute.
It’s about what’s written in the Constitution, and the Founding Fathers made it abundantly clear that they believed the American citizens — the American citizens in this republic — had the right to defend themselves in a variety of circumstances. James Madison noted, that “the Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed —
“– which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” That’s Federalist number 46. You can go on and on to leader after leader. Alexander Hamilton of New York: “If circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms who stand ready to defend their rights and those of their fellow citizens.”
Federalist 29. Alexander Hamilton is the patron saint of the far left. These Founding Fathers were held up as geniuses when they were trying to impeach Trump after he left office. I don’t want to digress. Thomas Paine, Pennsylvania: “Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were the law abiding deprived of the use of them.”
That should be a billboard campaign! That should be a T-shirt that is being told. That should be at the top of everybody’s Twitter page. Thomas Paine of Pennsylvania: “Thoughts on Defensive of War in 1775: ‘Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well as property. Horrid mischief would ensue were the-law-abiding deprived of the use of them.'”
Gee, I can’t think of any cities that are suffering the ravages of bad actors holding the people of those cities in mortal dread and fear. Back in March of 2018, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice appeared on The View, and the subject of gun control came up. Rush made mention of her appearance because she skewered the issue with a single story. Here’s Rush with Condoleezza Rice on Second Amendment.
RUSH: The whole subject of gun control came up. Now, when this subject comes up on The View, you have to understand, these are brain-dead, unthinking robots that just utter and shout the dumbest and stupidest left-wing talking points, led by Joy Behar.
And it’s all steeped in hate. So gun control comes up, and the Second Amendment and Trump and the NRA, and Behar and the rest of these gals, some of them just go off on the unusual talking points, gotta get rid of guns, da-da-da-da-da.
And Condoleezza Rice, who’s African-American, calmly sitting there, said, “Let me tell you why I support the Second Amendment.” And she told a story of her childhood in Alabama. She lived on a cul-de-sac with other African-American families.
It was a modest, lower to middle class neighborhood, it was an African-American neighborhood in Alabama, and routinely a chapter of the Klan would either ride through on motorcycles or in their cars and taunt and threaten and intimate and basically harass.
She said that her dad, every time it happened, would grab his rifle and go out the front door and meet them on the street and fire his rifle in the air. And they would leave. And after a while, they stopped coming back. And there was dead silence on the set of The View.
Maude Behar didn’t have a thing to say. The normally insane, raucous audience was silent except for the smattering of applause you could hear, much like what you describe when she told Schiff to do it or get off the pot.
And it was very powerful. Here’s an African-American woman who has been treated the way the media and the left-wing treated her when she was secretary of state, making Aunt Jemima jokes about her and all that, and she maintained her dignity throughout all of it, and she just tells a true story about how her dad used a gun to protect her and her family from the Klan. And there was nothing Maude Behar could say.
And it was a perfect illustration of why people who obey the law want, need, and use guns. It was pure self-defense, but it was also making a statement. It was a deterrent. It was everything. Didn’t have to shoot anybody. Just took the shotgun out, didn’t appear frightened in the face of the Klan, just aimed a shotgun in the sky and fired, until they left. And if they hadn’t had the gun, who knows what the Klan might have been emboldened to do.
Anyway, there was nothing the left could say. And it was just a perfect illustration. Here’s a woman of impeccable integrity, who is not really known for being particularly partisan, if you want to know the truth. I mean, she’s served in Republican administrations. You know she’s a member at Augusta National, she plays golf?
She’s a concert pianist, truly accomplished woman. She’s a proud member in good standing of the Horatio Alger Society, which is a group of people who honor others who come from literally nothing to become amazing successful contributing people. And there was nothing they could say.
There was no way to react to her story and demean it or criticize it or impugn it. It was a very, very powerful thing.
BRETT: It’s incredible to me to listen to that story, Condoleezza Rice sharing her own personal — well, the phrase they would use today would be her “personal truth,” sharing her personal truth, the experience of her personal journey and it actually having an impact on the folks on The View, including Maude Behar.
It’s also remarkable to me that under so many circumstances (chuckling), when it looks like the left can’t go more bold, can’t go more wacko, can’t go more out there, the notion that you should not be allowed to defend yourself — the most ancient right a human being has — has to consistently and continuously be rejustified, reexplained, and resubmitted for the approval of people who just don’t get it.
Back during the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in Virginia, Patrick Henry of Virginia spoke, and he issued a warning: “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect anyone who approaches that jewel.”