Pelosi Calls Mueller Report Summary 'Insufficient,' Seeks Full Report

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is rallying Democratic lawmakers to deliver a unified message demanding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report be unclassified and made public in full, as congressional leaders await a summary of his findings from the Justice Department.
Pelosi and six top committee leaders held what they termed an emergency conference call on Saturday with Democratic House members. The call provided no new insight on Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether anyone in President Donald Trump’s campaign coordinated with that effort, according to lawmakers who took part.
The heads of the committees primarily involved in investigations of the Trump administration led the discussion, including Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler. The major thrust followed what Pelosi had earlier in the day outlined in a “Dear Colleague” letter -- that Congress must see the full report, plus its underlying documents and findings.
Among the talking points given to members Saturday was that Democrats were ready to subpoena the full report and underlying documents, or even to obtain testimony or a briefing from Mueller, Barr or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Pelosi wrote that Attorney General William Barr’s “offer to provide the committees with a summary of the report’s conclusions is insufficient.”
Democrats are attempting to keep pressure on Trump with their own investigations into his actions as president and his business dealings before taking office. But neither they nor Republicans know yet whether the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation will accelerate or tamp down further probes.
Pelosi said transparency is even more urgent given Barr’s letter on Friday that he may advise certain lawmakers this weekend on the “principal conclusions” from Mueller’s 22-month investigation.
“We are insisting that any briefings to any Committees be unclassified so that Members can speak freely about every aspect of the report and not be confined to what DOJ chooses to release publicly,” Pelosi said in her letter.
Barr is planning to release his summary of Mueller’s findings as early as Sunday, according to a Justice Department official. He’s said he will consult with Mueller and Rosenstein on “what other information from the report can be released to Congress and the public.”
Pelosi said Congress must get Mueller’s entire report so that the relevant committees can proceed with oversight and with potential legislation to address any issues the investigation may raise.

Key Findings to Congress Delayed as Mueller Wraps Russia Probe

U.S. Attorney General William Barr pored over a special counsel report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow, and was due to release key findings perhaps as early as Sunday.
Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement official, aimed to transmit to Congress and the public a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report by the end of the weekend.
He will not deliver the summary on Saturday, a Justice Department official said, leaving it likely that he will do so on Sunday.
There appeared to be initial good news for President Donald Trump and his inner circle, as Mueller did not bring any new indictments when handing over his report to Barr on Friday after a probe of almost two years.
That signals there might be no more criminal charges against Trump associates on the issue of whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to help ensure the Republican businessman's surprise election win against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"Once we get the principal conclusions of the report, it's entirely possible that that'll be a good day for the president and his core supporters," Democratic Senator Chris Coon told reporters on a conference call.
It was not immediately known what Mueller's report says about another strand of inquiry: whether Trump committed obstruction of justice to hinder the Russia investigation by acts such as firing then FBI Director James Comey in 2017.
Mueller had earlier brought charges against 34 people and three companies, with prison sentences for some of Trump's ex-aides such as former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
None of those charges, however, directly related to the question of collusion between the campaign and Moscow.
Trump and his core team still face legal risks even if the report does not find that they committed crimes, and congressional Democrats on Saturday vowed to keep looking into his activities.
Trump's business, his charity and presidential transition operation remain under investigation, said Coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Other prosecutors have picked up strands of the Mueller probe, most notably the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York which is looking into Trump's business practices and financial dealings.
KEY FINDINGS
On Saturday, Barr and his deputy were working closely with principal advisers to determine what to include in a letter to Congress to present the key findings of Mueller's report.
Under Department of Justice regulations, Barr is empowered to decide how much to disclose publicly. A Trump appointee, Barr told lawmakers on Friday that he is "committed to as much transparency as possible."
The attorney general spent nine hours at the Justice Department on Saturday before leaving at around 7 p.m. (2300 GMT), CNN said.
Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, resort for the weekend, remained uncharacteristically silent about the completion of the investigation that has cast a shadow over his two years in the White House.
He has frequently derided the Russia investigation as a "witch hunt." He denies collaborating with Moscow. Russia says it did not interfere in the election.
Spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters that the White House still has not received or been briefed on Mueller's report.
The president had no public events scheduled on Saturday and played golf with musician Kid Rock. "He's fine," Gidley said when asked by reporters how Trump was feeling. "He's good, he's good." Gidley declined to say whether Trump had talked about the Mueller report while golfing.
A large pro-Trump float behind a flatbed truck pulled up to the golf course about an hour after he arrived, adorned with American flags and "Trump 2020" signs.
Political analysts expect the Mueller report to have a significant impact on the 2020 presidential campaign - how Democrats might be able to use it stop Trump being reelected and how Trump could use it if he is effectively cleared of wrongdoing.
The big question is whether the report contains allegations against Trump or exonerates him. Even if Mueller has outlined serious wrongdoing by Trump, the Justice Department has a policy that sitting presidents cannot face criminal charges.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Clinton and helping Trump.
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said Barr's offer to provide congressional committees with a summary of the report's conclusions is insufficient and that "Congress requires the full report and the underlying documents."
House Democrats have sent letters to the Justice Department to ensure Mueller report documents are preserved in case lawmakers need to see them, Representative Ted Lieu told MSNBC.

Smart Phone Dumb People Cartoons

Democrats vow to keep investigating Trump despite Mueller's conclusions, no new indictments

The Democrats can  keep stupids investigations going that cost millions of dollars because it's not their money, it's yours.

Congressional Democrats vowed Friday to keep investigating President Trump, his family, and associates despite Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrapping up his Russia investigation with no new indictments.
Attorney General William Barr notified key congressional leaders in a letter Friday evening that Mueller finished his investigation, adding that a summary of the probe’s findings may be provided to lawmakers as soon as this weekend.
Both the investigation's end and the lack of any new indictments struck at the core of the Democrats’ messaging for the last two years that led people to believe the Mueller probe would uncover evident collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
This prompted House Democrats to somewhat downplay the Mueller probe and suggested that the left-leaning lawmakers themselves might take on the job of trying to prove collusion, not ruling out the possibility of Mueller being asked or subpoenaed to testify before congressional committees.
“If the Justice Department doesn't release the whole report or tries to keep parts of it secret, we will certainly subpoena the parts of the report and we will reserve the right to call Mueller to testify before the committee or to subpoena him,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Nadler is leading an investigation into “alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump,” a probe he announced earlier this month and has requested documents and records from 81 individuals and entities connected, in some way, to the president.
So far only a fraction of those targeted have responded or complied with the document requests by the Nadler-imposed deadline of March 18.
Democrats in the House will also ask multiple executive branch agencies to preserve the information they gave to the special counsel, the Washington Post reported.
The Democratic chairs of the six House committees investigating the Trump administration and their Senate Democratic counterparts reportedly have penned a letter that will be sent to the Department of Justice, FBI and White House Counsel’s Office, and other agencies in an effort to preserve records in the event of the committees requesting for them.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,made similar comments to Nadler and rejected reports that no more Mueller indictments are coming.
“If necessary, we will call Bob Mueller or others before our committee, I would imagine the judiciary committee may call the attorney general if necessary,” Schiff told CNN.
This is not the first time Schiff dismissed the importance of the Mueller report. Earlier this month, he insisted that the question of whether Trump was “compromised by a foreign power” would end only when Schiff's panel's investigation ends.
“Our predominant concern on my committee is: Was this president, is this president, compromised by a foreign power?,” Schiff said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“Well, if there’s insufficient evidence in the Mueller report and we’re not able to produce sufficient evidence in our own investigation," Schiff said, "that ends the inquiry."

Delivery of Mueller report met with stunned surprise – and tears? – on CNN, MSNBC

Mainstream media figures Jim Acosta of CNN, left, and Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews of MSNBC all seemed stunned as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation wrapped up Friday with no more indictments planned.

The mainstream media seemed to suffer a collective shock Friday evening after the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller handed its final report of its Russia investigation to the Department of Justice.
MSNBC host Chris Matthews seemed livid that neither President Trump, his children, nor his “henchmen” would face any criminal charges from the special counsel.
“Maybe he missed the boat here,” Matthews said of Mueller. “Because we know about the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, we know about the meeting at the cigar bar with Kilimnik [Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political consultant]. My God, we know about all of those meetings with Kislyak [Sergey Kislyak, a Russian diplomat] at the Republican convention in Cleveland. All these dots we’re now to believe don’t connect.”
The liberal cable news host was particularly upset that the president wasn’t indicted on obstruction of justice and never sat down for an interview with the special counsel.
“Why was there never an interrogation of this president? We were told for weeks by experts, ‘You cannot deal with an obstruction-of-justice charge or investigation without getting the motive. ... How could they let Trump off the hook?” Matthews asked. “He will not be charged with obstruction of justice or collusion without having to sit down with the Special Counsel Mueller and answer his damn questions. How could that happen?”
Matthew’s primetime colleague, Rachel Maddow, was visibly emotional throughout her show.
Maddow kicked off by telling her viewers she was reporting live from Tennessee because she felt she needed to interrupt her vacation to address the breaking news. She appeared to be holding back tears.
"A couple of hours ago, or maybe even less than that, I was standing knee-deep in a trout stream in Tennessee," Maddow told her viewers. "But now it's Mueller time! And so I'm in a studio in the great state of Tennessee. The trout are basically just as safe as they were when I was flailing away at them ineffectually this afternoon."

"The trout are basically just as safe as they were when I was flailing away at them ineffectually this afternoon."
— Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

Meanwhile, several personalities on CNN were forced to admit that the announcement of the Mueller report was a positive development for the president.
CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin offered rare favorable commentary for President Trump, calling the end of the Mueller probe “really good news” for the commander-in-chief.
"There has been a lot of suspicion around certain people. And a lot of negative things have been said and imputation of criminal activity,” Toobin told “Situation Room” anchor Wolf Blitzer. “Mueller has said, ‘I am not proceeding.’ There is no better news to receive than you are not being indicted by the United States government.”
Later, CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta said the White House was “quietly celebrating” and that the Trump administration was reacting to Mueller’s report with “a fair amount of glee.”
“I talked to a Trump campaign adviser earlier this evening who said, ‘This was a great day for America and we won,’” Acosta told “AC360” anchor Anderson Cooper. “That’s how they feel right now.”
Liberal celebrities also appeared surprised by the sudden end to the investigation.
In Hollywood, “Real Time” host Bill Maher expressed disappointment but doubled down on his negative views of the president, whom he has often called a "whiny little b----."
“Did the Democrats put too must trust in the Mueller report? Because I don’t need the Mueller report to know he’s a traitor. I have a TV,” Maher told his panel of guests.
Outspoken anti-Trump comedian Chelsea Handler took to Twitter on Friday night and told her 8 million followers that she was “sexually attracted” to Robert Mueller.

Turn in Your Smartphones! How Mueller Kept a Lid on Trump-Russia Probe

When members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election have arrived for work each day, they have placed their mobile phones in a locker outside of their office suite before entering.
Operating in secrecy in a nondescript glass-and-concrete office, the team of prosecutors and investigators since May 2017 has unearthed secrets that have led to bombshell charges against several of President Donald Trump's aides, including his former national security adviser, campaign chairman and personal lawyer, who have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury.
To protect those secrets from prying ears, the whole of the office suite in southwest Washington has been designated a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), U.S. spy speak for an area that has restrictions to ensure secret information stays secure.
One common restriction in SCIFs is to keep out smartphones and other electronic devices, which can be turned into covert listening devices or spy cameras. Visitors also have been required to turn these over before entering.
The restrictions, while not surprising given the team was investigating whether a hostile foreign power tried to help Trump win the 2016 election and whether his campaign conspired in the effort, have not been previously reported.

Mueller on Friday sent his report on his investigation to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, setting off a clamor from lawmakers in both Democratic and Republican parties for the document's public release.
Accounts of witnesses interviewed by the special counsel's team, their lawyers and others familiar with the investigation reveal the lengths to which Mueller, a former FBI director, has gone to ensure his high-profile probe safeguarded its secrets.
In a city known for its leaks, Mueller has pulled off a rare feat. He has kept a tight lid on both his office and the evidence he was amassing in his highly sensitive investigation that has cast a cloud over Trump's presidency. And he did it even as Trump relentlessly criticized him, calling the probe a "witch hunt" and the special counsel's team "thugs."
THE ADVISER AND THE DODGE CHARGER
When former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo agreed to an interview with Mueller in May 2018, he was told he would be picked up at the hotel where he was staying in Washington. On the lookout for a black government SUV, Caputo and his lawyer were surprised when an FBI agent drove up in his personal car, a white Dodge Charger.
"Then he drove us 15 blocks to their location and we went in through the garage so that nobody would see," Caputo said in an interview.
Caputo was questioned about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort's aide Rick Gates and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone. When the interview was over, Mueller's team told him they would take him back to his hotel. Caputo said Mueller's team was not happy with what he said next.

"I said I'm meeting a TV crew downstairs so I won't need a ride," Caputo said. "They weren't upset that I was talking to the media, they were disturbed that I was doing it in (front of) the office."
"They were concerned ... that would put their agents and attorneys at risk," Caputo said, adding that he agreed to meet the news crew at a different location nearby.
Former Trump campaign adviser Sam Nunberg said an FBI agent picked him up at the train station to take him to the office.
"You put your phone and any electronic devices and leave them in a compartment out front," Nunberg added. "It was a very plain office."
Nunberg said he went into a conference room with three tables, and prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, a member of Mueller's team, came in with three FBI agents, one female and two males.
The office's location was not publicly revealed but was discovered by journalists. Still, it has not been widely publicized. Mueller's team has asked media outlets not to publish the exact location for security purposes.
"We are working in a secure location in Southwest DC," Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, has said.
STAYING OUT OF THE NEWS
"In a town where everybody and their mother is trying to get on the front page, Bob Mueller was always trying to stay out of the news," said Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department spokesman. "He wanted to be judged on actions, not press conferences."

Corallo, who was briefly a spokesman for Trump's legal team, was interviewed by Mueller's team in February 2018.
Corallo and other witnesses summoned for interviews by Mueller's team said they were picked up from their lawyers' offices and taken to a secure parking garage in the building in southwest Washington.
The team's office suite was anonymous with no plaque on the door to identify its occupants, said Washington lawyer A. Joseph Jay, who represented a witness he declined to identify.
More than once, Jay recalled, members of Mueller's team expressed their commitment to confidentiality. "They made it clear on a number of occasions, 'We don't leak. You don't have to worry about that with us.'"
"By keeping to their code of silence, they were professionals," Jay said. "They weren't reacting to the spin. They were doing their jobs. They spoke through a number of indictments. They spoke through a number of sentencing memos."
Mueller has remained silent throughout the investigation and his office has issued only one statement. In that statement, issued this past January, spokesman Carr labeled as "not accurate" a BuzzFeed News account describing evidence collected by the special counsel that allegedly showed that Trump had directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal. BuzzFeed has stood by its story.

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, himself a former federal prosecutor, also remarked on Mueller staying out of sight.
"Whenever we talk to them, they say, 'We'll take it to Bob.' He's like the Wizard of Oz," Giuliani said.
Giuliani said although he was suspicious of leaks to the news media, he acknowledged he knew of none for sure from the special counsel's team and that nothing he told Mueller's office was leaked.
"Mueller doesn't talk to us. I don't know why he'd talk to the press," the former New York mayor added.
Joseph Campbell, a former assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division who worked at the agency when Mueller headed it, said the special counsel knows how to handle sensitive investigations and ignores the attacks on him.
"He went through 12 years starting with 9/11 of extremely critical and sensitive investigations around the world," said Campbell, referring to the 2001 attacks on the United States. "This is right in his wheelhouse."
"He is not affected by external criticism or speculation," Campbell added.
Robert Litt, former general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said any leaks about the investigation appeared to have come from witnesses or their lawyers.
"There's nothing he can do about that," Litt said, referring to Mueller.
Litt said Mueller, the 74-year-old former U.S. Marine Corps officer and architect of the modern FBI, probably "cares little about the public perception of him."
"He cares," Litt said, "about doing the job right."

© 2019 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Mueller Concludes Russia Probe, No New Indictments

Democrat's total waste of millions of taxpayer (you) dollars.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday handed in a confidential report on his investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election and any potential wrongdoing by U.S. President Donald Trump, setting off a clamor from lawmakers in both parties for the document's quick release.
Marking the end of his nearly two-year investigation that ensnared former Trump aides and Russian intelligence officers and cast a cloud over the Republican businessman's presidency, Mueller submitted the report to Attorney General William Barr, the Justice Department said.
Mueller did not recommend any further indictments, a senior Justice Department official said, in a sign that there might be no more criminal charges against Trump associates arising from the investigation. Throughout his investigation, Mueller has brought charges against 34 people and three companies.
The big question now is whether the report contains allegations of wrongdoing by Trump himself or exonerates him.
Mueller, a former FBI director, had been examining since May 2017 whether Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow to try to influence the election and whether the Republican president later unlawfully tried to obstruct his investigation.
Trump has denied collusion and obstruction. Russia has denied election interference. Trump has sought to discredit the investigation, calling it a "witch hunt" and accusing Mueller of conflicts of interest. But he said on Wednesday he does not mind if the public is allowed to see the report.
The report was not immediately made public. Barr, the top U.S. law enforcement officer and a Trump appointee, will have to decide how much of it to disclose. Barr told lawmakers in a letter he may be able to provide the "principal conclusions" of Mueller's findings to Congress as soon as this weekend and added that he was "committed to as much transparency as possible."
Under regulations governing special counsel investigations, the attorney general must share an outline of Mueller's report with Democratic and Republican leaders of the judiciary committees in Congress but it is largely up to him what to make public.
Key Trump aides, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, national security adviser Michael Flynn and personal lawyer Michael Cohen, have already either been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges brought by Mueller. None of those charges, however, directly related to the question of collusion between the campaign and Moscow. The Justice Department has a policy that sitting presidents cannot face criminal charges.
Lawmakers from both parties called for prompt release of the report.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer - the two top Democrats in Congress - said it was "imperative" the full report be made public, that Barr not give Trump and his team a "sneak preview" of the findings and that the White House not be allowed to interfere in decisions about what parts are made public.
They said the investigation focused on questions that "go to the integrity of our democracy itself: whether foreign powers corruptly interfered in our elections, and whether unlawful means were used to hinder that investigation."
'OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY'
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, said, "The attorney general has said he intends to provide as much information as possible. As I have said previously, I sincerely hope he will do so as soon as he can, and with as much openness and transparency as possible."
The White House has not received or been briefed on the report, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said, adding that "we look forward to the process taking its course."
When the Justice Department announced the arrival of the report, Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he met on Friday with a group of Caribbean leaders.
Staff members at the private club were setting up for a Lincoln Day dinner fundraiser for a local branch of the Republican Party. Programs for the event featured an image of a $5 bill with 19th century President Abraham Lincoln sporting a red Trump campaign hat with the slogan "Keep America Great" on it.
Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, posted a picture on Twitter of his sons on a fishing trip. "Great day on the water with my little men for their spring break," he wrote.
Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican and a strong ally of the president, expressed confidence the report would not find collusion with Russia.
"The reports that there will be no new indictments confirm what we've known all along: there was never any collusion with Russia. The only collusion was between Democrats and many in the media who peddled this lie because they continue to refuse to accept the results of the 2016 election," Scalise said.
Even if the Mueller report exonerates Trump, that may not spell the end to his legal troubles. Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations in a case overseen by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who said in court filings that Cohen carried out the crimes at the direction of Trump.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan is also looking at the spending of Trump's inaugural committee and business practices at the Trump Organization, the family's company.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow meddled in the election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.
Mueller's investigators have looked into a large number of contacts between people associated with Trump's campaign and Russia such as a meeting in New York's Trump Tower between members of the president's inner circle including his eldest son and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer five months before the election.
Mueller sought to determine whether the campaign coordinated with Moscow, though it was not immediately clear whether the special counsel found evidence of a conspiracy.
QUESTIONS ABOUT OBSTRUCTION
Mueller also examined whether Trump committed obstruction of justice by trying to hinder the investigation, looking into acts such as urging FBI Director James Comey to drop a probe of Flynn's contacts with Russia, the subsequent firing of Comey, his attacks on the special counsel, dangling of pardons for former aides and the ouster of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mueller's team already has signaled the direction of the investigation through indictments and hundreds of related court filings that have offered extensive details about Russian interference in the election.
Trump fired Flynn in February 2017 after it emerged he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about his dealings with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. In May 2017, he ousted Comey, whose agency had been leading the Russia investigation. Comey's firing led the Justice Department to appoint Mueller to take over the probe.
A small number of House Democrats have pushed for Congress to impeach Trump and remove him from office but the party's leadership including Pelosi has urged caution. No president has every been removed from office via impeachment.
Several House committees in the meantime are conducting aggressive investigations of Trump and people around him.
The last president to be impeached by the House, Democrat Bill Clinton, was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, meaning he was not removed from office.
In prosecuting Manafort, Mueller showed how the former campaign chairman made millions of dollars working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, while also exposing his ties to a consultant who the special counsel said was connected to Russian intelligence. Manafort in the two cases prosecuted by Mueller's team was sentenced to 7-1/2 years in prison.
The special counsel's case against Cohen revealed that Trump was negotiating to build a skyscraper in Moscow late into the 2016 campaign, contradicting statements from Trump at the time that he had nothing to do with the Russians.
The special counsel also indicted longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, a Republican operative and a self-proclaimed political "dirty trickster." Stone is accused of telling members of Trump's campaign that he knew in advance of plans by the WikiLeaks website to release emails damaging to Clinton that were stolen by Russia

If You’re Souring on Fox News, You’re Not Alone

posted by Rush Limbaugh -  Mar 20, 2019

RUSH: Carolyn in West Haven, Connecticut.  Glad you waited and hi.
CALLER:  Hi, Rush.  It's a pleasure waiting.  Everyone has these lightbulb moments, and mine came today listening to you with my headset on. I decided that I'm gonna take the Rush Limbaugh challenge, and from 12 to 3 every day in my business, my headphones come off and the whole business is gonna listen to the Rush Limbaugh Show.  If my patients and my gym clients don't like it, well, God bless America. They have choices; they could go elsewhere.
And for all the corporate Fox News savants listening to this: Fox News used to be on my TVs. After their conscious decisions to alienate a judge, hire a degenerate from CNN, a back-stabbing opportunist person as Paul Ryan to run their corporation, they have just, if possible, blown their alienated base out of proportion -- and you, Rush Limbaugh, and Donald Trump, your viewers, into the stratosphere, the absolutely stratosphere.  I am so heated by --



RUSH:  Okay.  Okay.  Let me go back to the beginning here.  You obviously have a business of some kind where this program and others are on where people in your office or whatever can listen.  Is that right?
CALLER:  Correct.
RUSH:  Okay, and you've decided --
CALLER:  Correct.
RUSH:  You've decided that from now on you're gonna take my advice, turn off the cable news, and just exclusively make this program available to whoever is in your office able to listen.  Is that right?
CALLER:  Absolutely correct.
RUSH:  Okay, and the reason that you're doing this is because finally Fox News went too far. You have to throw them overboard because...? Run through the list again what happened?
CALLER:  Sure.  They made a conscious decision to sanction a judge --
RUSH:  Who?  Wait, wait.  Who?
CALLER:  Jeanine Pirro.  Judge Pirro.
RUSH:  Oh!  Judge Jeanine.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.



CALLER:  They hired a degenerate that couldn't even make it on CNN, Donna Brazile.
RUSH:  Yes.  This is --
CALLER:  And they hire an opportunistic, back-stabbing Paul Ryan to be on their board of directors.  He is only used Donald Trump to get that tax law passed, and after that it was, "See you later, America. I'm gonna take care of myself," and I am so... For the savants of Fox News corporate who listen to this show -- 'cause I know they do -- they don't need to strain their brain.  They could go on Twitter, Facebook, and all over.  There are millions of Fox viewers who are looking for alternatives.  I don't need to look.  I strained this morning. I called Comcast. "What am I gonna do?" and then today I thought, "Oh, wait, I'm gonna take the Rush challenge: 12 to 3, that's all I need."
RUSH:  That's all you need.  I'm telling you that's all you need.
CALLER: It's all I need! I'm gonna be happier.
RUSH: And I tell you, you're gonna be much better. You're gonna be happier. You're not gonna be nearly as pessimistic.  Look, hang on here for a second, Carolyn.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. Back with Carolyn here in West Haven, Connecticut. I wanted to explain these things that you addressed. Let's first start with Judge Jeanine. Judge Jeanine got in trouble for saying something about the new esteemed congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, saying that a woman who wears the hijab cannot be compatible with the U.S. Constitution if she believes in Sharia law. And if she's wearing the hijab, she believes in Sharia law, and it's not compatible -- you know, can I ask you something, Carolyn?



Do you find it fascinating – it’s something I still don't really have the explanation for, it's so weird. We are attacked on 9/11, 3,000 Americans are killed by militant Islamist terrorists on 9/11, 2001. And ever since then we have been portrayed as the problem and not them. And we have been seeking their forgiveness, and we have been apologizing to them, and we have been going out of our way to prove to them that we have nothing against them.
We didn't blow them up. They blew us up on 9/11. Now, they'll claim, “Well, but you've been blowing us up in the Middle East.” It's all about our support for Israel. But it has just blown my mind how, after 3,000 Americans are murdered on 9/11, that we apologize, and we've been apologizing since that date. And we have been begging forgiveness, and we've been making sure there isn't any Muslim backlash.
And, meanwhile, Christians are being slaughtered all over the world, and the media doesn't cover it because it doesn't fit their narrative. So here comes Judge Jeanine simply voicing this, and I'll tell you who got her I think suspended. There's a story going around, I guess Twitter, that Bret Baier demanded this inside Fox. Folks, that is not true.
This is directly from CAIR, Council for American-Islamic Relations. They're the ones putting all kinds of pressure here. But there's nobody inside Fox that is responsible for demanding that management sit down Judge Jeanine for a while. You mentioned Paul Ryan. What was the other thing you mentioned besides --
CALLER: Hiring Donna Brazile as a contributing --
RUSH: Oh, yeah.
CALLER: -- to the show.
RUSH: Well, you know, she's not the first liberal Democrat Fox has hired. They're all over the place on Fox. Why does this one bother you so much?
CALLER: She got caught cheating. She was fired from CNN. Could Fox not find another person without a background? They're sending signals to their audience where their viewership is going. There's no reason -- Judge Jeanine didn't say anything -- she didn't hyperbole it, she didn't add adjectives. She just stated a fact. I stand by her and her decision.
RUSH: Well, this is my point, that Judge Jeanine says something that's arguably not false. It fits the mold here that somehow after 9/11, '01, we're the ones that have to apologize, we're the ones that have to excuse ourselves and ask for forgiveness. Doesn't make any sense to me. I've never understood -- you know, the State Department within a month after 9/11 convened a forum for State Department employees, the title of which was, "Why do they hate us so much?" As though 9/11 was our fault. We had to come to some kind of understanding, why did they do this to us? It must be something we've done. The United States was therefore guilty. I saw that, and think this is happening in the Bush administration.
I understand your pique about Donna Brazile. She did funnel town hall questions to Hillary. And she did run the DNC during the, shall we say, hacking of the DNC computer scandal and all that. I can't explain to you why she was hired. I could only speculate. And it would be along the lines of Fox is being targeted by a bunch of people and they're trying to make themselves a smaller target by showing how fair and balanced they really are, something like that.
CALLER: They're losing, Rush, because their audience is gone and the advertisers will go to you. Donald Trump is going to get reelected because he is real people, not a politician. And Fox News is just losing the battle. They're going to lose more viewers from these decisions they just recently made.



RUSH: Well, we'll see. We'll see. They're still cleaning everybody's clock, particularly in prime time. They are cleaning in what is called the opinionated portions of the Fox --
CALLER: Well, there is a low bar to follow. The clock's not so big. It's not really who's out there. Put them up against you, they'd lose. I mean, you know, set a bar higher than the other people that they're going -- set a bar higher than CNN, MSNBC. They don't have much of a leap and bound to go.
RUSH: Well, maybe --
CALLER: They're selling back.
RUSH: There may be something to that. I have to acknowledge that there may be -- competition kind of sucks, I agree, but still they're cleaning their clocks, it doesn't matter. They're cleaning their clocks, and they have cleaned their clocks for decades, or over 10 years. It's amazing.
Look. You mentioned Paul Ryan. Now, what's happening here, Fox is being spun off. It used to be 20th Century Fox, 21st Century Fox, now Fox has done this gigantic deal with Disney, and Fox has gotten very much smaller. They've gotten rid of all the movies, all the television studios and so forth, and now it is the TV stations, the Fox News Channel and some other things.
And Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan has been put in charge of it and it is Lachlan Murdoch that went out and got Paul Ryan for this new company to put Paul Ryan on the board. This is commonplace. I mean, this is how crony capitalism or whatever, crony socialism works. Ryan, even though he's not in government anymore, still has a lot of sway there, still has a lot of power.
It's like Apple hiring Algore for their board. This is a way corporations interact with Washington. This is how they do it. You're expecting Fox to be loyal to the audience, and in your view, Paul Ryan is considered a bit of a problem 'cause he didn't support Trump and therefore Fox should have nothing to do with him.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: And that's not how Fox looks at it.
CALLER: Well, they're gonna be looking in the rearview mirror, then, because --



RUSH: Well, I can't get too deeply into this 'cause there's some stuff I'm not supposed to know. But there are real concerns over -- you know, for the longest time -- folks, let me just put it this way. For the longest time, even back when Roger Ailes was the chairman and CEO, the grand pooh-bah, there were fears that elements of Fox management didn't like Fox as a conservative news channel because they aren't conservative, and they wanted to move it off the conservative identity and move it back toward the middle.
Well, that theory has arisen again. And that theory is now rooted in the fact that there are now two different Fox News Channels. You've got the prime time, which is where the opinionated conservatism is: Tucker, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, you know, the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. block. And then the rest of the news channel, they think they are the day-to-day journalists, and they are complaining that the identity, the strong identity theft of the opinion programming in prime time is tainting their image and their work as journalists, and they don't like it.
And so there are rumors that eventually, not tomorrow, not any time soon, but this new Fox is going to change some of the prime time programming, make it less hard-hitting conservatism and so forth. Nobody really knows. These are just rumors that are floating around and circulating.
And they're trying to create this impression that half of Fox is at war with the other half of Fox. That the, quote, unquote, daytime Fox, the Shepard Smith Fox, the journalists at Fox are very, very, very happy with the prime time Fox, and the effort to create this picture of conflict and the need to resolve that conflict.
And I think a lot of this is coming from journalists who cover Fox who would love for Fox to be decimated. They would love for Fox to tear itself apart. They would love for Fox to take away its strengths. And they're the ones reporting on these rumors and so forth. Who knows what there is to all this. But I know that you're not alone. I've gotten a lot of feedback on what has happened here to Judge Jeanine and how unfair it is.
It's also kind of scary to a lot of people because she didn't say anything that is confrontationally controversial. She just said some things that you're not supposed to say about Sharia and Islam. And if you couple that with the -- I mean, the slaughter of Christians around the world is something that's real and not being reported on 'cause it doesn't fit the narrative of the media.
The media narrative is that Muslims are the targets and that Muslims are the victims and that Muslims are being unfairly targeted, criticized, and so forth. And so anything that doesn't fit that narrative doesn't make the news so to speak. Anyway, I'm glad you called, Carolyn, very much. I appreciate your time.

This article originally appeared on Rush Limbaugh

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