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Feb. 1, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:49
February 1, 2013, Friday, Hour #2
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And greetings and welcome back.
It's great to have you here.
Pulp culture, pop culture.
What was what was I?
Pop culture icon.
Rush Limbaugh on Open Line Friday.
Let's live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
That's right, TMZ reported on me.
I've had I've had entertainment tonight cameras outside my house following me all over the place.
I know what I'm talking about here.
I'm in that culture.
Family guy.
I could be on.
I'd be invited on a lot of television shows they thought I would accept.
Anyway, welcome back, folks.
Great to have you here.
The telephone number for Open Line Friday is 800-282-2882.
And on Friday we talk about whatever you want to talk about.
I am irrelevant.
When we go to the phones.
It's totally up to you to talk about something that you think is interesting.
The audience will care about.
And we try to take more calls on uh on Friday than we do Monday through Thursday.
So again, the numbers 800-282-2882.
I mentioned in the last hour and I mentioned yesterday too that I I can't give you specifics.
It's just a feeling, and I assure you it's not just blind hopefulness.
It isn't uh wishful thinking.
I just have a sense that Obama's not going to ultimately succeed in totally transforming this country into something other than how it was founded.
Now I'm not denying what he's done so far is devastating.
But there are signs out there, and I keep talking about the states.
You know, in addition to fracking, you know what else?
Fracking would be probably number one, and it's the most unreported characteristic that is responsible for economic growth.
There literally is a boom in the oil industry in this country where fracking is taking place.
The other thing that is growing this economy is the manufacture and sale of guns.
And you know that.
You might not have put it in proper context, but you have seen all the stories about people lining up buying guns left and right and ammo.
And that has a profound economic impact.
And you're eight and a half million jobs vanished.
The labor force participation rate.
We've lost eight and a half million jobs since Barack Obama took office.
And sadly, that's not by accident.
Sadly, it's not a quirk of fate.
They may talk today about 157,000 new jobs were created last month.
Guess what?
169,000 people left the labor force.
So we have a net loss when it comes to jobs.
That's why the unemployment rate went up to 7.9%.
Then there's this.
I had this story late today yesterday from the Pew Research Center for people and the press.
And it's another poll, but this one actually has good news in it.
As Barack Obama begins his second term in office, trust in the federal government remains mired near an historic low, while frustration with government remains high.
Now I know what you're saying.
Wait a minute, Rush.
What do you mean trust in the federal government remains mired in a near historic low?
Frustration at an all-time high.
We just re-elected the guy who's promising more and more government.
I know.
It seems like cognitive dissonance.
And maybe it's worse.
Maybe a lot of people are willing to give up their rights for government freebies.
Maybe.
You know, it you cannot underestimate, and I did, by the way, but I'm never making this mistake again.
And I feel a little chagrined that I made this mistake in the last campaign.
When Obama was running these ads that were accusing Romney of essentially murdering some guy's wife, my reaction privately to myself, and here on the radio too, was nobody's gonna believe it.
That's so outrageous.
Romney, not just it's silly.
I was wrong.
People, if i if they didn't believe it specifically, it worked in combination with everything else Obama was doing in terms of trying to define Romney.
The dog in the cage on the roof of the station wagon on a family vacation, all the hidden money and the Caymans and Swiss bank accounts.
The fact of the matter is, Obama and the Democrats did a number on Mitt Romney's reputation and his character and his image.
With outrageous commercials that I thought nobody in their right mind's gonna believe.
I know they're gonna appeal to somebody, but they appeal to far more.
People may not have believed it specifically, but it did enough damage to make people say, I don't know.
I just don't like this Romney guy.
Stick with what we got.
I think there were a lot of people who are hands in the air of that election, gave up.
You know, Obama's vote totals were down from 2008.
The Republican vote totals were down from 2008.
In fact, if there were three or four million people, Republicans, who did not vote in 2012, who did in 2008.
If they'd shown up, we'd be talking about an entirely different future today.
And it would be dramatically positively different.
But there was no robust endorsement of Barack Obama and his policies in the 2012 election.
Look at the inauguration crowds.
They were down by half.
The exuberance, the excitement, the uh the near cult-like status Obama had in 2008, that's gone.
He's not that messianic figure anymore, but still people voted for him.
And I think looking back on it now with what we know now, there are some reasons may not make a whole lot of sense, but they still are reasons.
And I think they did a good enough job of destroying Romney's reputation.
I don't like that guy.
He's a rich Republican, doesn't care about me.
Look at exit poll data.
Cares about people like me, Obama.
81% agree, 19% agree with Romney.
All of that is the negative and campaign that Obama ran that the Romney people didn't respond to.
Because they didn't think it would stick either.
Nobody in their right mind would think an ad accusing a candidate of committing murder would stick.
So you got this poll from Pugh, which says that trust in the federal government remains near an historic low and frustration with government at an all-time high, and yet the guy responsible for both of those got re-elected.
It's enough to make you pull whatever hair you have left out.
But also, according to the poll, for the first time, for the first time, a majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and their freedoms.
And I and that that is excellent news.
It's surprising to me that it's the first time most people realize this, but I'll take it.
And I'll tell you why.
It's about guns, and it's about contraception.
It's about Catholic church, it's about religious freedom.
People are noticing.
I you you circle back and say, yeah, but Obama still won.
Yeah.
That still remains largely inexplicable.
But it doesn't change the results of the poll.
It doesn't change, in fact, it reinforces my gut instinct here.
Now, I don't think that all of us just sitting around waiting for something to happen is what's going to affect change.
Don't misunderstand.
There are all kinds of people, as I mentioned, that are working to stop what's happening and a reverse course.
You know, don't hear about them, but they're out there, governors, people in the states, average Americans.
This latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People of Press conducted January 9th through 13th.
1,502 adults.
53% think the federal government threatens their personal rights.
I'd actually like it higher, but I'll take the 53.
43% disagree.
The growing view the federal government threatens personal rights and freedoms has been led by conservative Republicans.
76% of them respond that way in the poll.
54% described the government's a major threat.
Three years ago, it was 62% of conservatives, now 76%.
And 47% said it was a major threat as opposed to 54.
There hadn't been much change among Democrats.
But most of this 38% still vote for more government.
Which tells you how much they value their rights despite all their lip service to civil liberty.
They just want the free stuff.
I mean, there's 38% that we can count on are voting for Santa Claus.
That's what the poll tells us.
But it's not 47%.
At least according to this polling data.
CNN.
CNN has canceled Soledad O'Brien's morning show.
Starting point.
A tumult at CNN that has seen several contributors leave the network.
Continued on Wednesday when Soledad O'Brien's show, the starting point, was canceled.
Because her program's small audience was quote too ethnic, based on the high concentration of minority viewers.
Now that's what was originally reported.
CNN suits are denying that.
They're admitting the audience was small.
But we don't care if it's all minority.
We don't care if it's all ethnic.
That certainly isn't true.
But when the original report hit, there were a lot of people who worked at CNN who were stunned to learn that one of the vice presidents, a guy named Bart Fader, had complained about the audience not only being small but too ethnic.
Look, there's no question that the changes at sea are taking place, because Because nobody's watching.
I mean the audience levels are they are dangerously non-existently low.
But there's also another factor here when it comes to some of these people.
They're just plain.
They don't know anything.
I'm trying to be charitable here.
They're just literally ignorant.
They need crib notes, cheat sheets.
They have no idea what they don't know and what they do know and what they're talking about.
I mean, they're really as rampant.
I don't want to call it uh stupidity.
I just I think it's ignorance.
I think there is a component of liberalism that makes you arrogant.
And you think you know everything, and what you don't know doesn't matter.
And if Republicans and conservatives think it, it is uh it is extreme and racist and biggest, so you don't deal with it.
So you wall yourself off and you end up knowing nothing other than essentially liberal propaganda, and I think that probably describes a whole bunch of people at CNN and probably over at uh PMS NBC as well.
Okay, let's take a brief time out.
Open line Friday rolls on, we'll get to your phone calls, and the devastating yet humorous Chuck Hagel hearing sound bites from yesterday.
So CNN now, and uh as I say, show prep for the rest of the media CNN now doing uh all the homosexuality that's in the Super Bowl this week.
Uh and they've got comments of Martina, not for Talovus.
Don't worry about this culver kid.
He will figure it out.
He'll learn, I'm sure.
We'll take care of it.
Anyway, CNN's doing that story.
As to Soledad O'Brien, CNN's original report, the audience was too small and too ethnic.
How can you be too ethnic?
I mean, what a way to kick off Black History Month here.
Get rid of Soledad O'Brien because her audience is too ethnic.
That's not very sensitive.
Remember what Wolf Blitzer said when he was covering Hurricane Katrina?
Among the many things he said, Wolf Blitzer observed as he was looking at the victims that they were so black.
He said that.
And of course there were people what what do you what do you mean by that?
Well, they were the they're so poor.
He had to do some fast dancing to uh to get out of there.
But he pulled it off.
Here's Pat in uh in Washington, nation's capital.
Great to have you on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Oh hey, Rush, what's going on?
Very much, sir.
There's lots cooking out there.
How about when you know it?
It's crazy to watch all this.
So I got a I got a comment here real quick.
I've been looking at Obama.
You know, when I was a kid, it was tax and spend liberals, right?
Yep.
Now they just print it, spend it, and tax later, right?
Right.
Okay, so where's the money?
What what if he could wave a magic wand, what taxes would he impose on the people.
Well, that's why they're focusing on the rich.
That's about anybody that's about who nobody left that has any money other than the rich.
Well, right.
So my point is, you know, the no and nobody ever talks about it.
They they want a wealth tax.
Well, you know, that that has come up now and then, and uh I I think it's possible.
I think with this guy, any tax that is an increase is possible, be it a value-added sales tax, val a VAT tax, a wealth tax.
The problem with the wealth tax is that the real rich in this country are not subject to any of Obama's tax increases.
Well, right.
Now my plan to uh like hit the Koch brothers, but leave Buffett, Gates, uh George Kaiser.
How does he, you know, get the what the guy's like and how's he getting the other guys, right?
Here's the thing.
As he hits the Koch brothers, he hits his Hollywood buddies at the same time.
And as he hits the Koch brothers, he hits his Wall Street buddies at the same time.
Now, exactly.
Well, but I'm my my point is does he want to make enemies out of those people who are his friends?
I think if he could isolate the Koch brothers, he would.
Um and my instinct are this guy doesn't care.
He'll tax anything whenever he thinks he can get away with it.
Michael Moore, Van Jones, those two, you've heard them go on and on about how they should go after 401K's and just confiscate it.
Well, I think that plan that plan's already in the works.
That the 401k plan involves the government taking your 401k money and then guaranteeing you some ridiculous cost of living promise increase every year.
I've I've I've forgotten the details of this.
We went we went Jesse Jackson yesterday suggested that they go get the six trillion dollars in private pension funds.
Right.
Just you know, take it.
It's all good.
We we'll get we'll pay you, it's no big deal.
Well, that's who he is.
I mean, I can't argue with that.
I I uh the odds are that if there's money out there that can be taxed, this is the guy that'll do it.
Hey, Rush, you got a time for a quick anecdote.
Yeah.
Okay, it's pretty funny.
So the night that Walker was not recalled, I turn on MSNBC just to see how they'll spin this and turn it into a positive for him or whatever.
And I'm watching this and I go to bed, and my kid, she's a youth group church thing, right?
She comes home, and the TV's still on, and she's getting ready for bed, and the next morning she gives me all this grief about what in the world were you watching, and I got more and more angry, and what a pack of liars.
And I said, Oh yeah, it was the Walker thing, and you were watching MSNBC.
She don't turn that crap on anymore.
And uh, well see there we we get hopeful signs from the most unlikely places.
Appreciate that.
Thank you very much, Pat.
Steve out in Long Island, great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Well, thank you very much, Rush, for taking my call.
You bet.
I just wanted to um give my humble opinion, the uh legislative power trick by which the Libs handcuffed the conservatives, mainly fear of loss is a better motivator than an opportunity to gain.
And unless they're conservatives produce the right order who understands that and wins back the battle of words, especially in public debate, the conservatives will continue to lose ground in the House, Senate, and the executive branches of government, and thus the citizens rate.
Give me an example of the Democrats selling the fear of loss.
Give me an example.
Well, for instance, I remember when Pelosi said if they go along with Romney, women will drop dead in the abortion clinics.
Oh, yeah.
Um the truth is from their policies, there's thousands of young women who are dying from sepsis infection, perforated uteruses, uh, not to mention the babies dying in the abortion clinics.
Plus the babies, right.
And it's just ironic that the very things uh that the libs accuse the conservatives stems from them accusing others of their legislative blunders.
And uh, now this is this is actually this is a very good point.
The uh the left uses fear rather than inspiration.
They use fear rather than optimism, pessimism rather than optimism.
They are always, you're right.
They are always telling people in this country what they're going to lose or what harm will become them if the Republicans succeed at anything.
And yet, as the Democrats have success after success, that harm that they've promised actually occurs to people.
So it's a um it's a good point.
It's it's like Ron Paul said in his last speech on the floor of House of Representatives, a big libertarian.
So that he's just he's amazed, he said, at how difficult it is to sell freedom, the concept of freedom to the American people.
And I knew exactly what he meant.
Hey, get this.
This is just choice.
John Kerry, most people know him from the uh the TV show, The Adams Family.
Most of our low information voters recognize John Kerry as one of the stars of the Adams Family.
Played Lurch, and he just uh had his hearings for Secretary of State, and he granted an interview to the Boston Globe.
And you know what he did?
He told the Boston Globe that Obama offered him the Secretary of State job one week before Susan Rice publicly pulled out of the running.
Susan Rice, it was her gig.
One of the things that I'm sure she was promised for going on those five Sunday shows and blaming the video, that YouTube video for causing Benghazi.
You know, she wanted to be Secretary of State.
It was hers, and then all hell broke loose because of those five appearances.
And she was hanging in there, and she was she wanted the job, and unb uh Carrie's making it sound like unbeknownst to her.
Obama threw her overboard and she didn't even know it.
So Lurch is out there bragging.
He actually called me uh week before Susan got out of the thing.
He called me and said, You're my choice.
I want you to do this.
He asked me to keep it quiet.
And I did, and I sat on it until now.
And I'm getting up off of it so that I can tell you about it.
This, you know, if you have any clay, this is not the kind of thing you say.
If you want this news out, have have it leaked by some minion and some tertiary officers.
But you don't do this yours.
You know what this is?
This this is the the most unclassy thing.
This is this is a this is a braggart.
You know, it's not enough for Kerry to have been offered the gig and go up there and and and go through for some basically phony baloney plastic banana good time rock and roller hearings.
No, he's still not enough.
And he's got to go out there and say, you know what?
I'm so special, I'm so cool.
I was offered this job a week before Susan Rice even pulled Out and they asked me to sit on it.
You know, a person with um any kind of class doesn't do this kind of thing.
But old Lurch had to go out there and make sure everybody knows.
I mentioned earlier today that the labor force participation rate is down eight and a half million jobs since Obama was inaugurated.
That is a significant number, folks.
We have lost eight and a half million, not just jobs, not just people not working.
There are eight and a half million fewer openings in common lingo, a job opening, eight and a half fewer jobs available since Obama took office.
Today they're reporting, everybody's going, gaga over 157,000 jobs created in this in uh January.
The media not telling you that 169,000 jobs were destroyed in January.
169,000 jobs just vanished.
There are 169,000 fewer jobs to be had, which is just gonna make it harder and harder for people who do want a job to find one.
There are fewer jobs.
And so the total is eight and a half million.
Eight and a half million, and they have the gall to talk about being in a recovery in economic growth.
So at the White House today, the White House Daily Briefing, Jay Carney, the spokesman thought that it was prudent to address this figure.
Eight and a half million jobs lost, gone forever, at least as long as Obama's around.
And here's Jay Carney explaining why.
When this president took office in January of 2009, we were in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
We were in economic free fall.
We were losing.
We were hemorrhaging jobs at something like three-quarters of a million jobs per month.
And the hole dug by that recession in Job's terms was more than eight and a half million.
Bush's fault.
Still, we're into the fifth year of the Obama regime.
And he sends his press secretary out today to blame Bush.
Yeah, it's even worse than they knew.
It was so bad, eight and a half million jobs lost, and uh nothing we could have done about it.
Now I don't expect him to admit that they're responsible for it.
And in fact, I'm not surprised.
What else would you expect this crew to say?
But it's gotten to the point now where if Obama's gonna blame his predecessor, he'd blaming himself because his predecessor is him.
I'll take you back to this program and me back in 19 or sorry, 2002.
This is Chuck Hegel, and I need to do a tiny bit of table setting here.
In 2002, the media loved Chuck Hegel.
Chuck Hagel was off the Republican reservation by then.
He's a Republican senator from Nebraska.
By 2002, he's questioning everything.
He's always was a rhino, a Republican in name only, always a moderate Republican, but I'm telling you, back then, because he was constantly disagreeing with Bush, and at this point he's McCain's best friend.
Back in the 2000 campaign, McCain said that he would offer Hegel Secretary of Defense if he was elected.
They've now had a falling out because Hegel endorsed Obama in 2008, not McCain.
That's why McCain humiliated Hegel on his thoughts on the surge in Hegel's hearings.
But to understand this soundbite, you've got to believe, trust me if you weren't around, the media and everybody loved Hegel, and not just that, they thought he was brilliant.
They thought that he had a special intellect that set him apart.
That's why, by the way, the entire ruling class, Republicans, Democrats, elected officials, media people, they are beside themselves.
They're shocked at how poorly Hegel did yesterday to say.
They're shocked at how ill-prepared he was.
They are stunned at how unprepared he was.
They are overwhelmed by how stupid he sounded.
But just eleven years ago, this guy was among the smartest politicians around, and I saw the need to comment on it.
Up Chuck Hagel from Nebraska, who I swear I don't know what he thinks.
He just asks questions, but he never answers.
He gets all this credit for asking a bunch of questions.
Shall we go it alone or shall we do it with others?
Whoa, what a brilliant mind is Chuck Hagel.
We have choices to make in the twenty first century.
We can be a nation of peace or we can be a nation at war.
He's brilliant.
Would you listen?
It's almost like Peter Sellers in that movie.
Oh, what was the name of that movie?
He played Cho Who?
Being there, right?
Says nothing, and everybody thinks he's the most brilliant guy in the world.
Well, in the spring, the plants grow.
And he's a guest on all the talk shows for having a brilliant mind when it comes to plants.
Peter Sellers played that character.
There's growth in the spring.
Oh, yes, Chauncey, whatever his name, Chauncey was the character.
But it was Hegel Mania back then.
That that's why they were just shocked yesterday.
And let's listen to some examples how they could not believe up first Dana Bash, CNN situation room.
Uh she's on with Wolf Blitzer.
And by the way, here's the blitzer quote from the Hurricane Katrina Days.
I'm not making this up.
Blitzer said, You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals.
As Jack Cafferty just pointed out to our CNN viewers.
So tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor, and they are so black.
And this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold.
Wolf Blitzer, they are so black.
Solidad O'Brien let go from the morning show because her audience was so ethnic.
Anyway, Dana Bash on with Wolf Blitzer, who said to Dana Bash, what's been the reaction there to the Chuck Hagel hearings?
You were watching these hearings for several hours, Dana.
What's the reaction up there?
During that break, senators were on the Senate floor voting, and as senators like to do, they were gossiping.
They were very surprised that Senator Hagel is simply not doing as well as many people thought he would.
All the talk that the senators are shocked about how ill-prepared he is on some of the most basic controversial comments that he made that he and everybody knew were going to be coming at him.
Even a Democrat who is supporting Hegel, sort of shaking his head in disbelief, saying that he is surprised that he's not more forceful.
Simply put, there is uh as I said, disbelief we move over to CBS this morning.
Bob Schiefer uh was uh was talking to the co-host Nora O'Donnell on the morning show.
She said, What was stunning about yesterday, Bob?
White House saying that they were disappointed by that performance.
The White House usually preps their nominees, but there's no way to spin this one, Bob.
This is stunning, but I agree with you.
I mean, generally on something like this, what will happen uh the White House will come back and stoutly defend the guy and say they're being unfair to him.
And they started they didn't say it on the record, but started leaking all these reports.
They were disappointed and all that.
I mean, Hegel, what did you mean the Israelis treat the Palestinians like cage savages?
Well, I don't really recall.
You did say it.
What did you mean?
Well, I think I'll let history be the judge.
What did you think of this, George?
I want to know.
You tell me when ya you search, did it work it did he not?
Well, you thought you'd well, I would have let the history be.
No, I don't want to hear three, I want to wonder if we're just a simple yes or no.
McCain was all over him.
Everybody was all over him.
It was, I mean, you know, well, how come the Iranians are endorsing you?
If he had had his wits about it, so what?
The Iranians endorsed Obama.
Big deal.
I'm serving for Obama.
Bob Schiffer wasn't through it.
Charlie Rose weighed in, said, Bob, we in the ruling class are worried here.
Then This is the next Secretary of Defense.
This guy doesn't sound like he knows what's going on.
How serious is the damage?
And does it derail the nomination?
I've never heard to seen a White House react quite the way they did to this.
You knew these were the questions they were going to get, and he did not seem able to really answer them.
And uh I think I think this nomination may be in trouble.
Yeah, he might be in trouble.
I'll tell you exactly what happened.
Hegel is a victim of his own press.
He read it, he believed it.
And all through the 2000s, early 2000s, he was the smartest guy in Washington.
He was brilliant.
And all the guy ever did was ask platitudinous questions.
He'd call a press club.
Do we want to be a nation at war?
Do we want to be a nation at peace?
And from that, people, this guy, he's figured it out.
And Hegel is a classic example of a guy who read his press clippings and believed it, and thought he was the smartest guy in the room, and would able I I bet he probably didn't even think they were going to come at him this hard.
He's our colleague, he's an ex-senator.
Brief time out, my friends.
The fastest three hours and media just keep rolling on here.
Hang on, folks.
I'm looking at the soundbite, Rosh.
I thought I saw something here by Chuck Yu Schumer, and I guess I didn't.
Chuck U Schumer.
No, I did look at it during the break, but I had to go quickly.
I'm looking at it.
Chuck Hugh Schumer, Chuck Hugh.
Maybe it was Cookie.
I need the Chuck Schumer soundbite where he essentially says, he said it a couple times, that border security, it's not part of what we're doing.
Or we've already got it, it's not a big deal.
Something like need that soundbite from Chuck Yu Schumer.
In the meantime, Ted Cruz, I mentioned Ted Cruz just launched.
He's the rookie senator from Texas.
Ted Cruz, I'm telling you, is is I I don't want to jinx the man, but along with Rubio, Ted Cruz is uh he's gonna be a very important figure for this country as we move into the future, and he's a rookie.
Normally rookies come in quiet.
First year, don't make waves, don't upset.
He just fired both barrels at Chuck Hagel yesterday.
In a speech on the floor of the Senate, you referred to Israel's military campaign against the terrorist group, Hezbollah as a quote, sickening slaughter.
Now I would suggest the characterizations.
Do you think it's right that that Israel was committing a quote, sickening slaughter, as you said on the floor of the Senate?
I've said many, many times, Senator, uh every nation has a right to defend itself.
And do you think a sickening slaughter would constitute a war crime?
No.
Uh depends on they were attacked, depends on many factors.
If Israel was defending itself, there was slaughter going on on both sides.
Does one typically characterize defending yourself against terrorism as a sickening slaughter?
No, but again, Senator, I'd want to look at everything.
That's just embarrassing.
That that that I mean, the ruling class, the the political elites are beside themselves, one of their own.
And next Secretary of Defense, a guy is gonna help Obama dismantle.
The American military complex.
And that's what his role is, because that's what he believes in, by the way.
And he just came off.
You know, this is the the ideology is what has to survive.
When these guys come up there and embarrass themselves, they've got to go because the the the liberalism must triumph.
Progressivism, whatever they call it, it cannot be damaged by uh incompetent boobs like this.
And that's why the White House, oh gosh, totally terribly disappointed.
This is not who we thought he was, and uh.
But his job is to help Obama dismantle the military complex.
That's and you want somebody who's gonna do that to be able to command respect and make the low information crowd think that he's smart and knows what he's doing.
Hegel did not pull that off.
So Cruz uh next up played a clip of Hegel being interviewed by Al Jazeera in 2009.
And in the clip, the host of Al Jazeera read an email from a woman who says America's perceived as the world's bully.
And Hegel agreed with it in the clip.
And after the clip, Cruz and Hegel had this little discussion.
Do you think it's appropriate for the chief civilian leader of the U.S. military forces to agree with the statement that both the perception, quote, and the reality is that the United States is, quote, the world's bully.
I think my comment was it's a relevant and good observation.
I don't think I said that I agree with it.
You did say you agree with it.
He did say it agreed with it.
And what is it, if not agreeing with it when he says, well, that's a relevant and good observation.
America's is the bully of the world.
Yeah, that's a And he was saying things like that.
He was loved, by the way, when he was saying things like that when Bush was in the White House.
Hegel was loved and adored.
And I think that's another thing caught him up short.
He used to say this kind of stuff and got praise to the hilt from the media.
He forgot he's not a Republican in the White House anymore.
I'll tell you what, Chuck Hegel, if he if he's confirmed as a Secretary of Defense, you're gonna make damn sure that the United States is not in the position to be anybody's bully.
That's his job, because that's what Obama is going to do.
Downsize the U.S. military.
Got a timeout here at the top, but we'll be back.
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