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Feb. 1, 2017 - Rush Limbaugh Program
30:48
February 1, 2017, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Yes, a little private banter going on here amongst us uh ourselves here to staff.
The EIB network, greetings, my friends, and welcome back.
It's great to have you here to the fastest three hours in media.
We have the the line established.
We have the connection, speak to the vice president.
He's up on Capitol Hill as we speak, introducing Judge Gorsuch around, various senators, he's with uh Senator Ayat, Kelly Ayat, uh, as as well.
And as soon as he has a moment to break away and come to the phones, uh, we'll have him on.
Uh in the meantime, I want to share with you a little anecdote.
It's actually a uh a tweet about Judge Gorsuch that demonstrates not only his judicial temper but his sense of humor.
And it is uh it's a tweet regarding his dissent in a case where his court approved the arrest of a twelve-year-old.
The court that he was on, the other judges approved of the arrest of a twelve-year-old for making fake burps in school.
And he dissented from this ruling.
And here is a portion of what Judge Gorsuch wrote.
If a seventh grader starts trading fake burps for laps in gym class, what's a teacher to do?
Order extra laps, detention, a trip to the principal's office, maybe.
But they get it then again, maybe that's too old school.
Maybe today you call a police officer.
And maybe today the officer decides that instead of just escorting the now compliant 13-year-old to the principal's office, an arrest would be a better idea.
So out come the handcuffs, and off goes the kid to juvenile detention.
My colleagues suggest that the law permits exactly this option, and they offer ninety-four pages explaining why they think that's so.
Respectfully, I remain unpersuaded.
Ninety-four pages explaining why a twelve-year-old faking burps in gym class should be arrested and cuffed and taken away to Juvie.
We mentioned earlier that the uh nuclear option has oh, we have the vice president now.
Vice President Pence, thank you for making time for us today, sir.
Rush, it is great to be back with you and and uh uh I'm really honored to be uh to be joining you from the eighteen acres of the White House.
Oh, you're back at the White House now.
I thought I th I saw earlier you were up on Capitol Hill with Judge Gorsuch uh escorting him around.
I was, I was.
We uh started out in uh uh Leader Mitch McConnell's office and uh but he's doing his initial rounds today, and and uh I have to tell you uh I uh uh uh the the president's decision to nominate uh Judge Gorsuch,
someone s exceptionally well qualified, an extraordinary background, a man of the West, uh, who I know will be faithful to the Constitution and uh and apply the law as written as it's deeply humbling for me to be even a small part of that rush.
You know, you've always said that from the first moment I spoke to you after you had accepted vice presidential nomination.
You have spoken of the humility you feel for all this, and it uh uh it sounds like it hasn't changed at all.
Well, it's it for me to be to be a part of uh of uh of the administration of someone who I truly do believe is gonna make America great again, and you look at you look at the early days of this administration, you look at the decisive leadership.
Uh I I like to say President Trump is in the promis keeping business.
He's from literally day one.
He's been he's been doing exactly what he told the American people he would do.
But uh last night uh to be there on the front row as as he walked uh Judge Neil Gorsuch uh to the podium and and introduced a man who uh I I truly do believe uh has the has the character, the courage, uh, and the background to be an extraordinary uh justice of the Supreme Court was especially meaningful to me.
All right, now I uh I already had a question for you to go here on Judge Hardaman, and I was gonna ask you a question about it, and I was just watching Spicer and the press briefing, and he was asked why President Trump brought both Hardaman and Gorsus to Washington.
And he said we didn't bring Hardeman here.
Then Hardwin was never here.
We never brought both of these people here.
So it's another example of fake news.
It totally fake news.
It's amazing how much fake news I'm not just saying this because you're on the phone here.
I have a story that documents thirty different examples of fake news in five days.
And I haven't had a chance to go through it on the air with people yet.
But it's astounding.
What I was going to ask you was 31 if you want.
Okay, give me 31.
Well no there was about a week ago we opened up uh a paper in New York and they were reporting about something that was on my my website or my Facebook page and it was a fake Facebook page.
And uh and that that you know that newspaper and and uh one network uh actually ran with it for a while and took it down but you know I think uh you know I think it's one of the reasons people cherish and and appreciate your voice in the national debate is because when when they hear it on Rush Limbaugh they know it's a fact uh they know it's coming straight at them and they know it's it's backed up by the truth.
Well we try.
Thank you very much.
What I was going to ask you about was this if if there was any strategy in choosing Judge Gorsuch over any of the others on the President's list based on the Democrats.
Early on the Democrats telegraphed that they're going to go all the way in stopping whoever the President chose.
And was that a factor in determining which of the 20 on the list you decided to go with?
Yeah, you know, I don't think the president based his decision on anything other than finding the best qualified person in the country to succeed.
He's always quick to say to me, not replace.
He said, you can't replace Justice Scalia, but you can succeed him.
I think his focus was finding the best possible person who would bring a wealth of experience to
the fore and and be faithful to the Constitution just as as he had promised the American people uh he would do in making this appointment and I I think these other considerations I think they make they make great fodder on cable news panels but at the end of the day every conversation that I had with President Trump about this is I want the best judge uh and I want to I want to keep my word to the American people to appoint someone in the tradition of the late and great Justice Antonin Scalia.
Are you preparing in any specific way for variations on the kind of conduct you can face during these hearings they could go one of two ways here.
They could figure me as Democrats they could figure look this is a replacement seat, the balance doesn't change the man's eminently qualified and save most of their ammo for the next pick.
Or do you expect them to do everything they can to stop Judge Gorsuch.
Well let me say we're we hope for the best and frankly I think uh the President and our entire team are heartened by some of the early response.
I think it at this count seven Democrats in the United States Senate have said that they believe Judge Gorsuch deserves an up or down vote.
I have the names right here.
They are Blumenthal, Chris Coons of Delaware, Heidi Heitkamp of N North Dakota, Mansion, West Virginia, McCaskill, Missouri, Tester, Montana, and Durban, Illinois, except for Durban, Trump won practically all the states those senators are in, many of them up for re-election 2018.
Well, sure.
But you can understand.
I mean, that's a very diverse list of people that are nevertheless recognizing that, look, the Senate has a role here under the Constitution.
And as I walked Judge Gorsuch into the Capitol building today, he sat down with the leader Mitch McConnell, and he's been meeting with members of the Senate.
He's going to meet, if they take the meeting, he's going to meet with all 100 members of the Senate, Republicans and Democrats.
Democrats alike they'll have hearings in the coming weeks and the Senate has a job to do.
But at the end of the day, I think I think we're encouraged by the fact that that so many Democrats here within 24 hours of the announcement are recognizing that uh that there needs to be a vote on Judge Gorsuch and that would be very consistent with the timetable and the way that uh both President Obama's first term appointments to the court and President Clinton's first term appointments to the court uh were considered.
Uh you know whether it whether it was President Clinton with Breyer or Ginsburg or whether it be Obama with Kagan and Soda Mayor those those uh nominees moved through the process in a period of sixty or seventy days.
There was no filibuster they were given an up or down vote and in every single case every one of those nominees received bipartisan support.
You you you can't be expecting that here.
You can't I mean that you're talking about the Republicans showing Obama and Clinton respect in their first terms but Mr. Vice President these people are already claiming that this is a stolen seat that this is Merrick Garland's seat that this guy Gorsuch does not deserve this seat that this seat should go to whoever Obama wanted to have it.
Well well let's be clear this seat this court and this government belongs to the American people.
And the decision by the majority to to essentially hold off on considering an 11th hour vacancy on the court put that decision in the hands of the American people and they elected in President Trump someone who who not only created a list but he created a framework said I want someone that's exceptionally qualified someone with an extraordinary academic background.
I want someone of character and courage and I want someone who will be faithful to the Constitution in a manner consistent with Justice Scalia.
Hillary Clinton was offering something very different.
You remember in those debates rush Hillary Clinton was offering a completely different judicial philosophy and would have offered very different nominees.
This was in the hands of the American people and I I can't think of a better place for that to be and the American people chose the president they wanted to make this appointment and I think and hope that members of the Senate will respect that that it was placed in the hands of the American people and that they'll give uh Judge Gorsuch every consideration, give him that up down vote.
And in so doing I I I still continue to hope uh that we'll see we'll see bipartisan support and orderly consideration so that Judge Gorsuch can become Justice Gorsuch and uh the American people will be proud every day that he's on the court.
We are speaking with Vice President Mike Pence.
I have to take a brief commercial break, and I know you're swamped.
But if you can hang on for a couple of more minutes until we get back, I would appreciate it.
I have a couple of things I want to ask.
Great.
Above and beyond the nomination of Judge Gorsuch.
We'll take the break and be back in just a second and continue with the vice president.
And we're back with the vice president, Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana.
I want to move on to the domestic agenda here.
The triumvirate of Obamacare replace and repeal tax cuts in the infrastructure.
And I guess the thing that interests me most here is the infrastructure.
That's a trillion dollars that is being talked about.
about here over ten years coming off Obama's 700, 800 million dollar infrastructure bill which there was no infrastructure addressed with that where does the money come from and what kind of projects and what are its prospects legislatively.
Well let's let's be clear what the President said first and foremost is that we're going to repeal and replace Obamacare.
And we're going to do all those things at the same time the the president dispatched me to meet with members of uh of Congress shortly after the election we've been working earnestly I was back on Capitol Hill last week and and those discussions and negotiations are going forward and we're looking forward to Dr. Tom Price being confirmed as a Secretary of HHS and and you'll see that plan forward that will uh not only repeal Obamacare's mandates and taxes that are driving up premiums
across the country over a hundred percent in some jurisdictions but you're also going to see a plan that harnesses the power of the free market to drive down the cost of health insurance for Americans.
But that's all coming by this spring we're going to be talking tax relief, tax reform.
President Trump's committed to cutting taxes across the board.
Frankly also uh making some changes in our tax code that that uh that take away the benefit companies have when they pull up stakes and move jobs overseas and but getting the economy moving again is key.
But in the midst of all of that we'll be doing a couple of other things including building up rebuilding the military after years of neglect and we'll be looking for funding from the Congress to do that.
But on the infrastructure side, you know the American people know that they they elected a strong leader in President Trump, but I can tell you also they elected a builder.
This is someone who as you know you've known him for many years, Rush, is someone who um you know is is very impatient with the with the crumbling infrastructure that he sees at our airports that he sees on too many roads and bridges across the country.
And so we're looking at a broad range of options to make resources available to states and local communities to rebuild the infrastructure of this country.
But what about we're not just talking about public money here.
One of the things Indiana did one of the things Indiana did I'm I you know all of this is on the drawing board right now in terms of financing but one of the things state of Indiana did was hi harness private uh sector funding.
It's called public and private partnerships to build infrastructure.
Our when I was governor of Indiana our state was recognized as a national leader uh in this area.
So that there's a whole range of ways that that we can get at the resources in the short term and in the long term but more than anything else I think in President Trump you have someone that knows that that roads mean jobs, the right infrastructure in America will support growth and opportunity all across the country and we're committed to finding ways to do all that.
There's no question that a lot of airports, roads, bridges need to be rebuilt and modernized.
There's no question.
Let me ask you about private money and how it works.
Private money is private money.
Are you offering equity in these projects in exchange for the money?
Uh tax breaks?
What what incentives are you offering private sector people and I assume their money people to help the federal government in rebuilding and modernizing some of these things.
Well let me just say stay tuned.
This is something we're working with members of Congress on on legislation even as we speak and we're literally we're considering all of the above but what what we what you have in President Trump, whether it be straight out appropriations or public and private partnerships, is a president who wants to get this economy moving again and he wants to get America rolling again.
And he knows that that you know having the condition that we have at many of our major airports, having the condition of too many of our roads and bridges across the country is not going to support a growing American economy.
And so we're going to work with members of Congress about the best way to do that in a fiscally responsible way and we'll have those details for you in the days ahead.
Mr. Vice President you the President are you surprised to any extent at all at the vitriol and the intensity of the opposition coming your way not just from the Democrats, but from the American people from uh fr from the media at virtually every turn are w is this something you expected is it worse or not as bad as you expected you have plans to deal with it.
Well uh what I'll tell you is I've been very moved at the outpouring of support from people all across the country for President Trump's decisive leadership on a broad range of issues.
I had the privilege a week ago of speaking to the March for Life in front of 50,000 largely young people on the National Mall, and to see their enthusiasm for a president who kept his word standing for the sanctity of life.
It was deeply moving to me, to see people that came to the inauguration from all over the country.
I can't even describe to you what this grandson of an Irish immigrant felt as I raised my right hand and looked out over that sea of people cheering this president on, this stronghold, strong leader who's determined to bring real change to Washington DC.
And with regard to Americans that that uh disagree with our agenda that's their every right we respect their right to be heard from I will tell you the negative media coverage that we've gotten from many quarters, present company accepted, um, has been striking to me.
I I have to tell you that in in all of my life there was always a grace period, right?
For new presidents coming in.
I think they call it a honeymoon, right?
Where the media like gives gives a new administration a chance to come in and start to do what they do.
And boy, if there was a honeymoon, it was it was pretty short.
I really don't remember that.
And and yet what's so inspiring to me is is in President Trump, you have someone who's turned he's turned the his face like Flint against the wind, as the saying goes.
And he's he's driving forward on all of the policies that he promised the American people he would do.
And uh I think that's the reason why people all across the country, millions of your listeners across the country are so heartened uh by uh by this the early days of this administration.
I'm just telling you, and telling all of them, we're just getting started.
We are in the promise keeping business, and we're gonna continue to support the president in every way as he keeps his word to the American people, and we will make America safe again.
We will make America prosperous again, and as he loves to say, we'll make America great again.
Well, uh thank you, Mr. Vice President.
I appreciate that.
We got limited time here.
I just have to tell last time I spoke to the president, he asked me if I was still as strong as I used to be, still booming the ball.
Tell him yes, he'll know what that's about.
It's just it's the golf course.
He's gonna make you prove it on the golf course.
Also, just to give you a heads up, as you I'm not asking to respond, just giving you a heads up.
Media's reporting at two Republicans, one of them Susan Collins, have announced they're gonna vote against Betsy DeVos uh at education.
I'm not asking you for response because I got three seconds to thank you for showing up.
It's great to talk to you, and we'll see you next time.
That's right, a man, a legend, a way of life.
Again, a thank you to Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States.
His uh first radio appearance following a nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court.
It is true.
Uh apparently it is not fake news.
Two Republican senators have announced that they just can't vote for Betsy DeVos, who is Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education.
One of them is Susan Collins of Maine.
haven't had a chance.
Do you know who the second one is?
I haven't had a chance to find the second one.
That two Republicans, that that probably is gonna be close to the majority on that committee, which means you would have to find a couple of Democrats to make up the difference.
And it could you know the way the Democrats are looking at this, they'll be happy with one scalp.
If they if they could deny one nominee, minimum one nominee, his sh well, I know she's out of committee.
Oh, sh she is out of committee.
You're thinking she's out of committee.
Okay.
Well, then there's a little bit bigger margin that she has.
But they would still like to claim a uh a scalp.
At least one.
They would consider that a success story for their fundraising.
So we will keep a sharp eye as this unfolds.
But back to the phones now to Anna in Tucson, Arizona.
I'm glad you waited.
Yes, good afternoon, Professor.
Thank you.
Great to hear from Lisa Murkowski from uh Alaska's the other senator.
It's a interesting name, both women who are not gonna vote vote for uh for for Becky Dev Divos.
Anyway, Anna, what's up?
What's happening?
Okay, I have a question for you, Professor.
Yes.
Um what happens if we invoke the nuclear option to make sure that uh the judge gets gets uh his uh his approval.
Can we ever take it back?
Well, it involves a rules change.
And you could always try to change the rules and go back to sixty votes on confirmations, but nobody knows how that would go.
But once you once you invoke it, it it in it really does involve a rules change.
It has to be uh the the Senate majority leader can can uh uh pretty much make it happen.
But it it's it's it's almost like the horse is out of the barn.
Yes, I wondered why they never tried to change the rules back when they knew that they didn't have the majority anymore.
Well, because you have to you can't change the rules when you're not the majority.
Right.
But oh, that's true.
That's true.
We won the election and we already had a now and now now they're faced with living what they did to help themselves at the time.
You know, people warned Harry Reid not to do it.
Democrats said, Dingy, don't do this.
Because these guys are gonna eventually run the Senate again, and then they're gonna have this out of the way, and they're gonna be able to ramrod their nominees through.
And Dingy said, I don't care, I'm not gonna be there when that happens.
I'm gonna retire before that happens, and I want to get Obama all the judges he wants because that'll take care of generations of liberalism in the courts.
And that's what he did.
Oh.
Selfish, didn't he?
Typical.
Absolutely right.
Yes.
So what do you think is going to happen?
Do you think we would invoke it?
I don't think we want to.
Now, Trump said today that he to he told, well, again, I don't know if this is fake news or not.
It's reported in the media that Trump told McConnell to go nuclear.
And that did happen?
Okay.
Well, he said it yeah, okay.
I didn't mean gave him an order, but he signaled to McConnell that if that's what it takes, do it.
Go nuclear.
My sense is, uh, Anna, it really is.
My sense is that McConnell would have no problem doing it, but if he can avoid it, he would love to, because I think there are senators who really have a reverence for the time-honored rules and traditions and don't want to nuke them, which is what Dingy Harry did.
And if they can get Gorsuch confirmed without doing it, I think that would be their first priority.
And it looks like it might be possible because as the Vice President said, there are already seven senators, seven Democrats, who have announced that they will not filibuster Gorsuch, meaning they will not participate in an effort to deny him 60 votes.
And they are Richard Blumenthal, Democrat, Connecticut, Chris Kuhn's Democrat, uh, they're all Democrats, Delaware, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Mancho, West Virginia, Claire McCaskill, Missouri, uh John Tester of Montana, and uh Dick Durbin of Illinois.
As I said, all but Durban face challenging re-elections in 2018, and that's one of the reasons why.
But that means with these seven, you only need one more Democrat to announce they won't filibuster.
And if the Republicans stay unified, which they will on this nominee, then McConnell won't have to go nuclear.
Good.
Excellent.
All right.
Okay, thank you.
You bet.
I'm happy to answer the question, a brief obscene profit timeout and a quick return.
Don't go away.
This is interesting.
Mike Flynn hijacked the White House press briefing shortly after it began.
Mike Flynn's a national security advisor.
Here's the first sound bite.
Recent Iranian actions involving a provocative ballistic missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants, underscore what should have been clear to the international community all along about Iran's destabilizing behavior across the entire Middle East.
The recent ballistic missile launch is also in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.
This is important, folks.
I'm going to explain after the next bite when Flynn, i.e., the Trump administration put Iran on notice.
The Trump administration condemns such actions by Iran that undermines security, prosperity, and stability throughout and beyond the Middle East, which places American lives at risk.
President Trump has severely criticized the various agreements reached between Iran and the Obama administration, as well as the United Nations as being weak and ineffective.
Instead of being thankful to the United States in these agreements, Iran is now feeling emboldened.
As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice.
Well, actually interrupts the press secretary.
Maybe he kicked it off, but it happened early on, putting Iran on notice.
Now what is the meaning of this?
Well, let's go back to the campaign.
Remember during the campaign, a number of people kept asking Trump, are you gonna rip up the Iran deal?
You're gonna rip it up, it's a Bad deal.
Everybody knows that Obama just authorized Iran to get nukes.
And Trump was noncommittal about tearing it up.
I'll tell you what I think was going on.
I don't, and you and in fact, we've heard Trump actually praise certain aspects of the Iran deal.
My theory, and you have learned by now not to doubt me.
My theory is that rather than rip this up and start over.
Wait until they cheat.
Because that's a given.
It is a given that the Iranians are going to cheat.
So put the onus on them for backing out of the deal.
When they cheat, you put them on notice and say, okay, you guys have blown this deal up.
To hell with this deal.
You're cheating on it, and that's that.
Because let's be honest, the CIA, you know, part of the Obama CIA wanted this deal.
Part of the Obama State Department wanted this deal.
Remember, we're divided country.
You got leftists in this country that think Iran wants to nuke up to protect themselves from us.
It's our problem.
It's our fault.
So rather than tackle this, the Trump administration realize they're going to cheat on it.
You know, don't go to the rigmarole of ripping the thing up and practically having to start over.
Just wait till they cheat.
And that I think is exactly what's happened here.
Also think it's smart move.
Here's uh here's Fred in Cleveland.
About a minute and a half, Fred, but I wanted to get to you.
I know you can do it in a minute and a half because I know what you want to talk about.
How are you doing?
I'm doing well.
I'll make it as quick as I can, Rush.
I know you can do it.
I got through to you eight years ago, right after Obama won, and I predicted the death of liberalism, if he succeeded through his presidency.
And I think we're seeing it.
I think the exposure around the world, France, Britain, everywhere you look, uh, liberalism is slowly losing ground.
And the reason is that when things get serious, there's no room for liberalism.
It's a myth.
It has no cause or effect.
So when lives are at stake and when the American people are in danger, liberalism goes out the window.
And reality sets in, and that's Trump.
I think uh his actions over the next few months will continue to prove to the globe and to the American people that liberalism doesn't work.
Well, I feel good doesn't work.
I agree with you.
Liberalism doesn't work, but it's got to be called out.
The failures that you're talking about, Brexit, the crumbling economies around the people have to be told this is because of liberalism.
It's because of the Democrats, it's because of the policies of Obama.
You can't just leave this stuff for people to assume and figure out.
Because people, I have learned, do they're not comfortable going ideological.
They just aren't.
And it's a it to me, it's a concerted effort to instruct or teach or force press ideology and its awareness on people.
Um because they just are not gonna realize it.
They're just gonna say, well, these people's policies aren't working.
No, they've got to be told why, and that's how you prevent them from winning in the future if you do it right.
By the way, see, Beyonce is pregnant with twins, ladies and gentlemen.
Reportedly, Jay Z is the father of one of them.
I hope you have a great rest of the day, and we will be back here revved and ready to do it all over again tomorrow, 21 hours from now.
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