RUSH: I got up today, I must at you tell you, I bopped out of bed today, one of the first things I do after becoming fully conscious is grab the phone and check to see if there's been any emergency breaking type news overnight during the four or five hours I was asleep. And I see that Netanyahu apologized for his racist comments about the Arab vote.
I have to tell you, my heart sank. A little bit of it sank and I started shaking my head and I said, "Why are so many people afraid of this inexperienced man-child president?" In the case of Israel, I decided it must be the money. We give them a lot of money. We give them a lot of foreign aid. And Obama's clearly somebody who would take it back if he could, slightest provocation. So, whatever, some kind of diplomatic pressure, was brought to bear and Netanyahu thought that the best thing to do would be to apologize for something he has no reason to apologize for.
He didn't do anything. All he did -- I don't want to rehash this -- was respond. In fact, we have learned more about the Obama political operation for Netanyahu -- if anybody needs to be apologizing to anybody here, it's the Obama campaign team. The Obama team needs to be apologizing to the people of Israel for coming in and gumming up the works of their election. They were using all kinds of American tactics, push polling, any number of things. And they were specifically trying to gin up the anti-Netanyahu vote among the Israeli Arab population.
All Netanyahu did was realize it and tell people this was going on. And that, all of a sudden, became racist, when it was Obama and his campaign team that were behaving according to the tenets of racism. Netanyahu just responded. But he had to apologize for some reason and I just hope it's not that meaningful in terms of Netanyahu's resolve. It's like, did you see the Iranian supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei? A lot of people noted that he gave a speech the other day and he was shouting, "Death to America! Death to America! Death to America!"
Grab sound bite 18. This is our old buddy Marie Harf, the valley girl impresario who's a spokesman at the State Department. Wolf Blitzer spoke to her last night on CNN. He said: "The Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, all of a sudden once again today, is declaring death to America. This is the guy who's in charge. He has to approve a deal," the Iranian nuke deal that we are negotiating. "But now he's telling a crowd over there 'Death to America! Death to America!' A lot of people are suggesting, members of Congress and others, how can we even negotiate with an Ayatollah who declares death to America?"
BARF: Well, we've heard this kind of rhetoric for a long time. This certainly isn't new. What we're focused on is what's happening in the negotiating room.
BLITZER: So the words have no meaning when he says, "Death to America," you don't take that seriously?
HARF: It's not that they have no meaning. Obviously it's incredibly offensive, I would say, to all of us here. We've seen this kind of rhetoric before.
RUSH: She goes on to say he's just saying that for domestic content. Marie Harf said you have to understand who these people are, and the Ayatollah Khamenei was just saying that for his people. He didn't really mean it about us. He just has to say that to his people. Now, tell that to a uniformed American military man or woman who has seen an Iranian-made IED blow up in their face in the Middle East in Iraq or Afghanistan. You ask a uniformed military personnel if the Ayatollah Khamenei only means it for domestic consumption, that he really doesn't mean it.
So I guess he really doesn't mean, "Death to Israel! Death to Israel!" when he says that. And I guess Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he didn't really mean it when he said they wanted to frog march the Israelis into the Mediterranean. Ah, he just had to say that for domestic consumption. So conversely, does that mean, "Well, you know, Obama really doesn't mean all this stuff when he runs around and apologizes for America. He's just saying that for international consumption." What, nobody means anything? Is that it?
"Oh, he says this all the time, death to America. But it's not that it has no meaning, obviously it's incredibly offensive, and I would say --" It's offensive, it's 20,000 times more offensive and dangerous than Ted Cruz, but you're running around making excuses for the Ayatollah Khamenei, and you and your media buddies are out trying to destroy a United States citizen, who you don't give anywhere near the same benefit of the doubt.
I have to take a break.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So the Ayatollah Khamenei says, "Death to America! Death to America!" And the State Department says, "Eh, it's no big deal. He just has to say that for domestic consumption." But Benjamin Netanyahu is required to apologize for "racist" comments about Israeli Arabs. Note that the White House didn't shrug off what Netanyahu said. "Well, you know, he was just speaking for domestic consumption." Isn't it interesting?
With this White House, nations and people we've always thought to be our enemies are given the best treatment, and the people we think are our friends are treated with great suspicion, derision. They're even insulted. Speaking of the media, ladies and gentlemen, poll after poll... Now, get this. This is important. In poll after poll, the American people say they are against amnesty. In poll after poll, a vast majority of people hate Obamacare and disapprove of amnesty.
A vast majority of the American people claim they want a smaller and less intrusive government. They do not want more gun control. Increasing, they say, they do not believe in global warming. So here comes a candidate, Ted Cruz, who espouses those very same positions. And the news media claim that he's a lunatic from the fringest of the fringe! How can that be?
The American people overwhelmingly oppose amnesty, overwhelmingly hate Obamacare, and by a majority want a smaller, less intrusive government. They don't want more gun control. They don't believe in global warming. Here comes not just Cruz; a number of Republican candidates who espouse the exact same things, and the media accuses them of being stupid, dangerous, dumb.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Little pop quiz for you. Who said the following: Quote, "The beautiful cry of 'Death to America' unites our nation." Who said that? If you guessed Hassan Rouhani, the current so-called moderate president of Iran, you would be right. But he was just saying that for domestic consumption. Yeah, yeah. The Iranians, doesn't matter who, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Ayatollah Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani, "Death to America! Death to America!" He's just saying it for his own people, Mr. Limbaugh. Don't get so worked up about it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here's Paul in Atlanta. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it's a privilege, creator-endowed dittos to you.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: Yes, sir. When you opened your show, the thought that I had about the death to Americans and the reaction to those words was this: If the response to that is, "That's mere rhetoric that we've heard before," that that's the response, and the reason for dismissing is, it's just to build a pathway to the negotiating table, here's my question. Once we get to the negotiating table, will we continue to take the words of that man as mere rhetoric that we've heard before? That's my question.
RUSH: Well, it's an excellent question. Since this happened in the previous hour, let's bring people who may not have been tuned in to that point up to speed. The supreme leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khamenei, made a speech recently in Iran to the people. It was Happy New Year, Happy Nowruz, which Obama also celebrated, and he said "Death to America! Death to America!" And the crowd supposedly cheered and so forth.
They asked Marie Harf at the State Department, "Wait a minute, now." It was I think a CNN reporter, Costa was his name, somebody, the guy's saying "Death to America!" We're negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran saying "Death to America!" and the State Department spokeswoman said (paraphrasing), "Well, words are words. He just meant that for domestic consumption." What she meant was, he's just playing to his base, if we Americanize the sentiment. He's just saying what his people wanted him to say. They just wanted to hear "Death to America!" He doesn't really mean it.
Okay, now, I don't know that it was a pathway to negotiations. I think it was their Happy New Year celebration, and it was "Death to America! Death to America!" So your question is, if we're not gonna take their words seriously now, then why would we take their words seriously at the negotiation table? In other words, when they say something at the negotiation table, are we gonna say, "Oh, he really doesn't mean that. He's just saying that for --"
CALLER: Right. Yeah. Exactly. If we don't think words mean anything -- if we pick and choose when words mean something, then it's a joke.
RUSH: Here's the question, then. Marie Harf, State Department, has to be speaking for John Kerry, okay? And Kerry has to be acting on behalf of Obama. So when the State Department spokeswoman speaking for Kerry says "'Death to America!' he doesn't really mean it." Do they really say that or are they just saying that at the State Department for their own domestic consumption, and if they don't think that the Ayatollah Khamenei really means it, then how dangerous are we in terms of being exposed here?
If the people responsible for making a deal with these people in Iran on nuclear weapons think that all of this incendiary language is just meaningless, then just how competent are the people negotiating on our behalf at this thing? The thing that bothers me about this is that not long ago something like that would serve to cancel the negotiations. A President Reagan, and I dare say maybe President Bush 41, might threaten to postpone the talks rather than conduct them with that kind of rhetoric out there.
Now, we might have to go back and research some of the things Soviet leaders were saying during the time Gorbachev and Reagan were having their summits, and there might be some allowance for this stuff that's said public stage for domestic content; I don't know. The real question for me is, does the State Department, does John Kerry, does Barack Obama, do they really think that the Ayatollah Khamenei doesn't mean it? Because if they think he doesn't mean it, then we are at a dangerous place here, because he does mean it.
The people of Iran don't care, or don't matter. The Ayatollah Khamenei does not run for election, so this idea that he's saying this for domestic consumption is purely bogus. He's a dictator! The Ayatollah Khamenei is a tyrant! The elections they have over there for president, he picks who the president is and that guy wins the election. And they got a little bit tired of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because he was a little bit too open and up front and honest about Iran's intentions. He didn't leave anything to doubt. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left no doubt that his intentions were to destroy Israel and any friend of Israel. And the Ayatollah Khamenei said, "Well, it's a little bit too much, giving me too many problems."
But the idea that the Ayatollah Khamenei has to say things to placate his people, BS. It's the other way around. His people have to not say things and not do things in order to placate him so they don't end up in jail. Marie Harf, I swear, folks, this is another example I think of just dangerous folly and ignorance, because there is no similarity in the Iranian system and ours. This idea, projecting -- she's telling us more about Obama than she is about the Ayatollah Khamenei, and she doesn't know that. When Marie Harf says of the Ayatollah Khamenei, "He just has to say that for domestic consumption," she's giving away the thinking of this administration.
So when Obama praises the military, he just has to say that for domestic consumption. Or when Obama acts like he's really upset with Hamas or Palestinians, he has to say that for public perception, but he's really not. There is no dictator in the world who cares a whit what his people think or say unless they're thinking of revolution, and if he finds out about it, they go to jail. That's what's absolutely irresponsibly incorrect and wrong about Marie Harf analyzing the Ayatollah Khamenei. He doesn't have to say anything for domestic consumption because domestic consumption is irrelevant to him. Public opinion is irrelevant to him. He doesn't run for election. I appreciate the call nevertheless.
David, Evansville, Indiana, great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Good to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: After all these years. It's a pleasure. I guess I can check this off my bucket list.
RUSH: Well.
CALLER: As you were talking about Marie Harf's comments on CNN -- of course since I don't watch CNN, I didn't see that -- I was thinking about the inconsistency between what she was saying and the fact that Netanyahu is responsible for his words. They say, in his case, words matter. In the Ayatollah's case, well, no big deal. But as I thought more about that I began to realize that there's actually a pretty consistent thread here. The Palestinians have "Death to America" written in their charter, so to speak, because -- not "Death to America", but "Death to Israel." Same thing. It's the same attitude.
So when Netanyahu says what he says about the Palestinian state, the Obamaites have to react strongly because their orthodoxy says "Death to America." Okay, yeah, they don't say "Death to America", they wouldn't exactly go along with those words, but they're sympathetic to the sentiment, both of the Ayatollah and of the Palestinians. And so it's actually very consistent. There's no contradiction here at all. And that's actually scarier --
RUSH: Now, wait just a second here. I just want to make sure that I understand you here, David. When Marie Harf says of the Ayatollah Khamenei's "Death to America!", "Hey, hey, hey, he's just speaking for domestic consumption," are you saying that she and Obama don't have a disagreement with him about that?
CALLER: Okay, it's not "Death to America!", but they are certainly sympathetic to the sentiment, because it's part of the left orthodoxy to hate America. And while they don't say "Death to America" themselves, they understand where that thinking comes from.
RUSH: I don't want to nitpick here. I'm not so sure -- people disagree with me -- I'm not sure that they have a hatred for America in the sense that you mean it. I think they believe that America is on the wrong side of everything and that they can perfect it, that they can make America actually what it should be. They hate America the way it was before them. But I don't think they hate America in the sense they want to destroy America as though it would be nuked like the Iranians do, but they clearly have a profound disagreement with the American way of life, rooted in capitalism, belief in God, Judeo-Christian ethic. All of that scares and intimidates the heck out of them and angers them.
I may be nitpicking here, but it's the only way that you can, I think, safely say that they share the same Iranian sentiment in the "Death to America!" Obama's trying to perfect it. In his perverted, distorted way of seeing this country's sins, he thinks this country has been wrong, this country has been biased, racist, sexist, bigoted, whatever the left vernacular is since the days of its founding. It's illegitimate, it's unjust. You know, don't doubt me on this. Obama, where was he, the 50th anniversary of Selma, "We are the slaves that built the White House." That was part of his speech, "We're the slaves that built the White House."
Now, what does that tell you? It tells you volumes, if you ask me. It tells you there's a deep resentment for the way this country was founded and built, and the people who really did it have been getting the shaft from the get-go. And now it's time to give the shaft to the people who were giving it all those years. It's time they got the shaft. And that's what Obama's about.
