CNN Goes Low-Key in Wake of Shooting

RUSH: Okay, so I have a little bit more time to study CNN. Now, I have observed that CNN is been very, very low-key here today since the event happened in Alexandria, Virginia. And I think there are many possible explanations for this. But I do believe that one of them is that this obviously puts a damper on the anti-Trump hysteria that is CNN (for a few hours at least). I mean, you gotta tamp it down. But you know what else? I’ve had people look at this for me ’cause I, of course, during the first hour of the program can pay scant attention only. And I’ve had a couple of reports here that CNN is spending an obviously noticeable lack of time explaining who the shooter is.

In other words, CNN is not very interested in who this guy is. They will show his driver’s license and picture, occasionally, but any history of the guy’s deep devotion to various media celebrities, various media broadcasts, publications — his tweet history and all of that that we’ve shared with you — CNN viewers are not getting. CNN viewers are actually being given a high dose of the Republicans and Democrats coming together on the House floor today after the event. (interruption) You find that somewhat curious? I don’t at all! See, this is what… I don’t find it…

It’s not curious at all that CNN would basically want to say, “Hey, the guy that did the shooting? No big deal! It’s how we’re coming together that matters.” It’s not a shock to me. (laughs) You know, you look at it the other way around, like if they… Well, I don’t even want to allude to the possibility. I don’t even want to put it out there. But if you did a 180 on this and everything happened the opposite of the way it did, the only thing you’d be seeing on CNN is a never-ending profile of the shooter as negative and penetrating as they could make it. But they’re doing their best. In fact, I had to take CNN off.

It died on my cable network here, just went black. So I had to switch over to Fox Business News. But I did notice this.

RUSH: Hey, has anybody seen Mark Potok on CNN or MSNBC? Has he been out there in any obscure cable network? (interruption) No, no, no. Mark Potok is that odd looking guy looks like a pajama adult, not a Pajama Boy. He looks like a pajama adult, and he’s the guy from the Southern Poverty Law Center, and whenever there is a mass shooting anywhere, this guy is on in the first 10 minutes. The networks find this guy in whatever sinkhole he lives in, and he’s always out there blaming the right wing and militia groups.

e’s talking about the hate that is out there, and he gives examples of the hate from the right wing that would have inspired the perp (in whatever story it would be) to do what he did. But this guy, Potok, we haven’t seen him. The networks, I guess, have not seen the need to go talk to him about the hate that might underlie this episode. CNN. I got a couple CNN sound bites coming up here. CNN… Did they just have a quote from somebody or was it audio sound bite? (interruption) Okay, a quote from the shooter, Mr. Hodgkinson.

They found this guy at some point had said that the Republicans are “the Taliban of the USA.” And I’m thinking, “Well, that’s not even original. There are Democrats on the floor of the House who have said that! There are Democrats on the floor of the Senate who have compared Republicans to Pol Pot, the mass murderer in Cambodia!” But the idea that this guy came up with the idea that the Republicans are the Taliban of America?

He didn’t say that. Democrats have said that on the floor of the House. They’ve had it in campaign ads. Let’s go to the CNN audio sound bites. This is Inside Politics, John King speaking with senior (as opposed to junior, senior) congressional correspondent Manu Raju about reports that the shooter, James Hodgkinson, was a volunteer on Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. John King said, “Manu, Senator Sanders just made dramatic news on the floor of the Senate.”

RAJU: Yes indeed, John, saying that he had just learned that this is actually someone that had volunteered on his campaign —

RAJU: — the person that did shoot the congressman, the staffers, as well as, uh, these — the two police officers was, uh, someone who volunteered on Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Sanders himself addressing this on the Senate floor just moments ago!

RAJU: Now, John, our colleague Jeff Zeleny did speak to the person who was in charge of Bernie Sanders’ Iowa campaign operation, Robert Becker, who told Jeff that nobody has any recollection of James Hodgkinson, of course, the man who shot —

RAJU: — the members of Congress and opened fire during this baseball practice. According to Becker, Bernie Sanders campaign aide, nobody has any recollection of Hodgkinson.

RUSH: No! No! So why’s Bernie out there saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t… (stammering)”? This is typical. “Hey, this guy’s so out of the mainstream, he’s so off the wall, that nobody at Bernie’s campaign even heard of guy! They don’t even know who he is!” Now, this is spinning for Bernie, don’t misunderstand. They’re not trying to protect the shooter here. The shooter is already out of the picture. The shooter has assumed room temperature.

This is spinning for Bernie Sanders. “The shooter says he’s a big Bernie supporter, but nobody ever saw him. Nobody knows him. He was a nonentity. The guy’s not worth a second breath over.” And then later on Wolf. An instant See, I Told You So: Wolf Blitzer playing a clip of an unidentified acquaintance of James Hodgkinson talking about Hodgkinson’s possible motivation for today’s shooting.

MAN: I just want to let people know that he wasn’t evil, that he was, I guess, tired of some of the politics going on.

RUSH: He was a mainstream liberal! This is what his buddy is saying. “Hey, I knew the guy, and he’s not a fruitcake. I knew the guy, and he was not a Looney Toon. I knew the guy, and he wasn’t insane or any of that. He ‘just got tired of some of the politics going on.’ He was not an evil guy.” Translation: “Hey, he’s a mainstream leftist. Don’t mischaracterize my friend! He just reached his limit.” Limit of what? What’s Trump actually done to hurt any of these people? What has Trump done that harms these people? The answer is zilch, zero, nada.

CALLER: Do you remember when Barack Obama told his people on the left, “If they bring a knife, you bring a gun”?

RUSH: Yeah. I do remember that. I wasn’t gonna bring that up ’cause I knew some of you would. I wanted to leave something out there for callers to be able to say they contributed to the program today. But you’re exact… (laughing) You’re exactly right.

CALLER: I never heard one ounce of hatred from the Republicans. It all comes from the left.

RUSH: What you hear from Republicans is fear — fear of the media — and you hear frustration. But, yeah, hatred? See, I happen to know, hatred can’t be sustained. This is what happens with raw, undiluted hatred. There has been my point for the past two weeks, that there’s a breaking point with it, that you can’t… No human being or group of people can go through life constantly enraged and boiling over. It’s not possible. There has to be a breaking point.

George Washington on the Baneful Effects of Political Parties

“Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party...”

Excerpts from George Washington’s Farewell Address
September 19, 1796

“... One of the expedients of Party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions & aims of other Districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies & heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render Alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal Affection.
...

“All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and Associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, controul counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the Constituted authorities are distructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to Organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force — to put in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprizing minority of the Community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public Administration the Mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the Organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modefied by mutual interests. However combinations or Associations of the above description may now & then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People, & to usurp for themselves the reins of Government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
“... in a country so extensive as ours, a Government of as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of Liberty is indispensable — Liberty itself will find in such a Government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest Guardian. It is indeed little else than a name, where the Government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction ...
“I have already intimated to you the danger of Parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on Geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, & warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally.
“This Spirit, unfortunately, is inseperable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human Mind. It exists under different shapes in all Governments, more or less stifled, controuled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy.
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
“Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight) the common & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise People to discourage and restrain it.
“It serves always to distract the Public Councils and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill founded Jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot & insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence & corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country, are subjected to the policy and will of another.

“There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the Administration of the Government and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably true--and in Governments of a Monarchical cast Patriotism may look with endulgence, if not with favour, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of public opinion, to mitigate & assuage it. A fire not to be quenched; it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest instead of warming it should consume."

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