Posted on 08/27/2018 4:50:10 PM PDT by Kaslin
RUSH: The death of Senator McCain has provided an opportunity for the Drive-By Media. I will explain that. I’m gonna warn everybody here. It might be perceived by some — that just don’t know — but it might be perceived by some that comments I might make about some aspects of Senator McCain’s life could be controversial. Imagine that. I just want to prep everybody that I have my own theories about witnessing the Drive-Bys and how they are reacting to it and why.
And, by the way, just to take the pressure off of me, to show you where I’m thinking, among many other things about this, grab audio sound bite number 19. Sunday morning, CNN, State of the Union during discussion of the death of Senator McCain, Jake Tapper.
TAPPER: I can’t help but think that like part of the reason why there’s such reverence for him today is because of who’s in the White House right now because they are polar opposites.
RUSH: Okay. So there you have it from none other than the Never Trumper network, CNN making it clear that part of the reason why there’s so much reverence for Senator McCain is because of who is in the White House right now. What that means is — and he’s admitting it. He’s admitting it — one of the reasons there’s reverence for McCain is the opportunity it provides to continue to savage Donald Trump, to continue to rip Donald Trump by setting up these comparisons between Trump and McCain and showing Trump coming up short on virtually every measure the Drive-Bys make.
The truth of the matter is — and I’ve got an example of this, and there are many — you go back to 2008. Actually, you have to go back before that. If you go back to the nineties during the Clinton years, Fox News starts in 1996, ’97, MSNBC gets going, and the Clinton impeachment saga is being discussed every night on TV. And a media darling develops on MSNBC, John McCain. MSNBC loves Senator McCain because Senator McCain, for which he is being honored and recognized since his death, had the courage to criticize his own party, had the courage to criticize his own party’s policies, his own party’s presidents. He had the courage. That’s what made McCain a really great guy to the Drive-By Media.
And McCain sought the presidential nomination in 2000. It was open. George W. Bush got the nomination eventually, but it was a really knock-down-drag-out primary fight in South Carolina. Some of the tricks played on McCain by the Bush campaign were considered to be unconscionable, unacceptable, I mean so below the belt that you needed to get down to the sewer to see the result. McCain was livid at the time. A lot of people supporting McCain were livid at the time.
Bush goes on to win, and in the ensuing years McCain remains the media darling. I mean, the Drive-By Media loved John McCain. He was practically a regular guest on MSNBC. It got to the point, folks, for those of you who don’t remember, that John McCain would frequently refer to the Drive-By Media as his base! As his base voters! As his base supporters!
And all during this time — well, not all during it, but as we approached the year 2008 and it became clear that Senator McCain was going to seek the Republican nomination, I remember issuing a warning I don’t know how many times, but too many times to count here to Senator McCain and his campaign team, that the minute you seek the Republican nomination you are going to be cast aside by this media that has been fawning over you and loving you. You are going to become the enemy.
And, boy, did he, especially when Obama got the nomination and McCain got the Republican nomination. People have forgotten the long knives came out for McCain by all of these people in the media who had made it look like they loved and revered him — and they did. And the reason they did was because of the maverick personality and McCain’s willingness to criticize his own party. McCain’s willingness to talk about crossing the aisle, shaking hands, working together to get things done, the politics of compromise, because that always meant Republicans losing.
In those days, when we talked about Republicans compromising, what it meant was Republicans forgetting their agenda and signing on to the Democrat agenda. And it’s always been that way. There was nothing new about it then. And it was very frustrating for a lot of people that Senator McCain didn’t see it, or, if he did, thought that he could overcome it.
Well, then when they made the decision to pick Sarah Palin, folks, that ended any pretense of love and respect for Senator McCain. And then you make the Democrat nominee Obama, the first African-American presidential nominee, and McCain did not have a chance in the Drive-By Media. The people who had made him think they respected him, made him believe they loved him, cast him aside.
And it wasn’t that he remained in their eyes a good guy and friendly. They went after him and the Democrat Party went after him as though he had been a rock-ribbed conservative forever and had never had a flirtation with the Drive-By Media at all. It was easily predictable. It was sad to see, I have to tell you, because it was so predictable. And let me give you just one example. And there are a plethora of these if you want to take the time to go get ’em.
ohn Lewis got beat upside the head on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during the great civil rights march. John Lewis tweeted on Saturday, “Senator John McCain was a warrior for peace. He will be deeply missed by people all around the world.” Well, let’s go back to Politico, October 11th, 2008, basically three weeks away from the presidential election. There’s a Politico story, and the headline is: “John_Lewis_invoking_George_Wallace_says_McCain_and_Palin_playing_with_fire.html>John Lewis, Invoking George Wallace, Says McCain and Palin ‘Playing with Fire’ —
“Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis is accusing John McCain … of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at Republican campaign events to those featuring George Wallace, the segregationist former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate. McCain’s campaign has responded with a statement in the candidate’s name, urging Barack Obama to repudiate Lewis’s comments. ‘What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history,’ Lewis said in a statement issued today for Politico’s Arena forum.
“‘Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.’ Lewis didn’t accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities.” Okay. This is one example, and it’s one of a plethora I could surface if I was to take the time, if I wanted to. But it makes the point. It provides the illustration. So after Senator McCain passes away, he becomes a good guy again in the eyes of John Lewis. “Senator John McCain was a warrior for peace. He will be deeply missed by people all around the world.”
Well, during the 2008 campaign he wasn’t a warrior for anything but hate and racism, according to the same guy. Now, you might say, “But, Rush, come on. It was a presidential campaign. You have to forget that stuff. You have to look past it.” See, that’s what I don’t do, folks. I think in the heat of battle is when Democrats say what they really mean, and John Lewis’ example here is one of many. You go back and look. I mean, the viciousness for McCain, the viciousness for Palin? It was bad. It was bad enough for McCain alone before he chose Palin.
After he chose Palin, it just became worse. It rivaled some of the mean-spirited and viciousness that we’ve seen against Trump. People have just forgotten about it, and I do believe that Jake Tapper is right. I think Jake Tapper has a point. The death of Senator McCain has provided the Drive-By Media with a brand-new reason to go after Donald Trump. The death of Senator McCain… As Jake Tapper said here: The reason why there is such reverence for McCain… He’s admitting it. The reason there’s such reverence for McCain is because of Trump.
That means the reverence may not be all that genuine. It may be that it is timely and serves a purpose. Here’s another little bit of hypocrisy. How do you square this? The Drive-By Media supports all of these people who protest against America, protest against the American flag, take a knee and kneel during NFL games, some of the players that do. The general disrespect shown for the flag by anybody who comes along — especially any minority group that has anything negative to say about America — they focus on it, they love it, they promote it.
How does that jibe with promoting and having such reverence for such an obvious hero and patriot as John McCain? If you wanted to, you can spend all kinds of time noting the hypocrisy that is all over the place. The left finally finds a war hero they love while supporting the disrespecting of the flag by NFL players. Yeah, I think a lot of what we see in the Drive-By Media is not real. It’s not genuine. It is agenda oriented and agenda related. The Drive-By Media… Senator McCain was very valuable to them.
He was a ranking Republican for whom there was universal respect and admiration around the world, around the country, and when he criticized his own party — and I’m not just talking about Obamacare and Trump. I mean, when he disrespected, when he criticized George W. Bush, when he came up with this campaign finance reform business — whenever McCain did anything that was perceived to be anti the Republican Party — they just showered him with love and affection and respect, and that was Senator McCain’s value to them.
The proof that it was not real is when they had a chance to get behind the man that they revered? When they had a chance to get behind the guy they thought was the best example of politics in Washington? When they had a chance to get behind this man when he ran for president twice, they did not do it. He became like every other Republican: A target with a target and a bull’s-eye all over him and his campaign. It was frustrating to watch this, to be able to predict it and know that it was going to happen.
There are other things, too, about this that we’ll get into as the program unfolds. But there are other things happening. For example, did you hear the controversy? Trump didn’t leave the flag at half-staff long enough. Trump put the flag at half-staff for the… If you go look at the law and at federal regulations for a member of Congress, the flag flies at half-staff for a day or two, and that’s it. The flag flew at half-staff for the appropriate amount of time, and then it was raised, and the Drive-Bys are livid!
Because it’s yet another opportunity to attack Donald Trump as some savage, as unsophisticated, as some cretin.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
McCain gets fawning coverage when he bucks the GOP (President, Party). But when he was actually running for POTUS, the long knives came out for him in the Media. You would have thought he’d learn from that. But no. He just kept on being their useful idiot in exchange for puff pieces.
Even in death, the MSM is using McCain to bash Trump to the hilt.
He gave the thumbs down to Trump, loved Biden and Obama and smiled gloriously when the media gave him fake praise.
Using a Dead Man to attack Trump is the worst of the worst
What is so obvious about all of this is the real shallowness and transparency of these people and their worldview.
I remember when Jill Greenberg doctored up her unflattering pics of McCain for the Atlantic.
The Atlantic ended up apologizing.
Yep, they are literally using McCain’s corpse a a bludgeon...
The real reason McCain is being eulogized by the drive bys is that he made it so easy for Obama to be elected President.
Enough already. McCain was not a black junkie entertainer so a day or two of fake tributes is all that is allowed.
Ya, ya. The GOP nominee is a racist and a bigot.
Golly gee, we’ve only heard this since Reagan. The Left-Wing, Democrat Supported media (NYT, WashPo, etc) does the same damn thing every election cycle.
And Chuck Todd pretends to have brass ones and says that this is a creation of the “right-wing media”.
Sorry, Todd. You suck. And the rest of you on that side of the aisle suck too.
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