Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh dedicated a large portion of his show Tuesday to addressing the recent developments in the showdown between Robert Mueller and Paul Manafort, which escalated Monday with Mueller accusing the former Trump campaign manager of being in breach of his plea deal and being guilty of unspecified “lies and crimes.” The latest episode in the ongoing saga, suggested Limbaugh, was clear proof that this whole thing is about politics, not upholding the law.
Limbaugh began by noting the latest “bombshell” report on Manafort by the Guardian, which alleges that he engaged in “secret talks” with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before the election. Both Assange and Manafort have since threatened legal action for what they say is a libelous piece, while the Guardian has qualified some of the original report’s language.
“Well, well, well, if anybody doubts the political nature of the Mueller investigation, all you have to do is take a look at the news today,” said Rush. “For crying out loud, they really want us to believe that Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange three times before WikiLeaks published the Podesta emails? Where’s this story been? If this were true, they would have known this all the way back when Obama and his buddies were spying on the Trump campaign. And we would have heard about this long before today. So what the heck is going on?”
“There’s two things about Manafort. Manafort is said to have lied after reaching a plea deal with Mueller and his Trump-hating prosecutors,” said Limbaugh. “So that Manafort’s plea deal is now out the window, because what you do when you make a plea deal, you have to tell the truth about everything. And I don’t think Manafort’s been lying about anything. What Manafort’s refusing to do is to compose evidence, make it up!”
Limbaugh admitted to being “tarnished” in regard to the Department of Justice since Trump announced his candidacy, saying he now believes “we have a two-tier justice system, and I don’t believe anything coming out of this bunch here, the Mueller investigation and people involved in it.”
As for Manafort, Rush said that in the end he had “nothing to do with anything”; Manafort is one of the tools being used “to create a political climate where Trump can be pressured, where the Democrats can make a foundation for impeachment.”
“That’s all that’s going on here, because they don’t have any evidence that Trump colluded,” he said. “They’re ignoring the evidence of real collusion that took place here, as you know, between Hillary Clinton and the rest of the people on that side, Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele. All of that is being ignored.”
He continued: “Manafort was with the campaign two or three months, and now all of a sudden Manafort has become the focus? And this, of course, is allowing the media to say, ‘This should make Trump really, really nervous. Now that Manafort lied, Manafort’s lying to the prosecutor.’ I don’t believe Manafort’s lying to the prosecutor. I think the prosecutor is asking Manafort to say a bunch of things that he won’t say. I think Manafort’s resisting the pressure.”
Limbaugh also brought up the much-reported comments of Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has frequently defended Trump, predicting that the Mueller report will be “devastating” politically to the president, which Rush pointed to as more evidence of the political nature of the whole thing.
“So another indication that all of this is political! Even the esteemed Professor Dershowitz now acknowledges that the impact and the outcome of all this is political,” he said. “Now, you may think, ‘Rush, we’ve all known that.’ Yeah, you and I have. But you know how many brain-dead Voldemorts are out there who think that this is all about the legal system and the uncovering the very real breakage of the law by Trump in the campaign. But it’s all been political. And every bit of news, every new development we have further establishes that aspect of this.”
Transcript via RushLimbaugh.com