Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was on a tear on Wednesday over the media’s response to President Trump’s widely criticized summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Limbaugh dedicated one segment of the three-hour show to providing some uncomfortable flashblacks for Trump’s Democratic critics.
Limbaugh led into the discussion by quoting a June 2018 story by Yahoo’s Michael Isikoff titled, “Obama cyber chief confirms ‘stand down’ order against Russian cyberattacks in summer 2016“:
The Obama White House’s chief cyber official testified Wednesday that proposals he was developing to counter Russia’s attack on the U.S. presidential election were put on a “back burner” after he was ordered to “stand down” his efforts in the summer of 2016.
Here’s the video of Obama’s chief cyber official Michael Daniel revealing the “stand down” order in a Senate Intelligence Committee:
“This is the Obama administration,” said Limbaugh. “They knew the Russians were hacking. They knew Russians were engaging in cyber warfare, and the Obama White House chief cyber official testified that he was told to stand down. So Obama didn’t do anything about the Russians! Obama was telling everybody the Russians could not hack the presidential election. Obama was telling people that it was too massive and widespread and intricate, it couldn’t be done.”
“The point is: Where was the media?” said Limbaugh. “Where was the media all hopped up about what Putin was doing in 2016, what the Russians were doing? Obama was telling everybody, ‘Stand down. No big deal! Don’t worry about it.’ What did Obama know that we didn’t know? Why did Obama want his own administration to stand down and not do anything? Could we maybe use the word ‘treasonous,’ that Obama was willing to stand down and stand aside and let the Russians continue meddling and tampering and whatever?”
Rush then underscored the obvious: “All of this that we’re talking about happened before Trump was even president. All of this happened before Trump — in many cases — even became a candidate. A lot of it happened before Trump even won the Republican nomination. Somehow, all of this is Donald Trump’s fault, not standing up to the Russians.”
The Russians were attempting to meddle, yet there was no “outrage” then. Just like there was no outrage in 2012 when Obama told Dmitry Medvedev, “This is my last election … After my election I have more flexibility” on getting rid of nuclear weapons:
“Trump’s actions… Forget the words. Trump’s actions dispel all of these lies about himself selling out, about him valuing Putin’s evidence over his own intelligence community’s evidence,” said Limbaugh.
“We’re dealing with sheer hatred here,” he concluded. “We’re dealing with sheer hatred for Donald Trump for a lot of reasons and on a lot of levels. It’s not just enough to say that Trump is hated because he’s an outsider. That’s clearly an element, but there’s much more to it than that. It’s deep, and it’s visceral. So what matters? Words? Placating the media? Are we trying to soften the coverage here? Do Trump’s actions and his achievements against Russia not count for anything? And that may be the world we live in: Reality trumped by words, images, photos.”