A Liberal Deconstructs Conservative Talk Radio: 04/18/2018

Each day I listen to random conservative talk radio shows to get a sense of the mood of conservative voters. And to get a heads-up on what the "Fox & Friends" morning show will be discussing tomorrow. Plus, it's just pretty damn funny.

This page gets updated throughout the day and you can click here to subscribe to receive an email version at the end of each business day.

If You've Ever Listened To Rush Limbaugh, You Know He's Not A Guy To Admit He's Wrong
Once Rush Limbaugh is committed to an intellectual idea, he's all in. He won't back down, he won't take a step back. He'll fight until it become clear that continuing to fight will make him appear to be a political stooge. So it's not surprising that on the day the Mueller Report is released, Limbaugh is the main conductor on the "Trump has been exonerated" train.

Limbaugh's main arguments in the early part of his show today hewed pretty closely to what Attorney General Bill Barr argued in his early morning press conference. That there was no collusion, nothing that rises to the level of conduct that was illegal. "I thought it was just unethical, not illegal" is the motto of our age and that was also the underlying premise of Limbaugh's show today.

Limbaugh argues a number of times that Trump was upset about being investigated, but he was confident he would be found innocent. Which is why, says Rush. "that the President cooperated completely and provided every bit of paperwork that Mueller and his team of Hillary-loving partisans asked for."

But as the Mueller Report states on Page 18, where Mueller says his conclusions could conceivably be different if not for witnesses lying, invoking privilege, etc.



Later on, Mueller says he can't figure out why Manafort shared internal polling data or what happened to that data, but Manafort's attempts to lie and stonewall the investigation made Mueller's job much harder. So it's not at all the case that the President and his people "cooperated fully." In fact, it's pretty clear that they made serious efforts to obscure their actions. 

For example, in the section of the report that includes Trump's answers to questions from the Mueller Team, Mueller complains there are numerous instances where the President says he "doesn't recall" events and in some cases, the answers he gives don't match up with known facts or seem to be "imprecise." There are 37 instances in his written testimony where the President gives some variation of "I don't remember," which is a staggering claim from someone who would have had the time to look up some details before replying at his leisure.


I Had No Idea That I Am Actually Working For The Forces Of Darkness
Even on a normal day, Dennis Prager is an insufferable oaf, but all of his intellectual weaknesses are on display on a day like today. While every other conservative radio talk show is laser-focused on the Mueller Report, Prager continues to plow the same intellectual ground he pokes at in every show. The Left is a believer in chaos, a soul-less, God-less group of people who are literally committed to destroying everything from the separations of gender to Western Civilization. And befitting a guy who makes money hawking his "learning center" Prager U, the well-worn argument that the modern American university system is a cesspool of dishonesty and evil. 

Let's move on...


The President Was Absolutely Desperate To Cover Up How Innocent He Was
Sean Hannity has been one of Donald Trump's most reliable supporters, so it's not surprising that he sees the redacted Mueller Report as a "total victory for the President." Hannity complains the Left lives to destroy good men and argues that Attorney General Barr was unfairly targeted by the Left, who portrayed his take on the Mueller Report as "a lie." But his take on Barr's soul might be less than accurate, in part because if you look at the context of the short sentence from the Mueller Report that Barr included in his initial "recap." The text in yellow is the text Barr decided not to include in his letter:

Hannity argues the President never tried to influence the investigation, even though this revealing passage in the redacted Mueller Report states pretty unequivocally that Trump certainly tried to influence the investigation — multiple times, in fact. But his efforts failed because people around him refused to follow his orders. 

 

Not that any of this matters to Hannity. As far as he is concerned, this investigation is over. "They couldn't accept the results of the election and they can't accept the results of the Mueller Report." And then Hannity moves on to his favorite topic - the real crimes that were committed by Hillary Clinton and her minions.

 

I'll continue updating throughout the day. And check back in tomorrow.......

Have any comments or suggestions? Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and follow me on Twitter at @aysrick.