On the heels of his June 28 monologues annihilating CNN over how embarrassingly biased they’ve become in the Trump era, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh again unloaded Thursday afternoon on CNN for devolving into “a circular firing squad” led by “Little Jim Acosta....making a fool of himself.”
Limbaugh was off and running seconds into the show, laughing about how “amazing” and “hilarious” CNN has become, making it “unbelievable to watch what this collection of people claiming to be journalists is doing to themselves.”
“It’s a circular firing squad. They’re shooting themselves in the foot. They’re setting themselves on fire, and they’re doing it all with righteous indignation at a man they hate running intellectual and tactical rings around them,” Limbaugh exclaimed.
After discussing the media meltdown over President Trump’s Poland speech and wording about Russia’s role in the 2016 election, Limbaugh resurrected his Acosta insults (minus the kitten chasing a laserpoint part):
And this Little Jim Acosta is literally making a fool of himself. He’s a CNN reporter, and he’s the guy that went bat nuts about two weeks ago over Trump refusing to call on him and then referring to CNN as fake news. And then the CNN mock wrestling gif. He’s losing his mind. They all are at CNN.
And so today Jim Acosta accused Trump of engaging in fake news. The definition of fake news at CNN is if Trump takes a question from a conservative reporter, a friendly reporter. That is fake news. Acosta actually tweeted, “Isn’t it a fake news conference to take a question from a reporter who is essentially an ally of the White House.”
Limbaugh also nailed on the head the media’s smugness and mindset of most people in the Washington D.C. area:
Now, in order to understand what comes next, you have to understand who Acosta is. He’s like everybody else in Washington. These are pseudointellectuals. You must understand the way they see themselves. They see themselves as better, smarter, more important, more relevant, more necessary, just generally better people than all the rest of us. They have no humility whatsoever. They do not know what they don’t know.
They have no capability of humility. They have no ability to admit that there are things that they don’t know. As such they are ripe to be made fools of.
He then asserted that Acosta and CNN have debased themselves so badly with self-inflicted wounds to the point that they’re continually stepping in piles of manure. Yuck.
Once he covered the epic Acosta-Ari Fleischer duel on Twitter, Limbaugh stated that “CNN has become a laughingstock and doesn’t know it” in that “[t]hey’re aware of all of this, but because they have no humility and because they have no sense of their true place in the universe, they are incapable of actually having this register in terms of its reality.”
Later, the conservative icon exposed the blatant hypocrisy of how the media lambasted the intelligence community (IC) over the WMD intelligence in Iraq, but are now deeply offended that Trump question the IC over their supposed Russia findings:
Carotid arteries are about to burst, and Trump says, “Look at weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence communities all over the world said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We get over there; we couldn’t find any.” CNN with a banner: “Trump Bashes Intel Community While in Poland on Foreign Soil.” Well, let’s not forget who led the charge in bashing the intel community over weapons of mass destruction. The Drive-By Media! The Drive-By Media not only bashed the intel community, they tried to destroy George W. Bush, whether he was on domestic soil or foreign soil.
Limbaugh wound down his A-block with another analogy, trumpeting the notion that “Trump is playing them like a Stradivarius,” causing the media to be “literally blowing gaskets.”
He concluded.
This self-immolation, this meltdown is occurring in public in front of everyone’s eyes, not behind the scenes. In other words, everybody is able to watch it. And Trump is just masterful at tweaking these people, at playing them off of each other. He knows how to push their buttons. It’s funny, because they’re sitting there in these press conferences thinking, “This is the day we’re gonna destroy Trump! This is the day we’re gonna expose Trump. This is the day we’re gonna prove that Trump is a poseur. We’re gonna prove that Trump’s a fraud.” And every day it is Trump making fools of them, except they don’t know that. They don’t have the humility or the sense of awareness to understand that they’re being made fools of. It’s fascinating to watch.
Here’s the relevant transcript from July 6's The Rush Limbaugh Show:
The Rush Limbaugh Show
July 6, 2017RUSH LIMBAUGH: CNN, folks, it’s hilarious. It is amazing. It’s unbelievable to watch what this collection of people claiming to be journalists is doing to themselves. It’s a circular firing squad. They’re shooting themselves in the foot. They’re setting themselves on fire, and they’re doing it all with righteous indignation at a man they hate running intellectual and tactical rings around them.
So Trump is over there in Poland and in Germany and he’s doing his no-apology tour, as opposed to Obama’s, which were apology tours. You know, Trump’s not apologizing for anything. And the press, “So, are you ready to admit that the Russians and you colluded? Are you ready to admit it?” And Trump says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Nobody knows for sure.” And they blow up. For the last year these people have been devoted to proving something that didn’t happen, collusion, Trump, Russia, to screw Hillary out of the presidency.
It’s nothing but lies. It’s nothing but manufactured, total BS that has now become a reality to these people. And all Trump has to say, “Well, you know, nobody really knows.” (laughing) And they blow up. And this Little Jim Acosta is literally making a fool of himself. He’s a CNN reporter, and he’s the guy that went bat nuts about two weeks ago over Trump refusing to call on him and then referring to CNN as fake news. And then the CNN mock wrestling gif. He’s losing his mind. They all are at CNN.
And so today Jim Acosta accused Trump of engaging in fake news. The definition of fake news at CNN is if Trump takes a question from a conservative reporter, a friendly reporter. That is fake news. Acosta actually tweeted, “Isn’t it a fake news conference to take a question from a reporter who is essentially an ally of the White House.”
Now, in order to understand what comes next, you have to understand who Acosta is. He’s like everybody else in Washington. These are pseudointellectuals. You must understand the way they see themselves. They see themselves as better, smarter, more important, more relevant, more necessary, just generally better people than all the rest of us. They have no humility whatsoever. They do not know what they don’t know.
They have no capability of humility. They have no ability to admit that there are things that they don’t know. As such they are ripe to be made fools of. And this Acosta guy is basically putting his own bag of manure in front of himself and stepping in it every day. Trump is just assisting a little bit, but he’s not even collecting the manure. CNN’s doing that. Trump may be furnishing the bag, but these people are putting it in front of themselves and then stepping in it.
So Acosta tweets, “Isn’t it a fake news conference to take a question from a reporter who is essentially an ally of the White House?” Donald Trump Jr. responds. “So by that logic, Little Jim, every news conference for the last eight years with Obama was fake news. You would know.” But it isn’t just Donald Trump Jr. Ari Fleischer: “Jim, do you care to guess how many questions I took from reporters who went on to join the Obama White House?” Ari Fleischer was Bush’s first press secretary.
Here’s Acosta saying these conservative reporters, you know, they’re Trump’s allies, they’re supporters of Trump, these conservative people. That means it’s fake news. And Ari Fleischer is pointing out, you know, Jim, how many of your buddies who are in the press corps during the Bush administration then went on to join the actual Obama administration?
The tweets, the memes, the gifs making fun of CNN with Trump savaging them, they’re getting too many to watch, too many to count. CNN has become a laughingstock and doesn’t know it. That’s what’s funny about it. They don’t know it. They’re aware of all of this, but because they have no humility and because they have no sense of their true place in the universe, they are incapable of actually having this register in terms of its reality.
(....)
LIMBAUGH: And the Drive-Bys are outraged. CNN’s been running a banner all day: “Trump Blasts America on Foreign Trip.” “Trump Blasts Intel Community on Foreign Trip.” “Trump Blasts Obama.” Of course, in a sense it’s true, but they have no context. What Trump’s referring to is the intel community, weapons of mass destruction. He’s being asked by the media, “So… so do you think the intel community was right when they said 17 different agencies realized that you colluded with Russia? Do you think that’s right?” And Trump said, “Well, I don’t know that anybody really knows for sure what happened,” and they blow gaskets.
Carotid arteries are about to burst, and Trump says, “Look at weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence communities all over the world said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We get over there; we couldn’t find any.” CNN with a banner: “Trump Bashes Intel Community While in Poland on Foreign Soil.” Well, let’s not forget who led the charge in bashing the intel community over weapons of mass destruction. The Drive-By Media! The Drive-By Media not only bashed the intel community, they tried to destroy George W. Bush, whether he was on domestic soil or foreign soil.
(....)
LIMBAUGH: Trump today, in answering the question for the hundredth time if he believed the intelligence community claims that the Russians meddled in the election, Trump said, “Well, I don’t think it’s all 17. I think it was only three now.”
Jim Acosta ran to Twitter (paraphrased), “Trump is an idiot! Trump is a buffoon! It is 17 intelligence agencies who all agree that the Russians tampered with the election to try to benefit Trump!” Well, as you’ll remember from yesterday’s show, the New York Times and the AP had to do massive corrections and massive deletions and massive pullbacks because it isn’t 17; it was only three people — three people who agreed with James Clapper, who was Obama’s Director of National Intelligence. It was reported in January that 17 intel agencies all agreed that Russia tampered with Putin to benefit Trump.
They had to pull that back. They did the correction over the weekend. We heralded it major yesterday. Jim Acosta doesn’t know. Jim Acosta, a reporter at CNN, simply doesn’t know that the AP and the New York Times had to issue the corrections. It isn’t 17. So he’s out there tweeting what an idiot Trump is. He’s tweeting what a liar Trump is, that Trump doesn’t know, that Trump is ignorant. When in fact it’s Acosta who is the CNN reporter who — according to job description — should be on top of this stuff.
I mean, these people, the New York Times is their bible. They should know everything in the New York Times, and it is becoming clear that people that work for CNN are among the least informed people in Washington. It’s just delicious. It is fascinating.
(....)
LIMBAUGH: Trump is playing them like a Stradivarius. Trump said, “I think it was Russia. I think it could have been other people. Nobody really knows for sure. I remember when I was sitting back listening about Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, how everybody was 100% sure that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,” Trump said. “Well, guess what? That led to one big mess. They were wrong, and it led to a mess.” The media is literally blowing gaskets at this. They can’t handle it. They have their meme. They have their narrative. The intel community now is unassailable. The intelligence community is universally, always 1,000% right.
And they are all agreeing (but they don’t) that Putin attempted to interfere in the American election so that Trump would win. It’s a BS pack of lies that they have now reported for so long they actually believe it. And if anybody comes along and raises questions about the veracity, the honesty, the accuracy of the intelligence community? Why, the Drive-Bys can’t handle it. This self-immolation, this meltdown is occurring in public in front of everyone’s eyes, not behind the scenes. In other words, everybody is able to watch it.
And Trump is just masterful at tweaking these people, at playing them off of each other. He knows how to push their buttons. It’s funny, because they’re sitting there in these press conferences thinking, “This is the day we’re gonna destroy Trump! This is the day we’re gonna expose Trump. This is the day we’re gonna prove that Trump is a poseur. We’re gonna prove that Trump’s a fraud.” And every day it is Trump making fools of them, except they don’t know that. They don’t have the humility or the sense of awareness to understand that they’re being made fools of. It’s fascinating to watch.
