Yes, you read that headline correctly. Leading off his eponymous talk radio show on Wednesday, conservative stalwart Rush Limbaugh lambasted MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and “lunatic” far-left journalist David Cay Johnston over the pathetic release of President Trump’s 2005 tax returns, declaring “they got schlonged” and blinded by their hatred for Trump.
Limbaugh emphasized at the onset that not only was Maddow not smart enough to diagnose what Johnston had, but that her “intelligence is vastly overrated and I think way too invested in by people on the left, but people on the left in general, folks, are teetering on the edge of insanity.”
Arguing that folks like Maddow have a “hateful energy that is your guiding foundation,” Limbaugh argued that such anti-Trump fervor has kept them from “hav[ing] any touch with reality, or not much” to the point that they believe “every allegation” made against the President.
“But, folks, in addition to that, they’re just not as smart as everybody thinks they are. These people live in cocoons and they have tunnel vision. You know as well as I do they don’t let information in that conflicts with their safely constructed worldview. They’re not curious about anything they don’t already, quote, unquote, know,” Rush added.
Turning to Johnston, Limbaugh gave more insight into Johnston and rehashed what this writer noted how Maddow shouldn’t have claimed the tax returns were her exclusive:
Do not assume these people knew what they had. By the way, there’s something else about this. Rachel Maddow is taking credit for something that really isn’t hers. The Trump tax returns were not leaked to her, and she didn’t find them. They were leaked to some lunatic named David Cay Johnston.
David Cay Johnston works at The Daily Beast, which is that left-wing website started by Tina Brown. She may still be involved. I don’t know who runs it or owns it now. But it’s a bunch of wackos over there. This guy used to work at the New York Times. He has written The Making of Donald Trump in 2016. He’s been stalking Trump since 1988. First met Trump in 1988, in which he says, “I almost immediately recognized Donald as the P. T. Barnum of our age.”
And he said he promised in a New York Times interview, “I’m gonna follow Trump for the rest of his life.” And this clown won a Pulitzer Prize for his tax reporting. David Cay Johnston worked as a tax reporter for the New York Times. In 2001 he got the Pulitzer for exposing loopholes in the U.S. tax code!
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Anyway, this is the guy who got the tax returns. Rachel Maddow did not. So this David Cay Johnston says that yesterday morning in his mailbox came the two pages from Trump’s 1040 tax form from 2005. Well, what mailbox? Did somebody use the snail mail to send this to him or does he mean his email in box? Nobody calls the inbox on your computer, your iPhone, “mailbox.” A mailbox contains all the different inboxes and the inboxes are named, so I’m confused just in the terminology.
The conservative icon noted that, upon invoking Trump’s tax returns, “[a]ll reason reason vanishes, they got the tax returns” even though it turned out that Trump “earned $150 million, and he paid $38 million in taxes, that he paid an effective tax rate of 25%.”
It was here that Limbaugh invoked the controversial word Trump used to describe Hillary Clinton’s loss to Barack Obama in 2008:
Now, you would think these people looking at this would say, “We got a dud. We have got… We’ve been schlonged here.” You would think that they would look at this and think, “Okay, this David Cay Johnston guy…” It shows up in his mailbox. Is there not the least bit…? It says “client copy” on the two pages he got — “client copy” — which means it probably comes from a tax preparer firm or law firm or it may come from Trump. Now they’re saying that Trump schlonged these guys, that Trump set ’em up.
That Maddow announces her tweet, “We’ve got Trump’s tax returns,” and then Trump released the tax returns himself to everybody else to preempt the Rachel Maddow Show, but this David Cay Johnston guy had ’em before all that. So now he’s running around saying, “I think Trump… I think Trump leaked them to me! You know, it’s illegal to leak these!” (laughing) I can’t believe this! “It’s illegal to leak these; I think Trump leaked them to me.” It doesn’t mean you have to use ’em! If they got schlonged, they got schlonged.
How do the smartest people in the world get schlonged like this? How do the smartest people in the world get tricked like this? How do the smartest people in the world get fooled like this? Well, maybe they didn’t get tricked. Maybe it was their own irrationality. By the way, if you’re Rachel Maddow, let’s look at it from her perspective as a broadcaster. Okay, so she’s tweeted. She’s talked to David Cay Johnston; she’s seen these things. He told her what’s in there, and she sends out in tweet, and it literally melts the anti-Trump Twitterverse, literally melts it.
Later, Limbaugh explained to viewers that “liberalism is religion” to folks like Maddow and MSNBC since so few of them are actual people of faith but instead “build these little safe cocoons to live in where they don’t let outside beliefs in.”
“I maintain that while it may sound hard to believe, that you consider the possibility that these people’s minds are so poisoned that the truth and reality — particularly if it’s exculpatory or contradictory — just doesn’t penetrate their minds. There’s also the possibility, you know, Maddow wants big ratings even if it just is for 10 minutes. But anybody responsible as a broadcaster would have to know that this is a big net negative no matter what kind of early large audience that you attract from it,” continued Limbaugh.
Before transitioning to a commercial break, Rush concluded: “Anything that seems impossible to believe or understand is entirely possible with this bunch of people, and Rachel Maddow is at the top of the list of people who benefit from this ballyhooed, buzz-created image of brilliance that is not necessarily warranted.”
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from March 15's The Rush Limbaugh Show:
The Rush Limbaugh Show
March 15, 2017
12:00 p.m. Eastern hourRUSH LIMBAUGH: Everybody’s asking why did Rachel Maddow and PMSNBC, why’d they make such a big deal out of having Trump’s tax returns when it added up to nothing? My question is, why do we assume that they knew it added up to nothing? Who are these people? These people, including Rachel Maddow, whose intelligence is vastly overrated and I think way too invested in by people on the left, but people on the left in general, folks, are teetering on the edge of sanity.
They are so consumed with hate, they are consumed with hate personally for Trump, politically for Trump. They’re consumed with hate for their political enemies, not just disagreement, not just civil disagreement. These people are on the borderline of being crazy. And this craziness has been compounding itself even before the election.
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But my point is that when you have this kind of hateful energy that is your guiding foundation, that it is the reason you get up each and every day, you don’t have any touch with reality, or not much. You’re not really well grounded and it just adds and adds and adds and every allegation they believe about Trump blows up in their faces.
One by one, everything they have convinced themselves is true about Trump blows up. The Russian-hacked-the-election story has blown up. They just won’t admit it, which is why they won’t let go of it. And I think this kind of out-of-control runaway emotionalism that is masquerading as intelligence is literally eating these people away. And it’s not just the rank-and-file lunatic Democrat voter base. It goes up the chain to Democrat media people.”
But, folks, in addition to that, they’re just not as smart as everybody thinks they are. These people live in cocoons and they have tunnel vision. You know as well as I do they don’t let information in that conflicts with their safely constructed worldview. They’re not curious about anything they don’t already, quote, unquote, know.
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So why would they hype it? “But, Rush, they had to look at it and know it didn’t say that.” Didn’t matter. Do not assume these people knew what they had. By the way, there’s something else about this. Rachel Maddow is taking credit for something that really isn’t hers. The Trump tax returns were not leaked to her, and she didn’t find them. They were leaked to some lunatic named David Cay Johnston.
David Cay Johnston works at The Daily Beast, which is that left-wing website started by Tina Brown. She may still be involved. I don’t know who runs it or owns it now. But it’s a bunch of wackos over there. This guy used to work at the New York Times. He has written The Making of Donald Trump in 2016. He’s been stalking Trump since 1988. First met Trump in 1988, in which he says, “I almost immediately recognized Donald as the P. T. Barnum of our age.”
And he said he promised in a New York Times interview, “I’m gonna follow Trump for the rest of his life.” And this clown one a Pulitzer Prize for his tax reporting. David Cay Johnston worked as a tax reporter for the New York Times. In 2001 he got the Pulitzer for exposing loopholes in the U.S. tax code!
How do you win a Pulitzer for reporting on what’s in laws? But this guy did because liberals believe that loopholes are illegalities or loopholes are things rich people sneak in there for themselves and others rich people, so he did a massive expose on loopholes. There’s no such things as tax loopholes. That’s another way the language is bastardized.
Anyway, this is the guy who got the tax returns. Rachel Maddow did not. So this David Cay Johnston says that yesterday morning in his mailbox came the two pages from Trump’s 1040 tax form from 2005. Well, what mailbox? Did somebody use the snail mail to send this to him or does he mean his email in box? Nobody calls the inbox on your computer, your iPhone, “mailbox.” A mailbox contains all the different inboxes and the inboxes are named, so I’m confused just in the terminology.
Then the guy gets it. Then somehow Maddow finds out about it ’cause these people are all linked together and she sends out a tweet: “We’ve got Trump’s tax returns,” and Twitter blows up because these people have been sitting out there going closer and closer to insanity waiting for these mythical beliefs to somehow be established and proven.
So they got the tax returns. All reason vanishes, they got the tax returns. They’ve been waiting for the tax returns. You would think, wouldn’t you, if we’re gonna assign intelligence to these people, they had these tax returns long before Rachel Maddow’s television show aired last night.
It’s 9 p.m. Eastern time. You got two pages and it clearly states that Trump earned $150 million, and he paid $38 million in taxes, that he paid an effective tax rate of 25%.
That’s more than Warren Buffett’s rate, that’s higher than Warren Buffett’s secretary’s rate, which is the gold mine for tax rates, right? Warren Buffett out there saying, “It’s unconscionable, you know, I make 30,000 million times what my secretary does because I’m a cheapskate and don’t pay ’em anything, and she has a higher tax rate than I do. That’s just not fair.” And Obama is harping on this.
Well, Trump’s paying a higher tax rate than Buffett, than Gates, and even Buffett’s secretary. He’s paying a higher tax rate than Romney, and he paid a higher tax rate than the Obamas.
Now, you would think these people looking at this would say, “We got a dud. We have got… We’ve been schlonged here.” You would think that they would look at this and think, “Okay, this David Cay Johnston guy…” It shows up in his mailbox. Is there not the least bit…? It says “client copy” on the two pages he got — “client copy” — which means it probably comes from a tax preparer firm or law firm or it may come from Trump. Now they’re saying that Trump schlonged these guys, that Trump set ’em up.That Maddow announces her tweet, “We’ve got Trump’s tax returns,” and then Trump released the tax returns himself to everybody else to preempt the Rachel Maddow Show, but this David Cay Johnston guy had ’em before all that. So now he’s running around saying, “I think Trump… I think Trump leaked them to me! You know, it’s illegal to leak these!” (laughing) I can’t believe this! “It’s illegal to leak these; I think Trump leaked them to me.” It doesn’t mean you have to use ’em! If they got schlonged, they got schlonged.
How do the smartest people in the world get schlonged like this? How do the smartest people in the world get tricked like this? How do the smartest people in the world get fooled like this? Well, maybe they didn’t get tricked. Maybe it was their own irrationality. By the way, if you’re Rachel Maddow, let’s look at it from her perspective as a broadcaster. Okay, so she’s tweeted. She’s talked to David Cay Johnston; she’s seen these things. He told her what’s in there, and she sends out in tweet, and it literally melts the anti-Trump Twitterverse, literally melts it.
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Remember, this is religion to these people. Liberalism is religion. It’s rooted in faith. It’s unassailable. It’s inarguable. It’s why they build these little safe cocoons to live in where they don’t let outside beliefs in. They don’t want the trouble of being challenged. They don’t want the upset of being challenged. So they have — for months and months and months — convinced themselves. Their reality is, “Trump is scum! Trump worked with the Russians! The Russians worked with Trump to steal the election from Hillary,” and that Trump’s not nearly as rich as he said he is.
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I maintain that while it may sound hard to believe, that you consider the possibility that these people’s minds are so poisoned that the truth and reality — particularly if it’s exculpatory or contradictory — just doesn’t penetrate their minds. There’s also the possibility, you know, Maddow wants big ratings even if it just is for 10 minutes. But anybody responsible as a broadcaster would have to know that this is a big net negative no matter what kind of early large audience that you attract from it. It’s gonna end up…
You’re gonna become a laughingstock, unless they can spin it, “Well, you know, it’s only two pages, and we know — we know — that Trump was doing business with the ChiComs. We know it! We know it! It’s not here. We haven’t found it yet.” That’s the approach they’ve taken. Trump’s still lying to ’em, Trump is still a scum, Trump is still cheating, Trump still shouldn’t have won the election, Trump’s still in bed with the ChiComs. Even though the tax returns give no evidence whatsoever of it — and, in fact, the tax returns disapprove everything they have chosen to believe about Trump.
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Don’t discount this. Anything that seems impossible to believe or understand is entirely possible with this bunch of people, and Rachel Maddow is at the top of the list of people who benefit from this ballyhooed, buzz-created image of brilliance that is not necessarily warranted.
