Limbaugh on Attacks on Freedom of Speech

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," August 26, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: This week, we're doing a special series of shows. Our theme is really from a line that I read a long time ago from Thomas Jefferson to his nephew Peter Carr. He said, "Question with boldness even the very existence of God, for if there be a God he must surely rather honest questions over blindfolded fear."

I don't know how many answers I will give you, but I will raise many questions. So far, we haven't had any, and the silence is deafening. Oh, sure, they're tearing me apart. But none of the facts.

Write what you learn on this show down. Write these questions down, and demand answers, because it's not my America that we're talking about here. It's all of ours — left, right, Democrat, Republican. All of our freedom of speech is on the ropes, and questioning your government is not only important, it is, in a democratic republic, which I think we still have, it is required of you.

Freedom of speech is under attack. Tomorrow night, I'm going to show you the thugs and the army that is being built, right under our noses. Now, joining me on the phone is radio talk show host, Mr. Rush Limbaugh.

• Video: Watch Beck's interview

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Glenn Beck, how are you, sir?

BECK: Very good, sir.

I want to play something for you. I don't know if you just saw it, but I want to play it again. This is the new diversity officer for the FCC, a newly created position. This is what he said, at a speech, or talk he was giving about Chavez's Venezuela, and how the media work down there.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LLOYD, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION: In Venezuela, with Chavez really had an incredible revolution, a democratic revolution, and to begin to put in place, saying that we're going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela, the property owners and the folks who were then controlling the media in Venezuela rebelled. Worked, frankly, with the folks here in the U.S. government, worked to oust him and came back had another revolution. And Chavez then started to take the media very seriously in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Rush, I find that breathtaking.

LIMBAUGH: I find the whole administration breathtaking, Glenn.

I mean, you are doing a great job this whole week, I saw Sarah Palin even Tweeted about what you are doing, urging people to watch. This whole administration is as radical and far left as any that the country has ever had. What they're trying to do here to communications is simply stifle dissenting voices. They're trying to wipe out any opposition.

If you look at Barack Obama and his track record as a politician, it is to clear the playing field. He doesn't like debating his opponents. He just wants to get rid of them.

This diversity czar comes from a fringe radical, Saul Alinsky type of background. And the things that he is talking about doing — and I watched your show for the first half hour today — and the things he is talking about doing to shut down radio are simply un-American.

Not to say that it is not constitutional, it is simply un-American. And make no bones about it, folks, Glenn is right, when I think he is maybe underselling it a bit as far as their intentions are concerned, the still stimulus plan.

Glenn, look at what they're doing to the U.S. economy. Anyone with a sense of economic literacy would know this is not how you create jobs. Do you not rebuild the private sector. This is being done on purpose! All of these disasters are exactly what Obama wants. The more crises, the better, the more opportunity for government to say, let us in. and fix the problem.

And his number one opposition is on radio and FOX News, his number one opposition is on radio. They can't go Fairness Doctrine because it's too obvious. So they're doing this backdoor route with diversity, and ownership, 100 percent tax on operating, in order to pay public radio, because they're supposedly fair. It's insidious.

I don't think it is going to work in the end, because the American people are too informed, Glenn. They're too aware of it. Their radio means too much to them. Their free speech, freedom in general, means way too much to them. Just as they're fighting back on health care and a number of other things, so will they fight back on this.

BECK: Rush, tomorrow on this program, I'm going to lay out the case of the army that they are building right underneath our nose, and an army that he spoke about on the campaign trail. And if you watch the — what could only could be called the organization's — or the administration's organ, anything involved with GE, or NBC, you've got now Jeffrey Immelt on the board of the Federal Reserve. You have him in the Oval Office consulting not only on healthcare but the financial situation, and they are an organ.

If you watch MSNBC, I contend, that you will see the future, because they are laying the ground for a horrible event that will be — what they're laying the ground for, anything from the right, there's some awful event, and I fear this government, this administration has so much framework already prepared that they will seize power overnight, before anybody even gives it a second thought.

LIMBAUGH: Well, I think because of what you are doing with your television show, your radio show, what we're all doing here, I don't think they will be able to seize it overnight without anybody knowing about it.

And you talk about the organized groups that they have got. Let's look at the healthcare situation. What's happening right now, the genuine passion, the real passion is in individual Americans' hearts and minds, individuals are showing up. They may be going to the Web to find out where these town halls are, but they're showing up because individually they don't want any part of this.

The Obama army has to be bought and paid for. The Obama army has to be given marching orders. The Obama army is not showing up with any passion for Obama's issue, which is health care. They're showing up because they have been instructed to by bosses.

Now, this army that you are going to reveal tomorrow is probably going to be much the same way. I'm going to tell you something, Glenn, passion, love of country, truth is going to outmaneuver and overpower fake passion, trumped up people, who are just given marching orders and sent out to act in a certain way.

I'm really — you know, we maybe looking at Barack Obama destroying the Democratic Party. It's too soon to say that now. But we may be looking at that happen. There are reasons for optimism, but you are right. It is a dangerous time. It is the most dangerous time in my life for freedom and liberty in this country.

BECK: I will tell you, a lot of people would say, that's Rush Limbaugh, this is hyperbole, et cetera, et cetera. But would you agree with me, Rush, that this is not conservatives or Republicans, or Independents, talking about this because they don't like Barack Obama. These are Americans. I'm an American. I'm speaking to you as an American. This is bad for anyone, unless you're in the power circle. You don't want to go down this road with what they're proposing with the FCC.

LIMBAUGH: No — well, I don't want to go down the road with anything they're proposing on anything, Glenn. But you ask an interesting question. Are people going to react to you or me simply because — well, it's hyperbole. It's what these guys do.

My first hour yesterday was chronicling how this man is systematically dismantling our ability to gather intelligence to protect ourselves against an attack. He is purposely using his attorney general to make the United States the villain of the world.

I'm going to tell you, folks, from the bottom of my heart, I am uncomfortable thinking and saying these things about a man who's been elected president of the United States. It is terribly upsetting and disconcerting. And I wish I didn't think it. And I wish I didn't have to say it, but there's no way to sugarcoat it.

This is not politics as usual. This is not left versus right. This is not Republican versus Democrat. This is statism, totalitarianism versus freedom. And if these people are allowed to go where they want to go unchecked, then some people, a lot of people — I don't think half the country, but close — will wake up one day and find my God, what the hell happened? Because this is not what they voted for. This is not their intention of this. They thought they were getting something entirely different.

It is a responsibility we all have, being honest, and earnest to inform people of what these possibilities are, because they are very real.

BECK: More with Rush Limbaugh, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD: In Venezuela, with Chavez really had an incredible revolution, a democratic revolution, to begin to put in place, saying that we're going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela, the property owners and the folks who were then controlling the media in Venezuela rebelled. Work, frankly, with the folks here in the U.S. government, worked to oust him and came back had another revolution. And Chavez then started to take the media very seriously in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: America, I want to — first of all, I want thank a watchdog for bringing that video to my attention. You can be a watchdog. Just tweet me whenever you see things like this, but I have to ask you an honest effort here. I need you to scour the Internet and hook for all the people involved with this government giving speeches and listen to them. And then pull them off and archive them yourself. Pull them off on to your own computer, because I think things could get scrubbed quickly.

We're back with radio talk show host Mr. Rush Limbaugh.

Rush, when I see this comment from him, and yesterday we were all on Van Jones, an avowed Communist, self-avowed Communist, Marxist, Revolutionary, advising the president of the United States. Holdren, our science "czar," he comes out and he says you don't have a right to, you know, a number of children. If you want to have three children, there's no right in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, if the government says there's only two children.

Where is the true outrage from anyone in the media? Why are these things not grabbing traction at this point?

LIMBAUGH: Well, that doesn't surprise me at all. The whole con concept of reporting has gone out the window. I call it a state-controlled media, because it is what they are. They are just repeaters. They take dictation from Rahm Emanuel, for the most part, and they simply run with it.

It is who they are, too. They think, Glenn, at the end of all this, that they're going to be in the elite circle. They think they will be untouched by any of this. They think the Fairness Doctrine attack, or the attack on radio, will leave them alone.

My father used to tell me, when I was growing up, and my brother, when he was trying to warn me of the threat posed by Soviet Communism and he told me about the media. He said these people are such fools, don't they understand they will be the first ones shut up? If this kind of thing ever happens in this country.

I think it is just hero worship. I think, a lot of these people, a lot of them come out of the civil rights era. This presidency is symbolical to them. It is historical. They're not reporting — in fact, Glenn, this is a great point, how is it that people know what is in the health care bill? The press isn't telling them. How is it that people know some of the plans the administration has? The drive-by media is not telling anybody anything. They are discombobulated. I saw Chuck Todd the other day go ballistic because too many people are doing news now that are not journalists, that are not qualified, and infecting people's opinions in the media, and so forth.

These people are — it's embarrassing. I think they have met their Waterloo, and their Waterloo is Obama.

BECK: When I warned on the Patriot Act, which I was for as long as it had serious sunsets, and as many booby traps in that thing as possible. I warned at the time, and I was really conflicted because you don't want to give the government this kind of power. The kind of power that this government has right now is staggering.

Rush, they tried to go after you, with Timothy McVeigh, and tried to enact all of these things. Is it different now? Are you at all fearful? Or do you have any fear that these things will come to pass?

LIMBAUGH: Well, I do. And I take it seriously that they're going to try, but you know, Glenn, they have tried a number of things with me over the years. You mentioned McVeigh. They tried to blame me, Clinton did, for the Oklahoma City bombing. And they have routinely gone after me, but they haven't been able to shake anything away. And the reason is the bond of loyalty that I have with my audience. I have total credibility with the audience. It is an audience that continues to grow despite all of the new conservative shows on radio and television.

And all of us, in conservative media, have that bond with our audience. And the effort to discredit us is always going to fail. It will always fail as long as we remain true to who we are and don't disappoint our audiences in any way, in terms of substance and being serious about what we really believe.

So I'm confident that this can be beaten back. If I weren't, you know what, Glenn? I'd pack it all in, and I'd spend my money before they take it. And I would go and enjoy the rest of what my life is going to be.

BECK: That's quite a shopping spree! Can I come with you?

(LAUGHTER)

LIMBAUGH: I've got plenty of room.

BECK: Mr. Limbaugh, thank you very much.

LIMBAUGH: It's always a pleasure, Glenn. Thanks for having me. One of these days I have to do this on camera, since I have lost all this weight, I've got to show you how I look.

BECK: I think he's hitting on me. I think he's saying I'm a sexy, sexy man.

(LAUGHTER)

Rush, thank you very much. We'll talk to you again.

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