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Democratic Caucus's Senate Journal

October 2, 2007

Limbaugh Selectively Edited His Own Broadcast to Spin His Way Out Of "Phony Soldiers" Controversy

On September 26, Rush Limbaugh impugned the patriotism of soldiers who have questioned the war in Iraq. The context of his comment about “phony soldiers” was a conversation about soldiers who oppose the war. Only a full two minutes later did Limbaugh refer to Jesse MacBeth. Yet on September 28th, Limbaugh played back an edited version of his September 26th broadcast with two minutes cut out of the tape to make it seem like he was talking about MacBeth when he made his “phony soldiers” remark. The edited tape trick, straight out of the Nixon White House playbook, failed to fool anyone who actually heard the original broadcast. And to make matters worse, Limbaugh followed up by including decorated Vietnam veteran Congressman Jack Murtha in a list of “phony soldiers.” That he edited his own broadcast, and claimed he aired “the entire transcript,” shows just how desperate he was to spin his way out of his remarks.

Below is a side by side comparison of Limbaugh’s remarks on September 26th, and as he edited them to sound when he re-broadcast them on September 28th.

Rush Limbaugh Broadcast on September 26th

Rush Limbaugh Re-Broadcast on September 28th of September 26th Show

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

 

CALLER: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

 

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

 

CALLER: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I've been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

 

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

 

CALLER: And, you know, I'm one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I'm proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull -- what these people don't understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that's over there, it'd take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we'd have to go right back over there within a year or so. And --

 

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

 

CALLER: Yeah, and, you know what --

 

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

 

CALLER: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

 

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

 

CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

 

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

 

CALLER: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

 

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

 

CALLER: Exactly, sir. And, and my other comment was -- and the reason I was calling for -- was to report to Jill about the fact that we didn't, didn't find any weapons of mass destruction. Actually, we have found weapons of mass destruction in chemical agents that [inaudible] been using against us for awhile now.

 

I've done two tours in Iraq. I just got back in June and there were many instances of -- since [inaudible] not know what they're using in their IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. They're using mustard artillery rounds. The VX artillery rounds in their IEDs.

 

Because they didn't know what they were using, they didn't do it right, and so it just kind of -- it, it didn't really hurt anybody but there are -- those munitions are over there, it's just -- it's a huge desert. If they've buried it somewhere, we're never gonna find it.

 

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know, that's a moot point for me right now --

 

CALLER: Rush --

 

LIMBAUGH: -- the weapons of mass destruction. We gotta get beyond that. We're, we're there. What -- who cares if, if -- we all know they were there and, and Mahmoud [Ahmadinejad, Iranian president] even admitted it in one of his speeches here about -- talkin' about Saddam using the poison mustard gas or whatever it is on his own people -- but that, that's moot, right? What, what's more important is all this is taking place now in the midst of the surge working.

 

And all of these anti-war Democrats are getting even more hell-bent on pulling out of there, which means that success on the part of you and, and your colleagues over there is, is a great threat to them.

 

LIMBAUGH: I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --

CALLER: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you --

[Limbaugh Edit]

LIMBAUGH: It's just, it's frustrating and maddening, and it is why they must be kept in the minority.

 

Look, I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much. I gotta -- let me see -- got something -- here is a "Morning Update" that we did recently talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. And they have their celebrities.

 

One of them was Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal," I say in quotes -- 23 years old.

 

[reading from "Morning Update"]

 

What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart. It wasn't his being affiliated with post traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, though. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage in their view off the battlefield.

 

Without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq: American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account translated into Arabic and spread widely across the internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way:

 

'We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.'

 

Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, a poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court, and you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs' claim and his Army discharge record.

 

He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly -- 44-days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger. Never was. He isn't a corporal. Never was. He never won the Purple Heart and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen."

 

You probably haven't even heard about this, and if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template of the drive-by media and the Democrat [sic] Party as to who a genuine war hero is.

 

Don't look for any retractions, by the way, not from the anti-war left, the anti-military drive-by media or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse MacBeth's lies about our troops, because the truth of the left is fiction, is what serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities 'cause they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the U.S. military.

 

In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth

LIMBAUGH: It's just, it's frustrating and maddening, and it is why they must be kept in the minority.

 

Look, I want to thank you, Mike, for calling. I appreciate it very much. I gotta -- let me see -- got something -- here is a "Morning Update" that we did recently talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. And they have their celebrities.

 

One of them was Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal," I say in quotes -- 23 years old.

 

[reading from "Morning Update"]

 

What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart. It wasn't his being affiliated with post traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, though. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage in their view off the battlefield.

 

Without regard to consequences, he told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq: American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account translated into Arabic and spread widely across the internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way:

 

'We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque.'

 

Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, a poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court, and you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs' claim and his Army discharge record.

 

He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly -- 44-days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger. Never was. He isn't a corporal. Never was. He never won the Purple Heart and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen."

 

You probably haven't even heard about this, and if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template of the drive-by media and the Democrat [sic] Party as to who a genuine war hero is.

 

Don't look for any retractions, by the way, not from the anti-war left, the anti-military drive-by media or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse MacBeth's lies about our troops, because the truth of the left is fiction, is what serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities 'cause they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the U.S. military.

 

In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth.

-

 

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America Speaks Out on the Iraq War

Today in the Senate
December 12, 2008:

The Senate stands in recess for pro forma sessions only, with no business conducted on the following days and times: Friday, December 12 at 10:00 a.m.; Tuesday, December 16 at 11:00 a.m.; Friday, December 19 at 10:00 a.m.; Tuesday, December 23 at 11:00 a.m.; Friday, December 26 at 11:00 a.m.; Tuesday, December 30 at 10:30 a.m.; and Friday, January 2 at 10:00 a.m.

At the close of the pro forma Session on January 2, 2009, the Senate will stand adjourned sine die.

 

Senate Floor Calendar...

 

 

 

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