Drive-By Media Has Cow Over Trump Drive-By

RUSH: The president did a drive-by rather than be maligned by the Drive-Bys. He got in his hermetically sealed SUV, left the Walter Reed complex, and drove around to say "thanks" to all the supporters that had been gathered outside Walter Reed. He wanted to show his appreciation for his supporters out in the street. The Drive-By Media immediately had a cow. The Drive-By Media was livid that they weren't taken along. They can't believe that the pool was not invited to go along. The president just doesn't leave the hospital and go out there in the SUV and drive around without the media knowing about it, they said.

They also claimed that this is really bad behavior. This is Trump at his worst. He doesn't care. He's infecting the Secret Service inside his SUV. He's infecting anybody that he comes in contact with. It's irresponsible of Trump to do this despite saying that they were furious they weren't allowed to come along. Which seems like it's a contradiction, but it's the media, and they're always furious at Trump for something.

I read a really agitated piece -- well, I read a piece by a really agitated reporter. No, I read a piece that quoted a doctor, attending physician at Johns Hopkins, which allowed the media to give the statement even more credibility. The doctor's a CNN contributor, James Phillips. Here is the sound bite that the Drive-Bys love. It was on Today Show today. Sound bite number seven.

Savannah Guthrie talking to the attending physician, Dr. James Phillips at Walter Reed. She said, "Corey Lewandowski says those Secret Service agents volunteered for that duty --" to be with the president in his SUV. "-- but in terms of public health, how likely is it that they could contract COVID having been in that sealed car with the patient?"

PHILLIPS: The reality is that this was a dangerous move. There is no medical benefit for this to have taken place. It violates CDC guidelines that come from the president's own administration. The reason why the tweets that I sent out have garnered so much attention is because I was being honest in the moment. It's the message that's sent to other people who are sick that it's okay to go out.

We're seeing schools try to reopen. We're seeing parents who have already sent their kids to school with disease. This is the wrong message to be sending. And the only way that somebody can volunteer for something like this and do it safely is through real informed consent. They have to know the real risks of getting into that vehicle. And my concern is that they didn't.

RUSH: His concern is that they didn't, but does he know? They have to know the real risk? How would they not? They're not stupid idiots. By the way, was the president wearing a mask? He was. Isn't that the end-all to everything? If you're wearing a mask that allows you to go do whatever you want to do. Isn't that what they've been telling us? You gotta wear that mask. If you don't wear that mask, you can't go anywhere. If you got the mask on, fine and dandy. Isn't that the impression they've left you with?

So president's wearing a mask. They're making a big deal too out of the fact that his SUV is hermetically sealed to guard against biological attacks or any kind of biohazard that might be launched as he's driving around Washington or wherever he happens to be that nothing can get in.

Therefore, what is in is trapped in there and can't get out. So here you have the president with COVID wearing his mask driving around, you got Secret Service people inside. One is driving. One's riding shotgun. There's some others in the back with the president. And the media is attempting to say that every one of those people has been put at grave risk in service to a president who doesn't care about them. Who couldn't care less if they get sick. That's the message that they want to have conveyed. Mark Meadows addressed it all on Fox & Friends today. This is what he had to say about it.

MEADOWS: Here's the interesting thing is, you know, they're criticizing, "Well, he put his Secret Service agent at risk." Well, the Secret Service agent, how do we think that we got here? I mean, we, we came here in Marine 1, the Secret Service agent that is with him has been with him, he's been with him in cars and yet we took additional precautions with PPE and others to make sure that they were protected. But, you know, a number of folks are trying to just make a big deal of that when, indeed, I know that myself and some of the Secret Service detailees are right there with him...

DOOCY: Sure.

MEADOWS: ...trying to make sure that he's protected each and every day.

RUSH: Yeah. Why didn't they raise the same question when the parking lot was on that helicopter on the way to Walter Reed on Friday evening? 'Cause Meadows makes a great point. He's in the helicopter, and that's sealed pretty tight as well. You've got the two pilots up front. You have Secret Service people in there; you've got agent who's carrying the football that's got the nuclear launch codes. It goes everywhere the president goes. He's in the back of the helicopter.

Mark Meadows, and it looked like Dr. Giroir was there. I couldn't tell, he was wearing a mask. But they're all wearing masks. Everybody was following mask mandates, and there were all kinds of people in that chopper. And when the president recorded his video in the Diplomatic Reception Room, before walking out and getting on the shopper -- yeah, that's the Diplomatic Reception Room where that video was shot. There has to be somebody running the camera in there.

I mean, there are people all over the White House coming in contact with the president, the first lady. So why focus on the drive-by? Why focus on the president getting in his SUV and driving around when there were plenty of reasons or occasions you could have leveled the same complaint days earlier?

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, folks, this is treatment week for me. I will be out tomorrow and Wednesday, and then we keep our fingers crossed for Thursday and Friday. Thursday and Friday are largely dependent on what happens tomorrow and potentially Wednesday. You never know with treatment week.

So we've got Mark Steyn as the guest host tomorrow. And that will be great. Steyn will be awesome, perfectly timed to come in and deal with whatever happens after we finish today up until tomorrow. Todd Herman will be here on Wednesday. And then we'll play it by ear as Thursday and Friday roll around. The objective of course is to be here Thursday. The last treatment week I was able to for the first time ever in treatment week to be here on a Thursday. The week prior to that, the treatment week prior to that that I was able to get here on a Friday. So we hope the trend continues. We shall see.

Now, about this business of the Drive-Bys being so paranoid or angry or whatever about Trump driving around thanking the supporters that showed up, you know what? I remember all day Friday, all day, Trump announces near 1 a.m. on Friday that he and the first lady have tested positive. And then all day Friday, I mean, I'm doing the program here, noon to 3 Eastern, there's not a word from the president. And everybody is going bonkers. Everybody's going nuts. Everybody's wondering, "Why doesn't he come out and do a tweet? Why doesn't he come out and do a video? Why doesn't he come out and say hi? What's going on?

People started getting really, really worried. I mean, after all, it is COVID-19. And so why? Well, he's the president. I mean, he owes us a signal that he's okay. He owes us this. This is what everybody was saying. Media, everybody else. So the president gets in the car, drives around, and the media goes bonkers. The president of the United States constantly needs to show the world that he's okay, that if he's getting better, he's getting better. That he's good enough to get in a car, drive around, and thank supporters.

And thanking supporters is key. Nobody demanded the supporters show up. Nobody asked them to. And yet there they were. I've told you I don't know how many times how much humility he's got and how much gratitude he has for his supporters. It is very important to instill confidence that the leader's okay. So that's what he's doing, and he's coming under fire for it. He can't win no matter what he does.