"RUSH: (laughing) He remembers I told the people at Customs, "Look, I got these at the Clinton Library Gift Shop."
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ush Stopped at Customs: The Real Story
July 5, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To Flint, Michigan, this is Jeff, and welcome, sir, nice to have you with us.
CALLER: Mega dittos there, doctor. First time, long time. I followed you since 1991.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: My reason for calling: I was gone over the weekend, celebrating the Fourth with some friends of mine at an automatic weapons shoot, and when I came back I noticed that they decided not to charge you with the Viagra pills --
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: -- and I had a question about that. My question was: Do you now have to return all the samples back to the Clinton Library?
RUSH: (laughing) He remembers I told the people at Customs, "Look, I got these at the Clinton Library Gift Shop. They told me they were blue M&Ms." Yeah, I've just seen some of the media coverage of this in the last, what was it, the last half hour, or maybe the last hour that it started. My friends, you know, I have always been able to rise above it all, and this is just another example. But let me tell you about this because this was surreal. This really was. Last December... I don't know how much I should tell. This is purely personal, this is. Last December a friend said, "You gotta get..." (interruption). It's not...? (interruption) All right, all right. Snerdley says, "It's not personal anymore. You may as well." One thing about it. I'm looking at the media coverage of this, and they are regurgitating facts that have nothing to do with anything in this story.
This story purely and simply is that there was nothing illegal about what happened, and thus there aren't any charges. There was nothing illegal here. This never had anything to do with the previous deal that I had made with the state attorney's office down here, and the media has been hoping and praying that this would lead -- and, by the way, I understand. They hate me, folks. As I said last week, I expect them to want bad things to happen to me, and I expect them to not like me. I have targeted them for 18 years. It's quite natural that they do this. I do not expect objectivity or fairness from these people where I'm concerned at all.
So don't get mad about this. I find it interesting that they continue to regurgitate facts that had nothing to do with anything in this story, and what happened is that somebody -- and I assume it's at Customs -- leaked this. How else is this discovered? You know, all this talk about being a watchdog on government, the media, a watchdog on government, they're going to make sure the government doesn't overstep its bounds, doesn't spy on citizens. The media is going to make sure the government does not endanger people's civil liberties. Well, I guess when it comes to mine, they get thrown out the window. Somebody in the government leaked this against me and then they kept regurgitating it, and it was just used to attack me.
As I say, I have risen above it all each and every time. I'm just a private citizen in this circumstance coming back into the country. Mine was the only luggage searched that day, from what I'm told, at Customs. If my name had been Valerie Plame I would guarantee you this story would have been written differently and it would have read differently and there would be all kinds of, "Who in the government is leaking the identity and the details of this? He is an average, ordinary, common citizen," blah, blah, blah. But of course that's not the angle with me, which I fully understand. Now, there's so many aspects of this story, and this is understandable. I can understand how people would assume incorrect things because it's a quite natural thing to do.
A week ago Monday, I get back from three days, two-and-a-half days, in the Dominican Republic, and most of the time spent touring cigar factories and cigar farms. I had this bottle of Viagra in my briefcase. I've had it in there since December. I forgot it was even in there. There were 30 pills prescribed, and when they counted them out, there were 29 -- and yet, everybody thinks I loaded up on the stuff for a trip to the Dominican Republic, and that's what everybody was saying. "Wow, what went on in the Dominican Republic? Oh! (muttering)." In fact, when I cleared Customs there was this... I'm going to be very restrained in describing the agent but... I'll save that for another time. Anyway, I pointed out I have a briefcase that's got many different zippers. It's not a top that closes over a bottom. It's this thing that stands up; it's got side pockets and all that, and I opened the primary compartment where most of the things in the briefcase are, just to be cooperative, and she reaches in there, pulls out this bottle, says, "What have we here?" There are twenty-five people in the room. "What have we here? Viagra!" she shouts, "and look, it's not your name on the bottle! This is a crime! This is a violation of law!"
She's shouting this all over the Customs Office, and the whole room has come to a dead stop, and she races behind some closed door to her supervisor. The supervisor comes out and asks, "How many other prescriptions do you have, sir?"
"I've got two."
"They have your name on it?"
"Yes."
"What are they?"
"Look at 'em."
He said, "Well, what's this?"
I said, "I had an intestinal blockage in December. They're for that."
"Oh. How much cash are you carrying?"
I started to pull my cash out.
He said, "I don't care to see it, just tell me."
I said, "Less than $1,500."
"Okay."
I had a little white bag of things and he opened it. "What's this?"
I said, "Those are cuff links and golf balls from President Bush. I had lunch with him last Friday in the White House and dinner with your boss, Secretary Chertoff, the night before at the Supreme Court."
"Well, sir, I have to tell you that this is a violation of law, and we have called authorities in Miami and blah, blah," and they detained me for three or four hours and whatever it was, and actually it was the state attorney's office here that ended the whole thing by sending some sheriff deputies over and finally getting a statement from me and taking the case under their jurisdiction, and they today said there's no crime here, and they've announced it but the media is still reporting all over the place all the effects of the deal that could have been thwarted had this been prosecuted and regurgitating facts that were not part of this story at all.
I had some friends with me, and they were standing aside. This actually started this way. When you come into Customs in Palm Beach on a private airplane, this is one of the few Customs offices that I've ever dealt with -- and they know you're coming, by the way, because you have to give them your passport name and ID, passport number, date of birth and all sort of stuff of all the passengers on the airplane a week before you depart. So there's an inbound list and they know who's coming in that day. It's required by law. So somebody in there knew I was coming in, and from what I was told from people that were there during the time I was there, mine was the only luggage that was searched.
In fact, they didn't search the luggage. They just searched my briefcase and the little white bag, and they made me open my computer. But they bring all the bags off of the airplane. I had four guys with me, and they were going on to Miami. I was going to put 'em on the airplane to take them to Miami to catch a commercial flight to Los Angeles. So we get in the Customs office, get my stamp on the passport as having reentered the country and I start helping the luggage guys distinguish my luggage from all the others, because they've mixed it. They've got three carts, so I want my luggage on one cart since I am leaving, and the other four guys' luggage on other carts that go straight out to the airplane and I'm over there helping, and this agent says, "What are you doing? This is Customs! You haven't been cleared," and I smiled.
I said, "I'm just trying to expedite my friends getting outta here when we finish because they're going to Miami." So I went over there and that's when this whole process started. So somebody in there had to be waiting. I think this was leaked before I got out of there. I think it was in the news before I actually was in the car on the way home. But anyway, there was never any "there" there. It is not illegal to possess Viagra. It's like saying it's illegal to possess Prilosec or some other non-controlled substance that's prescribed for things, like, what is Prilosec for? Antacid medicine or what have you. So that's it. I appreciate the call out there, Jeff, but it's over now.
Folks, I'm going to be honest with you about something here. This incident has taught me. I had a golf trip planned for Spain in August, and I have canceled it. I am not going to involve myself with United States Customs for the next year and a half until this so-called probationary period evaporates. I'll tell you, the election cycles of '06 and '08, especially '08, I think it's going to be one of the most vicious and filthy of our lifetimes, and I know I'm going to offend some of you Customs people out there with what I'm going to say next, because I know most of you are... In fact, this was the first one I've ever encountered like this, but it takes one time and I've got red flags up, and I'm not going to put myself in a position of being framed.
Most places they come on the airplane and they process you there and they stamp your passport and search whatever they want to search, and sometimes they'll search the airplane. Sometimes they'll take the seats out, you know, depending on where you're coming from. Well, you can't watch them do that. You're supposed to keep your distance. You can't leave the airplane, but you can't watch them do that, and with all this obvious partisanship that's out there, I'm just not going to make it easy for people to frame me or whatever. So I've canceled that trip to Spain, and I know, when I told the guys I was going with, I said, "You may laugh about it, and I hate thinking this way, but it's the only smart thing to do. It just takes one experience," and you know, I have political enemies, theoretically, everywhere I would go and come back in the country. Normally when I clear Customs, when I come back from Europe it's Bangor because you've got to stop for fuel. They're great there. Atlanta. Teterboro, they have been fabulous up in New Jersey, in the New York area. But this was unreal. This experience was totally unreal. Anyway, that's it for that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Richard in Naples, Florida, you are next on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey mega dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: It's an honor talk to you on the day after Independence Day.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: You know, I was calling when you were commenting on your experiences you had at Customs over at PBI.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And --
RUSH: Wait just a second. Hang on just a second.
CALLER: Sure.
RUSH: A little inside baseball talk. For those of you in Rio Linda, that's the West Palm Beach Airport. Okay, go ahead, Richard.
CALLER: Oh, sorry about that. I'm trying to also do my banking and keep my employees coming to work in the next few days.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Gotta do their payroll here.
RUSH: I understand.
CALLER: I'm doing two things at once, so I do apologize.
RUSH: Eh, it's fine.
CALLER: One of the things I did was I had a charter company, and we used to fly people to and from places in the Bahamas, and one time I was taking the bass guitarist for AC/DC and, you know, these gentlemen have long since stopped partying or anything like that. He is with his family. He's got his wife; his two small children with him and we're clearing Customs in Palm Beach, and the way that the Customs officers treated this gentleman was like he was some sort of drug dealer that they were about to arrest. They talked down to him; they put him in a corner. They were just... I mean, they cut him down I don't know how many different ways right in front of the two small children. On that day, I was so embarrassed as American, I cannot even tell you how it made me feel.
RUSH: Yeah, well...
CALLER: So you're not alone with this, and I've seen it before.
RUSH: I know. I normally don't use Palm Beach Customs because I come into the country from Europe. You have to stop at the first port of entry, by law, unless you get overflight permission, which you can get. So sometimes it's either Teterboro or Bangor, Maine. They're great in Bangor and they're great in Teterboro, and they're fabulous in Atlanta. But this was the first time it's been this way, and I know why. I mean, I'm under no illusion as to why. They didn't treat me as badly as the way you described the AC/DC guy, but the one thing that's funny about this is, you may be wondering, "Why didn't you just fly straight to Miami and get your friends dropped off there?" It's because my pilot said, "You don't want to mess with Miami Customs." (Laughing.) He said, "They don't like corporate planes at Miami Customers. You'll be waiting. You'll get hassled." So my pilot recommended Palm Beach Customs in this case. You live and learn. But, anyway, I appreciate the call, Richard. I'm not surprised. This office does, apparently, have this kind of reputation. I don't know if they got the AC/DC guy on anything, but this is the first I've heard of it, so unlike in my case, they didn't leak it in his case.
END TRANSCRIPT
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