Notable Speeches

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a key figure in American political discourse for more than three decades, died this month following a battle with lung cancer.

In this excerpt from a 1995 broadcast, he explained one aspect of how he would use ludicrous humor to make serious points.

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Speaking on the Senate floor on January 26, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) decried the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, calling it a "sham" and a "kangaroo court."

He said such a trial would be at odds with the impeachment criteria set forth in the U.S. Constitution.

Further, Sen. Paul argued that Democrats, who have accused President Trump of inciting an attack on the Capitol building, are much more culpable than Mr. Trump for using inflammatory language. He cited specific remarks made by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and former Sen. (now Vice President) Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Sen. Paul spoke after raising a "point of order" about the planned impeachment trial.

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Addressing a massive "Save America" rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald Trump vigorously disputed that former Vice President Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election. 

He urged the crowd to "peacefully and patriotically" support the U.S. senators and House members who had pledged to object to accepting disputed electoral votes. Mr. Trump also presented a rundown of voting irregularities in swing states that Mr. Biden claimed by narrow margins.

The Trump speech occurred not long before a relatively small group of protesters breached the U.S. Capitol building in an apparent attempt to stop the counting and certification of electoral votes.

Congressional Democrats, joined by a handful of Republicans, later alleged — in an article of impeachment — that Mr. Trump used his address to incite the crowd to "interfere with [Congress’s] solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election."

This week's podcast features Mr. Trump's speech in full. 

A transcript of his remarks is at https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6

If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].

President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural address, considered by many historians to be one of the best inaugural speeches in U.S. history, came five weeks before the end of the U.S. Civil War and six weeks before Mr. Lincoln was assassinated.

Portions of this address are etched in stone in the Lincoln Memorial.

The recording used on this podcast, by Lincoln impersonator Walter Trumbull, attempts to re-create what the speech likely would have sounded like, as Mr. Lincoln spoke to a large outdoor crowd without amplification.

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Our most-listened-to podcast of 2020 featured this address by President Donald Trump, delivered at South Dakota's 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on the eve of Independence Day.

Mr. Trump honored the four presidents whose images are presented on Mount Rushmore: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Citing the "radical ideology attacking our country," he said "the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth.... [O]ur country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and...these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world."

A transcript of Mr. Trump's remarks is at www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-south-dakotas-2020-mount-rushmore-fireworks-celebration-keystone-south-dakota/

If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].

Our second most-listened-to podcast of 2020 featured a graduation speech by Antonin Scalia, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 until his death in 2016.

This 2015 address, presented at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, Md., pokes fun at the platitudes often offered in graduation speeches, such as "follow your star" and "never compromise your principles."

Justice Scalia's remarks have been abridged slightly for this podcast.

A transcript of this address, under the title "Platitudes and Wisdom," is included in the 2017 book, Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum).

If you have a comment or question about the Notable Speeches podcast, email [email protected].

Our third most-listened-to podcast of 2020 featured British-born philosopher Roger Scruton, once hailed as “the most influential conservative thinker since Edmund Burke.” Mr. Scruton died Jan. 12, 2020, at the age of 75.

His books include The Meaning of Conservatism (1980, 2001), An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture (1998, 2005), and The West and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat (2002).

Roger Scruton delivered this address at a lecture-and-discussion event titled "Beauty in a World of Ugliness" held at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The October 2018 event was sponsored by the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project. 

His remarks have been abridged slightly for this podcast.

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Our fourth most-listened-to podcast of 2020 featured a 1981 graduation speech by President Ronald Reagan.

On May 17, 1981, just six weeks after being shot and wounded by a would-be assassin, President Reagan delivered the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

"[I hope] that you will always be able to speak of an America that is strong and free," he told the graduates, "to find in your hearts an unbounded pride in this much-loved country, this once and future land, this bright and hopeful nation whose generous spirit and great ideals the world still honors."

You can read the full text of Mr. Reagan's remarks at https://ovalpike.com/text-ronald-reagans-notre-dame-commencement-address-from-1981/.

If you have a comment or question, email [email protected].

This was our 5th most-listened-to podcast of 2020 — a speech by then-Attorney General Bill Barr.

The Chinese Communist Party "seeks to...overthrow the rules-based international system and to make the world safe for dictatorship," he warned in an address delivered July 16, 2020.

"How the United States responds to this challenge...will determine whether the United States and its liberal democratic allies will continue to shape their own destiny or whether the CCP and its autocratic tributaries will control the future," he said.

Mr. Barr spoke at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich.

A transcript of his address (as prepared for delivery) is at https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-china-policy-gerald-r-ford-presidential

His remarks were abridged slightly for this podcast.

For more than half a century, Paul Harvey was one of America's most popular radio personalities.  Millions of listeners tuned in for his daily mid-day broadcast via ABC Radio, Paul Harvey News and Comment.

On his Christmas program each year, Paul Harvey re-told a modern-day parable, "The Man and the Birds."

This episode features his re-telling from Dec. 25, 2004. 

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Merry Christmas!