Vice President Joe Biden on Friday told Jay Leno that he wanted to send Rush Limbaugh to Russia as part of last week's spy swap.
As a special guest of the "Tonight Show," Biden was asked why we traded ten of their spies for four of ours.
"Well, we got back four really good ones," joked Biden.
Leno then showed a picture of Anna Chapman and asked, "Do we have any spies that hot?"
Biden stammered, "Let me make it clear, it wasn't my idea to send her back...I thought maybe they'd take Rush Limbaugh or something" (video follows with transcript and commentary, relevant section at 0:55):
JAY LENO, HOST: I want to ask about this Russian spy swap. We traded ten for four. Now, I know our math skills are not as good as they should be, but that doesn't seem fair. Why, why did we trade ten for four?
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, we got back four really good ones.
LENO: Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
BIDEN: And the ten, they've been here a long time, but they hadn't done much.
LENO: Are they just sort of like moles, they just sort of plant people here and say, "See what you can find out?" Or do they come with a specific mission, "You're going to go work for Lockheed" or "You're going to work for..."
BIDEN: The former.
LENO: Yeah. Okay. Now, show him, this Russian woman here, let me ask you something. And you would know this, Mr. Vice President. Do we have any spies that hot?
[ Laughter ]
BIDEN: Let me make it clear, it wasn't my idea to send her back.
[ Laughter ] Wasn't mine.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I wanted, anyway.
[ Laughter ] I thought maybe they'd take Rush Limbaugh or something.
LENO: There you go.
BIDEN: You know what I mean? That would have been a good -- a good move.
This would be a great joke if it didn't have such underlying truth to it.
After all, the way this administration has treated its adversaries in the media, you think they would ship all their detractors to foreign lands if they could.
