The issue is, I think, is that the URL is buried in the RTF. I can’t find the post we had on this a couple of months. I want to give attribution.
Some kind soul provided me with this AppleScript, which when run pulls the URL out of the RTF and returns the results to the script editor.
-- adapted from https://www.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=182034, https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=46657
use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
-- get any rich texts off the clipboard
set pb to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
set theRichTexts to (pb's readObjectsForClasses:{current application's NSAttributedString} options:(missing value)) as list
if (count of theRichTexts) = 0 then
display dialog "No rich text found on the clipboard" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
error number -128
end if
set theRichText to (item 1 of theRichTexts)
-- get length so we can start from the end
set start to (theRichText's |length|()) - 1
-- make plain string copy to work on
set theString to theRichText's |string|()'s mutableCopy()
set output to return
repeat while start ≥ 0
set {aURL, theRange} to theRichText's attribute:(current application's NSLinkAttributeName) atIndex:start effectiveRange:(reference)
if aURL is not missing value then
-- get linked text
set anchorText to theString's substringWithRange:theRange
if aURL's |scheme|()'s isEqualToString:"mailto" then -- email address
set newLink to aURL's resourceSpecifier()
else if anchorText's containsString:"This Site" then -- resource specifier, remove //
set newLink to aURL's resourceSpecifier()'s substringFromIndex:2
else -- full URL
set newLink to aURL's absoluteString()
end if
set output to ((output & anchorText as text) & "::" & newLink as text) & return
end if
set start to (location of theRange) - 2
end repeat
return output -- to view in Script Editor Result pane
Update: Found it, it was @sumnerg (Extract Anchor and URL from pasted HTML - #9 by sumnerg).