- by: 02/17/2021 Source: Politically Correcter
Conservative radio legend Rush Limbaugh died on Wednesday at the age of 70 after a battle with lung cancer, his wife announced on his radio show.
The loss: “Losing a loved one is terribly difficult, even more so when that loved one is larger than life,” Kathryn Limbaugh told listeners at the start of the show.
- “Rush will forever be the greatest of all time.”
Rush Limbaugh was one of the most influential conservative media personalities in the United States for over three decades.
- His provocative commentary and criticism of the left helped redefine the American right and the Republican Party.
- A prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union last year after his cancer diagnosis.
The reaction: Trump called into Fox News — his first TV interview since leaving office — to pay tribute to his friend and ally.
- Trump said he spoke to Limbaugh for the last time “three or four days ago” and the radio host was “very sick” but “very courageous.”
- “From diagnosis on, it was just something that was not going to be beaten. But you wouldn’t know it,” Trump said. “He was fighting till the very end.”
Donald Trump mourns the loss of his friend Rush Limbaugh pic.twitter.com/HrMZCtyVqe
— jordan (@JordanUhl) February 17, 2021
Trump’s words were part of a flood of public tributes by Limbaugh’s admirers, including Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who called him the “GOAT.”
Conservative radio host Mark Levin remembered Limbaugh on Fox News as an “incredibly wise man” and a “dear person.”
- “If you thought somebody needed help, he would help them. Nothing like what the liberal media has tried to do to him,” Levin said.
- “I just want him to be remembered the way he should be remembered. A tremendous patriot of this country who refused to accept the attacks that came against this country from within.”
Many progressives, however, reacted to Limbaugh’s death with an outpouring of hatred: “Rest in Piss,” “Good Riddance” and “Rot in Hell” were initially trending on Twitter along with the news.
Recollections of Limbaugh’s politically incorrect and sometimes-insensitive words were mixed with outright celebration on the platform.
Jenée Desmond-Harris, a New York Times Opinion staff editor, condemned Limbaugh and his fans in a series of tweets.
A HuffPost headline blared: “Rush Limbaugh, Bigoted King Of Talk Radio, Dies At 70.”
Media personality Michael Malice, for one, found a silver lining in the vitriol.
“Rush Limbaugh died as he lived,” he observed in a tweet, “making the left assmad.”