Remembering Rush Limbaugh one year later
Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt sits down with Rush Limbaugh’s wife Kathryn to reflect on his legacy.
In October 1992, radio titan Rush Limbaugh engaged in an exercise in "illustrating absurdity by being absurd" when he began a segment by – temporarily – declaring he'd endorsed Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton for president against President George H.W. Bush:
"Ladies and gentlemen, here at 12 minutes after the hour on the 22nd of October, am here to tell you that I have decided to endorse the candidacy of Bill Clinton for president."
Moments later, Limbaugh took calls from listeners spanning from the outraged to the disappointed, who were perplexed as to why he would depart from "being for Mr. Bush".
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Rush Limbaugh sits behind the Golden EIB Microphone (Photo by Mark Peterson/Corbis via Getty Images)
After Limbaugh returned from a break, a caller from The Bronx, N.Y., asked Rush, "what are you doing to us?" by endorsing Clinton.
"It was 23 minutes ago. You keep talking about something that happened 23 minutes ago. It's irrelevant…," Limbaugh later told a caller. He ultimately explained he was simply imitating the Democratic candidate:
"Governor Clinton has been doing for 20 years what I did on my show today -- saying things then denying them," the conservative radio giant said at the time. Limbaugh commented during a 2013 throwback to the skit that Clinton was repeatedly "lying through his teeth" on several issues and denying allegations of an extramarital affair by former Arkansas state employee Gennifer Flowers.
On Tuesday's "Hugh Hewitt Show", host Hugh Hewitt drew parallels between Limbaugh's exercise illustrating Clinton's behavior, and current President Biden's repeated off-script comments about Russian leader Vladimir Putin remaining in power or whether U.S. troops could be dispatched to Ukraine.
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Rush Limbaugh (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
"Thirty years ago, Rush did that bit… and yesterday [it was] Joe Biden," Hewitt said. "Life imitates art – that was Rush being the … artist and Joe Biden imitating it."
"It's not funny when it's the President of the United States saying ‘nope, that wasn’t me,'" he added.
On Tuesday, Hewitt noted that Biden was being serious when denying that he ever said Putin "cannot remain in power" or ever insinuated U.S. troops could end up in Ukraine – while Limbaugh was intentionally lampooning Bill Clinton:
"[Rush] is a radio genius," Hewitt said. "He did this bit 30 years ago, and in the back of my mind… we were trying to collectively remember Rush doing that bit – because [unlike Rush], President Biden wasn't joking."
Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton attend the memorial service for Senator Robert Byrd, D-W.V. (Reuters/Larry Downing)
"Rush was doing a schtick… this is not schtick, this is the President of the United States – in a time when the CCP led by Xi Jinping is attempting to take over the world, and when Russia is raping Ukraine," Hewitt said.
Limbaugh, who was awarded the presidential medal of freedom, died in 2021 after a battle with cancer.
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