Rush Limbaugh echoes Lou Gehrig in return to radio, says he's ‘one of the luckiest people alive’

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Rush Limbaugh announces he has advanced lung cancer

Rush Limbaugh announces his diagnosis during his radio show.

A resilient Rush Limbaugh returned to his golden EIB microphone on Friday after missing three episodes to undergo cancer treatment just in time to mock the “implosion” of the Democratic Party and downplay his diagnosis as something with which "millions of Americans" are also dealing.  He also thanked supporters for making him feel like "one of the luckiest people alive."

“What a week. What an incredible week,” Limbaugh said at the top of the program, on the heels of Monday’s shock announcement that he’s been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and being presented with the Medal of Freedom at President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

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Limbaugh wasn’t only referring to his own week, but also to a wild news cycle that included Trump being acquitted by the Senate and the disastrous Iowa caucuses.

“You know, I don’t like to brag… but everything happening to the Democrat Party today, if you go back… you’ll find that I predicted the implosion of the Democrat Party and that’s exactly what it is,” Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh told listeners that the Democrats have “lost their entire moral foundation” because they became consumed with hatred.

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“Hatred is a poison, it destroys you,” he said. “Hatred can never make you happy.”

After putting a spotlight on the left’s rough week, Limbaugh, 69, addressed his own situation a few minutes into the program.

“The last thing that I did on Monday was inform all of you of a medical diagnosis, advanced lung cancer. I told you Monday that I really wished that I could not announce it because I don’t like making things about me, and I promised you that I was not going to live every aspect of this on the air. Millions of you have been through it. It’s nothing that millions of Americans aren’t experiencing… so you don’t need me sharing all of the details with you,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to do it anyway because there is a lot of factors involved including privacy and distraction.”

Limbaugh said he didn’t have a prepared monologue related to his cancer and the immediate aftermath of announcing it to the world, but would essentially speak form the heart.

“Despite living in the public eye, I really am a private person,” he said. “That’s just who I am. I want whatever I’m known for to speak for itself during these three hours… I’m not interested in being in the news all the time.”

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Limbaugh told viewers that all the support he has received has been a blessing and evoked New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, who famously declared that he considered himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” after being diagnosed with the fatal ALS back in 1939. Limbaugh said he has seen the historic footage of Gehrig’s speech numerous times over the years.

“The first two or three times I heard it, I had trouble processing it. How in the world can anybody feel lucky after having been told that you have a disease for which there is no recovery, and that it’s fast… there was a part of me that thought, okay this is something that famous people are supposed to say… I thought, clearly there is a portion of Lou Gehrig that thinks he has to say this,” Limbaugh said. “Now I know that’s all wrong. Now I know that there was nothing forced or phony or public-relations related about it. Because I feel the same way.

“I cannot thank all of the people that I have heard from since Monday,” he said. “To have this kind of support, and to know it, to be fully aware of it, it does make me one of the luckiest people alive.”