DeSantis wants flags lowered for Limbaugh

Orders for Capitol and 2 Palm Beach County buildings

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered flags at three government buildings to be flown at halfstaff Wednesday to honor the late conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, sidestepping a possible showdown with the state’s top elected Democrat.

The governor ordered the U.S. and Florida state flags to be flown at half-staff at Florida’s Capitol, the Palm Beach County courthouse in West Palm Beach and at Palm Beach’s town hall.

Limbaugh, who DeSantis called “America’s anchorman,” died Feb. 17 from lung cancer at age 70. He was a long-time resident of Palm Beach.

Last week, DeSantis said he would order flags lowered at all state offices. Democratic leaders swiftly lashed out at the decision, saying DeSantis has politicized an honor usually reserved for the death of prominent government officials, police officers or firefighters who die in the line of duty, members of the armed forces or tragic events such as the mass shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.

Palm Beach County officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

Some said they would ignore any order to honor Limbaugh. Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried had said earlier that she would ignore any order to honor Limbaugh at her state offices. Fried’s agency — the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — oversees numerous state offices, including nine regional licensing offices, 38 state forests and 23 agricultural law enforcement inspection stations.

None are included in DeSantis’ order, issued after 7 p.m. Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, urged local mayors to ignore any order. She

also accused DeSantis of going outside standard protocols and said the order serves no unifying purpose.

“Rush Limbaugh spent his career normalizing and popularizing hatred and bigotry against people of color, immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ+ community,” she wrote in a letter to mayors in her South Florida district. “He built a brand around disgusting insults, bolstering rape culture, spewing lies about the AIDS crisis, and nonstop bullying. ... To the end, he stoked the environment that led to an insurrectionist attack on our Capitol, and dismissed calls to end such violence.”

Staff writer Skyler Swisher contributed to this report.

FILE PHOTO Rush Limbaugh looks on before introducing President Trump at a rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 2018.