CANCER CLAIMS RADIO HOST RUSH LIMBAUGH
Personality was ‘a legend,’ Trump says
Conservative and incendiary with millions of “Ditto-head” fans, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2020.
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh died Wednesday from lung cancer. He was 70.
The conservative broadcaster was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Feb. 4, 2020, one day after he announced his diagnosis.
Limbaugh was unflinchingly supportive of former President Donald Trump, who bestowed upon him the nation’s highest civilian honor during the 2020 State of the Union address.
Trump called into Fox News Channel to discuss his friend’s death Wednesday, saying they last spoke three or four days ago, lauding him as “a legend” with impeccable political instincts who “was fighting till the very end.”
Former President George W. Bush said Limbaugh “spoke his mind as a voice for millions of Americans.”
The Missouri native was the second-highest-paid radio personality, according to Forbes. His $87 million annual income was eclipsed only by Howard Stern.
In 1994, Limbaugh was so widely credited with the first Republican takeover of Congress in 40 years that the GOP made him an honorary member of the new class.
He famously used the term “femi-nazi” to describe women’s rights advocates and said in 2015 that “feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of pop culture.”
In his last broadcast of 2020, an emotional Limbaugh told listeners he didn’t expect to see the end of the year and was grateful he did.
“Because I have outlived the diagnosis, I’ve been able to receive and hear and process some of the most wonderful, nice things about me that I might not have ever heard had I not gotten sick,” he said. “How many people who pass away never hear the eulogies, never hear the thank-yous?”
Limbaugh was married four times. His last marriage was to party planner Kathryn Rogers, 43, whom he wed in 2010.
He was known for his fiery and articulate rhetoric, which was always impassioned, though not necessarily accurate.
Fact-checking outlet PolitiFact found the majority of Limbaugh quotes they reviewed were to some degree false.
Limbaugh, a cigar smoker for 30 years, had expressed skepticism about the dangers of smoking. He also compared COVID-19 to the common cold in February and falsely told his more than million listeners there had been 18 other COVIDs.
Limbaugh attended only one year of college at Southeast Missouri State University, where he “flunked everything,” according to his mother. She reportedly told a biographer her son only seemed interested in being on the radio.
He was also a top-selling author. Limbaugh expounded on his world view in “The Way Things Ought to Be” and “See, I Told You So.”
In 2014, he won the Author of the Year award at the Children’s Choice Book Awards for his work on “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans.”
“I love America,” Limbaugh said after receiving that honor from young readers. “I wish everybody did.”