Rush Limbaugh Is Racist, Here Are 46 Examples

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Conservatives have claimed for a long time that Rush Limbaugh isn’t a racist, that this image of the conservative thought leader is an invention of the so-called “liberal media.” This list exposes that for the lie that it is. It is a selection of Limbaugh comments, largely from the last 5-6 years (Limbaugh has been on the air for decades, but only has been closely monitored since Media Matters’ launch in 2004). The list has been pruned of simply outrageous statements to reflect the more racist proclamations by this leading conservative.

Limbaugh is not a fringe conservative media figure. Republican elected officials bow at his altar with alarmingly frequency, and he has hosted no less than the President of the United States on his show (President Bush also hosted this unapologetic racist at the White House).

Limbaugh is among the top 2-3 most listened to political figures in America, and was invited to be the keynote speaker at CPAC, the leading conservative gathering.

1 Limbaugh on Obama: “Halfrican American” [1/24/07]

2 Limbaugh on Obama: His “only chance of winning is that he’s black” [6/2/08]

3 Limbaugh on Jesse Jackson: Kerry camp got “a chocolate chip” [1/30/04]

4 Limbaugh: “If Obama weren’t black he’d be a tour guide in Honolulu” [7/6/10]

5 Limbaugh twice used word “spade” during discussion of Obama [1/15/08]

6 Limbaugh: Obama “wouldn’t have been voted president if he weren’t black” [7/6/10]

7 Limbaugh: “The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.” [2003]

8 Limbaugh: “NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons” [1/19/07]

9 Limbaugh: Left upset with Obama because “white people are not shining the shoes of black people” [4/22/11]

10 Limbaugh: Gallup is “upping the sample of black Americans” to keep Obama’s approval rating over 50 percent [11/19/09]

11 Limbaugh: Obama and Holder “continue to protect and represent” New Black Panther [7/12/10]

12 Limbaugh: Caller is “clever” for embracing Obama’s “black half” while bashing his “white socialist European Marxist half” [3/3/11]

13 Limbaugh on “stories” about how “the black frame of mind is terrible”: “Tiger Woods’ choice of females not helping ‘em out” [12/8/09]

14 Limbaugh mocks Chinese president’s untranslated speech [1/19/11]

15 Limbaugh photoshops Rep. Clyburn “driving Miss Nancy” [11/12/10]

16 Rush proposes a new leadership position for Rep. Jim Clyburn: “Driving Miss Nancy” [11/11/10]

17 Limbaugh: All Dems “had to do was nominate an African-American and [they’ve] got Colin Powell” [5/18/09]

18 Limbaugh: Obama is “this little boy, this little man-child president” [10/27/09]

19 Limbaugh: “For the first time in his life, Paterson is gonna be a massa” if he chooses Massa’s replacement [3/9/10]

20 Limbaugh: Basketball is “the favorite sport of gangs” [10/07/09]

21 Limbaugh: Illegal immigrants are an “invasive species” [4/4/05]

22 Limbaugh claimed “[t]here can only be one reason” Survivor scrapped “segregated” competition after two episodes — “the white tribe had to be winning” [9/29/06]

23 Limbaugh: “[M]inorities never do anything for which they have to apologize” [4/13/07]

24 Limbaugh: “The government’s been taking care of [young blacks] their whole lives” [2/5/07]

25 Limbaugh on Obama: “We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black” [1/22/09]

26 Limbaugh: “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations” [7/22/09]

27 Limbaugh on minorities: “The days of them not having any power are over, and they are angry” [6/4/09]

28 Limbaugh: Obama would not have acted if he’d known that the Somali pirates were “actually young, black Muslim teenagers” [4/14/09]

29 Limbaugh: Obama “wants us to have the same health care and plan that he had in Kenya” and “wants to be the black FDR” [8/24/09]

30 Limbaugh: “Obama has disowned his white half … he’s decided he’s got to go all in on the black side” [3/21/08]

31 Limbaugh: Obama is “more African in his roots than he is American” and is “behaving like an African colonial despot” [6/26/09]

32 “[I]n Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering” [9/15/09]

33 Limbaugh: Why was Michelle Obama not at Byrd’s funeral? Because of her “authentic slave blood”? “We can only speculate” [7/2/10]

34 Limbaugh on Steinbrenner death: “That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires” [7/13/10]

35 Rush Limbaugh claimed that Democrats “want to get us out of Iraq, but they can’t wait to get us into Darfur.” He continued: “There are two reasons. What color is the skin of the people in Darfur? It’s black. And who do the Democrats really need to keep voting for them? If they lose a significant percentage of this voting bloc, they’re in trouble.” A caller responded, “The black population,” to which Limbaugh said, “Right.” [8/23/07]

36 Limbaugh: Obama will use Haiti to boost credibility with “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country” [1/13/10]

37 Limbaugh: “[W]e need segregated buses […] This is Obama’s America” [9/15/09]

38 Limbaugh: “If homosexuality being inborn is what makes it acceptable, why does racism being inborn not make racism acceptable?” [9/15/09]

39 Limbaugh on Obama’s census form: “What race does he put down?” [4/1/10]

40 Limbaugh: Dismissal of cases against black defendants “the natural course of events” with black AG and president [7/1/10]

41 Limbaugh: “Every minority has been given the shaft and so there’s this inherent sympathy for them on the part of liberal do-gooders. And I think part of this irrational interpretation of Obama and his political talents is founded and rooted in this view of him with sympathy” [3/17/11]

42 Limbaugh: “Obama is half-white; maybe his half-white side is to blame here” [9/15/09]

43 Limbaugh: “Can this nation really have an African-American president” [9/16/09]

44 Limbaugh also claimed that the allegedly insensitive actions of the Obama family were taking place because they “look at it as if they are owed” these luxuries because of past racial discrimination. He added that they are “flying all over the country while everyone else is tightening their belts, ’cause they deserve it. This is owed to them.” [8/6/10]

45 Rush Limbaugh invented a racial element to explain Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett’s departure from the Ohio Democratic Senate primary race against Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), asserting, “And don’t forget, Sherrod Brown is black. There’s a racial component here, too.” In fact, Brown is Caucasian — a point on which Limbaugh was corrected later in the program. [2/15/06]

46 Limbaugh: Food safety advocates “going to go after Oreos” but might have to wait until Obama leaves office [7/27/09]