Then-presidential hopeful Joe Biden, who’d been a Medal of Freedom recipient, criticized Trump’s decision and motives. Others were much less enthusiastic about granting Limbaugh the nation’s highest civilian honor. Trump called him “the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet” and thanked him for his “decades of tireless devotion to our country.” His loyal, tuned-in clan affectionately called themselves “dittoheads” - shorthand for a person who enjoyed listening to or agreed with the ideas and opinions of Limbaugh.Ī staunch supporter of the former president, Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom during Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, a day after the radio host announced he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. “All it takes is the mention of my name and the predictable left-wing groups have a cow,” he once boasted. His radio show - which he hosted from Palm Beach, Fla., after moving there in the late 1990s - was as big as the top-rated TV series on cable and networks. At the peak of his influence in the 1990s, he had amassed as many as 20 million listeners a week, with about 12 million daily across 600 radio stations throughout the country. Limbaugh first broadcast the nationally syndicated “The Rush Limbaugh Show” in 1988 and quickly exploded onto radio stations. He started at WABC-AM in New York City later that decade, where he built a national platform and became an eminent media personality. In Sacramento in the mid-’80s, Limbaugh adopted a radio format that weaved political and news commentary and listener calls, all with a conservative slant.

The right-wing talk-radio host began his career in the 1980s as a disc jockey. He could, in theory, have been gone four months ago. In ways both big and small, it was Limbaugh who arose as an architect of the deep political and cultural divides in America that came into full focus during the Trump era.įormer President Trump spoke to Fox News about Limbaugh’s death, saying, “He was very brave. Though advertisers occasionally fled and even political allies winced when he went on an unfiltered tirade, Limbaugh remained a sure-fire friend of the American right, and listeners faithfully heeded his advice and political gospel over the decades.

House of Representatives, was so indebted to the fiery conservative radio personality that he and other Republicans called themselves the “Limbaugh Congress.” Limbaugh, the speaker said, had given them the courage to “take back our country.” The GOP had just taken back the chamber for the first time in decades and Newt Gingrich, then speaker of the U.S. He later said he regretted running the segment, but he continued to blast homophobic commentary.With millions of listeners at his back, Rush Limbaugh gained such power and authority by the mid-1990s that he was made an honorary member of the Republican-held House, where his far right-leaning ideas, laments and bombast helped steer the party toward its fractious future. Early on, his show briefly had a segment called 'AIDS Update' in which he mocked gay men who died of AIDS complications and blamed them for the disease. Man Donald Trump? What's going to happen there?'' As it happened, Buttigieg never appeared next to Trump, but now Trump is out of office and Buttigieg is a member of President Joe Biden's Cabinet.Īmong Limbaugh's many other anti-LGBTQ+ statements, he has asserted that when a gay man turns his back, 'it's an invitation' said the movement for equality is succeeding only 'by virtue of force' blamed marriage equality for incest said a photo of a distraught gay child was faked urged the Republican Party to denounce Caitlyn Jenner, a Republican herself, for being transgender and predicted that photos of Melania Trump nude and embracing another woman, which were leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign, would lead LGBTQ+ people to vote for her husband. Democratic leaders, he claimed, had to be 'saying, 'OK, how's this going to look, 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband onstage next to Mr.

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