Limbaugh Flip-Flops on Sotomayor

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:29 pm

On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh executed a near flip flop on Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Limbaugh said, “If Sotomayor is a pro-life racist, I may have to change my view.”Rush’s position now is that the real issue isn’t racism. It is abortion. Check out the audio of Limbaugh trying to wiggle his way out of this one.

Here is the audio from Media Matters:

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Limbaugh said that he is not changing his position on Sotomayor, “I have not retracted my charge that she is a racist and a bigot. I have not eaten my words. You are missing the fundamental part of this, gosh, this is a pro-life racist, and I am saying that if she is a pro-life racist, I may have to change my view. What is so hard to understand? You know the state run media is unbelievable. They hear what they want to hear. As though it matters that I might support Sotomayor. As though it matters, well it maybe does.”

Here is what he said earlier on the same show, “You know, she would be the sixth Catholic on the Supreme Court and there are a lot of people worried about that. That does not bother me at all. I know a lot of Catholics, I love Catholics. But Sotomayor, she’s a Catholic and she doesn’t have a clear record on abortion. Overturning Roe versus Wade — whoa, it would be huge. I don’t know it will ever happen. But the opportunity to get someone like her … I can see a possibility of supporting this nomination if I can be convinced that she does have a sensibility toward life in a legal sense, of course in a real sense.”

It seems like Limbaugh has painted himself into a corner, and he doesn’t know how to get out. What is he talking about? I don’t understand what the fundamental part is. Is he saying that he would support a racist as long as she was pro-life? Could he be making the point that this whole race thing that he has spent days talking about really doesn’t matter now?

All Rush knows is that the GOP has not followed him on this one, so he has been left on the outside looking in. I think he is flip-flopping. He has gone from calling Sotomayor a racist and a bigot who can’t be support to maybe I can support her if she is pro-life. He can try to cover his tracks by sticking to racism charge, but the shift is obvious.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association