Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:02 pm
Limbaugh delights his listens with more spreading of rumors as fact
On his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh theorized that the Times Square bomber was an Obama supporter. Limbaugh said, “Guess what Faisal Shahzad was a registered Democrat. I wonder if his SUV had an Obama sticker on it.” Guess what, this is a rumor being spread by right wing blogs with no confirmation or evidence, but that doesn’t stop Limbaugh.
Here is the audio courtesy of Media Matters:
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Limbaugh said, “We have an obvious example here of predictable terrorism. No can’t call it what it is, gotta hold out hope that it was a Tea Party guy running amok. Guess what? Faisal Shahzad is a registered Democrat. I wonder if this SUV had an Obama sticker on it. Faisal Shahzad is a registered Democrat…Fine, so he’s a Democrat. I want to see the Obama sticker on this car. Notice how quickly they go it out of Times Square, before anybody could hop and maybe see Obama 2012 bumper sticker on the damn car.”
Rush then complained that the media is trying to blame this on George W. Bush, because the suspect’s home was in foreclosure, “I don’t know if he accessed Obama’s foreclosure rescue plan, but he was foreclosed on, and they said oh, he and his family were in terrible financial straits. We find his family’s in Pakistan, they’re not even here. Family’s not even here. They are now questioning some his neighbors at the place he was foreclosed on, so this is a setup to blame Bush. The rotten economy drove this guy nuts.”
Limbaugh picked up a rumor from a right wing blog, the rumor itself, by the way goes even further and claims that the suspect was an Obama donor, to fuel his partisan hate and feed his own conspiracy theory that Obama supporters are terrorists. I don’t any of this is true because according to the Wall Street Journal, Shahzad did not become a U.S. citizen until October 20, 2008, which would make him an unlikely Obama donor. He spent most of time as a citizen overseas. His longest trip was from June 2, 2009 until February 3, 2010.
There has not been a credible media report to suggest that Shahzad even voted in the last election, much less supported Obama, and it is a pretty safe guess that partisan politics had little or nothing to do with this attempt, so why is the right wing trying to politicize it? The answer is that they still view terrorism as their issue and themselves as the only people who can keep America safe. They are so desperate to find something to offset the Tea Party violence that they grab on to and pass along any rumor as fact. Shahzad likely wasn’t a motivated Obama supporter out to kill Americans, but when has Rush Limbaugh ever let the facts stand in the way of his hatred of Obama.
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
