Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh launched into a racially-tinged diatribe against President Barack Obama on Wednesday, charging among other things that he was “not authentically black” and lacked “slave blood.”
The right-wing extremist had initially been criticizing First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina when he began his latest racist rant against the president.
On his radio show, Limbaugh was expressing his aversion with the first lady’s anecdotal tales of the president’s hand-me-down coffee tables and shoes one size too small.
“Obama did not grow up in poverty,” Limbaugh said. “His grandmother, the typical white woman, worked in a bank. Don’t give me this ‘down with the struggle’ business. He wasn’t down. In 2008, the Democrats were wringing their hands because he wasn’t authentically black … He wasn’t down with the struggle. He doesn’t have slave blood.”
The often-hateful Limbaugh is no stranger to controversy, having built his media persona as a contentious critic of the Democratic Party, and President Obama in particular. More recently, he called Hurricane Isaac a conspiracy started by the president.
Limbaugh, who has battled drug addiction in the past, used a thug-like voice to impersonate the President, claiming that the decision to move his nomination acceptance speech from Bank of America Stadium to the Time Warner Cable Arena was made days ago because Obama can’t fill “Black Panther Stadium.”
Bank of America Stadium is often referred to as ‘Panther Stadium’ because it is the home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Limbaugh sounded as if he were speaking from personal experience when he said, “When you know you’re not drawing the crowds, that’s a sobering day.”
Limbaugh’s Clear Channel Radio show has lost more than 100 advertisers as of late as a result of a backlash from his hatefulness.
