Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's first reaction to the Empire State Building shooting: Was President Barack Obama to blame?
Limbaugh "wondered" on his radio show Friday if Obama "had blood on his hands," responding to a report that the alleged Empire State Building shooter, Jeffrey Johnson, was targeting his boss.
From the transcript:
"I wonder if Obama's constant warfare on bosses and so forth might have led this guy to pull the trigger?"
From what he said afterward, Limbaugh seemed to expect subsequent backlash. He tried to justify his words by saying that the "news media and the rest of the left" have tried to politicize recent shootings. (In reality, there were a lot of bungled reports from a lot of different "sides" after the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting in July.)
Here's Rush, explaining that he was trying to highlight absurdity "by being absurd":
"Yes, I said it, and we're not gonna bleep it out. I'll guarantee you. The last time there was a shooting in New York, who'd the mayor blame it on? Tea Party people that didn't like health care, right? Gabby Giffords, you name it. The shooting out in Colorado? Brian Ross said the Tea Party did it. Well, here you have a guy shooting his boss for being fired. Who's out there ripping bosses to shreds every day? Who's out there ripping businesses to shreds every day?
And who's out there killing jobs every day?"
He continued:
So, "Obama's constant class warfare, could it be a factor? Might it be a factor, the Democrat Party and all this fear they're putting in people's hearts and minds?"
Listen to the audio below, courtesy of The Daily Rushbo:
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