“It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump,” Rush Limbaugh, February 26, 2020
The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote has said much the same, accusing Democrats of “politicizing the coronavirus,” which he characterized as “their new hoax.” Fox News and others in the rightwing media fell right into line as well.
Let’s deal with the substance of this in the manner in which it deserves. First, Limbaugh is a stone-cold liar (and so is Trump)—although we knew that simply by the fact that his lips were moving. Second, and I’ll try not to spit as I scream this: Limbaugh and his shamelessly hypocritical buddies on the right weaponized Ebola to (try and) defeat Barack Obama. There, I feel a little better. And here’s the evidence, which I gathered researching my new book on how Limbaugh paved the way for Trump by spending eight years deploying the worst kind of hateful, racist rhetoric against President Obama.
After having spent several shows in July and August 2014 using the outbreak of the Ebola virus—which, counting only documented cases, killed over 11,000 Africans and one American—as a reason to “close the border,” on Sept. 8, the host pondered whether the enterovirus D68 outbreak that ultimately infected people in all but one state, and which may have killed fourteen (they tested positive but their deaths could not be definitively linked to EV-D68) was connected to the unaccompanied minors from Central America, and noted that “some people” believe it could be. Limbaugh also wondered whether the White House was covering up such a connection. Talk about weaponizing illness. Continue reading.