Rush Limbaugh dropped by “Fox News Sunday,” and didn’t take long to stick his foot deep in his mouth. To his mind, the protests over grand juries’ failure to indict the officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner aren’t really legitimate because they’re based on manufactured outrage.
Limbaugh told host Chris Wallace that while he believes the decision not to indict Darren Wilson was correct, he isn’t so sure about the decision not to indict Daniel Panteleo. Nonetheless, he thinks the outrage over both no bills isn’t “full-fledged legitimate” because it’s being generated by “grievance that’s being amplified and made up.” He called for President Obama to step in by “telling people to respect the criminal-justice system.” Watch the full interview here.
I have to wonder — if Limbaugh was sitting in front of Brown or Garner’s parents instead of the comfort of his studio in Florida, would he be willing to tell them to their faces that the pain they’re feeling isn’t “full-fledged legitimate?” I’d like to think he wouldn’t be that cold. But then again, we’re talking about a man who thought the media was only covering the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 because it wanted to help Obama.
And he’s got a lot of nerve to suggest the protesters don’t respect the system. The grand jury weighing whether to indict Wilson was told to consider the evidence in light of a law that has been unenforceable since 1985 — an egregious error that, to my mind, taints the entire proceeding and calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor. And while the grand jury considering Panteleo’s actions was likely guided by the autopsy finding several contributing factors in Garner’s death, in addition to the apparent chokehold Panteleo used on him, it’s hard to see how it overlooked that Panteleo didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get off Garner even as Garner was saying that he couldn’t breathe. And after all of this, Limbaugh says those protesting those decisions aren’t respecting the system? It’s a miracle he was able to say that with a straight face.
For someone whose stock in trade is generating astroturf, Limbaugh doesn’t seem to know what real outrage looks like.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.