Limbaugh on Killer: "Maybe We Ought to Listen to Him"

Rush Limbaugh hadn't commented on Norway's mass murderer Anders Breivik until today's show.

In response to a conservative caller who urged opposition to Muslim extremists and right-wing extremist, Limbaugh said about Breivik: “Maybe we ought to listen to him.”

Rush was claiming that after 9-11, Bush's State Department had asked “Why do they hate us?” and suggested he was simply doing the same. Limbaugh tried to rewrite history, declaring that “Obama, after 9/11, said he had empathy for the terrorists” and said that “they were blameless” As Obama's actual words show, Obama said nothing like that. Obama actually said that the terrorism was caused by a lack of empathy for others, and Obama never suggested that the terrorists were “blameless.”

Limbaugh claimed, “This guy in Norway, I've been waiting for that call.” But strangely, Limbaugh claimed to be unaware at first that the killer was a right-wing extremist. After a break, when he apparently had a moment to research the issue further, Limbaugh continued to urge listening to Breivik. Rush also offered a paranoid suggestion that the openly conservative caller was secretly plotting to trap him: “I knew what the caller was trying to do.”

Rush tried to claim that Breivik was just a “run-of-the-mill Neo-Nazi.” According to Limbaugh, “This guy is a lunatic, he's against everybody, not just Muslims.” Obviously, Limbaugh does not endorse the mass murder of children. But he wanted to make sure that Breivik's right-wing ideas were not criticized. Limbaugh called Breivik's manifesto “a plagiarist of the Unabomber, who loved Al Gore.”

Limbaugh even said about Breivik, “He was not a Christian.” Bizarrely, Rush claimed that in Norway, “If you're non-Muslim, everybody's called a Christian.” That will probably come as a surprise to all the atheists, Jews, Buddhists, and various other believers in Norway.

Oddly, Limbaugh said that he had refused to state “my original thought” on the massacre, and declined to answer when the caller asked him about it. This indicates that Rush probably does have a strong sympathy for the killer's views, which mirrors much of the same rhetoric Limbaugh uses against liberals and the left. Earlier in the show, Limbaugh declared that everything Obama and the Democrats do is “poison” for America. But Rush understands that expressing agreement with a mass murderer is beyond the pale even for him.

Limbaugh still declared repeatedly, “Maybe we should listen to him,” but did so in a way that he could deny any responsibility and claim (falsely) to be doing the same thing as liberals after 9-11. In reality, repeating “Maybe we should listen to him” conveys the message of Limbaugh's sympathy with a mass murderer's hateful ideas.

Crossposted at DailyKos.