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During the annual State of the Union address, President Donald Trump presented Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award there is. However, the response to this was highly controversial.
Limbaugh was sitting front row as Trump made the announcement. First Lady Melania Trump presented the conservative commentator with the award while Trump continued with his address. Politicalflare notes that the Medal of Freedom was given to significant figures in American history such as Desmond Tutu, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and that was where critics saw the problem. Trump seemed to suggest that Limbaugh was on the same level as those figures.
Limbaugh is known for being a very vocal supporter of the President and is also known for his very controversial remarks and opinions. The commentator faced accusations of spreading racist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant claims. Limbaugh was also infamous for referring to former President Barack Obama as “more African in his roots than he is American” as well as suggesting that Obama was “behaving like an African colonial despot.”
He was also known for his comments regarding slavery, saying that it “had its merits” and was responsible for turning the South into what it is. These comments will obviously not sit well with many people in the country, and thus earned him a lot of backlash. Former Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub tweeted that “Trump awarding that medal to Rush Limbaugh has nothing to do with its recipient but was awarded as a message to the viciously racist, nationalist segment of the population whose votes Trump needs.”
Shaub is just one of the public figures who slammed Trump’s decision to award the medal of freedom to Limbaugh. New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez also slammed the President’s decision. Ocasio-Cortez criticized Trump during an Instagram live broadcast after the address, accusing him of placing Limbaugh on the same standard as Rosa Parks.
“Rush Limbaugh is a virulent racist, but even just on top of that, to do it in the middle of a State of the Union and not even dignify it with its own ceremony as it has - there’s all sorts of norms being violated, not just for people’s humanity, but also it truly just cheapens the value of it,”said Ocasio-Cortez.
