Rush Limbaugh accused President Obama of refusing to rebuke the practice of female genital mutilation while speaking to a group of young African leaders, cherry-picking from his remarks to mischaracterize Obama's very clear condemnation of the practice as a “barbaric” tradition that “needs to be eliminated.”

President Obama spoke on Monday at a town-hall-style meeting honoring the Washington Fellowship For Young African Leaders, urging guests to abandon oppressive traditions, such as female genital mutilation and polygamy, in favor of progress.

Cherry-picking from Obama's remarks, Rush Limbaugh accused the president of refusing to condemn the practice of female genital mutilation on the July 28 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show. Limbaugh claimed Obama only halfheartedly stated, "'Female genital mutilation is not a tradition worth hanging onto,'" and implied Obama's statement didn't go far enough, claiming “he didn't condemn female genital mutilation. That would have been telling Africans what to do, and he would never impose his views on them because we're from the U.S. and who are we”:

Limbaugh further suggested that rather than condemn the practice, Obama would advise Africans to simply contract out mutilation to the terror group Boko Haram. 

In reality, President Obama actually called female genital mutilation a “barbaric” tradition that “needs to be eliminated”:

OBAMA: Now, I have to say there are some traditions that just have to be gotten rid of. And there's no excuse for them. You know, female genital mutilation, I'm sorry, I don't consider that a tradition worth hanging onto. I think that's a tradition that is barbaric and should be eliminated. Violence towards women, I don't care for that tradition. I'm not interested in it. It needs to be eliminated.