Rush Limbaugh goes on bizarre rant, accuses Michelle Obama of mispronouncing words

Limbaugh claims: “As a professional speaker, I am highly tuned — I am very much aware — of how people speak.”

Video file

Citation From the August 18, 2020, edition of Premiere Networks’ The Rush Limbaugh Show

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): As many of you may remember, may know, I have a pet peeve or a bugaboo about Michelle-My-Belle Obama. And I have noticed that a number of other Democrat women have the same — it's a speaking pattern, it's a — I don’t know what the actual name of it is. But it’s a pronunciation thing.

She can’t say the word “struggle” — “shtruggle.” “I’m shorry, I was shtruggling — you were shuffering, you must end your shuffering.”

And Marie Harf talks this way. All these Democrat women come out — we put together a little montage just to illustrate this for you last night, we got time to squeeze this in. And she makes a big deal, this is all part of her dystopian presentation —everybody's out there “shtruggling.” Nobody’s enjoying life,nobody’s having a good time, nobody has the chance at having a good time, because everybody is “shtruggling.”

(BEGIN CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA: And who we choose as our president, we honor that struggle, and chip away at that injustice … A lot of struggle and injustice, and work left to do … Too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities — Empathy, that’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. If we see someone struggling, Joe knows what it’s like to struggle.

(END CLIP)

RUSH: Yeah, I guess he does. And then, but it wasn’t just that word. “Shuffering,” and then she was “shorry” a couple of times.

And I don’t know. As a professional speaker, I am highly tuned — I am very much aware — of how people speak. And I know that some people actually affect their speech so as to be different, stand out, and have it become sort of a signature identifier. They do it as a marketing thing.

I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. It’s just the way the word gets pronounced. But since I’ve noticed it the first time, it’s become like a pet peeve.

So I “shtarted” counting all the different times last night. And I’m worried that if I don’t drop it, I’m going to end up doing it, too. I’m going to end up pronouncing “shtruggle” and “shuffer” and “shorry” — because I’m just going to, you know, habitually fall into it.