On Fox & Friends, Rush Limbaugh downplays racist chant against Rep. Ilhan Omar as “some innocent little chat born of fun”

Limbaugh: “All we ask is that you love the country”

From the July 19 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

Video file

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Yesterday the president made it clear he disagrees with that. He said he wasn't very happy with that. What do you make of that? 

RUSH LIMBAUGH (CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR): Much ado about nothing. I -- look, I don't really have time here to -- because I spent 20 minutes on this, on the radio yesterday. This really irritates me. There's two sets of rules. The Democrats never have to denounce antifa. What's antifa? Antifa's blowing up cities. Antifa is attacking people. Ditto Black Lives Matter. Ilhan Omar herself hates Israel. She's been uttering anti-Semitic statements. The House comes up with a resolution, doesn't even mention her name. And yet some people at a Trump rally make some innocent little chat born of fun and Washington comes to a halt and everybody gets up. “Oh my God, oh my God, did you hear what he --” It's nothing. You know, we have this two sets of rules circumstance here, and all this is, is designed to get conservative Republicans acting as though they're guilty of racism, bigotry, sexism, and homophobia, and it's all made up.

None of it -- we conservatives love people, Steve. We want the best for everybody. We want everybody to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that living in this country affords everybody, and we want everybody to be able to have the opportunity to be the best they want to be, using the ambition, desire they have. And all we ask, all we ask is that you love the country. That you do your best to help other people love the country. There's no reason to hate this country. There's no better place on Earth to be. There's no reason to despise this country. There's no reason to want to perfect it on the premise that is unjust or immoral. So people are fed up, I think, hearing how rotten their country is. And they're fed up hearing the media give those people an additional platform to broadcast their hate and their disgust with the country. So I think what happened at that rally is a combination of people having fun, they're with a president they love. It's a take-off on lock her up, Hillary Clinton. And as I said, the Democrats never have to denounce any of their supporters. They're never made to explain it. So it's a two-way street here. And I wish everybody on our side wouldn't get so darn scared and afraid of, “Oh my God, oh my God, did you hear what he said? The media's going to kill us.” So what? We're winning. There's no reason to act defensive, there's no reason to act guilty of these false things that they accuse us of. So the whole thing just ticks me off. I'm really using a lot of restraint here not to be profane.

PETE HEGSETH (GUEST CO-HOST): Restrained Rush.

LIMBAUGH: Did you see what happened? After the president goes out and does what they said, he had to disavow these horrible people. You hear what Biden did? Biden comes in, “you didn't go far enough. You need to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. You need to denounce what happened, your supporters in Charleston” -- or Charlottesville. It never ends. It's never enough. All it is, is falling into a trap and giving them further ammo to accuse us of all these phony fake things they say we are, which we are not. Bigots, racists, sexists, homophobes. Speaking of sexists, where's all the female abuse problems taking place? Democrat party, Jeffrey Epstein anybody? Harvey Weinstein, anybody? Kevin Spacey, take the list. They're all liberal Democrats abusing women. What do we have to defend? We're no -- I'm tired of being constantly being on the defensive. Look, if this is too hot TV for morning, I'll dial it back. But I just, you asked, and I'll tell you, it just ticks me off here. It just does.

Previously

Rush Limbaugh: Trump rally “send her back” chants are “totally understandable” because his supporters feel “like their country is being stolen”

Mark Levin defends Trump's racist attacks on four Congresswomen: “Their families really have done nothing for this country”

You don’t get frothing crowds chanting “send her back” without Fox News