White House Calls Limbaugh’s Duke/Sotomayor Comparison Offensive

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:29 pm

Earlier today, Rush Limbaugh compared Sonia Sotomayor to white supremacist and former KKK leader David Duke, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Limbaugh’s remark today was offensive and he pointed to the Congressional leaders who have rebuked Limbaugh’s remarks.

Here is the video from Media Matters:

On his radio show Limbaugh said, “She (Sotomayor) brings a form of bigotry or racism to the court. I don’t care — we’re not supposed to say it, we’re supposed to pretend it didn’t happen, we’re supposed to look at other things, but it’s the elephant in the room. The real question here that needs to be asked — and nobody on our side, from a columnist to a TV commentator to anybody in our party has the guts to ask: How can a president nominate such a candidate? And how can a party get behind such a candidate? That’s what would be asked if somebody were foolish enough to nominate David Duke or pick somebody even less offensive.”

Gibbs responded, “I don’t think you have to be the nominee to find what was said today offensive, and I think maybe the best example of that is to look at any number of conservative and Republican leaders who over the past 24 hours have specifically addressed the comments of people like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh. It’s sort of hard to completely quantify the outrage I think almost anybody would feel at the notion that you are being compared to somebody who used to be in the KKK. It’s amazing.”

Don’t kid yourselves, because the White House loves the fact that they once again get to face off against Rush Limbaugh on an issue, because every time Rush is the voice of the GOP, the Republicans look more extreme and out of touch. If this race baiting continues by Limbaugh and other Republicans, it may end up backfiring and giving more support to Sotomayor.

Limbaugh’s comparison was offensive by design. He is trying to fire up his listeners, and keep himself in the spotlight. However, I think that those on the far right have gone past the point of no return on Sotomayor. They are putting Senate Republicans in a position where they will have to either agree with Limbaugh and look like a bunch of racists, or repudiate Rush. There is also a third option. They could ignore him, which is what I think the majority of them will end up doing.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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