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Just five years ago, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh went on a pro-tobacco rant on his show, during which he downplayed the risks of smoking, said it’s “a myth” that secondhand smoke causes illness or death and argued that smokers aren’t at any greater risk than people who “eat carrots.”
“Smokers aren’t killing anybody,” the conservative host declared in an April 2015 segment of the “Rush Limbaugh Show,” then argued that tobacco users should be thanked because their purchases generate tax dollars that fund children’s health care programs.
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Video: Rush Limbaugh says he has advanced lung cancer
“I’m just saying there ought to be a little appreciation shown for them, instead of having them hated and reviled,” Limbaugh said. “I would like a medal for smoking cigars, is what I’m saying.”
Fast forward to Monday, when Limbaugh, 69, went on his radio show to announce that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
Or fast forward to Tuesday, when Limbaugh was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom award during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. First Lady Melania Trump, seated next to Limbaugh in the House gallery, presented him with the award.
On his show Monday, Limbaugh said he had begun treatment for the cancer, but didn’t go into details, the Daily News reported. He only said he had noticed shortness of breath close to his birthday on Jan. 12, then had two professionals diagnose the cancer on Jan. 20.
“There are going to be days that I’m not going to be able to be here because I’m undergoing treatment or I’m reacting to treatment,” Limbaugh said.
Smoking is not the sole cause of lung cancer, of course, but the American Lung Association reported it was the no. 1 cause — responsible for about 90 percent of lung cancer cases.
Limbaugh, whose syndicated radio show is heard on 600 stations around the country, is popular among grass-roots conservatives and counts President Donald Trump as one of his biggest fans, the New York Times said.
But the host has long been a polarizing figure, usually for his controversial statements about race, including when he used the term “uppity-ism” in reference to Michelle Obama, the New York Times added. His show also lost sponsors in 2012 when he called law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “a prostitute” after she spoke to a congressional hearing about birth control.
His 2006 attack on actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s disease, was a top trending topic on Twitter Monday after Limbaugh announced his diagnosis. Limbaugh accused Fox of exaggerating the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease and mocked his movements.
Just A Quick Reminder Of The Time Rush Limbaugh Mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's By Pretending To Shake Uncontrollably. pic.twitter.com/dX3L0jtnUv
— You (@whitemorbius) February 3, 2020
“Hard to muster up a lot of compassion for a man who has displayed so little of it himself,” one man tweeted in reply to this post. However, someone else, who said she wasn’t a fan of Limbaugh’s “in any way, shape or form,” said cancer had touched her life “many times” so “I won’t gloat over his diagnosis either.”
Limbaugh, who acknowledged going to rehab to deal with a prescription painkiller addiction in 2003, started smoking as a teenager, the New York Times reported. He said he quit cigarettes by the early 1980s, but he continued to smoke cigars and often was photographed puffing on a cigar.
On his show, Limbaugh talked about the glamour of smoking and how “cool” it was, the Daily News reported.
In 2011, he said, “I have long maintained that smokers deserve our gratitude,” the Daily News reported.
“In fact, I think somebody should be chosen and a smoker should be given the highest medal that this country gives out. Whatever it is. The Medal of Honor?” Limbaugh continued. “If not that, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Smokers are being told horrible things about themselves. They are being told they are rotten to the core, they are despicable. And yet they alone, practically, are funding children’s health care programs.”
Limbaugh’s 2015 pro-smoking rant began in response to a caller who questioned his logic that society should be thankful to smokers.
When Limbaugh said, “Smokers aren’t killing anybody,” the caller noted, “Except themselves.”
Limbaugh scoffed, “Yeah, but how long does it take? Firsthand smoke takes 50 years to kill people, if it does. Not everybody that smokes gets cancer. Now, it’s true that everybody who smokes dies, but so does everyone who eats carrots.”
Giving up smoking can decrease a person’s risk of developing cancer, but the the American Lung Association says, “You can still get lung cancer.”
Limbaugh also falsely stated that the World Health Organization had “disproven” the dangers of second-hand smoke.
“There is no fatality whatsoever,” Limbaugh falsely claimed. “There’s no … major sickness component associated with secondhand smoke. It may irritate you, and you may not like it, but it will not make you sick, and it will not kill you.”
In fact, the World Health Organization very explicitly says that second-hand smoke causes more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year; 65,000 children die each year from illness attributable to second-hand smoke.
In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, of course, as well as heart disease, WHO said. In infants, second-hand smoke raises the risk of sudden infant death syndrome; in pregnant women, it causes pregnancy complications and low birth weight.
Overall, WHO said the global tobacco epidemic is “the biggest public health threat the world has ever faced.” It kills more than 8 million people per year, with 7 million of those deaths the result of direct tobacco use, WHO said.
This story has been updated to include information about Limbaugh being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at Trump’s State of the Union address.
