Trump accused of using Rush Limbaugh’s death to push election conspiracy theories

The controversial and outspoken US radio host Rush Limbaugh died on Wednesday after a long battle with lung cancer and leading the praises for him was former president, Donald Trump.

In one of his first major interviews since leaving the White House, Trump eulogised over Limbaugh’s legacy as one of the longest standing voices of the conservative movement in the United States, with a career that spanned back to the late 1960s.

Speaking to Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening, Trump, who had given the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Limbaugh at the 2020 State of Union address, chose to praise the radio host, for basically being a fan of his.

Trump revealed that he first met Limbaugh after he announced his intention to run for president in 2016 calling him “just a totally brilliant guy” and hailing their friendship as “an honour”.

However, Trump also used the opportunity to further push the baseless conspiracy theories that he had actually won the 2020 presidential election. In a separate interview on Fox with Harris Faulkner nor Bill Hemmer, he claimed that Limbaugh agreed that Trump won the election before going on the criticise the Democrats.

The former president said, “Well, Rush thought we won, and so do I, by the way, I think we won substantially, and Rush thought we won and he thought it was over at 10:00, 10:30, it was over. And a lot of other people feel that way too, but Rush felt that way strongly. And many people do, many professionals do. And I don’t think that could have happened to a Democrat, you would have had riots going all over the place if that happened to a Democrat, we don’t have the same support at certain levels of the Republican system, but we have great people as Republicans.”

Although Trump didn’t go as far as to blame voting machines for being part of the fraud, a claim which has seen some networks threatened with legal action and even some of his supporters told to stop spreading the conspiracies, the two Fox hosts didn’t push back on Trump repeating the claims about the election.

These were Trump’s first major interviews post-presidency and despite the mournful situation people were not surprised to hear Trump talking about himself at this moment.

Limbaugh’s death was announced by his wife at the top of his radio show on Wednesday by his wife Kathryn. Paying tribute to her husband, she said, “A gentle giant. Brilliant, quick-witted, genuinely kind. Extremely generous. Passionate. Courageous. And the hardest-working person I know

She added, “From today on, there will be a tremendous void in our lives, and on the radio.”

More: Bruce Castor’s testimony during Trump’s impeachment contradicted the very reason he was hired