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DAmerican radio host Rush Limbaugh died. His family said he died of lung cancer Wednesday at the age of 70. Widow Kathryn Limbaugh announced the news of the death on the host’s show. Last year it was announced that Limbaugh had lung cancer. Born in Missouri in 1951, Limbaugh was considered one of the most influential right-wing journalists in the United States. For decades he had millions of listeners with his radio program, in which he also broadcast highly controversial views.
Limbaugh was a favorite of former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Trump, who was eliminated in November, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Limbaugh, who was married four times and had no children, last year. It is one of the highest civil awards in the country. “He is the greatest fighter and winner I have ever met,” said Trump, who thanked Limbaugh for his “decades of tireless dedication to our country.”
In 2008, Limbaugh signed an eight-year deal worth $ 400 million, cementing his position as the king of conservative radio. Limbaugh is said to have convinced Trump to turn around in 2018 and veto a funding law that did not provide money for a wall on the US-Mexico border, Trump’s most important electoral promise. The veto that Trump promised during a call to Limbaugh resulted in a government shutdown that lasted more than a month.
Loved by Trump, the radio personality has been viewed by many as a divisive and polarizing figure. Limbaugh was accused of sexism and racism, among other things. In 2012, for example, he insulted a Georgetown law student for campaigning for health insurance companies to cover contraceptives. In 2003, he made a racist comment about former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb on an ESPN broadcast. Lambaugh had alleged to the media that they had praised McNabb because they were “very anxious for a black quarterback to do well.”
The radio host was also part of the so-called Birther movement, which questions the citizenship of former US President Barack Obama. And it caused a stir for other comments about African Americans and women. Early in his career, he told a black caller that he couldn’t understand what he was saying and asked him to “pull the bone out of my nose and call me.” On other explosive political issues, he was against abortion and denied climate change. Regarding the coronavirus, he said it was “the common cold”, which “would become weapons as another element to overthrow Donald Trump.”