Rush Limbaugh: Donald Sterling is in trouble because "he did not give enough money to Obama"

The king of right-wing radio does his very best to portray the Clippers owner as a victim of liberal hypocrisy

Published April 28, 2014 8:00PM (EDT)

Rush Limbaugh                                           (AP/Jeff Chiu)
Rush Limbaugh (AP/Jeff Chiu)

Rush Limbaugh has finally weighed in on the controversy over Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling's patently racist comments to his mistress, and El Rushbo, as his anti-immigration fans like to call him, has identified the true villains — Hollywood liberals and Barack Obama.

"This guy is a big Democrat," Limbaugh insisted. "The only reason he is in trouble right now is that he did not give enough money to Obama."

Limbaugh went on to say Sterling is "a typical Hollywood Democrat" and a "pretend A-lister."

"The guy gave money to Gray Davis, the guy gave money to Bill Bradley," Limbaugh continued. "He's been donating to Democrat causes ... doing what you do in Beverly Hills and LA to be in the A-list crowd, this guy's been doing it — other than the slum lord business, and that may even be some of what you have to do."

Limbaugh's contention that Sterling is a Democrat has been a popular talking point on the right (for reasons that are not entirely clear; no liberals or Democrats of any influence had bothered to make the Sterling story about the GOP), but there's a slight problem: It's not true.

While it's true that Sterling, years ago, donated what were for him relatively small amounts to Democratic politicians, Mother Jones reports that Sterling is in fact a registered Republican. As Mother Jones also notes, this shouldn't matter or have any particular bearing on how one judges Sterling's comments.

Still, if Limbaugh and his fellow right-wingers are going to try to turn this into a partisan issue, they might as well get the basic facts right.

And as to Limbaugh's claim that Sterling's not donating "enough" to Obama led to his present PR disaster? When it comes to how, exactly, that makes sense, your guess is as good as ours.

You can listen to Limbaugh being wrong and incomprehensible below, via Media Matters:


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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