Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / WHAT RUSH LIMBAUGH TAUGHT ME ABOUT FIGHTING LIBERALISM!

Transcript

WHAT RUSH LIMBAUGH TAUGHT ME ABOUT FIGHTING LIBERALISM! · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Ben Ferguson Podcast. And many
0:04
Speaker 1: of you may have noticed we haven't had a show
0:06
Speaker 1: up in the last couple of days. We've been snowed
0:08
Speaker 1: in without internet and all the things you need to
0:11
Speaker 1: do a podcast. Luckily, this morning we woke up and
0:16
Speaker 1: we were able to get the ability to do this
0:19
Speaker 1: right now, and I'm very thankful because I wanted to
0:22
Speaker 1: pay tribute to the grace of all time wrestling ball.
0:26
Speaker 1: There are two ways I could do the show today,
0:30
Speaker 1: and one would be to read for you all the
0:32
Speaker 1: evil and mean tweets of the left and the things
0:34
Speaker 1: that they've said about Rush Limbaugh and talk about how
0:36
Speaker 1: disgusting about they are. And that was the easy route,
0:40
Speaker 1: right You could just show them for who they are.
0:43
Speaker 1: The other would be to talk about the legacy and
0:45
Speaker 1: the man that is Rush Limbaugh, and I've decided to
0:47
Speaker 1: go in that direction because I think that's what we
0:51
Speaker 1: should focus on. I wouldn't be doing this right now
0:56
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for Rush Limbaugh. I met rustling Ball
0:59
Speaker 1: when I was very young. In fact, I was listening
1:02
Speaker 1: to Rush Limbaugh in the back of my mom's Ford
1:05
Speaker 1: Aerostar van. She was listening to this new guy that'd
1:08
Speaker 1: just been syndicated in nineteen eighty eight, nineteen eighty nine,
1:12
Speaker 1: and I was listening to Rush Limbaugh, and I loved
1:16
Speaker 1: instantly talk radio, and I knew that's what I was
1:21
Speaker 1: going to do with my life. I loved talk radio
1:25
Speaker 1: because I was able to call into radio shows at
1:28
Speaker 1: a young age and people would judge me based on
1:31
Speaker 1: what I said, not based on my appearance of my
1:34
Speaker 1: age for someone that wanted to have an opinion. And
1:37
Speaker 1: the world has become a very different place. We are
1:40
Speaker 1: much more accepting now of young people having an opinion
1:43
Speaker 1: and having influence, and a lot of that comes from
1:46
Speaker 1: social media. That's one of the good things that's come
1:48
Speaker 1: out of social media, I would argue. But when I
1:51
Speaker 1: was growing up in the in the late eighties early nineties,
1:57
Speaker 1: if you were young, you were you were to shut
1:59
Speaker 1: up and listen. Rush Limbaugh epowered people like me to
2:04
Speaker 1: not have to wait till I was quote an adult
2:08
Speaker 1: to have a conversation about politics. And there were millions
2:13
Speaker 1: and millions and millions of conservatives like myself that came
2:17
Speaker 1: out of Rush Limbaugh's show because they were in the
2:19
Speaker 1: car listening with their parents. You got to remember whatever
2:22
Speaker 1: the dial was on the car at that point in
2:25
Speaker 1: time is what you listened to. There weren't screens in
2:29
Speaker 1: the back of the headrests for the kids to watch
2:34
Speaker 1: Donald Duck, Shippendale, Mickey Mouse. There wasn't you know, these
2:41
Speaker 1: headphones that you had or iPhones or iPads you could
2:45
Speaker 1: stick in front of your kid's face and say quiet
2:47
Speaker 1: and they'd leave you alone. You listen to what your
2:51
Speaker 1: parents were listening to. And in my parents car that
2:54
Speaker 1: was talk radio. That was Rush Limbaugh. And I'm so
2:57
Speaker 1: thankful that they didn't have iPhones. And I'm thinking they
3:00
Speaker 1: didn't have those screens and the headrests or in the
3:02
Speaker 1: ceiling that popped down to kind of get your kids
3:05
Speaker 1: to just disappear in the back seat. And yes, they
3:08
Speaker 1: are obviously great, right you can take a little break,
3:12
Speaker 1: But I personally am so thankful that those are not
3:15
Speaker 1: that they were not there when I was a kid,
3:17
Speaker 1: because I may not be doing what I was doing today.
3:20
Speaker 1: I met Limball for the very first time through a
3:24
Speaker 1: guy named Kick Carson. Kick Carson was the right hand
3:26
Speaker 1: man of russelling ball, and Kick Carson would probably tell
3:30
Speaker 1: you I was the most annoying sixteen fifteen year old
3:33
Speaker 1: kid in the country, but he saw that I had gumption.
3:38
Speaker 1: I ended up finding a basic number in New York
3:42
Speaker 1: for the Russelling Ball Show, and I figured out that
3:46
Speaker 1: if you would call after hours, you could start hitting
3:49
Speaker 1: buttons and you could get dial by name directories for
3:55
Speaker 1: people's last names. And that's exactly what I did. I
4:00
Speaker 1: called the main number, I hit Pound or Star, and
4:02
Speaker 1: they would say, please enter the last name, the first
4:05
Speaker 1: three layers the last name, and I put in Carson,
4:08
Speaker 1: and I got Kick Carson's voicemail, and I left Kit
4:12
Speaker 1: Carson voicemail. I said, Kit, my name is Ben Ferguson.
4:14
Speaker 1: I'm a talk show side of Memphis. I'm coming to
4:17
Speaker 1: New York and I it's been a dream of mine
4:20
Speaker 1: to sit down and see the golden microphone and the
4:24
Speaker 1: EIB network. And I left. I'm not kidding. It was
4:28
Speaker 1: probably ten eleven, twelve messages, and finally Kick Carson called
4:31
Speaker 1: me back because he realized it wasn't a joke, like
4:34
Speaker 1: I wasn't some random person that was trying to get
4:38
Speaker 1: in touch and some you know, it was like, okay,
4:40
Speaker 1: this is intentional. And I remember Kit Carson calling back
4:44
Speaker 1: my parents' phone at their house. It's pre cell phone days.
4:48
Speaker 1: And he was like, is Ben ferguson there? And I
4:53
Speaker 1: am my mom, I or my dad. One of the
4:54
Speaker 1: two got me in there like hey, you have a
4:56
Speaker 1: phone call. And I answered and you know, and I
4:58
Speaker 1: was like, Hi, this has been and he was like Ben,
4:59
Speaker 1: this is Kit Carson and he said if I let
5:02
Speaker 1: you come to the studio where you stopped calling and
5:03
Speaker 1: leaving all these messages and I said yes, sir. I
5:06
Speaker 1: ended up flying in New York because I was doing
5:08
Speaker 1: an appearance of all things on Fox News Channel. This
5:11
Speaker 1: is like early in the Fox News days. I was
5:13
Speaker 1: doing a John Gibson show and Bill O'Reilly's show, and
5:18
Speaker 1: I was flying in New York because it's before they
5:20
Speaker 1: did a lot of remote broadcasts where you'd go to
5:22
Speaker 1: a studio. It was so expensive. It was cheaper for
5:24
Speaker 1: them to fly you to New York put you in
5:26
Speaker 1: a hotel room, and that was just easier. It was cheaper.
5:31
Speaker 1: So I went up there and I had the you know,
5:32
Speaker 1: got there early because these networks they always wanted you
5:35
Speaker 1: in town way early, like the day before your appearance,
5:38
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to risk you missing a fly
5:39
Speaker 1: to cancelation. So I got there and I let Kit
5:44
Speaker 1: know and he said, come on over. And I remember
5:46
Speaker 1: going over and I got to watch Rush Limbaugh's show,
5:51
Speaker 1: and I looked at Kit Carson and I said to Kit,
5:54
Speaker 1: and I said to Rush Limbaugh, I said, I said,
5:56
Speaker 1: what is your one piece of advice you wish you
5:58
Speaker 1: could you know would have had at my age. And
6:01
Speaker 1: Limbaugh looked at me and he said, Ben, figure out
6:06
Speaker 1: how to sit in a room and talk to yourself
6:10
Speaker 1: for three hours a day with no phone calls. And
6:13
Speaker 1: if you can figure that out, you'll make it in
6:15
Speaker 1: this business. That is what I modeled my entire career
6:21
Speaker 1: after a lot of people that listen to my show
6:24
Speaker 1: for the last twenty plus years. Notice I don't have
6:28
Speaker 1: a lot of guests. And the reason why is because
6:32
Speaker 1: I learned how to do a radio show three hours
6:35
Speaker 1: a day, five days a week. And at one point
6:39
Speaker 1: my career is doing two shows a day. I was
6:40
Speaker 1: doing a morning show afternoon show. I was doing five
6:43
Speaker 1: and a half hours a day, and I did it
6:45
Speaker 1: without guests because of what Rustling Ball and Kit Carson
6:48
Speaker 1: told me. Figure out how to talk to yourself in
6:52
Speaker 1: a room for three hours a day without phone calls,
6:55
Speaker 1: and you'll make it. It's easy, is what I learned,
6:59
Speaker 1: and what Limba told me it was it's easy for
7:01
Speaker 1: you know, anyone can interview somebody. It's hard, it's work.
7:07
Speaker 1: It takes research to do what I do. Was his point.
7:12
Speaker 1: Not anyone can sit there for three hours a day
7:14
Speaker 1: and talk to their audience. And there's many days Limbau
7:16
Speaker 1: did not take phone calls. His stack of stuff that
7:19
Speaker 1: became famous. I had a stack of stuff. Why because
7:22
Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh taught me that. Rush Limbaugh taught me that
7:28
Speaker 1: you can't just wing it, you can't just phone it in.
7:32
Speaker 1: You know, I genuinely missed the days of newspapers. I
7:34
Speaker 1: remember going to there was a there was a news
7:37
Speaker 1: paper kind of stand in my hometown and it was
7:41
Speaker 1: connected to a tobacco shop called Tobacco Corner. It's no
7:44
Speaker 1: longer there, and I remember saving my money and on
7:48
Speaker 1: Sundays I would go up there and I would get
7:50
Speaker 1: the newspapers because we didn't really have the Internet, and
7:53
Speaker 1: I would get the Washington Times Weekly, the Wall Street Journal,
7:58
Speaker 1: the New York Times, and I would scour those for
8:01
Speaker 1: content because that's how you got content back then, and
8:05
Speaker 1: I miss it because my stack of stuff now is
8:07
Speaker 1: a stack of tabs on my computer screen like I
8:09
Speaker 1: have right now. But he taught me how to do research.
8:13
Speaker 1: He taught me how to ask questions. He taught me
8:19
Speaker 1: to look at things from the other side. I got
8:23
Speaker 1: to meet with Kit several other times, and unfortunately Kit
8:25
Speaker 1: died early on in my career. He passed away suddenly
8:30
Speaker 1: and he had a battle with cancer. And I remember
8:33
Speaker 1: that was kind of my connection to Rush, and I
8:36
Speaker 1: saw Rush several years later at a talk radio convention,
8:40
Speaker 1: and I also learned about humility. Limbaugh had gotten addicted
8:45
Speaker 1: to prescription drugs, and it was not because he was
8:49
Speaker 1: trying to get high. It was because he had pain,
8:52
Speaker 1: and then when he took the pills to help with
8:53
Speaker 1: a pain, he got addicted. So many people I know
8:57
Speaker 1: that's happened to. They're not druggies, they're not drug head
9:00
Speaker 1: they're not out there trying to get high. Limbaugh wasn't
9:02
Speaker 1: trying to do that. He had an injury that then
9:05
Speaker 1: allowed for him to legally get prescription drugs. And I
9:10
Speaker 1: remember knowing that Russell Liamba was a grace of all time,
9:14
Speaker 1: and it was solidified when Russe Lamba went to rehab.
9:16
Speaker 1: When Rush Limball was off the air for weeks on end,
9:19
Speaker 1: and no one cared. That doesn't happen for any other host.
9:24
Speaker 1: You're off the air for weeks on end, You're you're
9:26
Speaker 1: going to be replaced. You're off the air for months,
9:28
Speaker 1: They're going to replace you. No one even thought about
9:32
Speaker 1: replacing Russell Limball. You had six hundred plus stations around
9:35
Speaker 1: the country that were happy to wait on Rush Limball's
9:37
Speaker 1: returning to get better. But Rush Limbaugh was the biggest
9:43
Speaker 1: before that addiction. And afterwards, Rush Limbaugh showed up at
9:48
Speaker 1: a talk radio convention in New York and I remember
9:52
Speaker 1: him pulling up, and I think it was a humbling
9:55
Speaker 1: experience for him. You could tell it was because he
9:59
Speaker 1: didn't need to show up talk radio conventions. But he came,
10:02
Speaker 1: I think to say thank you to the industry for
10:04
Speaker 1: not canceling him, and to say thank you to the
10:08
Speaker 1: talk show hosts really that filled in for him, and
10:10
Speaker 1: to say thank you to the program directors that had
10:12
Speaker 1: gathered for standing by him. And I was outside and
10:17
Speaker 1: I was talking with John Gibson, who was a good
10:20
Speaker 1: friend of Russia's. He was had a TV show for
10:23
Speaker 1: years on Fox News Channel. Then he did a radio show.
10:26
Speaker 1: And I was outside talking with John Gibson, and I'm
10:29
Speaker 1: pretty sure was Mark Levin and this rolls Royce with
10:37
Speaker 1: curtains on the inside pulls up. It was just us
10:41
Speaker 1: outside and out of the car. I see Russell Limball.
10:47
Speaker 1: Now we didn't know he was gonna come in that way.
10:49
Speaker 1: We weren't out there waiting on Limbo. We were outside
10:51
Speaker 1: just gathering and we were just chatting and Limbaugh walks
10:56
Speaker 1: over and he says hello to Mark, and he says
11:01
Speaker 1: hello to me, And that was the first time I
11:03
Speaker 1: knew while he actually knows my name. And he said, hello, Ben,
11:07
Speaker 1: how are you? Yes, I'm you know, I'm good. How
11:09
Speaker 1: are you? He goes he s a nice appearance on
11:10
Speaker 1: Fox yesterday, And I was up in New York and
11:13
Speaker 1: I did Fox the day before, and and then he
11:16
Speaker 1: started talking to Johnny. He's like and then the leaders
11:19
Speaker 1: of the conference came outside and grabbed him. He's like,
11:21
Speaker 1: great to see you guys. And he went inside and
11:24
Speaker 1: I went back inside a few minutes later, and I
11:26
Speaker 1: was sitting next to Mark Levin and we were sitting
11:30
Speaker 1: there and just chatting, and Levin looked at me and
11:35
Speaker 1: he said, you want to know what humility is, you're
11:37
Speaker 1: watching it. Rusch Lombaugh could have survived easily without showing
11:42
Speaker 1: up in New York. He didn't have to fly to
11:45
Speaker 1: New York from Florida. He didn't have to come to
11:47
Speaker 1: that convention. But there was genuine thoughtfulness and thankfulness in
11:54
Speaker 1: his heart for the people that stood by him while
11:57
Speaker 1: many on the left we're trying to destroy his life,
11:58
Speaker 1: calling him a druggy and trying to ruin his career.
12:02
Speaker 1: And he ended up speaking for probably over an hour
12:07
Speaker 1: and saying thank you and talking about our industry and
12:11
Speaker 1: talking about how important is that we do what we do,
12:14
Speaker 1: and saying thank you the others that surrounded him on
12:16
Speaker 1: these radio stations for keeping the ship afloat while he
12:20
Speaker 1: was dealing with this addiction problem. And I learned so
12:24
Speaker 1: much that day because it meant no matter how big
12:27
Speaker 1: you get, you always need to be humble. And it's
12:30
Speaker 1: it's hard in this business because you have people that
12:32
Speaker 1: are always trying to take you down. There's people always
12:34
Speaker 1: trying to destroy you. There's people that are always trying
12:37
Speaker 1: to ruin your life, whether it be through lawsuits, whether
12:41
Speaker 1: it be through liberal action groups that come after you,
12:45
Speaker 1: whether it be people trying to take down your Facebook
12:47
Speaker 1: and your Twitter pages, people attacking your podcast with bad
12:52
Speaker 1: reviews still sync down the charts. These were the things
12:58
Speaker 1: that Limbball dealt with times a million. I remember when
13:04
Speaker 1: the drug addiction came out. It was like in the tabloids,
13:08
Speaker 1: and then it exploded. He was under attack, and he
13:12
Speaker 1: came to New York to say thank you to those
13:15
Speaker 1: that stood by him and that will That was one
13:17
Speaker 1: of the moments that I learned. You're never too big
13:19
Speaker 1: to say thank you. You're never too big to be
13:21
Speaker 1: appreciative of someone else. You know. I look at Limbaugh
13:26
Speaker 1: and I look at what he did in his legacy,
13:29
Speaker 1: right his life. He saved a country. I would argue
13:34
Speaker 1: Rusche Limbaugh exploded during the Clinton years. Rusche Limbaugh was unabashful.
13:40
Speaker 1: What I also learned from Rush is you better have
13:42
Speaker 1: thick skin because the people's society tell you, or you're
13:47
Speaker 1: supposed to like, they're supposed to like you the most.
13:51
Speaker 1: Right the people they're supposed to like you the most.
13:54
Speaker 1: That you the society said was like you will loathe you,
13:57
Speaker 1: will hate you will trash you. And we've seen that
13:59
Speaker 1: a line over the last twenty four hours since his
14:03
Speaker 1: wife made that announcement, we have seen those people. But
14:07
Speaker 1: you have to understand when you go into this business,
14:09
Speaker 1: you are going into war with the left, with these socialists,
14:14
Speaker 1: with these media scumbags. And it's a hard pill to
14:19
Speaker 1: swallow because I say this, I've been saying this down
14:21
Speaker 1: for years. If you want people to like you, don't
14:24
Speaker 1: do what I do. Because every day when you wake up,
14:28
Speaker 1: more than fifty percent of the world hates you. More
14:30
Speaker 1: than about fifty percent of Americans hate you. They hate
14:33
Speaker 1: you because you're conservative, they hate you because you're a Christian,
14:37
Speaker 1: they hate you because you're standing up for what you
14:38
Speaker 1: believe in. They hate you. And Rush Limbo understood that.
14:45
Speaker 1: And it's a weird world to live in where everywhere
14:49
Speaker 1: you go you know that people look at you and
14:51
Speaker 1: they despise you. And with social media in the way
14:55
Speaker 1: things have gotten in this country, it's gotten a lot worse.
15:00
Speaker 1: Now people will sit at table in the same restaurant
15:02
Speaker 1: and tweet at you that you're a pos or whatever.
15:06
Speaker 1: Now people will get up in your face on an airplane.
15:09
Speaker 1: That's happened to me. They'll yell at you with you're
15:11
Speaker 1: holding your your newborn child in the Kroger aisle trying
15:14
Speaker 1: to get a box of cereal. You have these liberal
15:18
Speaker 1: organizations that try to ruin your life, that try to
15:21
Speaker 1: destroy you. And no one's perfect. I'm not perfect. I've
15:24
Speaker 1: made big mistakes in my life. The problem is when
15:28
Speaker 1: you make a mistake, people know about it. The other
15:31
Speaker 1: thing that I learned about Liba is is you better
15:33
Speaker 1: get ready to have thick skin. From another perspective too,
15:42
Speaker 1: you better have big, thick skin because when you lose
15:44
Speaker 1: a job in this industry, and this I learned at
15:46
Speaker 1: a young age, and it was hard to learn. When
15:49
Speaker 1: you go backwards in this industry, and it happens to
15:52
Speaker 1: everybody in this industry, it's public. It is public. People
16:00
Speaker 1: write about it, people celebrate it. You may be leaving
16:05
Speaker 1: because of a contract negotiation and people will attack you
16:07
Speaker 1: and say you got fired even though you didn't. And
16:10
Speaker 1: you can't correct that record. It doesn't work. You know.
16:14
Speaker 1: You you switch stations and you'll say, oh, he couldn't hack.
16:16
Speaker 1: His ratings were terrible. You could be number one in
16:18
Speaker 1: the ratings book. It doesn't matter. You could literally be
16:23
Speaker 1: number one in the ratings book, number one, and they'll
16:28
Speaker 1: still say you got fired, or that you couldn't do it,
16:32
Speaker 1: or you couldn't hack it. That is what you deal
16:36
Speaker 1: with in this industry, you know. Yesterday, first time since
16:41
Speaker 1: leaving the White House, Donald Trump gave an interview to
16:46
Speaker 1: Fox News. He called in about Donald Trump, and I
16:51
Speaker 1: want you to hear what what what what Donald Trump
16:54
Speaker 1: had to say about Limball, because he's right. And by
16:58
Speaker 1: the way, I don't believe that Donald Trump would have
17:00
Speaker 1: won the presidency without Russia Limball's help. I really don't.
17:05
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump understood how important Limball was and when
17:11
Speaker 1: he got this stage four cancer diagnosis, you don't have
17:13
Speaker 1: to be brilliant to know that this is usually a
17:15
Speaker 1: three or four month proposition, and Limbaugh made it a year.
17:19
Speaker 1: But some of his good friends like Sean Handy reached
17:23
Speaker 1: out to the President, said hey, you should give the
17:24
Speaker 1: medal Freedom in the in the White House jumped all
17:26
Speaker 1: over it, said yeah, and they called Limba said get
17:29
Speaker 1: to the State of the Union. You're gonna be my guest. Now,
17:31
Speaker 1: Limbaugh did not know that he was getting the Presidential
17:34
Speaker 1: Medal of Freedom. He had no idea but it was
17:38
Speaker 1: an amazing moment for not only I think Donald Trump,
17:42
Speaker 1: but also for Russia Limball and for conservatives who are
17:46
Speaker 1: in a cancel culture that we are in right now.
17:50
Speaker 1: And it infuriated the left. How dare you give a
17:53
Speaker 1: medal to a conservative talk to us in the State
17:56
Speaker 1: of the Union. How dare you do this? And you
17:58
Speaker 1: know what, I'm glad he did because it was the
18:00
Speaker 1: right thing to do. Take a listen to what President
18:02
Speaker 1: Trump had to say as he did his first really
18:05
Speaker 1: interview to honor Rush Limbaugh after he died at the
18:08
Speaker 1: age of seventy after a one year battle with lung cancer.
18:12
Speaker 1: It was a great honor to do so when we
18:15
Speaker 1: gave the Meddal of Freedom, it was something special. It
18:19
Speaker 1: was an incredible night, and we gave it during the
18:22
Speaker 1: State of the Union address, and it was especially half
18:26
Speaker 1: the room. Half the room went crazy and the other
18:28
Speaker 1: half the room they knew he should get it, but
18:31
Speaker 1: it was special and he was special. Mister President, you know,
18:36
Speaker 1: we're joining us. When was the last time you spoke
18:39
Speaker 1: with Russia Limbaugh? Three or four days ago? I'd call
18:43
Speaker 1: him just to find out. You know, his fight was very,
18:46
Speaker 1: very courageous and he was very, very sick, and you know,
18:50
Speaker 1: from diagnosis on it was just something that was not
18:53
Speaker 1: going to be beaten, but you wouldn't know it. And
18:56
Speaker 1: he is married to an incredible woman, Catherine, who really
19:00
Speaker 1: every time I spoke to him, he would tell me
19:03
Speaker 1: how great she was. She took such great care. He
19:06
Speaker 1: was very brave. I mean he, in theory, could have
19:08
Speaker 1: been gone four months ago. Really, he just he was
19:12
Speaker 1: fighting till the very end. He was a fighter. Well,
19:15
Speaker 1: you were a great while you were in the White House.
19:17
Speaker 1: How did you view how he either carried on your
19:22
Speaker 1: message or I chose to agree or disagree with the
19:27
Speaker 1: policies you had as commander in chief? Well, first of all,
19:30
Speaker 1: you know, you just had Sean on John Hannity. He
19:32
Speaker 1: was incredible and Sean would say, there is nobody like Rush.
19:36
Speaker 1: Sean was the first to say that. He I used
19:39
Speaker 1: to say, well, what do you think someday and he'd say,
19:42
Speaker 1: he's irreplaceable. Rush is irreplaceable. Unique. He had an audience
19:48
Speaker 1: that was massive, and you know, he could do something
19:51
Speaker 1: Bill and he would. He would get up in the
19:54
Speaker 1: show and would just talk. He wouldn't take phone calls
19:58
Speaker 1: where you know, people would call in every two minutes,
20:00
Speaker 1: and that's sort of easy to do. He would just
20:03
Speaker 1: talk for two hours and three hours just talk, and
20:08
Speaker 1: that's not an easy thing to do. And I want
20:10
Speaker 1: to ask him. I said, if you study for the show?
20:13
Speaker 1: And he said, actually I studied very hard, which a
20:17
Speaker 1: little bit Harris had a little bit surprised me. But
20:19
Speaker 1: he was a fantastic man, a fantastic talent, and people,
20:25
Speaker 1: whether they loved him or not, they respected him. They
20:27
Speaker 1: really did. President Trump, if you would stay with us
20:31
Speaker 1: for just about a minute and a half or maybe
20:34
Speaker 1: a little longer, and we want to show the day
20:37
Speaker 1: that you gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Let's
20:41
Speaker 1: watch that together and then I have a follow up
20:43
Speaker 1: question on the flip side. Okay, and Rush. In recognition
20:50
Speaker 1: of all that you have done for our nation, the
20:53
Speaker 1: millions of people a day that you speak to and
20:57
Speaker 1: that you inspire, and all of the incredible work that
21:01
Speaker 1: you have done for charity, I am proud to announce
21:04
Speaker 1: tonight that you will be receiving our country's highest civilian honor,
21:09
Speaker 1: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I will now ask the
21:53
Speaker 1: First Lady of the United States to present you with
21:57
Speaker 1: the honor. Please he Rush and Catherine, congratulations, And if
23:11
Speaker 1: you are just tuning in, we are joined by President
23:15
Speaker 1: number forty five, former President Donald J. Trump, and you
23:19
Speaker 1: saw him there along with the first Lady awarding Rush Limbaugh,
23:23
Speaker 1: who has left us today the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
23:26
Speaker 1: and President Trump. I have always wondered, just seeing the
23:29
Speaker 1: look of surprise on Rush's face, what he knew about
23:33
Speaker 1: that moment and what you learned that he was going
23:36
Speaker 1: through in that moment after he is succumbed to tears,
23:40
Speaker 1: and I was curious, what did he know was coming?
23:44
Speaker 1: So I did tell him beforehand because we didn't have
23:49
Speaker 1: really the power of not doing it. You know, Rush
23:53
Speaker 1: was very stick at the time. He was at a
23:55
Speaker 1: hospital in Boston, and I didn't want to do the
23:58
Speaker 1: surprise thing. I wish shared. I wish I could have
24:02
Speaker 1: done that, but we really didn't have that that that
24:05
Speaker 1: power of doing it. Because he had it was a
24:08
Speaker 1: very difficult thing for him to come into Washington from
24:12
Speaker 1: where he was, and he did it, and there was
24:15
Speaker 1: questions as to whether or not he was just a
24:17
Speaker 1: very brave guy. He's amazing and he came in and
24:21
Speaker 1: it was as he told me, it was the greatest
24:23
Speaker 1: honor of his wife and everybody in the room. You know,
24:26
Speaker 1: you're talking about the Republicans and the Democrat. You had
24:29
Speaker 1: half of that room went crazy. You remember the evening, Well,
24:32
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was a very unique moment in our
24:34
Speaker 1: country's history in a sense because of who rushes. But
24:37
Speaker 1: half what just absolutely crazy. The other half sat totally dead, silent.
24:42
Speaker 1: But one hundred percent of that room respected Rush. It
24:47
Speaker 1: was a unique guy and he became a friend of mine.
24:50
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't know Rush at all. I had
24:53
Speaker 1: essentially never met Rush. And then when we came down
24:57
Speaker 1: the escalator, he liked my radic, your visual speech. I
25:00
Speaker 1: made that speech that was a little bit on the
25:02
Speaker 1: controversial side, and he loved it. And he was without
25:05
Speaker 1: ever having met him or talked to him, or you know,
25:08
Speaker 1: had lunch with him or asked him. He was with
25:11
Speaker 1: me right from the beginning, and he liked what I
25:14
Speaker 1: said and he agreed with what I said. And he
25:17
Speaker 1: was just a great gentleman, great great man, a great
25:21
Speaker 1: great man. And I remember the day when Rush Limbaugh
25:27
Speaker 1: told the audience that he had cancer, and I remember
25:32
Speaker 1: the day when he talked about this battle ahead and
25:43
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, oh my gosh, what are we going
25:45
Speaker 1: to do now? And then you figured out pretty quick.
25:50
Speaker 1: No one's going to do anything to fix this. No
25:54
Speaker 1: one's ever going to be rush Limba again. But rush
25:59
Speaker 1: Limba his legacy, and I want you to understand his legacy.
26:04
Speaker 1: His legacy is not one man will take his place.
26:10
Speaker 1: Thousands of men and women will take his place. Thousands
26:16
Speaker 1: of men and women are going to do everything they
26:21
Speaker 1: can to keep the fight alive. I'm one of them.
26:25
Speaker 1: Without Russelamball, we wouldn't have talk radios as a day.
26:28
Speaker 1: Without Russelamball, there wouldn't be Sean Hannity, there wouldn't be
26:33
Speaker 1: Mark Levin, there wouldn't be Glenn Beck, there wouldn't be
26:38
Speaker 1: the Ben Ferguson's of the world. So no one is
26:42
Speaker 1: going to take his place. Anyone that keeps asking that
26:45
Speaker 1: question you haven't paid attention to who Russelamball was. Russell
26:50
Speaker 1: Lombaud changed the hearts and minds of Americans. Russell Limballs
26:55
Speaker 1: rallied people to stand up for what they believe in
26:57
Speaker 1: and not be shamed by their family, by their friends
27:00
Speaker 1: into just being silent, to just disappearing, to not having
27:04
Speaker 1: an opinion. Russell Limball made it okay to have people
27:10
Speaker 1: hate you and to understand that sometimes it's worth it.
27:15
Speaker 1: Knowing what I've been through with Russell, like what I've
27:17
Speaker 1: been through in my career, knowing what he's been through
27:20
Speaker 1: in his career, I'm telling you right now, without him
27:26
Speaker 1: being a pioneer for all of us, we would not
27:28
Speaker 1: be here today. We would not be doing to say.
27:30
Speaker 1: You would not be listening to me today. I would
27:32
Speaker 1: have a totally different career than what I have right now,
27:38
Speaker 1: a totally different career, something entirely different than what I'm
27:46
Speaker 1: doing today. Will you survive? Yeah? You want to know why?
27:53
Speaker 1: Because he trained us well. We'll talk radio survive. Yes,
27:57
Speaker 1: you want to know why, because he trained us well.
28:01
Speaker 1: Russia Lamba made sure that there were thousands of conservatives
28:06
Speaker 1: in this industry that would survive. Russa Lamba made sure
28:11
Speaker 1: that radio stations that surrounded his show were surrounded with
28:15
Speaker 1: people that would continue the message and fight on. That's
28:21
Speaker 1: his legacy, folks, The fact that you I mean that
28:25
Speaker 1: rarely in life do you have people that can create
28:27
Speaker 1: something that change the world. You look at the iPhone
28:29
Speaker 1: as an example, right, You look at the computer, the
28:33
Speaker 1: personal computers. Another example Russia. Lamba changed this country. Gave
28:41
Speaker 1: conservatives a place to talk, gave conservatives a place to
28:45
Speaker 1: fight back, gave conservatives a place to not be silenced
28:53
Speaker 1: as the liberal media, and he'd been warning us about
28:56
Speaker 1: the liberal media for thirty years. He gave us a
29:00
Speaker 1: place an alternative to the liberal media, to the echo
29:04
Speaker 1: chamber of the liberal mainstream media that he warned us
29:09
Speaker 1: about for thirty years. Russ Lamball is a gift that
29:19
Speaker 1: I will always, always be thankful for. Wrestling Ball is
29:25
Speaker 1: a gift that everyone will remember. Rustling Bay. I would
29:31
Speaker 1: argue his shows will live on forever like sermons, because
29:35
Speaker 1: there are so many things that he said, so many
29:39
Speaker 1: things that he said that will apply for decades. I
29:43
Speaker 1: would argue that Rustling Ball is like the Ronald Reagan
29:46
Speaker 1: speeches that's still applied to today. I still listen to
29:51
Speaker 1: lot Ronald Reagan speeches. It's a reminder, it's a compass.
29:56
Speaker 1: Limbaugh will be the same. We will continue to fight
30:01
Speaker 1: and we will continue on his legacy. I talked to
30:05
Speaker 1: probably twenty five thirty different talk show hosts in this
30:07
Speaker 1: country in the last twenty four hours. All of them
30:12
Speaker 1: said the same thing. We will keep the torch alive.
30:14
Speaker 1: None of us will be able to do it by ourselves,
30:16
Speaker 1: but as a group, we're gonna be able to keep
30:18
Speaker 1: this alive. We're gonna be able to fight. We are
30:22
Speaker 1: going to be able to fight. We are going to
30:25
Speaker 1: be able to do everything we can to make sure
30:30
Speaker 1: that we keep fighting on behalf of what Rush Limboughs started.
30:37
Speaker 1: So for that, I say thank you. I want to
30:40
Speaker 1: leave you with the last words that Wimball had to
30:44
Speaker 1: his audience. Many of you may not have heard this,
30:47
Speaker 1: and I think it's important that you hear what he
30:49
Speaker 1: had to say, thinking all of you in his last
30:53
Speaker 1: show that he did in twenty twenty. I wasn't expected
30:59
Speaker 1: to be alive today. I wasn't expected to make it
31:05
Speaker 1: to October, and then to November, and then to December.
31:10
Speaker 1: And yet here I am. My point in all of this,
31:13
Speaker 1: today's gratitude, my point in everything today that I share
31:17
Speaker 1: with you about this is to say thanks and to
31:22
Speaker 1: tell everybody involved how much I love you from the
31:26
Speaker 1: bottom of a sizeable and growing and still beating heart.
31:33
Speaker 1: That is the last thing that Limbaugh said to his
31:37
Speaker 1: audience right before Christmas. My thoughts and prayers are with
31:44
Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh's family and his dear friends, and I say
31:49
Speaker 1: personally to Limbaugh, thank you for creating an industry that
31:54
Speaker 1: I am so privileged to be a part of today.
31:56
Speaker 1: I would not be doing what I'm doing today without you,
32:01
Speaker 1: and I'll leave it at that