Heard the latest outrageous remark by Rush Limbaugh? No?! That's OK, neither has anyone else.
Liberal radio host Alan Colmes has become the latest in a long line of left wingers to vilify Limbaugh by claiming he said something that only they somehow managed to hear.
Colmes on his Fox News Radio show yesterday was interviewing Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on alleged politicization of the Ebola outbreak by conservatives (audio) --
COLMES: It's amazing to me that this has become a political issue with conservatives for the most part saying we ought to quarantine West Africa and those less than conservative, I mean, on the other side of the plate politically saying, you know, that's ridiculous. Why is this, and you've got people like, you know, Rush Limbaugh saying that Obama purposely wants Ebola to come to the country. I mean, this has got to drive you nuts as a scientist, right?
FAUCI (laughs): Well, I wouldn't say it drive me nuts but it certainly is a distraction at best and very annoying at worst. I always say and my colleagues in the health care and public health sector always say, let evidence be the thing that directs your opinion and directs what you do, not just wild speculation. So when you look at something like completely isolating a country, don't let any planes in or out, just completely isolate them, that in fact would probably make matters worse because the best way to protect Americans is to suppress the epidemic in West Africa. And if you shut them off from the rest of the world, it's only going to get much worse there and spread to other African countries. And if you do that, you're not going to get supplies in, you're not going to get help in, you're not going to be able to get the proper beds and equipment in there, so that just doesn't make any sense. You can understand why people's kneejerk reaction might be, OK, the best way to protect ourselves is just essentially wall off that country. You can't do that, practically speaking, and in fact it does make matters worse.
On his radio show today, Limbaugh hesitated before responding to the smear (audio) --
LIMBAUGH: Normally, folks, I would ignore this because doing this is just simply going to elevate it and I've rolled the dice on this. Some of these things you let go, some of these things you mention. Alan Colmes, I don't know what I ever did to Alan Colmes but he's got a Fox News radio show and last night he interviewed the National Institutes of Health director of infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who came to be known and acquired great fame during the AIDS epidemic back in the '80s, and they're talking about Ebola. I want you to listen to what Colmes said to Anthony Fauci --
COLMES: You've got people like Rush Limbaugh saying that Obama purposely wants Ebola to come to the country, I mean, this has got to drive you nuts as a scientist, right?
LIMBAUGH: I asked the staff here shortly after the program began -- did I ever say that? I say a lot of things here and it's tough to definitely say I haven't said something. But if I had said that, don't you think that have been in the news already? Don't you think it would have been the latest attempt to do harm to me? When have I ever said, did I, I'm asking you guys again -- have I ever said Obama purposely wants, what was it, wants Ebola in the country? Nobody on the staff remembers it. We can do a keyword search of transcripts and find it for certain. If I had said that, there would have been panic on the other side of the glass! Yeah, there's closet I've got, there are people who think we are responsible for this, we have played the sound bite of this author who thinks Liberia was formed by people escaping slavery, we can't turn our backs on them, so if Ebola shows up we kinda deserve it because we caused it. You know, that kind of thinking is out there but I never said that Obama wants Ebola to come to the country.
Simple enough to prove who's telling the truth -- Colmes should produce the audio. Could be a long, futile search.
