Rush Limbaugh Explains the Real Reason Why the Media is Praising John McCain So Much

Rush Limbaugh John McCain
LAS VEGAS - JANUARY 27: Radio talk show host and conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, one of the judges for the 2010 Miss America Pageant, speaks during a news conference for judges at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino January 27, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The pageant will be held at the resort on January 30, 2010. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Legendary conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh explained to his 20 million listeners just why so many mainstream media outlets are praising late Republican Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Limbaugh believes it has less to do about paying respect for McCain as it does with pushing a political agenda.

As Limbaugh opined on Monday, “The death of Senator McCain has provided an opportunity for the Drive-By Media. I’m gonna warn everybody here. It might be perceived by some…by some that comments I might make about some aspects of Senator McCain’s life could be controversial. Imagine that. I just want to prep everybody that I have my own theories about witnessing the Drive-Bys and how they are reacting to it and why.”

To verify his claim, Limbaugh immediately played a clip by CNN host Jake Tapper, in which Tapper said, “I can’t help but think that like part of the reason why there’s such reverence for him today is because of who’s in the White House right now because they are polar opposites.”

Limbaugh interpreted the Tapper clip cynically and added, “So there you have it from none other than the Never Trumper network, CNN, making it clear that part of the reason why there’s so much reverence for Senator McCain is that Trump is in the White House right now. One of the reasons there’s reverence for McCain is the opportunity it provides to continue to savage Donald Trump, to continue to rip Donald Trump by setting up these comparisons between Trump and McCain and showing Trump coming up short on virtually every measure the Drive-Bys make.”

Limbaugh, who has been on the radio for 30 years, has been around long enough to see how the media’s approach to covering McCain has changed over the decades, especially when he ran for president against George W. Bush in 2000, when he ran in 2008 for president against Barack Obama, and the various times he has dissented from Republican orthodoxy, on issues such as immigration. (RELATED: McCain Takes Shot At Trump In Farewell Address to the Nation).

Therefore, Limbaugh believes the amount of praise war hero McCain receives from the media is all about his willingness to oppose the Republican Party.

Limbaugh continued, “If you go back to the nineties during the Clinton years, Fox News starts in 1996, ’97, MSNBC gets going, and the Clinton impeachment saga is being discussed every night on TV. And a media darling develops on MSNBC, John McCain. MSNBC loves Senator McCain because Senator McCain, for which he is being honored and recognized since his death, had the courage to criticize his own party, had the courage to criticize his own party’s policies, his own party’s presidents. He had the courage. That’s what made McCain a really great guy to the Drive-By Media.”

The media also loved it when McCain campaigned against Bush in 2000, when the Bush campaign was frequently accused of playing “unconscionable, unacceptable tricks.” on McCain. This turned McCain into the “media darling” until he ran against Obama in 2008.

Limbaugh tried to warn McCain at the time: “I remember issuing a warning I don’t know how many times, but too many times to count here to Senator McCain and his campaign team, that the minute you seek the Republican nomination you are going to be cast aside by this media that has been fawning over you and loving you. You are going to become the enemy. And, boy, did he, especially when Obama got the nomination and McCain got the Republican nomination. People have forgotten the long knives came out for McCain by all of these people in the media who had made it look like they loved and revered him — and they did.”

McCain embraced the media’s definition of “compromise”, which means Republicans caving to Democrat demands: “McCain’s willingness to talk about crossing the aisle, shaking hands, working together to get things done, the politics of compromise,…always meant Republicans losing. In those days, when we talked about Republicans compromising, what it meant was Republicans forgetting their agenda and signing on to the Democrat agenda.”

After citing other examples of how the media has flipped on McCain over the years, Limbaugh concluded, “The reason there’s such reverence for McCain is because of Trump. That means the reverence may not be all that genuine. It may be that it is timely and serves a purpose.”

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