Limbaugh: 'We are in the midst of a coup'

'There's a lot here to be concerned about'

By Joe Kovacs
Published June 7, 2013 at 1:07pm

This week's revelations about the federal government collecting massive amounts of communication data on American citizens has the country's most-listened-to radio voice saying President Barack Obama is leading a coup against the nation.

"What everybody knows and what nobody wants to come to grips with is we are in the midst of a coup taking place," talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said Friday afternoon. "It's almost on a par with [when I said] 'I hope he fails.' How does that sound now, by the way?"

"What's wrong with calling this a coup?" he continued. "There's a lot here to be concerned about."

"This is the guy, don't forget, convincing people that this kind of stuff was never going to happen here. ... This is the guy who got elected president by telling us that what is happening now was never going to happen when he was president. ... He got elected warning us that what was happening now was happening in 2008. ... [Now] it's more sweeping than it's ever been."

He pointed out that information gathering has already been used to target political supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election cycle.

"This is clearly an administration that wants to identify its enemies and then take action against them ... take them out, whatever," Limbaugh said.

A caller reminded Limbaugh that even though massive data collection has been employed by the federal government in recent years, it has hardly been used to help protect Americans, as in the case of the Boston Marathon bombing April 15. The U.S. had been warned in advance about the bombing suspects by the Russian government, but took no action against them.

"What good does having all this data do when you're not going to use it?" Limbaugh asked.

"So why is it really being collected?"

"I dont wan't to come across as a conspiratorialist. I'm not," Limbaugh said.

Radio host Rush Limbaugh

"The thing that motivates a leftist more than anything else is eliminating opposition ... and I believe that with every fiber of my body. ... Obama's purpose is the elimination of opposition. ... He's not interested in bipartisanship. He knows low-information voters practically have orgasms when he says 'bipartisanship.'"

When asked by a caller what could be done to stop this "coup d'état," Limbaugh said, "Conservatives need to take control of the Republican Party [to win elections]. That's what needs to happen. There isn't going to be any impeachment."

Limbaugh's comments are coming under fire from those on the political left.

Donna Halper, a self-described "friendly liberal" and associate professor of communication at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., told WND: "It's the height of hypocrisy for him to claim 'leftists' want to 'eliminate opposition.' Umm, Republicans regularly used brutal hardball tactics throughout the reign of Mr. Bush."

"How come such actions as data collection (and in Mr. Bush's case, unauthorized wiretaps), were praised as 'keeping us safe' when President Bush did it, but demonized as a 'coup' and a danger to all Americans when President Obama does the exact same thing?"