Fact-checking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Article by John Leonard in "The American Thinker":
Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Cuba) couldn’t be bothered to attend the
2020 State of the Union address, but she somehow managed to find the
time to record a short message harshly criticizing President Trump’s
decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh in
the wake of Limbaugh’s recent announcement of having advanced lung
cancer.
FACT-CHECKER RATING: Mixture, mostly false.
It is true that Rosa Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom (PMOF) by Bill Clinton in 1996. However, Lorne Michaels (creator
of Saturday Night Live) was given his PMOF by Barack Obama in
2016. Does AOC not realize there are several categories for PMOF
recipients? The PMOF to Rosa Parks was in the category of Politics and
Government (activism); Michaels’ award falls in the Media category under
television, and Limbaugh is only the third recipient of the award for
radio, after Lowell Thomas and Paul Harvey.
I guess this all depends on how one defines the meaning of the word “sacred.”
Claim: “Rush Limbaugh is a virulent racist…”
FACT-CHECKER RATING: Pants-on-fire.
One has to look no farther than the control booth of the
extraordinarily successful Rush Limbaugh radio show to learn that the
infamous producer and call screener “Bo Snerdley” is in reality a black man named James Golden.
In fact, one of the reasons Limbaugh has been labeled as racist was
because Golden introduced himself to the audience during a show segment
as an “African-American in good standing and certified black enough to
criticize Obama guy.”
Rush
Limbaugh is neither a racist nor misogynist. He is hated and reviled by
liberals such as Ocasio-Cortez because he is an unapologetic
conservative voice so desperately needed at this moment in American
history. Any listener of his show can attest to the fact that Rush has
frequently praised Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, and if
memory serves correctly, Justice Thomas is black. While Limbaugh is
unafraid to criticize, mock, and parody race-baiting hustlers like Jesse
Jackson, Maxine Waters, Louis Farrakhan, or Al Sharpton, he often
speaks of economist Thomas Sowell in almost reverential tones, and
professor Walter Williams has also served on multiple occasions as a
guest host on Limbaugh’s radio show.
I
wouldn’t even know the name of Dr. Williams if it hadn’t been for Rush
Limbaugh. Nor would I own a copy of Dr. Sowell’s great book Basic Economics if Limbaugh hadn’t interviewed him for his monthly publication, The Limbaugh Letter.
Rush
Limbaugh is a great American patriot. His “Rush Revere” series of
children’s books teach authentic U.S. history and civics no longer
included in politically correct curricula found in public education.
Claim:
“…to give it (PMOF) to Rush Limbaugh when there were plenty of people
in that audience that have contributed positively to the fabric of
American society much more, frankly, than he has.”
FACT-CHECKER RATING: Mostly false.
General Charles McGee was in the audience, but it is highly doubtful
that Ocasio-Cortez was thinking of him, if indeed she was thinking at
all.
Name
one member of Congress who has done more for America than Rush
Limbaugh. I sure can’t think of anyone currently serving worthy of
comparison. The only person in the room who comes close is the guy
making the speech, and Limbaugh’s been an outspoken advocate for
conservatism for more than thirty years.
Claim:
“Trump wants to assert that somehow Rush Limbaugh is on the same level
as Rosa Parks, and it’s truly nauseating. This is one of the many
reasons I did not go…”
FACT-CHECKER RATING: Pants-on-fire.
The only person who has mentioned Rosa Parks and Rush Limbaugh in the
same sentence has been Ocasio-Cortez. Once the idea that the PMOF was
some sort of a “sacred” honor reserved only recipients worthy of
comparison to Rosa Parks started rattling around in that pea-sized brain
of hers, she couldn’t let it go.
You know what’s truly nauseating? Radiation and chemotherapy.
Donald
Trump never once mentioned Rosa Parks during his State of the Union
address. It’s probably safe to say he wasn’t even thinking about her
while in the process of honoring Rush Limbaugh. For the record, he
probably didn’t think about Lorne Michaels, Bob Dylan, Oprah, or any of
hundreds of other recipients of the PMOF who surely aren’t worthy of
comparison to Rosa Parks by Ocasio-Cortez’s standards, either. He was
probably only thinking about Rush Limbaugh, like most other normal
people would be doing in the same situation.
On
Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez promised that she would stay away from the State
of the Union address because she didn’t want to legitimize Trump’s
presidency. Later, on Instagram, she claimed that part of her reason was
to avoid the ceremony for Limbaugh—which she said was public knowledge
well before Trump’s speech. So, why didn’t she mention it on Twitter
before the address, if she really knew it was coming and wasn’t just
using it as an excuse?
Now,
we can only hope the voters of New York will give her a reason to miss
Trump’s State of the Union address next year by electing someone else in
November to replace her.
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