Former President Donald Trump has said that the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has made him think about his own death.
Trump made the remarks during a telephone interview Wednesday night on the conservative network Newsmax. Host Greg Kelly asked Trump, who is 74 years old, whether the death of Limbaugh at the ‘young’ age of 70 had just for a moment considered him to be his “own death”.
“Well, you think about it,” Trump replied. ‘But I also have friends in their 80s and 90s. You look at Bernie Marcus, [co-founder of] Home Depot, he’s 93, he’s 100 percent. It was amazing, I watched him on TV the other night, he was 100 percent. So I know it depends on life and genes and many other things. ‘
“Rush was young, relatively speaking he was young,” Trump continued. “He just got a bad deal with what he had. It was not something that would be beaten, and he understood it. ‘
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty
Limbaugh died Wednesday after suffering from advanced lung cancer for a little over a year. Trump awarded him the presidential medal of freedom during his speech on the state of the nation address in 2020, which took place on the day after Limbaugh publicly announced his cancer diagnosis.
Trump said that although Limbaugh knew his condition was terminal, he specifically hoped to survive after the 2020 presidential election. The former president said Limbaugh agreed with him that the outcome of the election was ‘shameful’, and that Trump unequivocally lost to President Joe Biden, while falsely claiming that he really ‘won’ the election.
“He wanted to get past the election and made it easy,” Trump said. “And he thought we won the election. As far as I was concerned, we won the election. It was shameful what happened, completely shameful. But Rush wanted to get through the election and he did it and he was proud of it. But he thought the result was a disgrace. ‘
Limbaugh claimed that Biden did not win the election legally shortly after the race was called by most media, but he did not appear to be completely on board with every aspect of the Trump campaign’s activities after the election. At the end of November, Limbaugh lamented that a “large” body of evidence had not been provided by lawyers who had promoted conspiracy theories regarding widespread voter fraud.
Limbaugh was also not an initial supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, and even admitted that he believed Trump was ‘not a conservative’ after starting to support him months before the election. However, during his presidency, he eventually became one of the former president’s strongest defenders.
Limbaugh campaigned with Trump during his failed re-election bid. Some of Limbaugh’s recent broadcasts have shown him defending the former president against allegations that he incited the January 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol, which led to Trump becoming the first and only president to be charged twice. is.
Newsweek Trump’s office for further comment.