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Rush Limbaugh might not have called Kamala Harris 'h**', but here's why the Internet is calling him 'garbage'

On his famous program, ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’ on August 14, Limbaugh made mentions of two stories about Harris. One referred to an edited photo of the Biden-Harris announcement that read, “Joe and the H**”

On Monday, August 17, right-wing political commentator and radio host Rush Limbaugh was trending on Twitter. Limbaugh is not unknown to cause outrage on social media with his commentary. This time, it was about Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who is on the ticket with Joe Biden. 

A Twitter user wrote, “Donald Trump’s ‘Medal of Freedom’ award recipient Rush Limbaugh just called Kamala Harris a ‘H*’. Will every Republican stand up and call for his medal to be taken away or will they continue to be cowards and racists? Unfortunately, we all know the answer.”

Another wrote, “Rush Limbaugh is garbage. Calling Kamala Harris a ‘H*’ is just the latest. The fact that he got the Medal of Freedom just shows how far down the gutter modern Republicans have gone.”

But did Limbaugh call Harris the pejorative term used for sex workers? On his famous program, ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’ on August 14, Limbaugh made mentions of two stories about Harris. The first was about Bill Baptist, a freelance photographer working in the NBA bubble at Disney World, who was let go by the league after he posted an offensive meme about Harris. Baptist covered the Houston Rockets for several years. 

He shared an edited photo of the Biden-Harris announcement that read, “Joe and the H**”. The meme he posted on Facebook was called out by former Houston Comets player Sheryl Swoopes, who wrote, “So this guy works for the NBA but covers the Houston Rockets. Has been around for a while. Even worked for the Houston Comets. It’s amazing how people will smile in your face but eventually, their true colors will show,” asking the NBA and the Houston Rockets to let him go. Following this, the NBA announced that Baptist was no longer in the bubble: “The photographer is an independent contractor and his services are no longer being used in Orlando.”

The second story was an op-ed published on the conservative website, The American Spectator. The provocative title of the piece reads, ‘Why It Should Matter to Women That Kamala Harris Slept Her Way Up’, and it begins with: “It is no secret but public knowledge that Kamala Harris slept her way up into California political life by being a very public escort and mattress for California Democrat Kingmaker Willie Brown. Willie Brown is 30 years older than Harris and was very married at the time. It was public. It was an embarrassment.”

On his show, Limbaugh read out from both stories and referred to both the words “h**” and “mattress” several times. But he did not imply it as his own opinion. However, during his August 14 show, he said, “Imagine this, folks. These stories are out there. I have yet to see -- and it may yet happen, since I now have amplified them -- I have yet to see any reaction to either of these stories anywhere in the drive-by media,” adding, “And now we have something new that’s been thrust, ahem, into American politics, and that is the question of using sex to get ahead.”

Limbaugh has made sexist comments before. In 2012, Limbaugh branded Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student, a “slut”. Fluke criticized the health insurance policies of Georgetown, saying the school's lack of contraception coverage had a harmful impact on female students. Following this, Limbaugh said on his nationally syndicated show, “What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”

But this is not Limbaugh’s only recent sexist remark on Harris. On the August 10 edition of ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’, he made a comment on Harris and Willie Brown, saying, “Harris is a tested and proven campaigner who will work her backside off to get Biden elected. If anybody knows her backside, it’s Willie Brown… And I mean in the biblical, intimate sense. He knows her backside. They’ve both acknowledged it. She knows his. Even though his backside is not as big as hers.”

Last year, Limbaugh also questioned why Harris and Barack Obama were called African-Americans. He said on his show, "Can somebody explain to me how Kamala Harris is an African-American? Her father's Jamaican and her mother is Indian. How does that equal African-American? Same with Barack Obama. Obama's not African American. He doesn't have any history here... any of that stuff."