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Trump Thinks Rush Limbaugh is on the Same Level as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

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Donald Trump has been roundly condemned by critics for giving the controversial conservative and racist commentator Rush Limbaugh one of the highest civilian awards in the country in the middle of his State of the Union address.

Trump announced his decision to award Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his speech on Tuesday night, having Melania Trump present the medal and place it on the outspoken supporter of the president.

Though news of the decision was widely reported hours before the State of the Union address, Limbaugh initially appeared surprised, seemingly shaking his head in disbelief before accepting the award from the First Lady.

The prestigious medal has been awarded to trailblazing political figures and activists like Martin Luther King Jr, Shirley Chisolm, Rosa Parks, and Desmond Tutu, among others.

Limbaugh recently announced he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.

The 69-year-old has been accused of spreading racist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant claims, infamously calling former President Barack Obama “more African in his roots than he is American” while suggesting the former president was “behaving like an African colonial despot”.

He has also said slavery “had its merits” for having “built the South” and called Mexican immigrants “stupid and unskilled”, adding: “You’re a foreigner. You shut your mouth or you get out.”

Walter Shaub, former director for the Office of Government Ethics, slammed the decision in a statement that suggested Trump was awarding Limbaugh the honor in order to appease his base.

“Like the Joe Arpaio pardon, Trump awarding that medal to Rush Limbaugh has nothing to do with its recipient but was awarded as a message to the viciously racist, nationalist segment of the population whose votes Trump needs,” he wrote. “It says: Stay with me, I am with you.”

Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel noted that Trump was awarding the honor to Limbaugh on Rosa Parks Day, which celebrates the legacy of the civil rights icon who also received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996.

“Today is Rosa Parks Day,” Kimmel said, “and this is a medal they gave Rosa Parks.”

He added: “Tonight, Rush Limbaugh got it.”

CNN’s Jim Acosta also responded to the president’s State of the Union Address, saying Trump “was trying to make appeals to the African American community” and noting: “It can’t be forgotten that he was awarding the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, who has a history of making derogatory comments about African Americans.”

“So I think, you know, overall, it’s a wash”, the reporter said.

And lastly, progressive NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Trump for awarding the Medal of Freedom to a racist.

In an Instagram Live broadcast after the speech, Ocasio-Cortez hammered Trump, accusing him of putting the right-wing radio host “on the same level” as other recipients such as Rosa Parks.

“The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an extraordinarily sacred award,” she said. “We’re talking about putting someone on the same level as Rosa Parks, you know, for example in terms of their contributions to American progress.”

“Rush Limbaugh is a virulent racist, but even just on top of that, to do it in the middle of a State of the Union and not even dignify it with its own ceremony as it has — there’s all sorts of norms that are being violated, not just for people’s humanity, but also it truly just cheapens the value of it,” she added.

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