Biden: Rush Limbaugh Does NOT 'Understand the American Code of Decency and Honor'
2020 Democrat attacks cancer-stricken radio host over Medal of Freedom award from Trump
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Former Vice President Joe Biden attacked Rush Limbaugh during a Wednesday town hall in response to the cancer-stricken radio host receiving the highest civilian honor from President Donald Trump earlier this week.
Democratic presidential candidate Biden blasted Limbaugh, saying he doesn't deserve the Medal of Freedom award from President Trump because he doesn't "understand the American code of decency and honor."
Biden also criticized President Trump's motives for awarding Limbaugh with the medal at his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
Conservative radio icon Limbaugh, 69, is known to be a friend of the president and was seated in the gallery next to First Lady Melania Trump, who presented him with the award during the SOTU speech at the U.S. Capitol.
On his nationally syndicated talk radio show, Limbaugh announced Monday that he has been diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer.
“So, I have to tell you something today that I wish I didn’t have to tell you,” Limbaugh said during the live broadcast. "...I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.”
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Biden made the remarks while speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper at a town hall event in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
The ex-VP said Trump's decision to award the highest civilian honor in the nation to Limbaugh was "driven more by trying to maintain [his] right-wing political credentials than it is anything else."
The award was bestowed on Limbaugh just hours after he announced he is battling stage 4 lung cancer, which will cause him to miss airtime in the coming months.
"Rush Limbaugh spent his entire time on the air dividing people, belittling people, talking about blacks in ways that... anyways," Biden said, trailing off.
Biden attacks Rush Limbaugh as being a racist but can't think of any examples, loses thought
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) February 6, 2020
Biden falsely claims that Limbaugh's diagnosis was "terminal," not confirmed
At the end Biden takes a shot at Trump & stops for applause ... & *no one* claps
CNN cuts to commercial pic.twitter.com/TW2UM3dfW4
Limbaugh, 69, began “The Rush Limbaugh Show” in 1988 and has won a number of awards, including the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award for “Excellence in Syndicated and Network Broadcasting” five times.
He has often come under attack from leftist critics who claim his rhetoric is "racist" or "divisive."
"I mean, if you read some of the things that Rush has said, about people, their backgrounds, their ethnicity, how he speaks to them... I don't think he understands the American code of decency and honor," Biden said.
"But look, this is Donald Trump."
"I do feel badly, and I mean this sincerely, that he's suffering from a terminal illness," said Biden.
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Throughout his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, Biden championed cancer research and lost his eldest son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.
"He has my empathy and sympathy no matter what his background is," he added.
Biden himself was awarded the prestigious Medal of Freedom by former President Barack Obama in 2017.
In doing so, Obama heralded Biden as "the best vice president America's ever had" and a "lion of American history."
