Lawrence O'Donnell: Rush Limbaugh Profits Off Of 'Pure Hatred' (VIDEO)

Lawrence O'Donnell denounced Rush Limbaugh for the radio host's attack on one of O'Donnell's guests.

The back-and-forth between the two emanated from O'Donnell's Monday show. The MSNBC anchor hosted writer and commentator Touré to talk about Herman Cain. Touré made some provocative statements, saying that Cain was a "lightweight" who was engaging in "minstrelsy" with the GOP by "[reasserting] this myth of black docility" within the party. He also discussed the recent attempts by people like Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to cast Cain's recent sexual harassment scandal as the racially motivated targeted of a conservative black man, saying that such statements were an effort by the right to muddy the waters surrounding racial discourse.

Limbaugh fired back on his Tuesday radio show, saying that Touré was simply lashing out at the idea that conservatives could have a credible analysis of racism.

"What he was trying to say is, 'they are stealing our technique,'" Limbaugh said. "...We are the ones who get to decide who is racist and who isn't...we own that ploy!"

On his own Tuesday show, O'Donnell seized on the word "ploy," using it to charge Limbaugh with a calculated effort to wield the charge of racism. He also highlighted Limbaugh complaining about having been called a racist for 23 years. To O'Donnell, there was a very good reason that such criticisms have dogged Limbaugh.

"In a country with a long painful and ugly history...you would think that Rush Limbaugh could comprehend why some of the things he has said over the years might offend the racial sensibilities of some reasonable people," he said. "Rush Limbaugh can remember black children being killed in churches by the Ku Klux Klan during his lifetime."

He then played a series of racially charged clips from the past few years of Limbaugh's radio show. There were many to choose from (Limbaugh certainly has made many controversial statements in his time).

O'Donnell concluded by saying that Limbaugh has earned his considerable living off of telling lies and trafficking in "pure hatred." Limbaugh often revels in such feuds. It remains to see whether he will have a response to O'Donnell.

Comments

[JakeMontero]

07:59 AM on 11/04/2011

I'm sure his 4 viewers appreciate the take down on Rush

[Stopinstigating]

06:18 AM on 11/04/2011

Please. I'm a 50-year-old black man who has certified Rush "Not-A-Racist" with an official certification card.

I've listened to Rush for over 15 years and I've never heard him say anything I considered racist. The only ones pimping that narrative are white Progressives and their black Democrat sellouts looking to score points selling their Plantation Politics.

I'm fairly confident Black America can handle "mean old racists" ourselves.

So by the power vested in me by virtue of Genetic Blackness and because I say so, I hereby certify Rush Limbaugh immune from any and all charges of racism.

If anyone has a problem with Rush's "Not-A-Racist" cred, please direct your comments to me here at HuffPo. I'll be appearing nightly and on weekends. Just be sure to tip your waiters and waitresses. (They work extra hard so you don't have to!)

AFAIK, the worst bigots of all are the white Progressives like O'Donnell who still treat Black America as if we were incapable of handling our business without their "help" in the first place. Its as if "Helpless" or "Damsel in Distress" were written across our collective foreheads and they can't resist putting on that shining armor to ride to our rescue just one more time.

[Hulsey]

06:51 PM on 11/04/2011

+1!

[dailywitness]

06:20 PM on 11/08/2011

Yeah, I guess he's just being funny right ?

Rush Limbaugh Quotes & Stuff :

- “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

- [To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”

- Limbaugh has repeatedly played a song on his radio show called ‘Barack the Magic Negro’ that uses an antiquated Jim Crow era term to make fun of Obama.

- “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”

I'm not Black, but I'm offended for you . . .

[Stopinstigating]

01:42 PM on 11/09/2011

No, you're not black, but like most bleeding heart liberals, you just can't resist putting on your "Shining Armor" as you ride to the rescue to defend the "helpless." But each time you do, you highlight the condescension and arrogance that characterizes the fatal conceit of Progressives where the elite decide for the sheep.

Unlike you, I've heard each and every one of the quotes you list - in real time during Rush's shows. And because I did have the benefit of hearing them in context, I find the objectivity in your selective editing to be highly suspect and, therefore, inadmissible as evidence of Rush's alleged "racism."

Black America doesn't need your feigned offense. We need you and the Progressive left to stop doing what Alcoholics Anonymous identifies as "enabling." And for anyone who doesn't know the difference between helping and enabling:

- HELPING is doing something for someone that they are not capable of doing themselves.
- ENABLING is doing for someone things that they could, and should be doing themselves.

[madashellvoter]

02:45 PM on 11/03/2011

I watched this live, O'Donnell is fantastic! He takes the argument straight to the person. In this case Limbaugh. Who truly is psychologically deficient! Truly, something is VERY WRONG with this man. How could his parents live with themselves?

[catman71]

12:21 AM on 11/04/2011

try doing it sober, the man is a parody, he parrots what the dnc wants him to say,

[BlackWidowPilot]

01:34 AM on 11/04/2011

Can you prove that allegation, citizen?

Pony up some actual proof, or fold yer junk hand trying to defend the morally bankrupt likes of "Limbaugh the Hutt."

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[martha high]

02:10 PM on 11/03/2011

Thank you Lawrence Odonnell for your boldness in speaking the truth. There is no one else on television that speaks the truth any more than Lawrence . I'm not saying he's the only one, but you got to respect someone that in boldness will tell it like it is. I have heard him many times and I do appreciate how he dimantle's lies told by others and especially a lying Network known As Fox and all their little patsys going at it 24/7.

[catman71]

12:23 AM on 11/04/2011

bold, he is a parrot, no substance and no credentials , and face it, msnbc is a laughing stock,

[Teacher Trish]

01:17 AM on 11/04/2011

Credentials of O’Donnell v. Limbaugh
O’Donnell – graduated Harvard
Limbaugh-Flunked out of Southeast Missouri State
O’Donnell- Legislative aide to Moynihan and staff director of the United States Senate Committee on Finance
Limbaugh – no political experience

You can disagree with O'Donnell's politics but your claim that he has no credentials is weak.

[Kathy Levittown]

07:52 PM on 11/04/2011

Awesome martha!.F&F!!!

[martha high]

01:40 PM on 11/03/2011

I'm always amazed when republicans and teapartiers cannot see the hatred that he spews. How anybody quote him as someone telling the truth is beyond me.

[David Flint]

10:33 PM on 11/03/2011

They see it and identify with it. Everybody knows Rush is a racist, its just that Rush and his listeners like to pretend like they aren't publicly, even though, as I pointed out, we all know whats up....

[rhubardpi]

12:02 AM on 11/04/2011

What makes you think they can't see the hatred? A sixth grader could see it.

[martha high]

06:12 AM on 11/04/2011

because they elevate him and listen to him and quote him and admire him and brag on him and many more reasons

[eyepatch]

01:23 PM on 11/03/2011

......Rush is a cowardly liar and provocateur!
and people who listen to him are the nations
most gullible and least intelligent....

it was really beneath Lawrence to even address
this clown!

[Aaron Kirchmann]

07:17 PM on 11/03/2011

I listen to Limbaugh. I have no hatred, I am pro-choice, pro gay marriage, and pro many things that he isn't. Also, I am working on a PhD in Molecular Biology. So I certainly am NOT unintelligent. Don't be so quick to generalize.

[athenalong]

10:25 PM on 11/03/2011

Hahahaha =] Why do you listen?

I listen too at times when I want to laugh =]

You can't take him seriously, and the people who think he's serious amaze me....

[Jim bob]

11:20 PM on 11/03/2011

If what you say is true, then you're truly not spending your time well listening to that man. If you're a scientist like you say, I can't imagine you being able to tolerate his unbearably loose approach to any kind of truth. Speaking of truth, because of that, something about your comment doesn't pass the sniff test. Scientists and Limbaugh just don't go together. You probably know that. Whats up, doc?

[catman71]

12:28 AM on 11/04/2011

wrong, but then again,. you are a ;liberal, no brains needed, just vote for who your master tells you too

[Teacher Trish]

01:18 AM on 11/04/2011

Ad Hominem.

[dpcemker]

11:46 AM on 11/03/2011

They both are a pair of manipulators trying to make as much money as they can.

[Aaron Kirchmann]

07:18 PM on 11/03/2011

Now THAT, is a true statement!

[BlackWidowPilot]

01:39 AM on 11/04/2011

No, that is a fallacy of false equivalency that tacitly ignores the respective performance records of the two. It is also an appeal to cynicism, also a fallacy.

Molecular biology PhD, you say?

Cynicism is the hallmark of a lazy mind. If indeed you are an aspiring scientist and practitioner of the Scientific Method, you of all people should know better than to indulge in such overt fallacies.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Jim bob]

11:21 PM on 11/03/2011

False equivalency. A favorite tool of the right when trying to evade responsibility.

[Jim Dicken]

11:03 AM on 11/03/2011

The truth of the matter is that when Blacks leave the Democratic Plantation, they do everything they can to destroy them. Note that O'donnell and the guy use the Minstrell term. Rush is right. Democrats believe that they can not be called racists. With Rush it is NOT A PLOY and that is not what Rush meant when he said. Rush is right about the whole thing. Of course its on MSNBC and the only way any body sees this is by pussing it on the net.

[vidtrainer110]

01:13 PM on 11/03/2011

Rush is dead wrong, and Cain would be drawing alot less criticism if he wasn't so clueless. He doesn't know China has nuclear weapons....adding to a list of stuff that anyone running for President should know. He is not a serious candidate and defending him while also hurling the charge of racism is simply cover to hide that undeniable fact.

[yumster]

01:29 PM on 11/03/2011

Why are you reading it if it isn't important to you? You have options to skip the story. You have your teabag cap on.

[catman71]

12:31 AM on 11/04/2011

why is it that the left attacks conservative by accusing them of actio0ns homosexual men do, is that not derogatory and something the left hates,

[wikwox]

10:38 AM on 11/03/2011

It's not pure hatred, thers a great big dollop of stupidity in the mix as well. No idiot drones equals no Limbaugh.

[gernger]

10:31 AM on 11/03/2011

Fox news, Rush, Beck, Coulter, and the rest are entertainers, not news people; That is why they are so popular. They all say absurd things to keep people very interested. When Chris Wallace interviewed Jon Stewert, Wallace couldn't understand how Fox news and The Daily Show differed. Stewert explaine that his show was entertainment, and Fox was suppossed to be news. Wallace didn't get it.

[Dan Slander]

10:20 AM on 11/03/2011

Poor Larry trying to make a name for himself by taking on mega media superstar with another strident stretch. I'm no Rush fan but the fact remains he's as big as he ever was while buzzing gnats like KO and OD continue to shrink.

They are like little leaguers going up against the Cards.

[jadetax]

10:15 AM on 11/03/2011

O Donnelll and his croiw promote more violence the Limbaugh, and profit more from it also.

[ydrittmann]

10:39 AM on 11/03/2011

Barely literate.

[eyepatch]

01:16 PM on 11/03/2011

barely is generous.....

[most reasonable]

11:32 AM on 11/03/2011

"O Donnelll and his croiw promote more violence the Limbaugh, and profit more from it also."

I don't recall any of O'Donnell's viewers being in the forefront of gun toting violence...spouting Rush-Hate type diatribe.

[JM Brodie]

10:13 AM on 11/03/2011

Rush, Coulter, thery are what they are. No need to really debate them about it.

[Cautiously optimistic]

10:10 AM on 11/03/2011

O'Donnell- the human Velociraptor.

[profounddogs]

10:06 AM on 11/03/2011

Thank you O'Donnell. I'm glad you at least out of many many commentators finally called Rush out for what he really is and what he really does, which is continue to divide our country. I wish many more pundits had been on this band wagon many years ago. Rush should have been stopped many many years ago for spewing hate on the airwaves.