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  • 2020-02-12 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Rush Limbaugh Refer to 12-Year-Old Chelsea Clinton as a Dog? (en)
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  • When radio host Rush Limbaugh was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Donald Trump during the State of the Union address in February 2020, many critics derided the decision and noted that the conservative pundit had a long history of racist and controversial remarks. A series of quotes that Limbaugh ostensibly uttered over the years started to circulate on social media (some real, some fake), including one report about how the radio host once called former first daughter Chelsea Clinton a dog. Limbaugh truly did once refer to young Chelsea as a dog. When we attempted to track down the origins of this claim we came across two examples of Limbaugh making such a reference. The first was a viral quote: Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog? - Rush Limbaugh, holding a pic of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton on TV, 1993. The second was a video clip containing a similar insult. In the clip, Limbaugh says, Let's see who is the cute kid in the White House, and then he shows a picture of a dog: We have been unable to find audio, video, or an official transcript for the viral quote starting Socks is the White House cat. However, the remark wasn't conjured out of thin air. This quote was first reported on by Molly Ivins in an Oct. 17, 1993, article published in the Arizona Republic entitled Riding the Powerless for a Laugh. Ivins wrote (emphasis ours): A clipping of this newspaper article appears below: Ivins provided no information about when Limbaugh made this remark, and it's unclear if this was a paraphrased version of something he said or a direct quote. As for the viral video clip, the segment reportedly aired on Nov. 6, 1992. President Bill Clinton had just won election and Limbaugh was commenting on a New York Daily News article about what was coming IN to the White House with the Clinton family and what was going OUT of the White House with the Bush family. Here's a transcript of the segment from Media Matters: This segment was also featured in a 1995 Frontline special entitled Rush Limbaugh's America. While we haven't found video of the full segment, a transcript shows how Limbaugh launched into an attack on another former White House child (he called Amy Carter, the daughter of President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter, the the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country) and then apologized for the Chelsea Clinton mix-up, blaming the crew for showing a picture of a dog instead of Chelsea. Here's a transcript of the show (emphasis ours): Limbaugh issued another apology a few days later on his show: It's possible that Limbaugh referred to Chelsea as a dog twice. The first, shortly after Bill Clinton's presidential election in November 1992. And the second, sometime in 1993. However, it seems likely that the quote reported by Ivins (starting Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat) is a paraphrased version of Limbaugh's comments from 1992. (en)
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