What did a bartender’s plot to poison House Speaker John Boehner have to do with the Democrats? According to Rush Limbaugh, quite a bit. The conservative talk show host claimed that Democrats’ criticism of the Republican party’s stance on Ebola funding was an important factor in leading the bartender to nearly assassinate the Congressional leader.
According to People Magazine , Michael Robert Hoyt was a popular bartender at Wetherington Country Club in Ohio. Casually known as Bartender Mike, Hoyt regularly served John Boehner, until he decided to try and kill him .
The trouble began in October after the country club fired their disturbed bartender. Afterwards, he called the police, telling them that John Boehner is the one who got him fired. The officers visited Bartender Mike to discuss his problems, but it quickly became clear that he had rather extreme views.
Special Agent Christopher M. Desrosiers described his encounter in court records, saying, “Hoyt has imagined and believes John Boehner is the devil, and Hoyt believes he is Jesus Christ. Hoyt also believes Boehner is responsible for the Ebola virus.”
Who planted the seed of Hoyt’s strange views? According to Raw Story , Rush Limbaugh believes the Democrats are part to blame, as he explained on his Wednesday show.
“This guy blamed Boehner for Ebola, which — my memory is what it is — the Democrats tried to claim about the House Republicans. For example, Democrats claimed the Republicans cut funding from research for the Ebola vaccine and the National Institute of Health and the CDC in general. Remember that?”
Rush Limbaugh explained that the Democrats were making outrageous claims suggesting that Republicans were to blame for the spread of Ebola, something that Hoyt directly linked the Speaker Boehner.
“They always do this: ‘Republicans have poisoned the water, Republicans want your kids to get sick and die.’ It’s silly. And they were out there blaming the Republicans for the spread of Ebola. Right about the time this guy is getting mad at Boehner for spreading Ebola. You do remember that now, right?”
According to Politifact , October was a big month for fingering pointing, as a 10-year decline in funding to the National Institutes of Health, left America less prepared to tackle the spread of Ebola.
That decline in budget support accelerated with the sequester, where John Boehner and other Congressional Republicans went head-to-head with the Democrats, bringing government to a screeching halt. Although both parties received blame for the sequester, Rush Limbaugh appears to think it’s this fight that set the stage for the bartender to try to assassinate John Boehner.
Limbaugh’s full comments can be found at Media Matters here .