‘Fox News’ Host Chris Wallace Blasts Rush Limbaugh As A Hypocrite For Supporting Trump’s National Emergency
Fox News host Chris Wallace called out conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh as a hypocrite for supporting Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration after condemning Barack Obama for using his presidential powers to push through initiatives that couldn’t get through Congress.
Wallace pointed out on Fox News Sunday that the talk show host had attacked former President Obama for using executive actions while lauding President Trump for using a national emergency to obtain funding for a border wall that Congress had refused to approve. He reminded Limbaugh that he was “outraged” when Obama had used his powers and had accused the former president of shredding and flushing the Constitution “down the toilet.”
“I understand that you like what President Trump is doing,” Wallace said. “And you didn’t like President Obama was doing. But that’s the concern here, is that to the degree that you give the president more and more powers, yes, you are going to get some things — executive powers — from one president you like, but you’re going to get things — executive powers — from another president that you don’t like.”
Wallace pointed out several examples, such as when the Obama administration used an executive action to prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants in 2014.
Limbaugh attempted to justify his about-face by saying that Trump is in the right in this particular situation and Obama wasn’t in Wallace’s examples, adding that he didn’t see things in the same way that Wallace did.
“And what Obama was doing was furthering this existing problem and politicizing this using whatever executive powers he wanted to use,” Limbaugh said.
He then added that Trump was forced to declare a national emergency because Congress wasn’t cooperating with him. He didn’t acknowledge whether he realized that Obama was facing the same issue, with a Congress that had pledged to work against him as Mitch McConnell famously said when he confirmed that his first goal was to make Obama a one-term president.
During the same interview, Limbaugh fought against the perception that he has an influence over President Trump. He called the attempts of the media to claim that he has the president’s ear as a way to diminish Trump’s position and paint him as someone who can’t lead without guidance from more established political players.
Trump circulates Limbaugh quote calling for Mueller investigators to "be in jail" https://t.co/I0SKPUzMiK
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) February 17, 2019
Trump immediately contradicted this message when he sent out a tweet quoting Limbaugh’s claim that the Mueller investigation is a political hoax and a coverup.
“These guys, the investigators, ought to be in jail. What they have done, working with the Obama intelligence agencies, is simply unprecedented. This is one of the greatest political hoaxes ever perpetrated on the people of this Country, and Mueller is a coverup.” Rush Limbaugh
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019
