http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=11264786-89B5-4C97-A5E0-7676F863D3E6 Rush Limbaugh rips Brian Ross over tea party report
By: Kevin Robillard
July 23, 2012 03:24 PM EDT
Rush Limbaugh charged Monday that the “first instinct” of ABC News’ Brian Ross after the shooting attack in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 dead and dozens injured was to “try to find a way to help Barack Obama” by suggesting the alleged gunmen might be a member of the tea party.
“That’s the first thing that crossed the minds of supposedly reputable journalists,” Limbaugh said, referring to Ross’ mistaken early report that the shooter migh have had ties to a tea party group in Colorado. “The ABC investigative unit did a Google search.”
“Here we have an unspeakable human tragedy, and people who tell us that they are the last reservoirs of compassion in America, that they are the truly sensitive, caring, thoughtful ones, the first instinct they had was to what?” Limbaugh continued later in his show. “Try to find a way to help Barack Obama with this unspeakable tragedy. Try to find a way to help Barack Obama. Try to find a way to help the Democrat Party.”
ABC later apologized for their mistake, which was based on Ross finding online a person affiliated with the tea party who had a name similar to alleged shooter James Holmes. Other news outlets ignored Ross’ reporting.
“Nothing like a little mass murder to bring out leftists who suffer political illness,” the conservative talker said, according to a transcript. “This could be his Oklahoma City. This could be Barack Obama’s Oklahoma City. That’s right. This could be Gabby Giffords. This could be Obama’s chance to redo the Gabby Giffords circumstance. This could be Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing.”
Limbaugh also tried to link the shooting to Fast and Furious, the failed gun-walking operation under investigation by House Republicans. The National Rifle Association has repeatedly accused the Obama administration of intentionally allowing guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The NRA said the administration planned to then use increased violence at the border to justify stricter gun control measures.
“They got, folks, in this horrible Colorado thing what they were hoping to get out of Fast and Furious,” he said.” I think this is what they wanted out of Fast and Furious. I think this is what is in the documents that Holder and the boys won’t release to Darrell Issa’s committee.”
The House voted last month to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress after he refused to turn over documents sought by investigators. President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege to protect the documents.
