Rush Limbaugh was the most influential talk radio show host in history.
His legacy still looms large over the conservative movement.
And Ron DeSantis made one confession about Rush Limbaugh that Democrats will hate.
Ron DeSantis fills in for Sean Hannity on his radio show
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis filled in for Sean Hannity as a guest host on his radio show from “Sunny South Florida.”
Hannity relocated to Palm Beach County, Florida earlier this year from New York.
DeSantis used his opening monologue to pay tribute to the late, great Rush Limbaugh, who broadcast from his “Southern Command” in Palm Beach at the end of his career.
“Rush really paved the way for so much of what people like Sean had been able to do,” DeSantis said. “Hell, he paved the way for things like me and like me being in office and pursuing a conservative agenda.”
DeSantis previously credited Limbaugh for helping him win a nail-biter in the 2018 Florida Governor’s Election.
“He had me on when I was running for Governor,” DeSantis said on Fox & Friends after Limbaugh died in 2021. “I was getting the tar kicked out of me every day and he had me on the week before the election in 2018. He didn’t have a lot of guests. I was honored to be on his show a couple of times.”
DeSantis prevailed in that election by about 32,000 votes.
The Florida Governor and the talk radio titan shared a love of golf.
“I got to know him as a friend,” DeSantis recalled. “And you know, I got a chance to play golf with him a bunch of times, and Rush loved golf.”
DeSantis said that Limbaugh screwed up his golf swing appearing on a segment for the Golf Channel.
“This was probably about 10 years ago now, and I remember asking Rush, how did that go? He said, ‘Nothing screwed up my swing more than doing that Golf Channel thing,’” DeSantis said.
He added that it did not take long for the talk radio great to fix his swing.
“But by the time we were playing more as I got to know him better. I remember being out with him one time and Rush is just lighting it up. I mean, one shot after another. So, we get about halfway through the round. I said, ‘Rush, let’s just improve the pace of play. Don’t even drive the ball anymore. I’m going to walk the ball out to the middle of the fairway, just drop it down and let you play from there.’ He put his cigar in his mouth, and he just grinned ear to ear,” DeSantis joked.
DeSantis said that Limbaugh ranked among the five most influential conservatives since World War II including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, President Ronald Reagan, former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and National Review founder William F. Buckley.
Rush Limbaugh gets his revenge on Palm Beach County
DeSantis recalled how he ordered the flag lowered at half mast to mark Limbaugh’s death in 2021.
“The liberal majority on the Palm Beach County Commission rejected that, and they actually refused to lower the flags to half-staff for Rush,” DeSantis said. “And I always thought that that was very, very disrespectful, because even if you disagree with him, the guy was a pioneer at the craft, and he was a longtime Florida resident. You should be happy. But Palm Beach has been like a longtime liberal bastion.”
The Florida Governor’s landslide re-election victory in 2022 changed the political landscape in Palm Beach County.
“We took a county that had been blue for decades in the Governor’s race,” DeSantis explained. “But maybe more importantly, we now have a majority of Republicans on the Palm Beach County Commission. Nobody thought that was possible. I think that’s Limbaugh’s revenge over that County Commission. I know he would be smiling thinking that his home county went red.”
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
