Radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday marked the passing of South African leader Nelson Mandela by criticizing American civil rights leaders.
“Nelson Mandela actually lived through the indignities, the punishment, the discrimination, the horrors of the South African apartheid system. Came out of it — you realize when he was inaugurated president, he invited as his special guests the white jailers from his Robben Island prison? He literally did forgive everybody,” Limbaugh said. “Twenty seven years of the prime of his life and he said resentment’s like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.Nelson Mandela would not qualify as a civil rights leader in this country with that philosophy. They can’t let it go.”
Limbaugh went on to describe the current U.S. civil rights movement as “big business.”
“It’s become too big a business. They will not let it go. Mandela let it go. It just — amazing,” said Limbaugh.
Hear the audio of Limbaugh’s comments below, via Media Matters:
