When Rachel Jeantel explained the difference between “nigga” and “nigger” on CNN last night, she wasn’t just talking to Piers Morgan, she was also speaking directly to Rush Limbaugh. That much was clear from Limbaugh’s radio show this morning, during which he said he can start saying “nigga with an ‘a'” because according to Jeantel, “it’s not racist.”

Limbaugh played the clip from “the ever-penetrating inquisitor” Piers Morgan’s interview with Trayvon Martin‘s friend and witness for the prosecution in the George Zimmerman trial and mocked CNN’s “quest to become the most-respected news organization in the country, perhaps even the world.”

“So, ‘nigga’ with an ‘a’ on the end,” Limbaugh said, “I think can [say it] now, isn’t that the point? Because it’s not racist.” He explained that by Jeantel’s logic, he “could be talking about a male–a Chinese male, guy at the laundromat. I could be talking about a man, that’s what she said it means.”

By saying she regretted not explaining the difference between the two versions of the “n-word” to the jury, Jeantel was likely hoping to portray Trayvon Martin as not racially-motivated in the language he used to describe Zimmerman. It is highly unlikely that she intended to give Rush Limbaugh permission to say this particular word, even if it is, in her estimation not “racist.”

Listen to the audio below, via Rush Limbaugh:

(h/t MMFA)

And in case you missed Jeantel’s comments to Piers Morgan last night, you can watch that clip below, via CNN:

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