Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday suggested stay-at-home measures to protect people against the coronavirus pandemic were destroying the economy “under the guise” of saving lives. He also gave air to a conspiracy theory that Democrats and communists were plotting the downfall of capitalism.

(See the video below.)

“Are we just going to sit by and watch $22 trillion — that’s the value, that’s the sum total of the GDP, that’s the U.S. economy — are we just going to sit by here and watch it evaporate?” the right-wing radio host said on “The Rush Limbaugh Show.” “Because that’s what we’re doing, under the guise of not losing any unnecessary life — meaning we want to try to save as many lives as we can.”

After fielding a phone call in which the caller said the crisis was the product of “the communist virus” invading America, Limbaugh piled on:

You’re the only person I know who thinks it’s happening without the cooperation of the Democrat Party, however. Most people tell me they think the American left is the worldwide Communist Party now, and that they are willingly subverting this economy and destroying it, for the purposes of eliminating and wiping out capitalism. And whether that’s happening of — whether that’s the design or not, that is happening. This economy is being shut down. That’s why this is not sustainable. I’m sorry, I’m sounding like a broken record on this, but it is not sustainable. Are we just going to sit by and watch $22 trillion — that’s the value, that’s the sum total of the GDP, that’s the U.S. economy — are we just going to sit by here and watch it evaporate? Because that’s what we’re doing, under the guise of not losing any unnecessary life — meaning we want to try to save as many lives as we can.

Limbaugh has previously claimed the outbreak was exaggerated to make President Donald Trump look bad. He also had dismissed COVID-19 as “the common cold.”

H/T Media Matters

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