An emotional Rush Limbaugh opened his last radio broadcast of 2020, thanking his listeners and supporters as he continues to fight a terminal cancer diagnosis.
“My point in all of this today is gratitude,” he said. “My goal in all of this is to thank and tell everyone involved how much I love you from the bottom of a considerable, growing and still beating heart.”
Limbaugh chose his wife Kathryn and other family members to support him throughout his career and struggle for health. The 69-year-old man learned he had stage IV lung cancer in January and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Trump in his State of the Union address in February.
He added that the decency of the people around him had confirmed his earlier beliefs about people’s innate goodness.
RUSH LIMBAUGH GIVES UPDATE ON THE CANCER BATTLE: ‘EVERY DAY REMAINS A GIFT’
“I was not expected to be alive today,” he said. “I was not expected to arrive until October, November and December. Still, here I am, and today, I had some problems, but I am feeling great today.”
Limbaugh said he was initially shocked by the diagnosis and added that it was just as difficult for people in his orbit as it was for him personally.
“I can’t be self-centered about it, when that’s the trend when they say you have a delivery date,” he said, choking. “You have an expiration date. Many people never hear that, so they don’t look at life that way.”
RUSH LIMBAUGH AGAINST CANCER SAYS HE CANNOT DENY MORE THAT HE IS ‘UNDER A DEATH SENTENCE’
Limbaugh also praised President Trump’s speech on Tuesday night, in which he criticized the coronavirus relief bill and continued to make baseless claims that he could remain in office beyond January. The host also objected to President-elect Joe Biden’s statement that America’s “darkest days” in the fight against coronavirus were coming.
“What a bleak way to look at things,” said Limbaugh. “It’s never time to panic, folks. Never, never will there be time to give up our country … It will never be time to give up on yourself. Trust me.”
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Limbaugh is considered one of the most influential members of the media for the past 50 years and has played an important role in conservative politics since the beginning of his radio program in 1988. The program has become the most listened to radio program in the United States.
He is a five-time winner of the Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters for “Excellence in Syndicated and Networked Broadcasting”, best-selling author of the New York Times and member of the National Radio Association’s Hall of Fame and Hall of Fame Broadcasters. He was also named one of Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People in 2008 and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009.
Brian Flood and Samuel Chamberlain of Fox News contributed to this report.