Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called the controversy over vaccinations surrounding the recent measles outbreak a "phony debate."
“We haven’t had measles in this country for ages,” Limbaugh said at the opening of his radio show Monday.
“Why do we have it now? And this is the one thing that is not being talked about in any of this, and that is Obama and his illegal immigration and the flood of measles-infected kids from Central and South America, who by the way have not been vaccinated and have not been subject to vaccinations because they’re not citizens," he explained.
"This is the most incredible thing," he added.
Limbaugh likened it to the so-called 'War on Women,' which became a debate over whether or not the government should provide free contraceptives to women during the 2012 presidential election.
"It’s another attempt at recreating the 'War on Women,'" he said.
"It’s designed to destroy Republicans, particularly Republicans running for president by creating a phony debate over vaccinations — a debate that does not exist, a controversy that was not alive," he contends.
"And all of a sudden now, the drive-by daily soap opera theme or meme today is a debate between [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie and [Kentucky Sen.] Rand Paul and others in the Republican primary field over whether or not vaccinations should be mandatory," he said.
"We’re watching it play out exactly as the phony contraception debate did," the conservative talk show host told his audience.
"What is this going to be, the war on kids?” he asked. Or "are we going to have the 'war on families, war on kids, war on science?'"
Limbaugh said that "they're going to invent three or four new wars here that the Democrats are going to create just like they created the war on women."
The purpose behind the debate, he contends, is so that "Republicans are once again being set up as anti-government, anti-health."
The other issue, he explained, is that the media is trying "to cover up [former Secretary of State] Clinton," whom he says at times has been on "both sides of this" issue, and "has plenty . . . of anti-mandatory vaccination statements over the course of many years."
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