Rush Limbaugh dismissed the concept of sexual consent on Wednesday, and mocked what he called the “rape police.”
“You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element,” the conservative talk show host said in comments posted online by Media Matters. “Do you know what it is? Consent.”
He continued:
“If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it’s perfectly fine, whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there’s no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police. But consent is the magic key to the left.”
Limbaugh was attempting to make an argument for “moral standards” while at the same time dismissing the concept of consent. At one point, he even claimed “consent” somehow meant people could have sex with animals.
“If you could get the dog to consent with you, if you can get the horse to consent, we got no problem with it,” Rush said. “And they don’t! So morality has been boiled down to consent, is my point, and it’s true.”
Limbaugh has railed against consent before, claiming it “takes all the romance out of everything.”
“How many of you guys in your own experience with women have learned that ‘no’ means ‘yes,’ if you know how to spot it?” Rush said in 2014. “It used to be used as a cliché.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.