Celebrated evangelical pastor Franklin Graham offered prayers for Rush Limbaugh this week, calling the radio talk show pioneer a “conservative voice of reason.”
With hashtag #PrayforRush, Rev. Graham noted in a tweet that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
“Rush has been a conservative voice of reason for years. I know he would appreciate your prayers — he certainly has mine,” Graham said.
During his broadcast Monday, the 69-year-old Limbaugh announced to his 20-million-member audience that he has been diagnosed with “advanced lung cancer” and will take some time off for treatment.
“This day has been one of the most difficult days in recent memory, for me, because I’ve known this moment was coming,” Limbaugh said.
“I’m sure that you all know by now that I really don’t like talking about myself and I don’t like making things about me… one thing that I know, that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that had developed between all of you and me,” he said.
“It’s a struggle for me because I had to inform my staff earlier today. I can’t escape,” he said. “Even though people are telling me it’s not the way to look at it, I can’t help but feel that I’m letting everybody down with this. But the upshot is that I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, diagnosis confirmed by two medical institutions back on January 20th.”
Mr. Limbaugh said that his intention is to “come here every day I can and to do this program as normally and as competently and as expertly as I do each and every day,” before adding that he will rely on his close relationship with God to face this trial.
“I told the staff today that I have a deeply personal relationship with God that I do not proselytize about,” he said. “But I do, and I have been working that relationship (chuckles) tremendously, which I do regularly anyway, but I’ve been focused on it intensely for the past couple of weeks.”
On Tuesday, President Trump announced plans to award Limbaugh with the Medal of Freedom, following the conservative radio icon’s cancer diagnosis.
During a pre-State of the Union lunch with network anchors Tuesday the president revealed his plans to honor Limbaugh. The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the U.S.
He followed through on his words a few hours later. Watch below:
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