ainsley: he passed away after a battle with lung cancer but his impact on conservatives, america and the world lives on. he was fantastic man, fantastic pilot. people whether they loved him or not respected him. he loved his country. loved the country, but his wife and his family and loved his fans from his audience which was maybe the biggest ever. irreplaceable. jillian: you are watching fox and friends first on thursday morning. todd: tributes pouring in for rush limbaugh. jillian: carley shimkus joins us with the latest. steve: the nation at leading lawmakers paying tribute to rush limbaugh. he died wednesday morning little more than a year after announcing stage iv lung cancer diagnosis. his wife broke the news of his passing on his radio show. there will be a tremendous void in our lives and on radio. i would like to thank each and every one of you who rallied around rush and lifted him up when he needed you the most. steve: carley: donald trump awarding him the
announcing stage iv lung cancer diagnosis. his wife katherine broke the news of his passing on his radio show. from today on, there will be a tremendous void in our lives and on the radio. i would personally like to thank each and every one of you who rallied around rush when he needed you the most. carley: donald trump awarding the media icon the presidential medal of freedom at the state of the union address one day after revealing his cancer diagnosis. the former president reflecting on that moment yesterday. it was an idea that we had that a lot of people suggested to me, it was an amazing night because republicans went wild and the democrats sat there but they are respected rush. one of the great orders of his life. reporter: the rush limbaugh show began in 1988 and grew to be the most listened to radio show in the country attracting 27 million people per week. his voice even influencing the nation s most prominent lawmakers. i was inspired to go into conservativ
it s terrifying to think about people dying from this condition and we don t want to be one of those statistics. and check out your screen and some of the pictures that have gone viral through this whole thing. icicles forming on a ceiling fan. you can see a pot of water with frozen snow in it. they re actually boiling the snow, because they have no running water in their house. we have the politics of this, too, governor greg abbott walking back comments, blaming 14 energy for the crisis and you want to hear what the former governor said on this, too, with more on the way with the mid-atlantic and east, sleet and freezing raynhamering more than 100 million people. i m hallie jackson in washington along with our team on this thursday morning. morgan chesky is in dallas. we will be joined in a moment by a couple live guests from texas as well, morgan, yes, we are seeing improvement in the number of power outages? more people are getting their power back. more are in for a
no injuries onboard, miraculously and no known injuries on the ground. the pieces of huge metal debris falling from the sky in broomfield, colorado, about 20 miles north of denver and 30 miles west of the airport, clearly a very scary situation there. and we now have audio of the very moment the united airlines pilot issued a may day call to denver air traffic control as his plane experienced engine failure. take a listen. may day, may day united 28 united 328 heavy, may day, may day aircraft. yeah, 32, say again. united denver, departure united 328 heavy may day aircraft, just experienced engine failure, need to turn immediately. cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean joins me now. pete, wow, that pilot was so calm on that may day call. you re a pilot yourself. what does that call tell you about the situation? what do you think was going through the pilot s mind right there. calm, cool, collected but they had to deal with something that is honestly not happened
consistent. he was authentic. he was honest. that resonated with a lot of people across the country. he had a great sense of humor. he considered entertainment to be probably the most important part of the success of his radio show. he connected with people. not with everyone. he had his critics to be sure. but he shocked a lot of people in establishment politics in the late 80s and early 90s. when they came to realize that there were legions of listeners to rush limbaugh who he called the ditto heads. there were folks out there that got him, who spoke his language and who felt that he was able to boil down how they felt and express it in a way that unified an i enormous part of america. so like a lot of people and a lot of people in this business, i had an opportunity to get to know rush over the years. he was very kind to me, very supportive of my career. we kept in touch over the years. i will miss him. i send my deepest condolences to his wife, katherine and his brothers.