Rush Limbaugh said the US is 'trending towards secession' and there can't 'peaceful coexistence' between conservatives and liberals

• Rush Limbaugh, the influential conservative talk radio host, on Wednesday aired the idea of states seceding from the Union as a result of deep political polarization.
• "It can't go on this way," Limbaugh said. "There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life."
• Critics immediately slammed Limbaugh's comments for being divisive. Limbaugh later said he was echoing other people's opinions rather than advocating for secession himself.
• The only time in US history when states attempted to secede from the Union was in the early 1860s, and that sparked the Civil War.
• Talk of secession is mostly relegated to fringe conservative groups, but has gained momentum following President Donald Trump's election loss.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, a prominent media ally of President Donald Trump, has said that the US is "trending towards secession" amid deep partisan division and conservative anger about President Donald Trump's election defeat.

In a call-in on Wednesday, first reported by the progressive media monitoring group Media Matters, a listener asked Limbaugh if he believed that conservatism would ever dominate US culture again.

Limbaugh responded that he believed the US is "trending towards secession" - the act of breaking from the Union, which pro-slavery southern states attempted in 1861, sparking the US Civil War.

"It can't go on this way," Limbaugh said. "There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. We can't be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way."

His comments attracted widespread criticism, with progressive activist Shannon Watts describing the remarks as divisive and Limbaugh as a demagogue.

Limbaugh, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump in February, has a long history controversial and incendiary statements. He has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, which he described as a "death sentence."

On Thursday, he attempted to row back his claim of secession, saying that he was just repeating what he had heard people saying in blogs and on social media.

"I simply referenced what I have seen other people say about how we are incompatible, as currently divided, and that secession is something that people are speculating about," he said.

Multiple studies have documented the deep and growing partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats in the US, on issues including responses to COVID-19, gun rights and abortion. In an interview with Business Insider in September, author David French said that one result of America's political divisions could be secession.

"If we keep pushing people and pushing people and pushing people, you cannot assume that they won't break," he said.

Limbaugh is a prominent defender of Trump's baseless claims that the election was stolen from him as a result of widespread election fraud. Even though the president has not provided convincing evidence to support the allegations, they have nonetheless been seized on and amplified by conservative media, and are now believed by a majority of Republicans.

President-elect Joe Biden's election victory sparked talk of secession from some hardline supporters of Trump, including Mississippi state lawmaker Price Wallace, who swiftly retracted the comments. Texas State Rep. Kyle Biedermann on Thursday called for a bill to be put to the vote for the state to secede.

David Niewert, an expert on the US far right, has chronicled how so-called militia groups - some of whom have menaced state officials in Michigan - have long sought to stir civil war.

The only time in US history where states have tried to break from the Union was was in the 1860s, when Confederate states attempted to secede. It sparked the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in US history, and resulted in victory for the anti-slavery Union.