Thread: Rand Paul: Ted Nugent should apologize

Rand Paul: Ted Nugent should apologize

Paul isn’t the only potential GOP presidential candidate to speak out about Nugent. | AP Photos
CloseBy NICK GASS | 2/20/14 9:16 PM EST

Sen. Rand Paul says Ted Nugent should apologize after the rocker called President Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel” in an interview with Guns.com last week.

“Ted Nugent’s derogatory description of President Obama is offensive and has no place in politics. He should apologize,” the Kentucky Republican tweeted Thursday night.

Paul isn’t the only potential Republican presidential candidate to speak out about Nugent’s comments.

(Also on POLITICO: Rick Perry has ‘problems’ with Ted Nugent)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CNN he disagreed with Nugent’s language but also didn’t rule out campaigning with him in the future.

“You’ve never heard me say such a thing and nor would I,” Cruz said. “I will note, there are reasons Ted Nugent - people listen to him, which is that he has been fighting passionately for Second Amendment rights.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer he has a “problem with” the rocker’s strong language about the president.

“I got a problem calling the president a mongrel. … I do have a problem with that. That is an inappropriate thing to say,” he said.

Nugent has thrown his support behind Greg Abbott to succeed Perry as governor. The Republic

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2tvdUqQLf

Perry condemns Ted Nugent's remark about Obama

Associated Press | February 20, 2014

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Photo By Torin Halsey/Associated Press

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AUSTIN — Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday condemned inflammatory remarks by Ted Nugent that resurfaced when the outspoken rocker this week joined Republican Greg Abbott's gubernatorial campaign.

Nugent was quoted in an interview with Guns.com last month as calling President Barack Obama a "subhuman mongrel." He appeared with Abbott during two campaign stops Tuesday, a decision that Democratic opponent Wendy Davis called "repulsive."

Perry said on CNN's "Situation Room" that Nugent making outrageous comments shouldn't surprise anyone. But he condemned his language about Obama.

"I got a problem calling the president a mongrel. I do have a problem with that," said Perry, who is not running for re-election. "That is an inappropriate thing to say."

Perry spokesman Lucy Nashed told The Associated Press that his comments on the program speak for themselves. She said Perry was not available for an interview.

Abbott this week sidestepped questions about some of Nugent's most divisive comments in the past, including Nugent suggesting that immigrants who aren't in the country legally should be treated like "indentured servants" until they earn citizenship.

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/a...ma-5253634.php

The Democraps can call everyone to the right of Mao Zedong a racist or fascist but Ted Nugent must always check his free speech at the door. The best I have seen is Ted Cruz who was cautious but not craping in his pants about Nugent's blunt honesty.

How Ted Nugent riles and divide

He is perhaps one of the country’s most colorful champions of the 2nd Amendment. | AP Photo
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By KATIE GLUECK | 2/21/14 7:36 AM EST

To some Republican activists, he’s a celebrity defender of the Second Amendment who rallies the base like the rock star he once was.

To Democrats and mainstream Republicans, he’s a sexual “predator,” an affront to families and a flamethrower with an appalling record of incendiary comments.

When it comes to Ted Nugent, his conservative fans and liberal detractors are living on different planets.

(Also on POLITICO: Perry has 'problems' with Nugent)

Nugent catapulted into the spotlight this week when he appeared at two campaign events with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the presumptive GOP nominee for governor. Democrats, in Texas and nationally, bracketed the events with email blasts and tweets highlighting elements of Nugent’s unsavory past and record of inflammatory remarks. They plan to continue making hay of those Texas appearances, and relish the possibility of his campaigning with other Republicans.

But in the deep-red Lone Star State, registration for Abbott’s events tripled when Nugent’s appearances were announced.

Democrats and Republicans alike see Nugent as a turn-out catalyst, in Texas and perhaps beyond. He outrages Democrats and mainstream Republicans — but he fires up a segment of the GOP base, which is so enamored of Nugent’s fiery anti-Barack Obama rhetoric and defense of gun rights that it can overlook the singer’s tawdry history. A case in point: Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page that if Greg Abbott “is good enough for Ted Nugent, he’s good enough for me!”

Nugent, 65, is a board member of the National Rifle Association, and is perhaps one of the country’s most colorful champions of the Second Amendment. He’s a lifelong gun enthusiast, a crusader against drugs and a die-hard Republican. But as Democrats have been eager to point out this week, he’s not exactly a buttoned-up cultural conservative.

(Also on POLITICO: Rand Paul: Nugent should apologize)

In an interview for a VH1 “Behind the Music” documentary about him, Nugent, who hit the peak of his career in the 1970s, acknowledged that when he was young — and even not-so-young — he was “addicted to girls.”
“I was a wang-dang addict, I was addicted to girls. Addicted. It was hopeless,” he said in the video. “It was beautiful.”

By age 21, he had two children from two different women. By 30, after being married, having more kids and getting divorced, he was involved with a 17-year-old, for whom he assumed the mantle — with her parents’ permission — of legal guardian.

“It just really wasn’t a terribly appropriate situation in most people’s eyes,” said Pele Massa in the documentary, who said in the film that at 17 she became romantically involved with Nugent and was with him for nine years, though he wasn’t faithful to her during that period, she said. “And now, it would be criminal.”

(Also on POLITICO: Greg Abbott sings Nugent's praises)

The documentary said he acknowledged several relationships with young women, and that he won parental approval.

There were never criminal charges leveled against him for indiscretions with underage women, the film said, but the incidents have served as fodder for Democrats, who have repeatedly blasted him as a “predator” this week.

“I find Ted Nugent disgusting. And I find it disgusting that Greg Abbott is sharing a stage with him,” wrote Wendy Davis, the Texas Democratic candidate for governor, in a Wednesday fundraising missive. “But this isn’t just about my feelings. Every Texan should be offended by Greg Abbott’s decision to make a predator the new face of his campaign.”

Yet in recent years Nugent has painted himself as a family man. He has always eschewed drugs and alcohol and has been an advocate for keeping kids substance-free.

His current wife, Shemane Nugent, writes on her website that, “Recently, we have discovered four more adult children Ted had from previous relationships. I look forward to getting to know them, and hopefully they will welcome me into their lives.” They have been married since 1989 and have one child together.

“[Like] other marriages, I don’t always agree with everything my husband says or does,” she wrote.

A representative for both Nugents didn’t return a call and emails seeking comment.

Abbott’s campaign responded to questions about Nugent’s appearance by calling him “a forceful advocate for individual liberty and constitutional rights — especially the Second Amendment rights cherished by Texans. While he may sometimes say things or use language that Greg Abbott would not endorse or agree with, we appreciate the support of everyone who supports protecting our Constitution.”

In the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting massacre, Nugent wrote a piece for The Washington Times saying that family values, not more gun restrictions, are the solution to preventing future gun violence. “As with most things, the cure to this mess begins and ends with the family,” he wrote. “Traditional family values have been under siege for decades by our culture of contempt. In the absence of a solid family, the whole thing slowly unravels and rots.”

Nugent, who grew up in a strict household in Michigan and now lives in Texas, is an avid hunter and has repeatedly clashed with animal rights activists. He and Shemane authored a cookbook together called “Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish.” On Valentine’s Day he tweeted, “I will shoot an arrow thru a deer heart for valentinesDay! Better than chocolates.”

Nugent has already endorsed in several 2014 races and has a long history of voicing support for various Republicans, including in 2012, when he backed Mitt Romney after a phone call with the former GOP nominee — though Texas Gov. Rick Perry was his first choice. Romney’s campaign ultimately had to disavow “divisive language” in the wake of the support.

“He’s very popular with some of the base, a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights, I think some party activists appreciate his strident criticism of the president,” said a senior Romney campaign veteran. The source added, “Obviously a governor’s race in Texas is different than a national race for president. Competing in different states, these comments might cause problems, certainly in purple states.”

Some of those comments came under scrutiny this week, especially his recent description of President Barack Obama as a “subhuman mongrel.”

That’s a favorite phrase of Nugent’s, according to his Twitter feed. In the past two months alone, Nugent has: likened the media to Nazis; blasted Maryland — a state with tough gun control requirements — as “a muderers dream”; and dismissed Obama as a “racist lying president.” Previously, he has called Hillary Clinton a “worthless b——,” derided feminists as “fat pig[s],” and labeled Sen. Dianne Feinstein the most derogatory term for a prostitute.

He has also called Obama a slew of expletives over the years. One fiery statement — “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year” — led to an interview with the Secret Service in 2012, but law enforcement didn’t go further.

A Texas Republican with direct knowledge of the Abbott campaign’s thinking said that they are focused on driving turnout in both the March 4 primary and in November — and Nugent is an effective way to rile up the base. The source also noted that the campaign wasn’t aware of the “full extent” of Nugent’s controversial past, but didn’t detail what was and wasn’t known.

In a CNN interview on Thursday, Perry — who has also campaigned with Nugent before — pushed back mildly on the rocker’s remarks about Obama. Nugent drew fire in 2007 for performing at a Perry inaugural party in a Confederate flag T-shirt.

“He shouldn’t have said that about the president of the United States,” Perry said Thursday of the “mongrel” comment. But, he added, “I mean, the idea that Ted Nugent said something that’s outrageous shouldn’t surprise anyone, he’s been saying outrageous things for a lot of years.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went further.

“Ted Nugent’s derogatory description of President Obama is offensive and has no place in politics,” he tweeted.

“He should apologize.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz2tyg7tg4W

Washington Post See realtime coverage

Ted Nugent apologizes, sort of, for calling Obama 'mongrel' Los Angeles Times 25 minutes ago Written by Mark Z. Barabak Ted Nugent is sorry. Sort of. After several days of controversy surrounding his foray on the Texas campaign trail, the rocker/right-wing agitator expressed regret for using the words “subhuman mongrel” to describe President Obama. Highly Cited:Ted Nugent apologizes for Obama 'mongrel' comment Washington Times In Depth:Nugent sorry for 'mongrel' remark Politico

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