A bevy of prominent Republicans — and several 2016 presidential hopefuls — have spoken out against Ted Nugent calling President Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel,” prompting the rocker-turned-Second-Amendment-activist to apologize.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took to his Twitter account Thursday night to denounce the rocker’s comments. The Tea Party darling said the criticism was inappropriate and “offensive.”
Ted Nugent’s derogatory description of President Obama is offensive and has no place in politics. He should apologize.
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) February 21, 2014
Nugent criticized the president in an interview with Guns.com last month. CNN first reported his statements earlier this week.
“I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America,” Nugent said.
The rocker is currently on the campaign trail with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is running as a Republican in the state’s gubernatorial race.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) also criticized Nugent for his comments, but noted that they shouldn’t be a reflection of Abbott, who hopes to beat Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis.
“He shouldn’t have said that about the president of the United States,” Perry said Thursday on CNN’s “The Situation Room”. “I got a problem calling the president a mongrel. … I do have a problem with that. That is an inappropriate thing to say.”
He went on to say Nugent should apologize, but noted that many shouldn’t be surprised by his comments.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also condemned the rocker-turned-Second-Amendment-advocate’s comments during an interview with CNN.
“You’ve never heard me say such a thing and nor would I,” the Texas senator 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.”
Nugent seems to have taken his fellow Republicans’ advice, apologizing to the president in a radio interview with conservative host Ben Ferguson.
“I do apologize – not necessarily to the President – but on behalf of much better men than myself,” he said.
Nugent continued, saying he was sorry for “using the streetfighter terminology of ‘subhuman mongrel’ instead of just using more understandable language, such as ‘violator of his oath to the Constitution’.”
