Before we move on from the Kanye West spectacle in the White House Thursday, let us not forget that one of the stars of the Republican Party is a man named Ted Nugent, who was once primarily known as a rocker—long before most of us were alive. Now, he’s mostly known as a high-profile member of the National Rifle Association and a foul-mouth who pals around with Republican politicians, such as former Arkansas governor, failed presidential candidate and “pastor,” Mike Huckabee.
During President Barack Obama’s second term, the Secret Service paid Nugent a visit because of disgusting and threatening things he said about the nation’s first black president.
He said Obama should “suck on [his] machine gun.”
He said Hillary Clinton should be hung.
He called Obama a “subhuman mongrel”—the term Nazis used to justify the genocide of Jewish people.
He tweeted an image that included the words “2 niggers and a stolen truck.”
Nugent has since claimed to want a more civil society, but that’s hard to believe given his long history of ugly rhetoric.
The point? Every black person thinking about allowing President Donald Trump to use them in yet another photo op in the Oval Office should consider the company they would be keeping.