Conservative rock star Ted Nugent has lost his second scheduled casino performance in the past few days over perceived “racist remarks” he’s made against various American figures.
Seattle’s NBC affiliate reported that Mr. Nugent’s Aug. 2 and 3 shows at the Emerald Queen Casino were canceled due to the rocker’s history of “racist remarks,” according to the Puyallup Native American Tribe, which runs the casino.
“The First Amendment gives people the right to free speech, but I think racism is intolerable and not acceptable here,” Puyallup Tribal Council Vice President Lawrence LaPointe told the affiliate. “We’ve been getting lots of complaints from the community and other organizations. I don’t want to take away his right to say what he wants to say but we don’t need it here.”
The outspoken rocker has taken heat for, among other comments, calling President Obama a “subhuman mongrel” and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a “toxic [expletive].”
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe in Worley, Idaho, canceled a few days ago Mr. Nugent’s Aug. 4 show at their casino. A spokesman for that tribe said the company didn’t want to provide a platform for the “racist attitudes and views that Ted Nugent espouses,” Raw Story reported.
Mr. Nugent, in response to the Aug. 4 cancellation, lashed out at the “unclean vermin” that pushed for the casino to cancel the show.
“By all indicators, I don’t think they actually qualify as people, but there has always been a lunatic fringe of hateful, rotten, dishonest people that hate happy, successful people,” Mr. Nugent told Gannett Wisconsin Media. “I believe raising hell and demanding accountability from our elected employees if Job One for every American. I am simply doing my job.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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