Day after Native Americans cancel Ted Nugent show, citing 'racist' views, Nugent calls haters 'unclean vermin'

(Image credit: Fox News)

last updated 8 January 2015

On Monday, Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Casino, run by the Coeur d'Alene Native American tribe, canceled a scheduled Ted Nugent show, citing local backlash against the "racist attitudes and views that Ted Nugent espouses." In an email interview with Gannett Wisconsin Media published the next day, Nugent responded to those who want to cancel his shows:

I take it as a badge of honor that such unclean vermin are upset by me and my positive energy.... 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. [Nugent, via Appleton Post-Crescent]

Nugent was not specifically calling the Idaho Native Americans "unclean vermin" — he was answering a question about a handful of people in Oshkosh who wanted his Saturday show at Waterfest yanked from the schedule, via a defunct MoveOn.org petition. And he included this uplifting quote in between his harsh words for his critics: "Sometimes you give the world the best you got and you get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you got anyway." But the timing looks terrible for Nugent, generating local news stories like this:

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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