Ted Nugent: Secret Service Meeting Was 'Solid, Professional'

By Steve Olafson

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 19 (Reuters) - Musician and gun-rights advocate Ted Nugent said on Thursday he had a positive meeting with U.S. Secret Service agents investigating his recent criticism of President Barack Obama, and the agency confirmed the issue had been resolved.

Nugent, who told NRA supporters in St. Louis last week that he would be "dead or in jail" next year if Obama was reelected, said in a statement that he had "met with two fine, professional Secret Service agents" in Oklahoma.

"Good, solid, professional meeting concluding that I have never made any threats of violence towards anyone. The meeting could not have gone better," the 63-year-old singer and guitarist said. He was due to perform a concert in Ardmore, Oklahoma on Thursday.

The Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the U.S. president, senior officials and other figures, confirmed the meeting with Nugent.

"The Secret Service interview of Ted Nugent has been completed," agency spokesman Brian Leary said. "The issue has been resolved. The Secret Service does not anticipate any further action."

Earlier Leary said the agency respected freedom of speech, but also had a responsibility to "investigate intent."

Nugent, a Michigan-born conservative who has endorsed Obama's presumed Republican challenger in the November elections, Mitt Romney, drew Secret Service attention with his blunt remarks about Obama and administration officials at the NRA event.

"We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November," Nugent said at the convention.

U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Convention, responded earlier this week, saying "threatening violence - or whatever it is that Nugent's threatening - is clearly beyond the pale."

A Romney spokeswoman said the Republican candidate believed "everyone needs to be civil," but stopped short of condemning Nugent's original remarks.

Nugent is best known for hit 1970s songs such as "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Motor City Madhouse." (Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Comments

[Celebrindan]

02:00 AM on 05/03/2012

"...the agency confirmed the issue had been resolved."

Interesting.

Didn't Bush and Cheney put folks like this on a 'list'?

One that's still 'layin' around', somewhere?

[Margot Sheehan]

09:10 PM on 04/23/2012

I don't know who this is. I've heard the name.

[hagagaga]

12:27 PM on 04/23/2012

If you want to learn how to be serviced secretly, who's a better expert than a rock musician from the 1970's?

[baseballgal]

06:31 AM on 04/23/2012

Dead or in jail? Are we voting for his best outcome, because I'll vote for dead like a roach should be.

[senorlou]

05:57 AM on 04/22/2012

I never liked his music.  He seems like an angry, messed up person.  Kind of sad to see him embarrass himself at this point in his life.  I'd be horribly embarrassed if I was him.  You see what a coward he really is.  Now he's saying he's really a peaceful guy, etc.  He wasn't talking about peace.  He was talking about murdering the POTUS.  Truthfully, the guy needs help.

[JohnBoyDeadHead]

04:35 PM on 04/21/2012

Ted Nugent said after his death threat speech at the NRA, "Metaphors needn't be explained to educated people." That is true when speaking to elitist Democrats.

[senorlou]

06:01 AM on 04/22/2012

Yeah, those elitists want to tax the rich, and give the middle class a ahnce to .  Such snobs, those Democrats.

[Karen Williams Hammons]

01:52 PM on 04/21/2012

HES NOTHING BUT A LOUD MOUTH REDNECK COWARD THAT WOULD;NT FIGHT FOR HIS COUNTRY THAT SPENDS ALL HIS TIME KILLING POOR ANIMALS SO HE CAN FELL LIKE A REAL MAN. WELL MORE POWER TO YOU BUDDY, BUT KEEP YOUR DAMN OPPIONS TO YOUR SELF BECAUSE THEY S- - K.

[Complex757]

12:02 PM on 04/21/2012

Should drop the draft dodger over in Afghanistan so he can back up all his tough talk.

[freddsky]

10:41 AM on 04/21/2012

Deliberately and repeatedly fixing ones breeches in order to avoid military service is not metaphor. It is more like simile with a bit of onomatopoeia thrown in. Here we are decades later and the man still "moves" in those mysterious ways. Solid and professional? Yes.

[SueEll]

11:23 AM on 04/21/2012

"onomatopoeia" takes me back to poetry class 101.

[laffFUwant]

01:42 PM on 04/21/2012

Four men walk into a bar. A Priest, A Democrat, A Republican, and Ted Nugent. The Democrat orders a Rum and Coke. The Republican orders White Wine. The priest orders an aged Red Wine, to be at least 12 years old. Ted Nugent orders a Shirley Temple. As the bar tender begins to prepare his drink, Nugent says, "Make sure that my Shirley Temple is less than 12 years old, too."

[gmcinahuff]

01:46 PM on 04/21/2012

and place the cherry on top, so it's easy to grab.

Wow. did I just say that? Sorry, I just couldn't help it.

[nam medic]

10:18 AM on 04/21/2012

Nugent will be on the enemies list, forever.

[opus1dog]

08:53 AM on 04/21/2012

And while Ted No-gent trips up, Ted sells videos, his own brand of ammunition and probably a few thousand more music downloads. Only in America.

[KMoore4318]

01:24 AM on 04/21/2012

When Ted was asked about the secres servive he was quotes as saying :

Well I don't know where they come from
But they sure do come
I hope they comin' for me

Obama's response to the incadent was :

It's nothin dangerous
I feel no pain
I've got to ch-ch-change

[dwbarne]

10:34 PM on 04/20/2012

I'm sure he's shot a lot of them, I wonder how CROW tastes?

[stillmanbd]

10:07 PM on 04/20/2012

Who'd take a rocker seriously in the first place? Drug, drugs and more drugs have done funny things to their real world thought processes.

[peterm91]

10:46 PM on 04/20/2012

he doesn't do drugs,very anti-drug

[A Meat Beetle]

11:38 PM on 04/20/2012

Who needs drugs when you're NATURALLY out of touch with reality?

[shaterra]

09:58 PM on 04/20/2012

I guess inciting the illiteraty and rednecks to violence isn't really a crime anymore.

[1smoothdaddy]

08:02 AM on 04/21/2012

It is illiterate. There is no such word as illiterate so learn proper English before you make such statements about people who can't read. Not all gun owners and NRA members are rednecks. You would be enlightened if you spent more time studying facts instead of drinking left wing Kool-Aid.

[duke9109]

09:00 AM on 04/22/2012

this is true not all nra members and gun owners are rednecks. some are very normal folks and even vote democratic. its the rednecks that dress in camo everywhere they go, have rebel flags all over the place and talk nothing but hate, they are the fans of mr. ted nugent. ted nugent is a player and hes playing the hate factor to gain notoriety. i'm 57 years old..i used to hunt and have firearms. i know plenty of folks who have firearms both for hunting, target practise and for protection of their homes, family and themselves. i've never once in all my years known anyone including myself that has had their firearms taken away by democrats. its a totally bogus charge .i know democrats are for better gun control which is a good thing when all one has to do is watch the news everyday. as for the nra, we all know just exactly what the nra is. its a lobbyist org that wants nothing more than total relaxed gun control or better yet none at all. their only mission is to insure more sales for the gun makers. thats it..they can cry and yell and claim fact for the second amendment, but if you believe their rhetoric its you that are drinking some kind of kool-aid..as the saying goes..."its the money stupid".

[fiduciaryatlarge]

10:11 AM on 04/21/2012

F&F for illiteraty! Some people just don't get humor.