Between 1999 and 2010, Allbaugh donated over $39,000 to political candidates and PACs. The only politician to receive money from Allbaugh who is not a Republican was Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

Allbaugh lobbied for tax perks for the River Birch Landfill company in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2010, the FBI raided River Birch’s offices as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of “pay-to-play” politics between River Birch and local government officials in Jefferson Parish.

In May 2001, Allbaugh was called to testify before a Senate committee while serving as the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program and a disincentive to effective state and local risk management,” he told the committee. “Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.” Four years later, FEMA received widespread criticism for their inadequate response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. At that time, FEMA was headed by the man Allbaugh handpicked to be his replacement: Michael Brown.

In a January 4, 2024 interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bach commented on an anti-trafficking bill that sought to limit civilians' handgun purchases to one per month, saying "This legislation makes it a crime to exercise a constitutional right to obtain handguns any more often than Big Brother dictates. It's overkill in the extreme." The legislation was signed into law by then-Governor Jon Corzine on August 6, 2009.

In a June 30, 2023 editorial in the Star-Ledger, Bach wrote, “The Constitution exists to limit government power over individuals, not the other way around.” In truth, those who drafted and ratified our Constitution did believe that a stronger federal government was necessary in order to preserve the Union. As Alexander Hamilton asked the Constitution's critics in Federalist No. 30: "How is it possible that a government half supplied and always necessitous, can fulfill the purposes of its institution—can provide for the security of—advance the prosperity—or support the reputation of the commonwealth? How can it ever possess either energy or stability, dignity or credit, confidence at home or respectability abroad? How can its administration be any thing else than a succession of expedients temporising, impotent, disgraceful? How will it be able to avoid a frequent sacrifice of its engagements to immediate necessity? How can it undertake or execute any liberal or enlarged plans of public good?”

In an editorial regarding S2431, a state bill that sought to increase criminal penalties for unlawful possession of a handgun, Bach accused New Jersey legislators of “knowingly and intentionally opting to pass legislation that will send law abiding citizens to jail.”

Bach called the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance (now known as the Animal Protection League of New Jersey) an “extremist group“ in a 2003 opinion piece due to its opposition to recreational bear hunting in New Jersey. Bach claimed that the bear hunts were necessary due to the danger to posed to humans. A spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, however, called aggressive bear attacks in the state “infrequent.” Bach also blamed animal rights activists for unsolved vandalism of State Fish & Wildlife vehicles.

Bach embraced an insurrectionist interpretation of the Second Amendment in an undated, unpublished editorial, writing: “Collective firearms ownership by a population is an insurance policy against government oppression and extreme abuses of power. If you don't think that governments oppress and commit atrocities against their own people, think again. During the 20th century, while Americans were building cars, factories, and shopping malls, at least seven major genocides occurred throughout the world, in which more than 50 million people were exterminated by their own governments (Germany, USSR, Communist China, Cambodia, Uganda, Guatemala, and the Ottoman Empire). Each of these state-run atrocities was preceded by ‘common sense’ gun control, registration, and eventual confiscation by the government, all under the pretext of advancing public safety.”

In contrast, the author of the Second Amendment, James Madison, made it clear in his writings that advancing public safety is one of the highest priorities of government. He also made it clear that any armed opposition to the federal government would only be legitimate if conducted under the authority of state governments. In Federalist No. 46, Madison chastened fears of potential tyranny in the federal government, saying such a government would be opposed by "a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by [state] governments possessing their affections and confidence." Furthermore, the U.S. Constitution (in Article 1, Section 8) states that one of the purposes of the state Militia is to "suppress Insurrections," not to foment them.

In a January 23, 2024 op-ed for Townhall, Barr wrote, “Today’s young youth are more narcissistic than ever … Of course, they are not completely to blame. Parents and adults share responsibility for creating this monster. For decades, parents were told by so-called parenting ‘experts’ that offspring would be best raised on the belief each is special and entitled to all life has to offer. Now, trophies are awarded to every child on the team or in the class so no child’s self-esteem is bruised by virtue of being ‘left out;’ letter grades from ‘A’ to ‘F’ give way to vague and slippery narratives. We encourage every teenager to pursue their passion in college—something to which they are ‘entitled’—regardless of the marketable value of the skills they gain after many tens of thousands of dollars spent on that education … It is this delusion of entitlement that served as the catalyst for the recent ‘Occupy’ movement.”

In an October 28, 2023 op-ed for the Marietta Daily Journal, Barr endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan in the November 2012 election, stating, “The inescapable and overriding importance of re-charting America’s course away from the Big Government Liberalism of the current administration has prompted me to support the GOP ticket of Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan. The stakes are simply too high to admit any degree of hesitancy in this regard. The decision I have reached, and in which I ask other libertarian-leaning and conservative-oriented voters to join, is not one based on a serendipitous view that Romney is the perfect candidate … He is not [the perfect candidate] … We cannot afford a search for perfection. We cannot afford to withhold votes from a candidate we perceive to be imperfect. What we do know beyond any doubt, is that the current course on which our nation already is well-embarked is not sustainable.”

In a June 28, 2023 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Barr wrote about a Supreme Court decision issued that morning which upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Barr stated, “By upholding Obamacare, the Supreme Court—a court nominally ‘conservative’ and supposedly ‘non-activist’—has driven the final nail into the coffin of limited government … Tragically, this foundation of sand on which [Chief Justice John] Roberts and his majority colleagues based their decision now takes on enhanced power as a basis on which the government will be able to seize freedom from the people … [2012 Republican presidential candidate] Mitt Romney has commendably asserted that if elected, his first priority will be to repeal Obamacare. Unfortunately, unless he simply declares that he will not enforce the laws of the land—as President Obama likes to do—it will be neither that simple nor that quick. Obamacare is now the law of the land and it has the Supreme Court’s seal of approval to back it up.The damage truly has been done, and we will not soon—or perhaps ever—undo it. Thanks, Chief Justice Roberts.”

In a May 28, 2023 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Barr wrote about what he called the “demonization of George Zimmerman and the deification of Trayvon Martin.” Barr was referring to the February 26, 2023 shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Barr stated, “Much like the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll’s fable, Alice in Wonderland, many would just as soon sentence Zimmerman first and try him later, if at all.” Barr also criticized the Florida prosecutor, Angela Corey, who brought charges against Zimmerman, stating that she “based her decision on some of the flimsiest evidence and legal analysis I have ever seen.” The “latest absurd development,” wrote Barr, occurred at Malcom X Elementary School in the District of Columbia which hosted “Trayvon Martin Day.” He referred to the program as dealing with “some manufactured problem about an already highly politicized legal case in Florida … Perhaps the program honoring Trayvon Martin was accompanied by a chorus of ‘Kumbaya’ to help foster a ‘happy spirit.’”

Barr authored an October 13, 2023 op-ed for The Daily Caller about the Occupy Wall Street protests that address the issue of economic inequality in the United States. Barr wrote, “President Barack Obama is not only beloved by the current generation of protesters, but his open and repeated efforts to make class warfare and class envy of the ‘rich’ the signature issues of his first term has provided the spark for the young people (and some middle-aged hippies) railing against ‘greed.’”

Barr wrote about the financial troubles facing the United States Postal Service in a September 21, 2023 op-ed for The Daily Caller, stating, “The USPS is staring at a budget deficit of more than $9 billion and may not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment now due for the exceptionally generous health care benefits it is committed to pay its retirees, thanks largely to union pressure … Congress…should loosen the stranglehold Big Labor maintains on the USPS. Many of the agency’s problems are exacerbated by a highly unionized labor force that accounts for some 80% of its budget. Private delivery services, including UPS and FedEx, on the other hand, have labor costs that are substantially lower. The GAO has recommended that Congress eliminate ‘layoff protections’ in the collective bargaining agreements between the USPS and labor unions. The postal union, true to form, will hear no such blasphemy.”

Barr expressed his belief that bullying is “a natural rite of passage” for schoolchildren and worried that anti-bullying initiatives in schools would encourage to students to “snitch on each other” in a September 2, 2023 op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also complained about the impetus for anti-bullying measures by writing, “Much like ‘hate crimes’ laws long-favored by liberals, New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights was passed as a reactionary measure nearly a year after a gay college student tragically committed suicide.”

In an August 11, 2023 op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution entitled “’Random Violence’ a Sign of Things to Come,” Barr compared peaceful demonstrations in Wisconsin against an anti-labor law to the “violent protests in Greece and the United Kingdom over cuts to public benefits.” Barr went on to add: “The reactions by beneficiaries of Wisconsin voters’ largesse were typical of people who have become dependent on government in one manner or another, and who view such benefits as ‘entitlements’ to which they enjoy a fundamental and irrevocable right. When any person or institution then threatens those entitlements—whether a president, a prime minister, or federal or state legislators—the reactions become very personal and potentially violent.”

In January 2011, Barr began serving as an advisor to former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Barr was consulted by Duvalier as he attempted to recover $5.7 million in assets frozen by the Swiss government. The assets were frozen following charges that Duvalier had embezzled $300 million from the Haitian government during his 15-year rule. Duvalier was also accused of widespread human rights abuses, including torture and murder. Human Rights Watch claims that Duvalier’s Tonton Macoutes Militia was responsible for up to 30,000 civilian deaths. Barr dismissed these allegations against Duvalier, saying, “I deal with allegations all the time. They are the cheapest commodity on the market.” Previously, Barr had visited Haiti to help Duvalier’s brother-in-law fight drug smuggling charges.

Barr’s immigration platform during his 2008 presidential run included support for eliminating the guarantee of birthright citizenship. While the Fourteenth Amendment currently confers citizenship upon any individual born in the United States, Barr proposed that children of illegal immigrants, even if they are born in the United States, should not automatically qualify for citizenship.

In 2007, Barr was paid $70,000 by the Marijuana Policy Project to lobby on their behalf in support of the legalization of medical marijuana in the District of Columbia. Previously, as a Member of Congress, Barr successfully authored an amendment that prohibited the local DC government from acting to legalize medical marijuana.

In 2001, three airport security guards filed a complaint against Barr, alleging that he used racial slurs against them during a dispute over access to a private parking lot. Barr reportedly asked the supervising guard, “When are you going to open the gate you stupid black idiot?”

On July 29, 1999, Barr voted in favor of an amendment to the yearly District of Columbia appropriations bill that would have banned adoption by gay parents in the District. The amendment failed 215-213.

In March 1999, Barr opposed expanding the federal definition of a hate crime to include crimes motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation, calling proposed legislation “a backdoor way to obtain protected status for sexual orientation and sexual deviancy.”

Barr gave the keynote speech at a white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) national convention in 1998. The event featured fellow speakers Jared Taylor, publisher of the racist American Renaissance magazine (“when blacks are left entirely to their own devices…civilization disappears”) and Brent Nelson, author of the anti-immigrant book America Balkanized. CCC has claimed that blacks are genetically inferior to whites and has also advocated homophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic ideas. The organization frequently publishes racial commentary on current events, and once blamed journalist Daniel Pearl for his own murder due to his choice to enter into an interracial marriage. When confronted with the overtly racist nature of the organization, Barr claimed he had “no idea” what CCC advocated. According to CCC chief executive Gordon Lee Baum, however, Barr “knew what we were all about before he spoke to us. We don't invite people and let them walk into the dark on us.”

In 1996, Bob Barr voted in favor of legislation that would allow states to ban children of illegal immigrants from attending public schools.

In a February 5, 2023 radio interview on “Cam & Company,” Barrett stated, “Yeah, I hope gun owners now see that how big of a target is on their back. Gun owners is a huge obstacle to the socialism that's trying to be introduced into our country now. You can't have socialism, and you can't round up hordes of armed free people and put them in cattle cars. It's just a very difficult process to do. So before you can have good socialism, you have to break the will of the independent thinking person, the self-reliant person, and when you look at that self reliant people usually have a firearm. They usually have a flashlight. They usually pay their bills. They're not dependent on the government. You have to get rid of those people before you can make them, everybody lockstep dependent on the government, so that's why the big target. That's why they're after rifles. It has nothing to do with crime. This represents independent self reliant thinking people, and they are the enemy.”

In a July 26, 2023 appearance on NRA news, Barrett commented on a July 17, 2023 speech in which President Barack Obama stated, “There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me—because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t – look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hard working people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business–you didn’t build that.” Barrett replied to these remarks, stating, “What Obama had said here with the ‘you didn’t do this’—this is not new stuff. You know, the world has heard socialist people try to sell this game for decades. You know, it’s the same thing that was said in Europe in the 30s. I went back and listened to his whole talk on that and the whole thing is that ‘you’re not going to be able to do it by yourself and you’re only going to be able to do it if we share and your problems of you not having any money is really this rich man over here and we’re going to take from that rich man and give it to you.’ And of course that identifying a problem thing, we’ve seen that in history, too. You always have to identify some sort of group that is the problem for you and you can go back and like I said look in Europe in the 30s and how their groups were identified … The original government that our Founding Fathers set up loves [entrepreneurship] because that’s what they wanted you to be. What they wanted you to be [is] self-sufficient, hardworking, get out there, you keep what you’ve earned. But that flies in the face of socialism. So entrepreneurship and things like that is gotta be the enemy of the socialists, of the Obama folks and things like that. You can’t have those guys walking around. The Obama people, or the socialist people, they have to have people solely dependent on the government and sucking on its tit … It blew me away to hear the people applauding what [Obama] was saying. I thought, ‘did you never pay attention to history? Don’t you know we have heard this before?’ And it always ends up in collapse or millions of people dead.”

In a June 14, 2023 radio appearance on “NRA News,” Barrett commented on the illegal trafficking of firearms from the U.S. to Mexico by saying, “This all just smoke and mirrors. That’s what every kind of gun regulation stuff is. It’s smoke and mirrors that we have to do something now to be able to save and then just fill in the blank. Well, right now we have the Mexico thing … It’s just fuel to the fire to the would-be Socialists that would have more regulations on us … You just can’t have good Socialism with an armed population.” Barrett also claimed that the Second Amendment gives civilians the right to own military-grade firepower, including fully automatic weapons, saying, “They moved and took away our legal manufacturer for machine guns [for civilians] because there was a popular television show called ‘Miami Vice’ that was on that everybody was running around shooting everybody up with machine guns and there hadn’t been committed a [crime] committed with a legal machine gun, you know, what, since [1934] or something like that. It was ridiculous. It was Hollywood. But, you know, they said, ‘Oh, we gotta’ do something about that,’ so they took another one of our rights away. And so now you know the right to bear arms is going to be well you can have a sub-, inferior type of weapons. You can’t have really top-notch weapons.”

Between 2007 and 2009, Baudler was a sponsor of a proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution that called for recognition by the state of only marriages between a man and a woman. It failed to pass.

In 2007, Baudler co-authored legislation that sought to prevent Iowa Department of Motor Vehicles locations from offering information in any language other than English. The bill failed to pass.

In a January 30, 2023 op-ed for The Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “President [Barack] Obama deserves the sobriquet of Mr. Inequality because his administration from its earliest days has been taking an axe to the lowest rungs of America's ladder of social mobility. We have long known that family—especially the two-parent, married family—is vital for upward mobility. So is regular attendance at a church or synagogue, and working for or starting a small business. These are great generators of upward mobility. We often say this woman or man was ‘the first one in her family to go to college.’ It is understood that families can make all the difference in educational attainment, in celebrating young peoples' achievement… Under Obama, however, single parenthood is a status to be encouraged. And the fact that this is a driver for poverty seems not to trouble this administration at all … But the Obama administration threatens religious freedom more than any in American history.”

In a March 6, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote about the position of the Obama administration in the Supreme Court case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, where the solicitor general was expected to urge the Court to find California’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. Blackwell wrote, “Last week, President Obama dropped the family friendly mask. He sent his Solicitor General, Donald Verrilli up the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court with a simple message: Dump Dads. Lose Moms … President Obama promised to ‘fundamentally transform America.’ Few then realized he meant it. Abolishing marriage is what he is doing. Not changing. Not expanding. More than re-defining marriage, he is abolishing it.”

In a January 15, 2024 open letter to former Secretary of State General Colin Powell, Blackwell wrote, “I was disappointed with the clear implication in your Meet The Press interveiw [sic] that those of us, in the GOP who defend life, protect traditional marriage and advance religious liberty are intolerent [sic]. The Democratic [National] Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina… came out against marriage. They say they only want to add to the number of happily married couples by allowing men to marry men and women to marry women. But we know that wherever these counterfeit marriages have been recognized, true marriage declines … Just as counterfeit money drives out true money, same sex marriage drives out true marriage. … President Obama has refused to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act and pledges to repeal it. He has openly joined the Marriage Enders. They're not changing marriage. They are ending it. If two men can marry, why not three? If gays and lesbians can marry, what about bi-sexual persons and persons who have sought to change their sex? Why can't they have one spouse of either sex? After slavery, after Jim Crow, after the KKK, it is fair to say that among the worst things visited upon black Americans have been the targeting of our families by abortionists and the effort to end marriage. That is why we are in a crisis. This is what happens when a major party rejects God.” Blackwell was referring to Powell’s January 13, 2024 interview on “Meet the Press,” in which he stated that the Republican party is suffering from a “dark vein of intolerance” and that some in the party seem to “look down on minorities.” Blackwell was also referring to the platform at the 2012 Democratic National Convention (DNC) which originally did not include the word “God.” On September 5, 2012, Los Angeles Mayor and Chairman of the DNC Antonio Villaraigosa made a motion on the floor of the DNC to revise the platform to include the word “God.” Some delegates and journalists on the convention floor claimed that one could not audibly hear two-thirds of the delegates say ‘Aye.’ Villaraigosa nonetheless declared the amendment had been approved.

In a December 29, 2023 op-ed for Townhall, Blackwell wrote about the Washington Post’s endorsement of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) for Secretary of State, stating, “As to his qualifications for that role, we’re reminded of Frederick the Great’s response when he was urged to make a less than stellar general a field marshal. Reminded the only occasionally victorious general had been in every battle for years, Frederick pointed to his mount: ‘So has my mule. Must I make him a field marshal, too?’ … Perhaps the most curious part of the Post endorsement of Kerry is the notion that defeated presidential candidates have something special to offer as Secretary of State.” Kerry was eventually confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 94-3 vote.

On October 26, 2012, the Ohio Republican Party released a political ad in which Blackwell stated, “Hi, I’m Ken Blackwell asking you to join me in supporting our grassroots efforts to unseat President [Barack] Obama and his Democrat allies this November. The stakes are higher than ever this election … If we want to restore accountability and respect for the rule of law on the part of our leaders then it Is critical that we work together to spread this message … With your help we can elect Mitt Romney as president and send a Republican majority to Congress and begin to put our great nation back on the right track.”

On October 12, 2012, the Tea Party Victory Fund, a PAC headed by Blackwell, released a political TV ad in which Blackwell asks, “Have Barack Obama's policies empowered or enslaved Americans?" The ad features an unidentified African-American woman at an Obama rally. She says, “He gave us a phone. Keep Obama in president.” When asked how she received the phone, the woman replied, “You sign up if you are in food stamps, you are in Social Security, you've got low income. Keep Obama in president. He gave us a phone." In a fundraising email, Blackwell wrote, “This commercial is a microcosm of the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans want to create an environment where free people make their own choices and pursue their dreams. President Obama and the Democrats want to create a dependency on government that ensures that Americans rely on Washington from cradle to grave … What this lady said is so offensive because it's so blatant–she finally comes out and says what we all know that the Democrats really think.” Free phones are given to eligible individuals as part of a Federal Communications Commission program called Lifeline that provides low-cost or free phone service so they are “able to connect to jobs, family, and 911 services.”

In a September 28, 2023 op-ed for American Thinker, Blackwell wrote, “In New York, at the U.N … [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad called for a new world order. Of what? A rule of a U.N. world body dominated—or at least held hostage by— the Terroristans that make up an increasing number of the members of the General Assembly … Worst of all is this invertebrate Obama administration. Ahmadinejad holds court, calls for a new world order based on terrorism, is applauded in the U.N. General Assembly—and our delegation walks out! That'll show them! Isn't it time to send the U.N. to Geneva and cut the U.S. contribution from 24% to 6%? [President Barack] Obama does not think the U.S. is any more ‘exceptional’ than the Greeks or the British. Very well, Mr. President—then let's scale back our U.N. dues to an unexceptional 6%. That may be the only thing that gets the attention of these dumbstruck U.N. delegates who cheer America's sworn enemy.” Blackwell was likely referring to President Obama’s statement at a press conference in Strasbourg on April 4, 2009. President Obama stated, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I am enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world.”

In a September 19, 2023 interview with WND Radio, Blackwell spoke about the August 15, 2023 shooting at the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters in Washington, D.C. According to the criminal complaint, shooter Floyd Lee Corkins II entered the building and encountered the building manager, Leo Johnson. Corkins "stated words to the effect of, 'I don't like your politics,'" a witness told FBI agents. Corkins then pulled a firearm from his backpack and shot Johnson in the arm. Johnson, though injured, wrestled the firearm away from Corkins and subdued him. Blackwell is the Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment at the FRC. In the interview, Blackwell was asked if he knew of any connection between the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the shooter, Floyd Corkins. Blackwell replied, “Well [Corkins] mentioned that he was not attacking Leo [Johnson] personally but he was attacking us because we were a hate group. And the Southern Poverty Law Center has mislabeled the FRC a hate group because of our stance on traditional marriage and our strong defense of the pro-life ethic in this country … We are asking [the SPLC] to cease and desist. Look, religious liberty is the most profound of our human rights. Without religious freedom people exist only as political or economic entities not as free human beings. Religious liberty, in our view, is the first of all human rights for it implies the dignity of the human conscious. So, one’s faith is one’s most profound level of personhood. And so we think not only FRC but all those who believe in American exceptionalism, because we understand that our rights come from God not from the state, should rally behind this call for the Southern Poverty Law Center to cease and desist for mislabeling people as being haters because they stand for biblical truth … Look, President Obama…is determined to transform our family-centered society into a government-centered society … But I think the transformation [President Obama] is most wedded to is that he wants to transform our national philosophy founded upon the primacy of the individual and the supremacy of God to one founded upon the primacy of the collective good and the supremacy of central government. That’s why every day of his presidency he has done whatever it takes to undermine the Constitution and to empower a strong central or federal government which, by definition, has to be predicated on the weakening and destruction of the family and chasing God and faith out of the public square or, at minimum, silencing the church.” The SPLC stated in a September 13, 2023 press release that it does not list FRC as a hate group because of its opposition to gay marriage or its religious beliefs, but, “instead, we list the FRC because it engages in baseless, incendiary name-calling and spreads demonizing lies about the LGBT community. The FRC portrays gay people as sick, evil, perverted, incestuous and a danger to the nation. It insists that gay people are ‘fundamentally incapable’ of providing good homes for children–a myth that has been rejected by all relevant scientific authorities. One of its key leaders has actually said that homosexual behavior should be criminalized. Perhaps the FRC’s most dangerous lie is its claim that pedophilia is a ‘homosexual problem.’"

In a September 7, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote about former President Bill Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Tampa, Florida. Blackwell stated, “Trim and silvered, [Bill Clinton] strode onstage to his own campaign song: Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow. For liberals, it's always tomorrow. For the left, generally, tomorrow is a lot more fun than today. Vperiod! Forward! That was Lenin's cry at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. They were always summoning their people to look beyond the suffering of today and think about the ‘shining heights’ of socialism just ahead. Keep marching. No one ever dared to mention there is such a thing as marching toward a mirage.”

In a September 5, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “As President, Barack Obama has loosened the strict work requirements [for welfare] that state governors—including conservative Republicans like John Sununu of New Hampshire and moderate Democrats Bill Clinton of Arkansas—worked for a decade to put in place … Paul Ryan was right to describe Barack Obama's America [in his acceptance speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida]: ‘Where everything is free but us.’ Americans should appeal to President Obama to turn back from the path to soft despotism. We should remember that a government big enough to give us everything we want is strong enough to take all we have—including liberty.” During a period of economic recession, governors from Utah, Nevada, California, Connecticut and Minnesota asked the federal government for more flexibility in how they give out welfare money. The Obama administration granted them waiver that gave them “some flexibility in how [those states] manage their welfare rolls as long as it produced 20% increases in the number of people [receiving welfare] getting work." Former President Bill Clinton defended President Obama’s actions, stating that the administration had taken steps to ensure work requirements for welfare recipients were maintained.

In an August 30, 2023 interview with MRCTV, a division of the Media Research Center, Blackwell stated, “President Obama and now the Democratic Party has embraced a national philosophy founded upon the primacy of the collective good and the supremacy of the national government as opposed to our national philosophy held by most Americans founded upon the primacy of the individual and the centrality and the supremacy of God.” The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibited the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

In an August 27, 2023 interview with Fox News Radio, Blackwell spoke about Voter ID laws. He stated, “Over the past 40 years, most of case law in elections have been focused on the franchise, making it easier for folks to cast their ballots. In the last four to six years, there’s been a focus on the other voting right and that is the right to be protected against a fraudulent vote cancelling out your legal vote … I do a lot of work with Judicial Watch, and Judicial Watch’s studies show that of the 1.3 million voter registrations gathered by Project Vote and ACORN, over 400,000 of those were fraudulent.” Radio host Bob Davis asked Blackwell why Democrats argue there is no fraud in elections. Blackwell replied, “They try to cast it as a voter suppression effort. Again, the facts will fly in the face of those misdirected concerns … In 2004, Georgia, a Southern state that had a history in terms of slavery and the black codes, etc … They implemented a voter ID law in the state of Georgia, everyone said this was voter suppression, this was geared to suppress the black and Latino vote in particular. Well, in 2008, the Latino vote went up from 18,000 to 19,000 … More importantly, there was an increase in the black vote of 42% … In American culture, in American life, having an ID is nothing that’s burdensome. We have an ID for a driver’s license. If you wanna get a library book, if you wanna receive a medical license … We must understand that what the Democrats and the left, in particular, are doing is using this notion of voter suppression to [drum] up anxiety in their base. They’re trying to convert this legitimate effort to protect the integrity of the ballot box into a way to mobilize their base by mischaracterizing as an attempt to throw us back into Jim Crow era.” Blackwell referred to ACORN, a community activist organization and its affiliate, Project Vote. After the 2008 election, the John McCain (R-AZ) campaign accused the group of perpetrating “massive voter fraud.” Neither ACORN nor its employees have ever been found guilty of—or even charged with—casting fraudulent votes. Several ACORN canvassers have been found guilty of faking registration forms. The evidence shows that the canvassers faked the forms to get paid for work they didn’t do, not to stuff ballot boxes. A report by the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan public policy research arm of the U.S. Congress, stated that there were no instances of individuals who were allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN or its employees and who were reported "attempting to vote at the polls." Blackwell also referred to the effect of a voter ID law on voting in Georgia in the 2008 election. In the 2008 election, more than 50,000 residents were purged from the Georgia voter rolls because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. Furthermore, voter ID laws in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida have been challenged in court by the Department of Justice over allegations that they disenfranchise minorities. In July of 2012, the DOJ began investigating Pennsylvania’s Voter ID law to determine whether it discriminates against minorities.

In an August 24, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “Determined to do [sic] follow what is ‘inevitable,’ very liberal delegates [at the Democratic National Convention] will embrace platform proposals that will spell the end of marriage. Do they fully realize what they are doing? If your only requirement for a marriage is that people love each other, have a committed relationship to each other, and that they give their consent, then you cannot bar twins from marrying. Once you've permitted identical twins to marry, how can you bar twin brother and sister from marrying? They love each other. They have a committed relationship. None of us has had such a biological bond since before birth with our own spouses. Vice President Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act as a U.S. Senator. Now, of course, he says that he is not influenced by his many years as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Instead, he takes his guidance on marriage from Hollywood, specifically from the comedy series, Will and Grace. If Hollywood producers are to set the standard for constitutional law in our country, then marriage will be ended, to be sure. For Hollywood has given us another series, Big Love. It's an HBO production about polygamy. It's pretty favorable toward polygamy, they tell me … Is this really where Democrats want to go? Do their very progressive delegates think the voters at the grassroots will approve their lurch to the progressive extremes?” Blackwell continued, stating, “Minorities give strong support to true marriage. In North Carolina, black and Hispanic voters provided the winning margin for marriage … Marriage is not a wedge issue, it's a bridge issue. It's the way Republicans can embrace minorities and immigrants.”

In an August 21, 2023 op-ed for Huffington Post, Blackwell wrote, “This election now turns on whether a critical mass of American voters have arrived at the undeniable conclusion that if we do not fundamentally transform the three major entitlements for younger Americans then it will not be there for them at all (or even for those who will soon rely upon them), and that if we do not balance the federal budget it will cause an economic catastrophe … [If] President Obama wins a second term, and claims it as a mandate not to curb spending or entitlements … by November 2016 voters should have no doubt what must be done, and realize that liberals offer only blame and denial, while conservatives offer solutions.” To balance the budget, as he has promised, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would have to cut $9.6 trillion from non-defense discretionary spending. Romney would also increase defense spending to $7.9 trillion between 2013 and 2022. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s budget plan would cut $5.2 trillion from entitlements and non-defense discretionary spending while increasing defend spending to $5.7 trillion between 2013 and 2022.

In an August 2, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “[President Barack Obama] announced early in his administration that he would not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act. He has done everything he can in the last three and a half years to dismantle the law. It is a process not unlike termites eating away at the foundations of a house. Until just a few weeks ago, he apparently hoped that the law would collapse as he systematically undermined its foundations. It didn't. So President Obama, prompted no doubt by Vice President Biden's blurted out support for counterfeiting marriage, has ‘evolved.’” Blackwell was referring to Biden’s May 6, 2023 appearance on “Meet the Press” where he stated, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights.” Biden’s statement came several days before President Obama’s public endorsement of same-sex marriage on May 9, 2012. Blackwell continued, stating, “Democrats have announced they will put same sex marriage in their platform when they meet in convention in Charlotte, North Carolina … If the Democrats' platform embraces this radical proposal, they will be voting to end marriage, not change it. If you say a man may marry a man, and a woman may marry a woman, then on what principled basis can you say three men may not marry?”

In a July 13, 2023 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Blackwell wrote, “[President Barack] Obama announced on July 6 in Ohio that this election is about a ‘clash of visions’ about the role of government in our lives ... If he wins, he will claim a mandate and take federal power to heights we’ve never seen.” In reference to a June 28, 2023 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Blackwell stated, “We can no longer be confident that the Supreme Court will stop him. Liberty endures only when each branch fully and fearlessly checks and balances the other two branches. Abdicating judicial review empowers President Obama to subvert the Constitution with an imperial presidency, and fundamentally transform the United States to the detriment of future generations.”

In a July 2012 article for Loop 21 on the pros and cons of “Stand Your Ground” laws, Blackwell was asked why he thought the Commission on Civil Rights was investigating them for racial bias. “Stand Your Ground” laws generated national controversy when unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin was killed by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. The National Rifle Association helped to author the “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida and promoted it aggressively there and in many other states. Blackwell stated, “Michael Yaki is a member of the commission. Mr. Yaki is an anti-Second Amendment lawyer, who has been pushing for the investigation ... If anything, [the law] benefits racial minorities more.” In June 2012, the Tampa Bay Times identified nearly 200 “Stand Your Ground” cases in Florida and determined that 73 percent of those who killed a black person faced no punishment, compared to 59 percent of those who killed a white person. When asked why he thought “Stand Your Ground” was being challenged, Blackwell responded, “I have no idea why anyone would challenge this point of view, unless they foolishly think we can grow a government big enough to protect all of us, all of the time.” He replied to a question about the cons of the law, stating, “There are none.”

In a June 19, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “In 2010 [Director of the Center for Religious Liberty Ken Klukowski and I] published a book [“The Blueprint: Obama's Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency”] arguing that Barack Obama was creating an imperial presidency. The past few months prove that prediction was correct.” He continued, “The Constitution vests all lawmaking power in Congress. It vests all executive power to enforce and administer those laws in the president. And it vests all judicial power—including the power to determine whether lesser laws violate the Supreme Law (the Constitution)—in the courts … President Obama has arrogated to himself all of those powers. If Congress doesn't make the laws he wants, he just declares them under the name of ‘regulations.’ If he doesn't like a law on the books, he acts like the judiciary by proclaiming the law unconstitutional, and refuses to enforce it. He effectively makes or abolishes laws at will.” Finally, Blackwell warned, “This president has engaged in a series of unprecedented power grabs during his term of office. The past week's amnesty plan [for the American-born children of immigrants] is just the latest in a long train of imperial abuses. And he's done all this knowing he still has to stand for reelection. Can you even imagine how far he will go if he wins reelection and knows he will never again be held to account?”

In a June 12, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote about liberal talk show host Bill Press, who had expressed his distaste for the National Anthem a week earlier. “What is it with liberals that they are forever saying and doing things that lead people to question their patriotism—and then they howl in rage when folks question their patriotism?” Blackwell asked. He continued, stating, “Consider Barack Obama, the most liberal president in history. In 2007, then-Sen. Obama was campaigning in the Heartland. At the famous Iowa State Fair, he raised eyebrows when he failed to place his hand over his heart during the National Anthem … Only in an Obama Nation could the lyrics of our National Anthem be ‘an abomination.’ The Star-Spangled Banner calls us ‘the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.’ Those words inspire us all to action—to keep this Home of Freedom free.”

In a May 9, 2023 op-ed for the Huffington Post, Blackwell wrote “Elections are about choices, and 2012's pivotal election showcases two very different visions for America's future.” President Barack Obama’s vision for America’s future, Blackwell claimed, is one in which “government usurps the place of family. Big Brother becomes Big Father who brings home the bacon through government entitlements covering everything from housing, to education, to food (stamps), to government-run healthcare. You need have faith in government alone, as the collective state becomes the god in whom you trust and from whom you receive your daily bread. And they replace the family unit with the state, undermining the foundational unit of civilization.”

In an April 26, 2023 op-ed for The Daily Caller, Blackwell wrote about “the secularization of Martin Luther King Jr,” stating, “So, since Rev. King and religion are inseparable, why are some people so quick to hide Dr. King’s religiosity? We would expect this type of careful ideological manipulation of history in the tyrannical states of the former Soviet Union or North Korea, but how does this happen in America? Sadly, I believe this is another example of how the secular left is winning the culture war. By driving religion out of the public square and re-writing the history books, they are erasing the invaluable role religion has played in our country’s history.” He continued, “By eliminating religion, the secular left is using the force of law to build its own type of warped, unholy church which is highly dogmatic and mandates participation under the threat of force … With the Obama administration’s openly hostile approach to religion, we have a government forcing members of religious institutions to participate in acts that violate their consciences, such as providing contraception and abortion services. All churches in Obama’s America are subservient to the whims of government bureaucrats, who are exercising power far outside the limits of our Constitution.” Blackwell was referring to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires employers to provide health insurance which covers contraception for women free of charge. The Act did not in any way alter existing, strict federal restrictions on the funding of abortion.

In a February 22, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “The term ‘Southern Strategy’ was invented by liberals in 1968 to attack their partisan opponents in the Republican Party, then led by Richard Nixon.” In fact, it was Republican President Richard Nixon’s political strategist, Kevin Phillips, who popularized the practice. The “Southern Strategy” involved exploiting white racism against African-Americans to drum up Republican votes, and was first used by Nixon during the 1968 presidential campaign. Blackwell added, “We who defend true [heterosexual] marriage are equally committed to civil rights. We strongly believe that marriage is a civil right—and that overturning true marriage will cause grave harm to all Americans, not the least to the poor and to minorities.”

In a February 7, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post where Blackwell urged Israel to immediately launch a military attack against Iran, he also claimed that the administration of President Barack Obama “is outraged by the sight of too many Jews in Jerusalem.”

In a January 30, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “President Obama has relentlessly pushed abortion at home and abroad. Obamacare is the most massive expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade. Under Obamacare, health care coverage will include abortion. Thus, we will all be forced to pay for the killing of unborn children.” In reality, the signing of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010” did not alter existing, strict federal restrictions on the funding of abortion. Blackwell also added, “The president is concerned, he tells us, about education. We must all share that concern. But he has taken over college loans, an unprecedented power grab. He does this even as his administration is menacing the liberty of every private and religious college in America. If your college does not want to push condoms in the dorms or dispense abortion-producing drugs [birth control] at Student Health, the Obama administration threatens you with action.”

In a December 24, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “Nothing so threatens the middle class in America as Obamacare. If this is not repealed, middle income Americans will find themselves shackled to a government-provided health service that gets worse and worse and costs more and more … Worse, Obamacare forces middle income Americans to subsidize the killing of millions of unborn children. These children are the best hope of getting us out of this debt spiral.” In reality, the signing of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010” did not alter existing, strict federal restrictions on the funding of abortion. Blackwell also expressed amazement “that the canny TR [Teddy Roosevelt] invented” the phrase “the lunatic fringe” “101 years before the Occupy Wall Street crowd appeared on the scene.”

In a December 8, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “Mr. Obama and his administration keep Planned Barrenhood in business—shoveling billions to their lethal efforts. Because of them, six in ten pregnancies in Harlem end in abortion. There is no hope in that dread change.” In reality, only three percent of services provided by Planned Parenthood are related to abortion, with 90% of services aimed at preventing unwanted pregnancy

Writing about Iran, Blackwell authored a November 12, 2023 op-ed for the American Thinker in which he declared, “For three years, Mr. Obama has tried to appease the world's number one terrorist regime. … Even the anti-Semitic Richard Nixon was there for Israel, when the chips were down during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Barack Obama's record makes him unmistakably the first anti-Israel president in our history.”

In a November 4, 2023 op-ed for World Magazine, Blackwell claimed that the “Respect Marriage Act,” which would repeal the “Defense of Marriage Act,” would “abolish marriage.” He also said of the bill, “While calling for ‘respect’ in the Orwellian sense, it would offer true marriage the same ‘respect’ President Obama showed to the body of Osama bin Laden—a hasty burial at sea after summarily being put to death.” Blackwell also claimed that legalizing gay marriage would lead to polygamy.

In an October 29, 2023 op-ed for American Thinker, Blackwell cast doubt on the legitimacy of recent populist uprisings in the Middle East by writing, “It is a profound misunderstanding of democracy to think that merely by staging elections and showing off purple fingers of voters we can bring on a new order in Muslim lands. Edmund Burke said it well: ‘Men of intemperate minds cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters.’ Intemperate minds are what we see at work in the Arab Middle East. Opinion surveys throughout the region confirm that, by overwhelming majorities, the ‘voters’ for these sham democracies believe that those who convert from Islam must be put to death. As long as this grim reality exists, there will be no democracy in the region.”

On October 26, 2011, Blackwell endorsed Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry for president in the 2012 elections.

In an October 20, 2023 op-ed published by the Family Research Council, Blackwell addressed allegations of racial bias in SAT questions by writing, “Some fringe activists who push the test-optional approach denigrate the exams, claiming they are biased against minority groups, a false assertion that has been debunked thoroughly and is not accepted by mainstream educators and psychologists.” In contrast, a 2010 study published in the Harvard Educational Review found, “The confirmation of unfair test results throws into question the validity of the test and, consequently, all decisions based on its results. All admissions decisions based exclusively or predominantly on SAT performance—and therefore access to higher education institutions and subsequent job placement and professional success—appear to be biased against the African American minority group and could be exposed to legal challenge.” The study confirmed earlier research that the SAT favors whites over African Americans who share a similar educational background and skill set.

On September 22, 2023 it was announced that Blackwell, along with former Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle, would serve as the two vice presidents for the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA). Commenting on his selection, Blackwell said, “The NFRA is the flagship of constitutionalist conservatism within the Republican Party. It is intent on making sure the federal government has limited powers and the states have an independent sovereign place in our system of government. If we, the people, are to arrest the Obama march to collectivism, social democracy and an imperial presidency, we must swell the ranks of the NFRA and maintain its status as a principled defender of liberty.” One month later, the NFRA endorsed former Republican Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum for president in the 2012 election.

In a September 13, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell repeated sexist characterizations about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, writing, “Mrs. Clinton has even been derided in liberal blogs as Barack Obama's ‘Saudi wife.’ Feminist editor Tina Brown went so far as to say she's been put in a ‘foreign policy burka.’ We don't have to follow the Washington Post's annual In/Out listings. Fashions come and go in the ‘Style Section,’ even burkas.” Blackwell also accused the Secretary of State—without evidence—of anti-Semitism—by stating, “Perhaps most offensive of all is Hillary Clinton's assignment of counting Jews in Jerusalem. Old Washington hands may remember that President Richard Nixon bitterly ordered one of his aides to count the Jews in the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The good man who took on that odious assignment has long since apologized and done penance. And the world has heard on the White House tapes Nixon's foul-mouthed rants and lashings out against the Jews.”

In a September 1, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell commented on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the foreign policy of President Barack Obama by writing, “She had to smile a forced smile and pretend there was nothing amiss. That's not a role that comes naturally to a miss like Hillary. Correction: A Ms.”

Blackwell authored an August 19, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, criticizing President Barack Obama’s role in the death of Osama bin Laden. He wrote that what was missing from the raid (ordered by President Obama) was “presidential leadership.” Blackwell further opined that, “The real reason why President Obama has hurriedly put the bin Laden raid behind him is the same reason why George McGovern could not point to his wonderful combat record, or even let others point to it: The Democratic Party houses a large and influential pacifist element.”

Blackwell believes that the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review process, which produces reports assessing human rights conditions in all member countries, is being used by European countries to diminish United States sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere by imposing human rights conditions on Latin American countries. In an August 6, 20011 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Blackwell said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “has done nothing to uphold the Monroe Doctrine and nothing to defend our Latin American allies from this new form of European imperialism … Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on the side of the European imperialists.”

On July 12, 2023 Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted requested $332,000 in taxpayer money to pay for attorney’s fees for plaintiffs who sued then-Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell over his conduct during the 2004 presidential elections. The plaintiffs, who alleged that Blackwell violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, settled the lawsuit with the state in 2009.

In a June 12, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed—without any evidence—that “San Francisco gay activists” were behind a local ballot initiative to ban infant circumcision.

In an April 12, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed that President Obama was involved in orchestrating the populist uprising in Egypt, writing, “What was the point of going to a nest of Muslim Brotherhood activity to deliver that 2009 Obama address if not to puff up their stature and their influence? Osama bin Laden tells us that Arabs like to go with ‘the strong horse.’ Did Mr. Obama saddle up Mubarak or the Muslim Muslim [sic] Brotherhood as the strong horse with that Cairo speech?”

In a March 23, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell, upset that a book about the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan focused too little on Reagan’s policies as president, wrote, “Just imagine if Hinckley had so grievously wounded Jimmy Carter. Can anyone believe that that would have made 18% mortgage rates go away, forget ‘America held hostage’ in Iran, chill out while lining up for gasoline, or learn to enjoy the era of limits and malaise?” The book in question, “Rawhide Down,” was critically acclaimed and well received by reviewers with diverse viewpoints, including Bill O’Reilly and Bob Woodward.

In a March 10, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell expressed his belief that democracy would never be established in the Middle East because “democracy requires not only religious liberty, but representative institutions, a vibrant civil society, respect for property rights, the rule of law, and a free and open press. The Middle East has no history of these building blocks of democracy. There are other cultural practices that bode ill for democracy.” Blackwell also claimed that “84% of Egyptians say anyone who departs from Islam should be killed … And there is a real danger they will come under the sway of the Muslim Brotherhood.” He concluded by describing Middle Easterners thusly: “Edmund Burke said it well: ‘Men of intemperate minds cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters.’ There's a reason no state in the Middle East—except Israel—has been free thus far.”

Blackwell tweeted “I am disappointed with ACU's decision to team up with GOProud” and re-tweeted “homosexuality is not conservative” in response to news that the American Conservative Union (ACU) would allow the GOProud organization to participate in the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In a January 11, 2024 op-ed for the Patriot Post entitled “The Constitution Did Not Condone Slavery,” Blackwell claimed, “There was no mention of slavery in the Constitution. The framers were unwilling to admit in the federal charter there could be property in men.” To the contrary, the Constitution contained the three-fifths compromise that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for representation and tax purposes. Additionally, Article 1, Section 9 and Article 5 allowed the continued importation of slaves and prohibited the Congress from banning slavery until twenty years after ratification of the Constitution. Finally, Article 4, Section 2 prohibited citizens from providing assistance to escaped slaves (before being superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery).

In a December 17, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell urged the Senate to not ratify the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, because “President Obama has never disavowed his socialist convictions. Even the Washington Post refers to him as a socialist. Isn't it time we had a full airing of all of this before we ratify a treaty with the rulers of the Kremlin?”

In an October 22, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “Today, tragically, nearly 40% of our children are born out-of-wedlock. And big government consumes nearly 40% of our Gross Domestic Product. I don't believe the 40/40 link is imaginary? [sic]”

In a September 22, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “While addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, Obama began to recite key passages of the Declaration of Independence and slipped up. Or did he? He enumerated the ‘certain inalienable rights’ part beautifully. He even listed the right to life. (Hmmm. How does that comport with an Obamacare law that if
unrepealed would subsidize abortion and thus deny the right to life to millions yet unborn? Well, Barack Obama is hardly the only liberal who manages to declare such pesky questions ‘above my pay grade.’) The trouble came when Obama omitted who endowed the people with these inalienable rights, ‘their Creator’ … We are left to conclude that for the liberal left, our rights do not come from God. They come, instead, from government pronouncements, from UN documents, or from the courts. This is a most disturbing conclusion.”

In an op-ed for the Patriot Post entitled “Obama’s Mosque at Ground Zero” published on August 20, 2010, Blackwell wrote, “Only their [Muslim] beliefs are respected by President Obama … To allow a mosque within spitting distance of Ground Zero is to allow a triumphal arch for our jihadist enemies. It will be a recruiting poster for jihadists worldwide…Do we want sharia law here? That’s the law they have in Saudi Arabia. [Community center proponent] Imam Rauf is all out for sharia. If he succeeds in his life quest, Americans will lose every liberty—starting with our religious liberty.” Rauf actually has said the following about the center: “There's going to be a dedicated prayer space for Muslim, which we do need. And we want to have prayer space for Christians and for Jews. As I said, we have to build on our common platform.” Additionally, Rauf indicated the project will disclose all donors and reject any money offered by organizations that advocate violence.

Commenting on the abortion and LGBT rights debate in America in a July 7, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell complained, “Let Chastity Bono, the daughter of Sonny and Cher Bono, go through surgery and hormone treatments and is there a liberal publication on the planet that will not call this person Chaz and refer to this person as a man?”

In an April 27, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “When Mr. Obama bowed low before Emperor Akihito, it was a tacit apology for [the use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II].”

In a March 24, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell called President Barack Obama, “The Abortion President.”

In a March 9, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell suggested that remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could incite a second Falklands War. Blackwell was incensed that Secretary Clinton referred to the Falkland Islands by their Spanish name. “But
now, we face another possible crisis over the Falklands. And all because of Hillary Clinton’s clumsy attempt at “even-handedness”—which is in fact ham-handedness,” wrote Blackwell. “Think we’re having trouble with Latin Americans now? Try to imagine U.S. Naval vessels called in at the last minute to block an Argentine invasion of the Falklands.”

In a February 23, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed that homosexuals “created” the AIDs epidemic and worried “Do the American people want to bring this health crisis into the ranks of our volunteer military?” Regarding the potential repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, Blackwell wondered, “What would the gay quota be? Would it be the widely discredited 10% figure that gay activists like Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings always cite? Or would it be the more realistic ‘less than 3% figure?’”

In a January 19, 2024 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell suggested that TWA Flight 800, which crashed in 1996 killing all 230 persons aboard, was downed by a terrorist attack. A FBI investigation revealed no evidence of terrorist involvement.

In 2010, Blackwell, along with Family Research Council colleague Ken Klukowski, published “The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency.” According to the authors, President Obama’s goal is to “transform the United States of America into a militant, secular welfare state dominated by an overbearing central government” by using tactics “such as changing voting laws, politicizing the census, coercing corporations into adopting its policies, planning to destroy talk radio, and seeking to make millions of illegal aliens into voting citizens.” They also claimed that Obama “shut down media outlets that expose the truth, and co-opt[ed] the rest of the media to parrot his daily messages.” On the subject of race, the book had this to say: “For affirmative action, the victims are blacks or Hispanics. (We can’t say all minorities, because the tremendous overall success of Asians and Indians proves that there’s no systemic racism that keeps all minorities down.)…Whoever you are and whatever you do, if you are not a wealthy white male with a great education and a great career, a stable family, and in fine health, then Barack Obama says you are a victim of something and will tell you who to blame.”

After the District of Columbia legalized same-sex marriage, Blackwell wrote a December 21, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post suggesting that the new law would allow polygamy and incest. “Remember, we’ve all been schooled in that LGBT formulation. That means Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered. The advocates of counterfeiting marriage cannot leave out their B and T. So, what will that mean? How can they deny ‘marriage equality’ to a bisexual person who wants to marry two significant others? Or what about a person who has attempted through surgery and drugs to change his sex? Should such a person, if married, be denied the right to marry another person? If love and commitment make a marriage, why cannot brothers and sisters marry? Or fathers and daughters? What the District Council has done is to open the door to polygamy, to incest.”

In a December 16, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell worried that the recent Copenhagen climate change summit was a step towards the “implementation of Chinese-style population control” around the world. “China has for more than thirty years been engaged in a ruthless campaign of forced abortions. Beijing’s one-child policy, were it to be enforced world wide, would lead not only to totalitarianism and massive human rights violations, it would lead to infanticide, as well … Could Americans ever be forced under such an inhuman regime? Is this what Global Warming alarmism leads to? … There is one thing we could do that would make a small contribution to lowering temperatures: We could bury, not burn, the bodies of unborn children who have been aborted under Mr. Obama’s health care takeover. Currently, the practice is to incinerate the hundreds of thousands of bodies cruelly of those denied the right to life,” wrote Blackwell.

In a December 4, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell wrote, “In turn, [former Kansas Governor] Sebelius vetoed bills that might have put a crimp in [George] Tiller’s sales. While we denounce Tiller’s murder and his murderer, it’s interesting that liberals have not really been able to make Tiller a martyr. He didn’t donate those abortions.”

In a November 20, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, Blackwell claimed “more than 90 percent” of Democrats “never go to church.”

In a October 30, 2023 opinion piece, Blackwell attacked the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin, by writing, “Would you rather not have a receptionist or customer service representative of your company who has tattooed his or her face with fierce Maori markings? You could be forced by the EEOC [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] to make that hire.” Blackwell also worried about the EEOC’s effect on “employers who would prefer not to hire or promote employees who dress as members of the opposite sex.

Expressing his belief that homosexuality is a choice at the 2009 Republican National Convention, Blackwell said, “I've never had to make the choice because I've never had the urge to be other than a heterosexual, but if in fact I had the urge to be something else, I could have in fact suppressed that urge.” Blackwell further stated that the only two sexual orientations are “male” and “female.”

While serving as Ohio Secretary of State, a state audit revealed that Blackwell illegally paid out over $80,000 in bonuses to staff in December 2006 just before the switch from a Republican to a Democratic administration.

Blackwell compared homosexuality to arson and kleptomania in 2006, describing homosexuality as “a transgression against God’s law.”

On two separate occasions, Blackwell was blamed for the release of the social security numbers of millions of Ohio residents. In 2006, while serving as Ohio’s Secretary of State, Blackwell’s office sent CDs to 20 political parties that contained records of 7.7 million registered voters in Ohio. This followed an earlier incident in which a lawsuit was filed against Blackwell for publishing the social security numbers of thousands of Ohio residents on state websites.

While overseeing the 2004 presidential election in Ohio, Blackwell was accused by the Democratic Party and others of implementing policies that disenfranchised minority and young voters. Numerous lawsuits were filed against Blackwell, who was at the time an Honorary Co-Chair of President George W. Bush’s Ohio campaign. One lawsuit filed by the Ohio Democratic Party alleged that Blackwell’s policies violated the Help America Vote Act, passed in the wake of the 2000 presidential election fiasco.

Blackwell owned shares of Diebold, a voting machine manufacturer, while he was responsible for overseeing the 2004 presidential election in Ohio as Secretary of State. While Secretary of State, Blackwell also directed Ohio to purchase Diebold voting machines. Walden O’Dell, chief executive of Diebold and a fundraiser for George W. Bush, famously sent a letter to Ohio Republicans stating that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president [George W. Bush in 2004].”

Blackwell called himself “the lead spokesman” for a 2004 ballot measure that sought to ban gay marriage in Ohio.

In August 2007, then-Governor Blunt issued a directive compelling members of state law enforcement to verify the immigration status of anyone they arrested. Immigration statuses were even checked for minor traffic violations. Jorge Riopedre, secretary of the St. Louis-area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, called the plan, “an open door to racial profiling.” Blunt claimed that the Missouri State Highway Patrol would only check the status of individuals incarcerated by the police, but in at least one instance patrol officers checked the immigration status of a number of workers on a construction project on the basis of a tip from an unidentified local legislator. A representative for the construction company said that he was “puzzled” by the investigation because the site was routinely inspected by federal officials and the project itself did not receive state money.

During a speech at the 2011 annual National Rifle Association convention, Bolton said that President Barack Obama has “disdain for the American people.” He also said that the President is “using [the drug war] in Mexico, and the use of drugs in our own country, not to combat the illicit narcotic, but to use it as a foundation to argue for stricter gun controls at the federal level.”

When asked what he would have done differently as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Bolton said, “We don't know if, logistically, it would have been possible to do anything differently at the time.” Then-Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) called Bolton’s answer, “amazingly passive.”

A line in President George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address that made the case for war against Iraq pointed to a supposed attempt by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to acquire nuclear material from Nigeria. This now-discredited intelligence was promoted by Bolton in his position as Undersecretary of State. Days before Bush’s speech, the Department of State branded the intelligence (which had also been rejected by the CIA) as “dubious.” While Saddam Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction was a key justification for the War in Iraq, no such weapons were ever found.

In 1988, then-Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-CO) said, “Mr. Bolton's approach to maternity leave is: get pregnant, get interrogated, get fired,” after an incident in which Bolton denied a subordinate at the Department of Justice extended doctor-recommended leave after a difficult pregnancy. Bolton also threatened the woman with dismissal and legal action.

In September 2011, Boren voted in favor of H.R. 2401, a bill that sought to strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its ability to regulate air quality in the United States. The Obama Administration threatened to veto the bill, stating that H.R. 2401 would block the implementation of regulations that “would avoid tens of thousands of premature deaths, prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks and thousands of hospital visits for respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and alleviate hundreds of thousands of childhood asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.”

According to DirtySecrets.org, Boren has accepted $836,664 in contributions from polluters during his congressional career and has voted for legislation that could put as many as 187,250 lives at risk. No other legislator is considered by DirtySecrets.org to put more lives at risk through his/her votes on environmental bills than Boren.

On September 25, 2005, Boren voted in favor of a House bill to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The legislation sought to prevent the federal government from designating “critical habitat” areas for endangered species. A spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council said of the legislation, “It would be scandalous to pass this bill into law. This legislation would do nothing to protect wildlife and, in fact, would lead to more extinctions. Of the many damaging provisions in this bill, one of the worst would repeal rules that protect endangered species from pesticides like DDT, which nearly killed off the bald eagle years ago. The bill also would fleece U.S. taxpayers by paying wealthy developers to comply with endangered species protections. Under a loose compensation scheme, land developers would be able to name their price for lost profits. In America we don't pay people not to pollute.”

Soldier of Fortune distributed copies of a newsletter called The Resister during the 1990s. The Resister was published by Steven Barry, then a member of the Army’s Special Forces and leader of the unsanctioned Special Forces Underground organization. The newsletter initially drew inspiration from the controversial siege at Ruby Ridge. The content of the newsletter evidenced a “white Christian militia mentality,” according to Michael Reynolds from the Southern Poverty Law Center, containing racist and anti-Semitic content while also exploring “New World Order” conspiracy theories. When Timothy McVeigh was arrested for the Oklahoma City Bombing, in his possession was a Soldier of Fortune-distributed copy of The Resister.

During a 10-year span covering the early 1980s to the early 1990s, “more than a half-dozen” contract murders were linked to Soldier of Fortune:

• In June 1985, Soldier of Fortune ran an ad from Michael Savage that read, “GUN FOR HIRE: 37-year-old professional mercenary desires jobs. Vietnam veteran. Discrete and very private. Body guard, courier, and other special skills. All jobs considered.” After the ad ran, Savage’s phone “rung off the hook” and he was hired to perform a contract killing. A United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decision upholding a $4.37 million judgment for the victim’s family against Soldier of Fortune magazine stated that the ad, “clearly conveyed that [Savage] was ready, willing and able to use his gun to commit crimes,” and that “[t]he publisher could recognize the offer of criminal activity as readily as its readers obviously did.” The magazine did not accept any responsibility for the murders, claiming, “We're as culpable as any newspaper which accepts an ad from a used-car salesman and doesn't go out to check the condition of his brakes.”
• In November 1985, Sean Doutre bludgeoned Anita Spearman to death while she slept. Doutre had been hired by Michael Savage to perform contract killings. The hit on Spearman was ordered by her husband, who saw Savage’s ad in Soldier of Fortune.
• In 1985, Larry Gray responded to an ad in Soldier of Fortune and hired Michael Wayne Jackson to kill Gray’s ex-wife’s fiancée. The intended victim survived two assassination attempts, including one where a bomb was placed under his car, before Jackson was arrested. Jackson worked with contract killer Michael Savage on the contract after they met through Soldier of Fortune.
• John Hearn ran a 1984 ad in Soldier of Fortune soliciting “High risk assignments. US or overseas.” “If I had never run an ad in Soldier of Fortune I would have never killed anyone,” he later stated. Hearn got so many responses he had to purchase an answering service and estimated that 90% of callers asked him to commit a crime. Of the three to five murder propositions he received each day, one involved a political assassination in Canada. In addition to murdering Sandra Black at the behest of her husband in February 1985, Hearn also committed a double murder in Florida after being paid by another Soldier of Fortune reader.
• Some Soldier of Fortune ads were more explicit than others. One ad that was allowed to run read, “Married man looking for an expert in poisons to kill his wife.”

A Chicago Tribune reporter doing a story on Brown’s involvement in the civil war in El Salvador in March 1984 witnessed Brown become the victim of an accidental shooting when one of Brown’s friends pulled the trigger of a gun he thought was unloaded. The friend shot himself through the hand and the bullet struck Brown in the calf. “You stupid son a bitch, you shot me,” Brown said. “And now I can’t go to El Salvador.”

In 1983, Brown accompanied a team of mercenaries to El Salvador. The purpose of the trip was to provide training to the forces of fascist leader Roberto D'Aubuisson. Brown tried to strike a deal with D'Aubuisson where his own mercenaries would replace U.S. Army advisors in El Salvador. The offer was accepted, but never came to fruition. Brown, however, went as far as engaging in combat missions alongside D’Aubuisson’s death squads. These paramilitary units assassinated D’Aubuisson’s political enemies and “talked of the need to kill 200,000 to 300,000 people to restore peace to El Salvador.” Known as “Blowtorch Bob” for his torture techniques, D’Aubuisson’s most high-profile victim was Bishop Óscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 after speaking out about human rights abuses in El Salvador.

In 1973, federal agents investigated Carter concerning his former employment with the Immigration and Naturalization Service after 40,000 to 50,000 rounds of government ammunition were reported missing. He was called before a grand jury to testify about the matter, but charges were never filed.

In Vol. 13, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in November 2005, Cooper espoused views on modern education, writing, “It seems that the academic world is increasingly dominated by ‘those other people.’ In this case I refer to the custom of replacing BC and AD with BCE and CE. The idea is to get Christianity off center stage… If a historian chooses to redo our traditional terminology, he may quietly step to the rear of the class.”

In Vol. 13, No. 10 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in October 2005, Cooper wrote, “Does it not seem that far too much is being made of 'a college education'? Just what is meant by that? A bachelor's degree from a major institution was at one time pretty significant, but now it seems to be solely a matter of money. We find that what used to be certification of a rounded personality is now sort of a remedial trade school. When I was a boy the major universities were distinguishable from the second rate.”

In Vol. 13, No. 7 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in July 2005, Cooper wrote, “For those who are thinking of equipping your own private army, the Socom 16 appears to be the best thing now available.” The “Socom 16” is a nickname Cooper gave to an automatic rifle produced by Springfield Armory.

In Vol. 13, No. 1 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in January 2005, Cooper wrote, “The world scene is not so bright, since the nanny states do not seem to understand that it is the responsibility of the individual to protect himself and his family, in the absence of the state. We remain the last best hope of Earth, which would be a rather bleak prospect if it were not that we are now the one great super power. It is comforting, in a way, to observe the ineptitude of our world enemies. Our optimism is fortified by the understanding that we now alone cultivate the warrior spirit. It is not only permitted, but fashionable, for the individual citizen to possess the means and the skill with which to protect himself, his property, his family, and his political rights. There are cultural losers among us, but as of now they constitute a minority.”

In Vol. 12, No. 12 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in November 2004, Cooper wrote about the recent presidential election won by President George W. Bush, stating, “And [close] it was, but not so much as the left−leaning media would have us expect. The important thing is that we did win, and now we have the chance to do something about this evil religious conflict that threatens to engulf the world … We may give thanks as Thanksgiving approaches in the realization that most Americans prefer to face up to a violent challenge rather than to cut and run. Hurray for our side!” Cooper added, “At school long ago I was told of one of the early church fathers, Telemachus by name, who taught that one of the delights of the blessed in heaven would be looking over the ramparts and relishing the torments of the damned below. This struck us as a bit rough for a true Christian, but after our recent election I can see how it might apply to our current domestic scene.” Cooper then turned to the topic of the war in Iraq, stating, “We continue to reflect upon the need to identify our objective in this Holy War. We certainly have the ability to destroy our enemies; but first, of course, we must be able to point out who they are. The fanatics cannot be intimidated, since tactical suicide is in their minds the pathway to paradise. Therefore they must be personally destroyed. The policy was set forth at the notorious Siege of Beziers. 'Omnes moritatem. Deus suos cognoscet.'" Cooper is referring to a quote attributed to the Abbot of Citeaux Arnaud Amalric during the Siege of Béziers: “Kill them all, God will know His own.” Finally, Cooper shared an observation from a Marine, “Consider the following: ‘And I know you don't have much use for female Marines (neither do I, but let's keep that quiet) but there is one out here who is pulling more than her weight and is doing things no one else could do. She is an educated Syrian−born Lance Corporal, an absolutely delightful and fascinating person. Because of her particular abilities, she can go with units on a variety of missions and help calm a situation by speaking to the women and children, which is something no male Marine can do effectively. She has also done yeoman's work as a translator for the interrogators. All of that is even more impressive when you hear what career she walked away from to enlist in the Marine Corps: she was a practicing physician. I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it myself.’”

In Vol. 12, No. 10 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in September 2004, Cooper wrote about a complaint he heard that troops sent to Iraq were “basically unfamiliar with rifle shooting.” He attributed this “to the increasing urbanization of our culture, in which there are large numbers of young men who have never touched a weapon of any kind (possibly excepting a baseball bat) prior to putting on a soldier suit. This may be a reflection of the ‘Nanny state,’ in which a large proportion of young men have no fathers. Even if there is a man around the house, he is usually not a father figure. If he does not know anything about firearms, he is unlikely to have anything useful to hand on to his sons.”

In Vol. 12, No. 9 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in July 2004, Cooper wrote, “It seems evident that the basis for civil safety is homogeneity. A culture which is socially uniform is pretty well devoid of informal violence. A melting pot may be a pretty rough place at its inception, but as it becomes a puree, things simmer down. A city inhabited by people of the same outlook, background, marriage, or apparent wealth is a safe city. The sooner that melting pot becomes a puree, the sooner it will dispense with civic strife.”

In Vol. 12, No. 8 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in June 2004, Cooper wrote, “If you had only one personal firearm, what would it be? Now there is a subject worth discussion far too complicated for a simple answer. If you allow yourself two or three or even four individual instruments, the problem becomes much simpler, but it depends finally upon your lifestyle and your political position. Unfortunately, such matters are usually left up to the whims of unqualified bureaucrats, usually of the socialist persuasion, who regard the individual as a possession of the state, rather than the other way around.”

In Vol. 12, No. 7 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 2004, Cooper wrote, “In my wars we studied the bayonet and trained with it, but I never saw it put into action and I only heard of its being used once. But it should not be forgotten. Our friends the British seem to be its principle exponents today, having used it on one occasion in the Falklands with great success. Now we learn of a recent case in Iraq by the Argyle and Southerland Highlanders, a Scottish regiment of renown. It seems these people were attacked while on the move in three vehicles, but they decided to dismount and go after their assailants with cold steel. The timing here is difficult to assess, but the results are not. It is not clear how many ragheads were involved, but the Scots killed 45 of them and captured nine.” He then added, “Following Memorial Day, we got to thinking about the Jefferson Memorial in Washington. It is of ionic Greek design and circular in plan. Inside the rotunda, inscribed in prominent gold letters, you may read the following inscription: ‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.’ So much for political correctness (and so much for Islam).”

In Volume 12, No. 5 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries, published in April 2004, Cooper shared the following account: “We learn of a cheerful incident in Bahrain prior to the running of the first Grand Prix motoring event in the Middle East. It appears that a group of Islamic nitwits resented the serving of booze to Westerners at a local restaurant. They burst in waving knives, whereupon one of the Westerners relieved one of the thugs and cut him down with it. The answer to aggression is, as always, counterattack.” He then made a thinly-veiled death threat towards liberal philanthropist George Soros, writing, “The Oath of Office, which those of us who have worn the uniform have taken, calls upon us to defend the Constitution of the US against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Moslems are foreign, but we have a conspicuous example of the domestic variety in the figure of this George Soros … This man is more of an enemy of the Constitution than anyone outside the borders of this country. We did not know about the Jihad until after they started it, but we now know about Soros, who is a greater threat. We adjure you to read up on the subject and act accordingly.”

In Vol. 12, No. 2 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in February 2004, Cooper discussed technological advancements in China and stated, “The Chinese communists seem determined to join the human race.”He also added, “The fact is that some people are better than other people, on any point worth discussing, from shining shoes to making money. Equality is not only impossible, but also undesirable.” Cooper then turned to the topic of vigilantism and Muslims in the United States military, writing, “’If I were ‘king’ I would give serious thought to the institution of exemplary punishment. This goblin who murdered the little girl in Florida should be disposed of publically in some horrifying manner. This would not bring back the child, but it just might give pause to certain kinds of social degenerates. As for capital punishment, it has not been announced what we have done or will do to that Arab soldier who joined the American Army and then took it upon himself to murder his comrades in arms. Is it possible for a devout Moslem to take oath to serve in a non−Moslem army? As I understand it, his first duty must be to Allah, as revealed in some version of the Koran, but not to the United States.” He then addressed the culture of native Africans, writing, “It appears that life insurance is an unpromising enterprise in Bantu Africa. When a friend of ours suggested to his employee that he might take out a policy to provide for his dependents upon his demise, the man pointed out that as soon as such an act had become known he would be poisoned at his next meal. This is called cultural diversification.”

In Vol. 11, No. 15 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 2003, Cooper wrote, “We find this hand wringing about capital punishment puzzling. If a criminal deserves death, the method of inflicting it hardly seems important, although such horrors as hanging in irons are both extravagant and degrading … I did a certain amount of research work on vigilantism in graduate school, and that sort of informal activism did not produce any obvious distress in either a criminal or the executioner.” He also wrote, “There is talk now in South Africa about changing the name of Pretoria, the capitol, to something more Bantuesque. Hardly a surprise. Andries Pretorius was a mighty hero, and the father of his country−comparable to George Washington. This proposed name change could be something like changing the name of the capitol of the US to ‘Nat Turner.’” Pretorius was a Boer colonist who has been described as one of the “major agents of white conquest in Southern Africa.” Born into slavery, Turner led a slave insurrection in 1831, after which he was captured and hanged.

In Vol. 11, No. 12 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in October 2003, Cooper commented on the Iraq War, writing, “We remember the refrain from the Phillippines: ‘Underneath the starry flag/Civilize him with a Krag [a type of bullet cartridge]/And then get underway for home sweet home.’ But you have to civilize him first, and how you do that with the ragheads is the problem.”

In Vol. 11, No. 10 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in September 2003, Cooper wrote, “Tolerance means that you don't really give a damn.” He also shared this anecdote: “Reports from the front indicate that the Arabs cut down all their power lines in order to steal the copper, and then complain bitterly that power is out.”

In Vol. 11, No. 8 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in July 2003, Cooper wrote, “The second Iraqi war was of just the right size, violently enough to be serious, but not long enough to be tiresome.” Cooper then shared the following quote (which he misattributed to then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft): “Islam is a religion in which Allah (God) requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sent His Son to die for you.” He also added, “In these days of aggressive feminism, women are often expected to be unprotected by men, and thus should be able to protect themselves.”

In Vol. 11, No. 6 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 2003, Cooper wrote, “The poodle shooter [the M-16 or M-4 rifle used by the U.S. military] seems to put the ragheads down in fairly satisfactory fashion, especially since the range in today's wars is short.” He went on to praise the May 1, 2023 speech of Republican President George W. Bush where he declared victory in Iraq by writing, “I think the gesture made by President Bush in landing on the carrier was excellent. George Bush is the most powerful man who ever lived on the face of the Earth, and for him to use our fantastically potent air arm as a vehicle to demonstrate this gives me great pleasure. Also it annoys the ‘hate America’ people excessively, and this is always a good thing.” In the end, U.S. military forces did not withdraw from Iraq until December 2011.

In Vol. 11, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in March 2003, Cooper wrote, “The Moors [Muslims] seem to be ahead in the Holy War at this time, at least they have succeeded in making domestic air travel inconvenient and ridiculous. It might make some sense to regard all Moors at airports with suspicion. At least it would avoid subjecting obviously upperclass ladies to random body search.” Turning to the topic of women in the military, Cooper added, “I cannot accept the idea that the girls really want to be placed in harm's way. I think they want to have it both ways, which has always been difficult. Placing a woman deliberately in harm's way is gross, and cannot be countenanced by ladies or gentlemen.” Commenting on Islam, Cooper then wrote, “I continue to read carefully into Islam, and if what I discover is not ridiculous, that must be because Arabic does not translate well into English.” He added, “This airport security business is unnecessarily obnoxious. All you have to do is profile your passenger, and this does not take a philosopher. These Jihadis look like Jihadis … Profiling may be regarded with horror by some who are preoccupied with political correctness, but this matter is too serious to be toyed with. The bad guys simply look like bad guys, and they cannot change that by shaving off their beards. That is one positive advantage we have in the Holy War.”

In Vol. 11, No. 2 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in February 2003, Cooper wrote, “If you approve of the way President Bush is handling his daunting tasks, write and tell him so. He sees the press, just as you do, and it must be depressing for him to be told only of the enemy viewpoint. If you support him, tell him so. Every little bit helps.” He also added, “It seems that the Russians are pigging out the Jihadis in Chechnya. That is to say they are polluting the bodies of dead Moslems with swine blood, denying the deceaseds' [sic] place in paradise. Theoretically this may work. Time will tell.”

In Vol. 10, No. 13 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 2002, Cooper wrote, “The world scene may be pretty bleak, but we certainly have a lot to be thankful for at home. With a serious president in the White House [Republican George W. Bush] and a [Republican] majority in both houses of Congress, our ship of state rejoices in a sound hand at the helm and fair winds aloft. Despite the general moral decline in our society, we still have great things to appreciate—the first of which is having been born on the right side of the Holy War. We have been reading up on Islam and discover that while Western Civilization is far from perfect, it is infinitely better in all respects than that which looms ‘East of Suez.’ We may need to clean up our act, but at least we are in the right theater.” Turning to the role of women in society, Cooper added, “Any homemaker who operates a satisfactory household must be plenty strong enough to handle all of her kitchen appliances and, therefore, certainly strong enough to manage a pistol. Perhaps the postmodern housewife does not operate a successful kitchen, but buys everything prefabricated in the supermarket.” Going back to Islam, he wrote, “The Moslems' idea of peace is the extinction of Christianity.”

In Vol. 10, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in October 2002, Cooper wrote, “The Moslem objective seems to be simply to destroy the infidel. I cannot believe that any Moslem feels that by killing Christians or Jews or agnostics at random he will win any sort of tangible objective … the ragheads still insist that we infidels are the accursed of God, and they seek to flaunt this without any prospect for amelioration. We see these people complaining when they are ‘profiled’ while making every effort to make such profiling obvious. If a raghead does not wish to be identified as a raghead, there would seem to be no reason for him to speak like a raghead, act like a raghead, and dress like a raghead. The best way for him to avoid being identified as a raghead would be to stay back where he came from.” Turning to public schools, Cooper added, “The attempt by the education establishment to castrate American youth has produced some very peculiar attitudes. One is an announced ‘hatred of violence.’ It seems to me that people who hate violence as an abstraction are living in the wrong country. This nation we live in, still the last best hope of Earth, was born in violence, and if there is any such thing as a typical American man, he is certainly a violent man.” Addressing Islam again, Cooper wrote, “By examination we may conclude that a good Moslem earns one point for killing another Moslem of a different sect, two points for killing a European Christian, three points for killing an American, and four points for killing a Jew. I may have this wrong, but then I cannot speak Arabic.” He then took up the topic of political correctness writing, “This political correctness foolishness is so silly that it is hard to take seriously, but there it is. It is even miscalled, for it is neither political nor correct. It is social censorship, the rule of the polypragmatoi (read ‘busybodies’). Mr. Jefferson is quoted around the inside of his monument at Washington as standing foursquare and forever against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. As he declaimed, and as I hope we all agree, the State may justifiably control our actions—but never our thoughts. Sorry, Mr. Jefferson, but all men are not created equal. (‘All ya gotta do is look.’)” Turning to the topic of slavery, Cooper wrote, “This foolishness about reparations for slavery has got to take some sort of prize for inanity. Human slavery has been with us since the beginning of time. It is the natural course of social order. Without it we would probably still be living in the Bronze Age, and such trivia as mathematics, philosophy, religion, and art would never have been invented. As Aristotle pointed out, most people have slave minds, and prefer to be told what to do and where to line up for chow.”

In Vol. 10, No. 7 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in June 2002, Cooper wrote, “Is it possible for something to be deadly and silly at the same time? Islam comes to mind.” He also added, “I can find no fault at all in this matter of ‘profiling.’ If these creeps look like creeps, that is their problem, not ours.” Turning to the War in Afghanistan Cooper added, “As the Holy War proceeds it is obvious that the principle problem is target identification. Since the ragheads do not have nations, they can smack the Pentagon, but what do we smack? It is going to be a long haul.”

In Vol. 10, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in March 2002, Cooper wrote, “Well, they finally got Jonas Savimbi. There was possibly the greatest unsung hero of the Cold War. Savimbi fought the Communists to a standstill in Angola for decades, with no help from us. He was not ‘African−American’ (unsatisfactory term). He was, on the contrary, a first−string African, and he will go down historically with [Zulu chieftain] Chaka as one of the great heros [sic] of his people. I never had the honor of meeting him, but I got pretty close on two occasions, and I regret the loss.” The United States Department of Homeland Security characterized Savimbi’s UNITA political group—from 1998 until the killing of Savimbi in 2002 by Angolan government forces—as a terrorist organization. During this time period, Human Rights Watch described UNITA as “a rebel group led by Jonas Savimbi, [that] killed, abducted, and terrorized civilians with impunity.” The United States Institute of Peace wrote, “Savimbi is indeed responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity.” The conflict between UNITA and the Angolan government resulted in the country having one of the highest concentrations of landmines in the world, with some experts estimating that up to six million mines remain in the ground. Cooper also wrote, “Those of you of the old school will remember that we threw the Moors out of Spain in 1492. Trouble is that we did not throw them far enough. In searching through the records for ragheads of consequence, I discover Haroun−al−Rashid and Saladin, and then my sources begin to dry up. Our current crop of Extollers of The Faithful would have us believe that what we may refer to as the Arab Culture was way ahead of the West up until something mysterious happened along about 1450 or so. These people had shown us such things as numerology, algebra, cotton fabric, and coffee, but suddenly something went wrong. Maybe they lost their push and civilization left them behind. The cultural structure of Islam must have a strong appeal, otherwise it would not be proselytizing throughout the world as it is. How is it that the West copes and the East does not? Allah has fallen short somewhere along the line.” He then complained about patients at the Mayo Clinic, writing, “A friend of ours who is troubled with a nagging form of recurrent carcinoma makes a practice of visiting a Mayo Clinic regularly to keep ahead of the game. He reports that over the last couple of years the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has been so completely patronized by Arabs that treatment therein begins to resemble some sort of cult practice. The waiting rooms are solidly populated with people wearing bed sheets. Treatment at the Mayos is not cheap, but this does not trouble the rag heads.” Cooper continued, “Our enemy in the Holy War turns out to be simultaneously deadly and silly. They can kill us, of course, dead, but it is hard to take anyone seriously who announces continuously five times a day that God is Great. Is it that ‘milady doth protest too much’?”

In Vol. 10, No. 1 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in January 2002, Cooper wrote, “The devout Moslem demands that other people share his faith or die. That is not a foolish fancy—it is right there in the book [Koran]. The devout Moslem does not necessarily hate the Infidel, he simply cannot accept his existence, and there you have the Holy War. It may be that OBL's [Osama bin Laden] days are briefly numbered, but whether he lives or dies, Islam remains the core of the Holy War. I cannot handle the Arabic language, and therefore it is not possible for me to interpret the Koran. The fact remains that we do have a Holy War on our hands, and how we pursue it remains to be seen.” He also added, “We American shooters who constitute the foundation of liberty, are philosophically correct, but we are not strong enough to aid the enemy by fighting amongst ourselves. Please do not throw rocks at people on your own side of the barricade. Despite our temporary victory at the polls, there are still plenty of people who voted the wrong way—and will continue to do so. [New York Democratic Senator and gun violence prevention advocate Chuck] Schumer, I understand, is still alive and well.” Turning back to the subject of Islam, Cooper wrote, “Several correspondents have informed us that according to the Koran, Moslems are forbidden to fight any but defensive wars. Since I do not read Arabic, I cannot be sure about this, but it seems that the Arabs had to defend themselves furiously all the way from Mecca (in Arabia) to Tours (in France), going backwards all the time. Those Christians must have been pretty clever in order to get around behind the ragheads, who then defended themselves in reverse for several thousand miles and several hundred years.” Cooper continued, “Our two favorite columnists are Thomas Sowell and Florence King. Miss King just threw us a real beauty in National Review. She asserts that her mother (an unreconstructed Southern Lady) disputed this ‘sensitivity’ about busting the ragheads during Ramadan, as follows: ‘That's the best time to get 'em—when they've got their faces in the rug and their asses in the air.’”

In Vol. 9, No. 13 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in November 2001, Cooper wrote, “One wonders if Nip swordcraft was at one time the standard of the world, as its advocates claim. As with the Japanese culture, it seems to be stylized to the point of unserviceability, but the outsider is in no position to criticize it until he has seen it in live combat.” He also added, “There is no way that Christendom can cozy up to Islam. There is no way we can pat those people on the head and expect them to accept us unbelievers as moral equals. No matter what they say, the Arabs are on the other side of this holy war, and when we see them wearing t−shirts celebrating the mass murder of 6,000 Americans, we must realize that to a devout Muslim a Christian is fouler than a pig (which in their eyes is pretty foul).” Cooper then wrote, “OBL [Osama bin Laden] evidently perceives himself as a spokesman for Islam. There are Muslims who may dispute that, but they are stuck with him. Whether they agree with him or not, somebody − probably OBL, but perhaps not − has decided to murder the infidel in the greatest possible numbers. The situation is only going to get worse before it gets better. What are we going to do if those people hit Times Square on New Year's Eve? Weep? It would be neat if we could feed OBL to the pigs before this happens, but if we cannot do exactly that, some sort of decisive retribution must be undertaken. Mr. President [Bush], Let's Roll!”

In Vol. 9, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in October 2001, Cooper commented on 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden, writing, “This fellow, whom we shall refer to henceforth as OBL, is said to stand 6’ 5” and could properly be referred to as a ‘trophy rag−head.’ Any Arab this long should certainly go in the record book.” He also wrote, “It has been suggested that you can really upset a Moslem if you undertake to sew up his dead body in a skin of a pig. If we are going to play this game, we should explore all possibilities.” Cooper turned to the topic of slavery to state, “This talk about ‘reparations’ for slavery is pretty quaint when you think about it, unless you are disconnected from history. Slavery has always been a normal aspect of civilization. Since the beginning of recorded history, and probably before, human beings have enslaved one another and nobody thought much about that until quite recent times. What do you do with the losers? You can either kill them on the spot or put them to work. Without the institution of slavery, civilization would never have been achieved, for no one could ever have done anything intellectual if he had to spend all his time hewing and digging and fighting … Those who speak of ‘reparations’ for slavery betray a state of mind which might have been universal if it had not been for slavery. I find it odd that nobody has brought that up in these dim−witted discussions we hear about.” Turning back to the topic of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Cooper called Islam, “an extremist cult rooted in the Middle Ages.”

In Vol. 9, No. 8 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in August 2001, Cooper wrote, “I am told by ‘new soldiers,’ even Marines, that what once was considered normal disciplinary procedure is today held to be legally reprehensible. During my own tour as company commander I never once sent a man before a court. I didn't need to. I had sergeants. How today's captains proceed without sergeants is beyond me. But how to proceed with perverts and girl warriors is also beyond me.”

In Vol. 9, No. 5 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 2001, Cooper wrote, “There is no more American way of spending a snowy Wyoming morning than listening to [conservative talk show host] Rush Limbaugh while loading ammunition. Our friend Rush sometimes gets a little overblown in his presentations, but certainly his heart is in the right place.” Limbaugh has been frequently criticized for his statements about minorities, women, and gays. Cooper added, “If the Chinese fighter pilot, Wang Wei, is an example of the breed, we take that as a good development. If Chinese fighter pilots are incapable of keeping distance in the air, it is nice to have them on the other side. Should we add the term ‘Chinese fighter pilot’ to what we used to call ‘a Chinese fire drill’? We should not get our hopes up, however. The rest of that crew may be more skillful.” Wang Wei was a Chinese pilot who died in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Navy aircraft in 2001. The accident caused an international dispute between the United States and China.

In Vol. 9, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in March 2001, Cooper wrote, “It would appear that that small, black cloud on the horizon is the specter of a general Moslem war against the West − something which should be put off as long as possible, but is probably going to be with us in due course.” He also added, “Someone has observed that if you find yourself in San Francisco, be careful upon leaving not to look back, lest you be turned into a pillar of salt.” Cooper was referring to the biblical story of God’s destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the inhabitant’s sinful behavior (God warned that anyone who looked back at the ruins of the cities would be turned into a pillar of salt). He also wrote, “As I understand it, slavery was abolished in this country in 1865. The issue is closed. Buying those people from their friends in Africa and bringing them over here was a great mistake and we have suffered for it for a long time. Perhaps we should let the matter drop.”

In Vol. 8, No. 13 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 2000, Cooper published the following excerpt of a song written by his daughter Lindy: “The sun shines bright/On the old Kentucky home/'Tis summer/And all the African−Americans are homosexual.” In Vol. 9, No. 3 of the Commentaries, Cooper stated that his daughter was updating the pre-Civil War song “My Old Kentucky Home,” which opens with the lines, “The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home/Tis summer/the darkies are gay.” The song’s status as the official song of Kentucky has been called into question for the song’s use of racially disparaging terms for African Americans. “Clearly we had to restructure this because we cannot longer use the term ‘darky,’ and ‘gay’ has been rerouted,” explained Cooper.

In Vol. 8, No. 8 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in August 2000, Cooper wrote, “Perhaps you know of the book ‘Unintended Consequences,’ by John Ross, which narrates the fictional account of violent resistance to the infringement of the right of the people to keep and bear arms in the United States. Turns out now that the BATF [Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms] is doing its best to suppress the book, since those people care no more about the First Amendment than they do about the Second. We hear mutterings from several sources about the possibility of a serious backlash against these obnoxious people in their unconscionable behavior.” The plot of “Unintended Consequences” revolves around a man who systemically kills federal law enforcement agents as revenge for the implementation of the 1994 assault weapons ban and other gun control laws. The book concludes with the president of the United States vowing to repeal gun control measures. Oklahoma City Bombing perpetrator Timothy McVeigh called the book his “New Testament” and stated that if he would have read it before plotting his attack, he might have gone on a sniper rampage.

In Vol. 8, No. 7 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in July 2000, Cooper wrote, “We reflect, in this period of racist agitation, that slavery has been the normal condition of mankind for most of history. What do you do with the losers? You either kill them outright or put them to work. If you pen them up you have to feed them, and you have enough trouble feeding yourself. Despite this a large number of semi−literate types in the States seem to think of slavery as a unique invention of the southern states of the US over a period of a few generations.”

In Vol. 8, No. 5 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 2000, Cooper wrote, “When people ask us how are things in South Africa, we are inclined to quote our great, good friend Barry Miller of Durban. ‘People get the government they deserve, and we got it.’ When I first went to Africa over 20 years go, the unit of currency was the Rand, which was worth at that time $1.50. Today it is worth 14 cents. Before the revolution [i.e., the end of apartheid] South African Airways was an outstanding airline in terms of cabin service. Today it would appear that the new management is taking its pointers from Aeroflot. When you effectively ‘give the country back to the Indians’ you may find that the Indians do not know how to run the store.”

In Vol. 8, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in March 2000, Cooper wrote, “It appears that this baseball player [Atlanta Braves reliever John] Rocker has stated publically that he dislikes having to ride public transportation in company with scruffies. On this he has been sent to Coventry, where presumably they regularly wash his mouth out with soap. Does anybody really like to ride with scruffies? Social censorship − miscalled ‘political correctness’ − is reaching new lows all the time.” Cooper was reacting to the following comment that Rocker made when asked during an interview if he would like to play baseball in New York: “I would retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing. The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?” Cooper also wrote, “They had a big raffle [election] recently in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). To everyone's intense surprise, Comrade [Robert] Mugabe was the winner of the grand prize. For all our putative rejection of ‘racism,’ it is sometimes hard to take these popinjays seriously.” Zimbabwe has not been called Rhodesia since before 1980 when white supremacist apartheid supporter Ian Smith ruled the country.

In Vol. 7, No. 12 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in November 1999, Cooper wrote, “When our good friend and colleague [fellow NRA board member] Bob Brown was recently asked his age in the course of an interview, his reply was, ‘I am so old that I can remember when the Kennedys killed their women one at a time.’” Brown and Cooper were likely mocking an incident that occurred on July 16, 2023 when a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy, Jr. crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off of Martha’s Vineyard. Kennedy, along with his wife and sister-in-law, were killed. Cooper also wrote, “A ‘busybody war’ is one which is fought in order to straighten out the morals, ethics, practices or religion of another group of people. Defensive wars are morally justified, and we can even put down reasons for wars of conquest, but ‘nanny wars’ are disgusting. The American Civil War is an example of one, as is the Boer War in South Africa. In both these cases, the more powerful side fought basically for the purpose of changing the lifestyle of the other. Losers fight well in these busybody wars, as morally they should. What the invader thinks when he attacks to make sure that ‘those other people’ part their hair on the right side is not always easy to discover.”

In Vol. 7, No. 9 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in August 1999, Cooper suggested that feminism was responsible for the mauling of a woman by a hyena, writing, “In the second instance, a female hunter took the notion to take a pleasant evening walk outside the compound, despite being told vigorously that she was not to do this. She was taken by a hyena, but at last report, she was expected to live, though terribly disfigured. As you know, the hyena goes for the face. (Do we detect an element of feisty feminism here? Or the basic lack of discipline of the flower children?)”

In Vol. 7, No. 6 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 1999, Cooper referred to a 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, writing, “Accurate assessments of the Littleton disaster have yet to be properly evaluated, but one point stands out clearly. The only thing that could have saved the day was a qualified, armed teacher. Moral decay has brought us to this pass, and we cannot look to the state for relief. Relief must come from the populace at large, and not in the form of legislation.”

In Vol. 7, No. 2 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in February 1999, Cooper wrote, “We hear by round−about ways of a copchick in Latin America who responded to a call of a bank robbery in progress. She was by herself and armed with a P35 Browning. By fortuitous chance she confronted the three bad guys directly. One was armed with an FN assault rifle (caliber 308), one with some sort of 9mm squirt gun, and the other with a 12 gage [sic] shotgun. With admirable aplomb our heroine selected the most dangerous target, the one with the 308, and terminated him cleanly with one round to the center of the forehead. She then shifted to the man with the squirt gun and knocked him down with two rounds to the center of the chest. At this point the boy with the shotgun dropped his gun and gave up. Olé! The report we have insists that this girl is quite pretty, which makes a story all ready too good even better.”

In Vol. 6, No. 10 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in September 1998, Cooper wrote, “There seems to be no agreement amongst our leaders as to what must be done about these ragheaded terrorists. It is adduced that if we kill the leaders there will simply be more to take their places. This may or may not be true, but we can be pretty sure that blowing up installations with Tomahawks is not going to accomplish much, apart from making a number of uninvolved people angry.” He went on to write, “You may remember Amy Biehl, the white girl who went down to Africa to help the downtrodden and who was murdered by a black mob with rocks. Four of her killers have now been turned loose, one remains in custody. The only reason Amy was killed was because she was white. Now on the other side of the world we have this particularly nasty murder of an unarmed black man by three white thugs in East Texas. It seems that the only reason they killed him was because he was black. I am willing to bet that they will not go free. It is more likely that in this case the death penalty will be invoked − and quite properly so. Shall we conclude that it is okay for Negroes to kill a white girl because of the color of her skin, but it is a dreadful sin for white men to kill a Negro because of the color of his skin? I am sure that there are those who will call this ‘racial justice.’”

In Vol. 6, No. 6 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in June 1998, Cooper blamed “blacks” for all of the crime in South Africa, writing, “The criminal violence is pretty nasty, but it tends to take place in categories. Street crime in the big towns is mainly a car−against−car, black−against−black proposition, and it can be avoided it one stays out of the wrong places and does not move around in congested areas after dark. On the other hand, raids on isolated rural dwellings are mainly black−on−white, and they are difficult to combat in a culture which has been used to staying in Condition White [a relaxed mindset] at all times. As you know, it is possible to be legally armed in South Africa and to fight back, unlike the situation in Britain where it is considered politically incorrect to resist violence. In most of the cases which have come to my attention, the farm house raids could be defeated by people who are prepared to fight back. It is, however, a truth that most people find it difficult to remain in a properly guarded mindset all the livelong day. The result of this is that most of the wonders of South Africa can be visited by the tourist or hunter without risk, provided, as always and everywhere, that the individual is armed, awake and aware.” He also wrote, “We were saddened to discover that South African Airlines, which we used to think was second only to SwissAir, has come down several clicks in service and comfort following the revolution [that ended the white supremacist apartheid in South Africa]. A form of affirmative action seems to have equipped the cabins with too many people who are simply not up to the task. The job of airline stewardess (‘flight attendant’) demands an eminent degree of intelligence and sophistication. It is not a task for just anyone, and people who have spent a lot of time flying commercially over the past decades have discovered that times have a way of changing.”

In Vol. 6, No. 4 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in April 1998, Cooper wrote, “It appears that since the Nips were unable to defeat us in the field, they are going to try to do so at the conference table. We may lose this one, as long as we maintain the current sleaze camp in Washington. It's just another reason why we must change the administration.” He also added, “Did you see where some Nip punk recently attempted to attack a police officer in order to hijack the officer's service pistol? Upon his arrest he claimed that he just wanted to know what it was like to shoot a firearm. Now what on earth should we make of a social organization in which that sort of thing turns up!” Turning to the role of women in society, Cooper wrote, “Family member Pat Rogers tells us of a case in New York wherein a police officer correctly, justifiably, and expertly laid out a goblin on the street with his shotgun. The action had been building up for a few minutes, and there were several other police officers in the vicinity. Three of them were copchicks, who had to be taken off the line to recover their composure after having witnessed so ghastly an event. One of these girls obtained a medical discharge, and is now on a pension from the taxpayers because of what she saw in the line of duty for which she volunteered.” He went on to write, “A recent report from Africa informs us that a Bantu hunter of our acquaintance was recently set upon after dark by an armed robber. Our friend cut him down neatly and went on about his business. Naturally, I am not going to furnish any details about the nationality or locality of our friend. In cases like this, the less the authorities know, the better. Years ago in our Balsas expedition we were forcefully informed by our permit issuing authorities in Mexico City that if we had occasion to knock off a bandit, we were by no means to report the matter. Just get the body out of sight in the bushes and get on with your business.”

In Vol. 5, No. 13 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 1997, Cooper favorably quoted a National Review article that stated, “It is not ignorance, but an accurate perception of reality, that lies at the root of much of what is now called ‘white racism.’”

In Vol. 5, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in October 1997, Cooper expressed surprise that a woman could be an officer in the Marines, writing, “While in Washington I ran into a rather presentable woman of young middle age wearing the Marine Corps casual uniform. On her collar appeared three stars. As with Scarlet O'Hara, I do not want to think about that today. I will think about that tomorrow.”

In Vol. 5, No. 8 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in June 1997, Cooper wrote, “It is interesting to infer that Bill Clinton invented slavery—for which he is being called upon to apologize. If we antedate Bill somewhat, we discover that the only thing the United States government ever did about slavery was to abolish it. Perhaps that was a mistake, but I do not feel inclined to apologize for it. As Aristotle tells us, slavery is the normal condition of much of mankind, and has been a feature of all civilizations from the Bronze Age downward. Perhaps, while we are at it, we should apologize for gravity. That certainly causes a lot of trouble,.” Cooper also wrote, “The Nips hit us without warning when we were sleeping in on Sunday morning [Pearl Harbor], and our response, for the most part, was completely savage.” Finally he shared the following slogan with his readers: “If we'd known they'd have been such a nuisance, we would've picked our own cotton.”

In Vol. 5, No. 6 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 1997, Cooper bemoaned the fact that an armed fugitive was unable to shoot any law enforcement officers before being shot himself, writing, “We would appreciate any detailed reports available on the Davis Mountains shoot. As we understand it, one of the rebels took off into the hills, but was killed by police action without any effective resistance. We have no opinions about the morals of this case, but it would seem that an armed fugitive in wild country should be able to score at least once before he gets it.”

In Vol. 5, No. 2 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in February 1997, Cooper wrote, “It is certainly difficult to render a calm and compassionate view of our current system of justice. After a legal friend of ours had his car trashed on the street, apparently just for kicks, he suggested that the proper solution to our inner city problem might be the mass drowning of street punks. Every month in a different big city we should sew up a thousand of them in a huge sack and dump it into the Mississippi. Such ideas may appear fanciful, but the decent people of this country are increasingly driven against the wall. We have now made clear to the world that you should not cut the throat of the mother of your children—for fear of being heavily fined. While the federal ninja drive around in their black uniforms and face masks, we note that they never seem to bother the street gangs. Kids who have parents seem to have no fear of chastisement, and certainly those without do not even consider the possibility of retribution for their sins.”

In Vol. 4, No. 16 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 1996, Cooper wrote, “Objection to that sneaky piece that was slipped through at the last congressional session, depriving anyone convicted of ‘spouse abuse’ from forever owning a firearm, is rising to a crescendo. Certainly no one defends wife beating under any circumstances, but permanent recision [sic] of civil rights is not the answer. I have always held that the proper punishment for the wife beater is the public whipping post, but certainly not permanent deprivation of basic civil rights.” He also wrote, “Clearly propaganda is more potent than truth. Take this matter of Guernica, for example. Pablo Picasso, one of the more significant propagandists of the left, made a very successful point in claiming that the town of Guernica had been flattened from the air by the German Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War−this being an atrocity since the town had no strategic value. This point was accepted by the world press, and is now considered a fact, even for inclusion in encyclopedias. For those who have access to the official records it is clear that the Condor Legion had been grounded for two weeks prior to the occupation of the city by the Nationalist forces. Moreover, the German light bombers did not have the technical capacity for ‘carpet bombing,’ as later practiced by the Allies in Europe. Most conclusive, however, was the fact that there were no bomb craters in the streets. The buildings were pretty well demolished, but this was done from inside them. It is obviously impossible to flatten a town from the air without hitting any of the streets, but now, to the amazement of the well−informed, the German government is proposing to pay an indemnity to Spain for an atrocity never committed. Such goings on!” In reality, Guernica was bombed on April 26, 2023 by the Nazi Germany Luftwaffe and the Italian Fascist Aviazione Legionaria. The bombing is considered one of the first instances of military planes being used to target civilians. The idea that Guernica was a hoax has been propagated by supporters of right wing Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in order to cast blame upon leftist anarchists, rather than the Nazi and fascist forces, for the atrocity. Turning to a racial discrimination lawsuit brought against oil giant Texaco, Cooper wrote, “In continuing observation of what might be called the ‘hoax effect,’ Texaco has caved in to Jesse Jackson, even after both parties have discovered that the tapes responsible for the racial uproar were fake. Jesse Jackson, himself, has claimed he does not want to be bothered by the facts.” In actuality, tapes did exist of Texaco executives using racially disparaging language and plotting to destroy evidence related to the lawsuit. Texaco settled the lawsuit for $176 million.

In Vol. 4, No. 13 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in November 1996, Cooper wrote, “This is indeed a bad time for the Republic. We on the right have the issue of character available as our Sunday punch, and yet our party leaders decline to use it. You can't win if you don't fight.” He also wrote, “If machismo is lost, only money is left. One wonders if time may be ripe for a ‘male backlash’ such as suggested in Sir Henry Rider Haggard's famous novel ‘She.’ Those of you familiar with that excellent fantasy will recall that ‘the people of the rocks’ portrayed therein were a matriarchal society in which women made all the decisions and inheritance was traced entirely through the female line. According to the story, this procedure got totally out of line every second generation or so, and all the females except the very young were put to death. This seems rather extreme, but after all, the race portrayed was one of the ‘lesser breeds without the law.’”

In Vol. 4, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in September 1996, Cooper wrote, “For those who are proud of their lifetime shooting record, we learn of an old geezer, aged 96, who at the end of his life in the Transvaal boasted that he had taken 341 elephants, 187 lions, 40 kaffirs and two Englishmen. It will take some doing to top that.” “Kaffir” is a racial slur for individuals of African descent that was used in apartheid-era South Africa. The slur is analogous to the use of the N-word in the United States, and its use in South Africa is criminal.

In Vol. 4, No. 9 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in August 1996, Cooper wrote, “It turns out that a number of governments in the world manifest considerable distress at the idea of large amounts of ammunition in private hands. They insist that any man who stockpiles thousands of rounds must have some sinister and ulterior purpose which should be investigated by the state. Here we have yet another example of the thought control characteristic of the Age of the Common Man. Many on the left seem to hold that one may be punished not for what he does, but for what he thinks−as with what have come to be called ‘hate crimes.’ In this age of thought−control, various sorts of busybodies, in and out of government, feel the need to arrange your thinking for you. In this matter of ammunition, I personally like to keep a large supply on hand, not for any specific purpose, but simply because it makes me feel good … As you know, there are people such as [Democratic] Senator [Patrick] Moynihan who feel that the subtle way to disarm the people is to cut off the supply of ammunition. We hope that such people do not prevail, but it does not hurt to be prepared for unpleasant eventualities−thus we have seatbelts, crash helmets, life jackets, and pistols.”

In Vol. 4, No. 7 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in June 1996, Cooper expressed a disbelief at the existence of posttraumatic stress disorder, writing, “Family member and Orange Gunsite rangemaster Dave Harris reports a personal contact from up in northern California. He handled it perfectly, and he attributes this to his thorough indoctrination in the combat mind−set. On conclusion he was asked by his fellow police officers if he did not feel shock and distress after having disposed of a goblin. His answer was, of course, ‘Certainly not. I feel fine. How about you?’ But there are people who still push this ‘post operational trauma’ foolishness, and far too many of them are in the police service. As we have sometimes said, ‘There is nothing wrong with winning a fight. There is a great deal wrong with losing one.’”

In Vol. 4, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in February 1996, Cooper wrote, “Following the demise of the Colonial Era, a considerable number of miscreants have discovered that the post−colonial gentry in their midst have been disinclined by generations of law and order to fight back. In New Guinea, for example, the bad guys−who are referred to as ‘raskols’−have taken to pillaging the innocent in large numbers, assuming their victims will offer no resistance. As you might suppose, times have a way of changing. Recently at Port Moresby one Mr. Cragnolini, an Australian businessman, simply refused to go along with a band of raskols who burst into a restaurant in which he and his wife were dining. The news report says that there were eleven goblins, and Cragnolini cleaned up on the lot, decking four, killing two, and scattering the rest. This was a fine performance and hailed as heroism downunder, but it simply corroborates the fact that the human hyenas of the world are astonished and dismayed when their intended victims fight back. The answer to street violence is counterattack rather than more jails.” He also wrote, “According to Louis Farrakhan, who now aspires to take over Jessie Jackson's place as fuhrer of the anti−white revolution, ‘We do not say that a woman's place is in the home, but we do say that a woman's base is in the home.’ I think that is a pretty good line.”

In Vol. 4, No. 1 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in January 1996, Cooper wrote, “Reluctant as we may be to compliment a dictator who prefers to be addressed as ‘Comrade,’ we are compelled to do so in the case of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. He officially refers to homosexuals as ‘perverts who do not deserve civil rights.’ In his words, ‘Let the Americans keep their sodomy, bestiality, stupid and foolish ways to themselves. Let the gays be−gay−in the United States and Europe, but they shall be sad people here.’ How about that?”

In Vol. 3, No. 10 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in August 1995, Cooper wrote, “I do not think I mentioned the name of the BATgirl [federal law enforcement agent] who stomped the kitten to death in the course of the [Harry] Lamplugh raid. Her name is Donna Slusser. That is one to remember along with [FBI agent] Lon Horiuchi. We are treated to inquiries and investigations, but it seems very difficult to ask a straight question of a perpetrator. ‘Mr. Horiuchi, why did you shoot Vicki Weaver in the face? Ms. Slusser, why did you stomp on that kitten?’ ‘Self defense’ will not do.” The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms denied that the raid on Lamplugh’s home involved violence. Assistant Special Agent Robert Graham stated, “We are not picking on Mr. Lamplugh. I can't even tell you how many [media] shows he puts on. It really makes my blood boil to hear some nut and liar say that stuff.” Commenting on the animal stomping allegation, Graham said of Donna Slusser, “She's an animal-rights activist who has pets of her own. She won't even eat meat.” He went on to call Lamplugh “a chauvinist” for singling out the only female agent involved in the raid. The ATF conducted the raid with a valid search warrant based on suspicion that Lamplugh, who was a convicted felon, was in illegal possession of firearms because of his involvement in hosting numerous gun shows. Sixty firearms were recovered during the raid, and Lamplugh and his wife were later convicted on tax evasion charges. Lamplugh’s dubious account of the raid on his home was the impetus for a National Rifle Association fundraising letter that described federal law enforcement officers as “jack-booted thugs.”

In Vol. 3, No. 7 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in May 1995, Cooper commented on the trial of former NFL running back O.J. Simpson—who was accused of murdering his ex-wife—by writing, “We should perhaps remember that when the peasantry become enraged they burn down cities, whereas no matter how exasperated the bourgeoisie may feel, they do not take to the streets.”

In Vol. 3, No. 2 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in January 1995, Cooper wrote, “Our man in Saudi Arabia, whose name will remain private because of the possibility of his future employment there, tells us that the ragheads have really taken to the concept of spray−and−pray. Their idea of training is to acquire an enormous amount of the least powerful ammunition available and bum it up, preferably on full−auto. When one sheik, after going through several magazines with an MP5, noted that there were no holes in his target, he observed he needed more practice.”

In Vol. 2, No. 16 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 1994, he wrote, “I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as ‘ninja,’ when in the view of the critic the traditional role of the ninja in Japan was to fight against oppression and tyranny. Let us note that almost no one ever resorts to force and violence unless he is convinced that his cause is right, but without going into that let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic. It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view.” He also wrote, “For the FBI to investigate [FBI sniper Lon] Horiuchi is somewhat like Hitler's investigating [Nazi SS leader Heinrich] Himmler. But no matter what [former Attorney General Janet] Reno and [former FBI director Louis] Freeh and [former FBI agent Richard] Rogers and Horiuchi may say, that case is not closed. Whether Horiuchi committed a procedural error at Ruby Ridge is not important. What he committed was a mortal sin, and that sin will find him out. The only appropriate demise for this man now would seem to be the traditional route of sepukku [suicide], with which he should be familiar. If he needs a proper knife I have one, which I will provide to him upon request.” Horiuchi received death threats from anti-government extremists after his role in a shooting during the Ruby Ridge standoff. While attempting to shoot armed extremist Kevin Harris, Horiuchi instead killed an unarmed woman, Randy Weaver’s wife Vicki.

In Vol. 2, No. 14 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in November 1994, Cooper shared a poem celebrating a 1994 incident where a man fired 29 rounds from an assault rifle at the White House. The poem, in part, read, “The White House, it was shot up/It was only tit for tat/Shame on the fellow with the SKS/He shot like a Democrat.” Cooper also listed several “humorous” made-up statistics, including, “71% of feminist agitators tend to be ugly.”

In Vol. 2, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in September 1994, Cooper wrote, “I am simply not going to use the term ‘rifle person.’ As Churchill, master of the English language, once said, ‘Man’ embraces ‘Woman,’ which is exactly as it should be.” He also added, “The federal ninja seem to be building up their strength, and the black unmarked helicopters sneaked by Gunsite just today! Aircraft controllers tell us that these people regard themselves as above the law, and do not need clearance or authorization for any of their activities. This matter has to be explored, and I suggest that you actuate your legislators as soon as possible. We hear from a man who is in a position to know that one of the best uses for laser sights is the attack to the ground from a helicopter with a fully automatic rifle. Now who needs to know how to do this?”

In Vol. 2, No. 8 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in July 1994, Cooper wrote, “An informal poll conducted in the area of Harare (ex−Salisbury, Rhodesia) indicates that the great majority want Ian Smith back in place of Robert Mugaby. If Mugaby finds out about this, Mr. Smith's head rests very lightly on his shoulders.” Ian Smith was the white supremacist leader of Rhodesia who enforced white minority rule of the nation until 1980. Robert Mugabe became president when the country declared independence from the British and became Zimbabwe. Cooper also described a business deal gone sour involving the sale of Gunsite, his firearms training facility, as “the great lynch party of April Fool 1993.” Turning to the topic of the Vietnam War, Cooper described Vietnamese as “slant−eyed little fiends.” He then added that, “If Nicole Simpson had studied at Gunsite she would now be a wealthy widow.” Simpson was murdered in 1994 and her ex-husband former NFL star O.J. Simpson was eventually acquitted after being charged in connection with her death. Cooper then recommended that his readers purchase “Racism, Guilt and Self−Deceit" by M. Gedahlia Braun, stating “His work, which is very carefully researched and irreproachably objective, is not politically correct, which may be its strongest recommendation.” In the book’s forward, Braun writes, “It was obvious to [black Africans] that whites were ‘cleverer’ and they made no bones about it. It is whites who feel guilty about this and blame themselves for black failure. Shrewd blacks use this ‘guilt’ to blackmail, browbeat and bamboozle whites. This sham anger is a principal weapon of psychological warfare. It is used by women against men, blacks against whites, homosexuals against straights and islam [sic] against the West—though always with the help of the (alleged) wrong-doers … Blacks are deficient in abstract thinking and this leads to moral blindness … Blacks’ difficulty in thinking of the future explains, e.g., their high rate of criminality and HIV.”

In Vol. 2, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Comenntaries published in March 1994, Cooper wrote, “Major Robert Hines, of the DC Park Police, maintains that [Deputy Whitehouse Counsel for President Bill Clinton] Vincent Foster, who was found dead in the park, was in possession of a ‘38−caliber 1911 Colt army revolver.’ Now there is a collector's item for you!” He also added, “The newspaper accounts coming out of the Waco trials are quite unbelievable at this distance. It would appear that the attorneys for the FBI are talking about some other occurrence entirely. They are quoted as telling the jury that ‘These people (the Branch Davidians) wanted to destroy your country!’ Somehow I never got that impression. What I would like to find out, however, is what sort of wounds caused the death of the three BATmen [ATF agents] who entered the upper story first. Those men were buried before anyone got a good answer to that question, and evidently it was not raised at the trial. It matters, however, if the BATmen shot each other, as seems likely. That might well be verified by the nature of their wounds.” Cooper also quoted Howard McCord’s novel “The Coming Civil War in America,” stating, “What Clinton and his kind want to develop is a population which sees itself as a victim of violent crime, economic injustice, racial and sexual prejudice, and helpless to correct these wrongs without government assistance. People who see themselves as victims look to rescuers, look to those who will help, for a victim is one who is demonstrably incapable of doing things for himself. He wouldn't be a victim otherwise. And under no circumstances must a victim take action on his own to remedy the evil he suffers from. Never. He should call the government to help.” Cooper also wrote that “a woman who cannot cook, like a man who cannot shoot, is in important ways incomplete.” Finally, Cooper went on to share a quote: “Under the administration of [white supremacist Cecil] Rhodes there were the fewest laws, the widest freedom, the least crime, and the truest justice I have ever seen in any part of the world.” Rhodes, a British colonialist responsible for the founding of Rhodesia, said of the British people, “I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race.”

In Vol. 1, No. 11 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in December 1993, Cooper wrote, “Pearl Harbor Day slipped by without much notice. I daresay a huge number of our population has never heard of Pearl Harbor and has no idea of what it is like to live in a nation of unified purpose. Apparently the Nips are playing it smart by entreating us to give up our guns. That would indeed be a proper revenge for their defeat. They could not destroy us in battle so they are now doing their best to destroy us politically by abrogating our constitution. They cannot accomplish this by themselves, but they are getting a lot of help from our own wimp culture.”

In Vol. 1, No. 9 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in October 1993, Cooper wrote, “This ‘family values’ concept seems to be burgeoning amongst the counterculture. Just recently in Phoenix a professional burglar went about his business accompanied by his wife and children. (Was he perhaps thinking of the statement, ‘The family that preys together, stays together’?) In any case, when he was shot dead by one of his victims in broad daylight, his wife, who was driving the getaway car, and his children, who were interested observers, were much upset. One observer opined in the newspaper that you should not shoot people for stealing stuff. It gives one to wonder. Obviously, the constituted minions of the law are doing little about people who steal stuff. Perhaps it is indeed time for ‘the militia’ to take over. Remember that according to the Founding Fathers the militia is constituted of all the people, except for a few public servants.” He added, “Back in the Dark Ages, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation occupied a place of glory in the eyes of the young. The FBI under John Edgar Hoover was an organization to be held up as a goal for young men of sufficient ‘patriotism, valor, fidelity, and abilities.’ Now then, see what has happened! In addition to its various other transgressions, such as the Randy Weaver disaster in Idaho, the FBI has now come out for the disarmament of the American people, and has issued an official press release totally exonerating the Bureau for any sort of transgression in the Waco atrocity. I do not suppose there is anyone who has not seen the Linda Thompson tape of the action of the Federal ninja at Waco. The attempt to clear the Feds of any sort of misdemeanor in that episode completely destroys the credibility of the Bureau. Lo how the mighty are fallen!” Cooper also shared the following story: “It seems that a felon armed with a 357 revolver robbed a bank. As he left the bank, he was accosted by a policeman whom he murdered with one shot. Great excitement ensued, with the felon taking hostages and racing madly around from one store to another. When the forces of law and order had been mobilized and surrounded the goblin, a policeman volunteered to trade himself to the goblin for two hostages. This offer was accepted, at which time the felon fired at the policeman and seriously wounded him. The forces of law and order opened up with everything they had, which was mostly AUG and Glock fire. Shortly, the goblin killed himself with one round. He had fired three times and achieved three hits. The police, according to their official report, fired 1,261 rounds without drawing blood. At one time, we used to refer to an event of this sort as a ‘Chinese Fire Drill.’ Later we came to call if ‘Father's Day in Harlem.’ After the interment of the Ayatollah Khomeini, we began to call it ‘An Iranian Funeral.’ Now, I guess we can call it ‘A Viennese Bank Robbery.’ As I have often stated, if someone wants to shoot at me, I sure hope he does it on full−auto.”

In Vol. 1, No. 6 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in September 1993, he wrote, “I do not know who can speak for the ‘American People’−certainly not I−but street crime I can handle, whereas if I resist the ninja [federal law enforcement agents] I will almost certainly perish. No reasonably competent man need be afraid of crumby little punks in big cities, but those people in black masks breaking down your doors in the small hours of the morning and backed up by armored vehicles and helicopters are too much for the householder, even if they do tend to be overweight and bad shots. These are dark times indeed, and we bear up as best we may.” Cooper also added that in World War II, “The Germans gathered together ethnic divisions from all over Europe in which men of the same linguistic and cultural background could serve together. The Georgian SS division conducted itself with distinction in normal military action, but a good many people seem to think that anybody who was ever a member of the SS was automatically a war criminal.” The SS were the armed wing of the Nazi Party and were charged with implementing Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” to rid Europe of Jews and other groups of people the Nazi leader hated.

In Vol. 1, No. 3 of Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries published in July 1993, Cooper wrote, “Nonetheless, it is the month in which we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in which it was set forth unmistakably for posterity that human rights are not granted by man but rather by God, and that when any government or institution threatens those rights it is the duty of the people to abolish it. That is an idea especially pungent at this stage of America's political devolution.” He also added, “It was interesting to observe the Attorney General [Janet Reno] coming forth to ‘accept full responsibility’ for the atrocity at Waco. One wonders what that means. When one accepts responsibility, one accepts appropriate punishment for one's transgression. The Japanese have a long tradition of the proper means of accepting responsibility. It is conducted by means of a short, sharp knife. I have such a piece in my armory and I would be glad to part with it in a good cause, such as appropriate use by the Attorney General.” Continuing to discuss standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco between anti-government extremists and federal law enforcement, Cooper wrote, “How long are the American people going to put up with this sort of thing? It is popular, at this time, to compare the behavior of our uncontrolled federal agents to that of the Nazis in the Third Reich. It may be that this is a valid comparison, but the Nazis are long ago and far away, whereas the ninja in the US are right now in full−cry and apparently without fear of any sort of control. They move mainly at night. They conceal their faces. They use overwhelming firepower and they make almost no effort to identify their targets. They are scarier than the Nazis − who at least never concealed their faces.”

In a November 15, 2023 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Cox wrote about the November 6 presidential election, stating, “As long as dedicated patriots continue to band together and fight as though freedom itself is on the line—because it is—we will defend the Second Amendment in [President Barack] Obama’s second term and save it for generations to come. For gun owners, the next four years won’t just be the fight of our lives, it will be a fight for the future of our nation. We’re ready to lead the charge.”

On October 5, 2012, Cox announced the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund’s endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Fishersville, Virginia. Cox stated, “Friends, what we do between now and November 6th will determine the type of country our kids and our grandkids grow up in. The question is, will it be a country of more government, more spending, more debt, more government intrusion into our personal lives, and less freedom? It’s important because that’s [President] Barack Obama’s vision for the future of our country. It’s a country we’d hardly recognize, let alone wanna live in … There are a hundred reasons to deny Barack Obama four more years in office, but none are more important than defending the freedoms that make this country great. These are the freedoms that we have to fight for because these are the freedoms that are at stake in this election. So fight. Do everything you can between now and election day … Today, we live in an America that is getting harder to recognize every day led by a President who mocks our values, belittles our faith, and is threatened by our freedom. Barack Obama is just another Washington, D.C. politician who will say whatever it takes to get elected. But don’t believe him … Thankfully we have a choice and the choice could not be more clear.”

On July 12, 2012, Cox wrote a letter to U.S. Senators in opposition to the DISCLOSE Act of 2012, a bill that would require disclosure of the corporations and high-dollar individual donors paying for “independent expenditure” political ads. In the letter, Cox stated that the Act’s “provisions require organizations to turn membership and donor lists over to the government” and would violate the right of citizens “to speak and associate privately and anonymously.” Cox threatened, “Due to the importance of the fundamental speech and associational rights of the National Rifle Association’s four million members, and considering the blatant attack on those rights that S. 3369 represents, we strongly oppose the DISCLOSE Act and will consider votes on this legislation in future candidate evaluations.” In fact, groups such as the NRA would not be required to disclose their entire membership or donor list, only the names of those donors whose aggregate donation during the reporting cycle was $10,000 or more. Organizations like the NRA could keep the names of some of their high dollar donors private under the legislation by setting up a separate bank account for independent political spending. Groups would only have to disclose the names of their high dollar donors whose money funded such independent expenditures. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in the controversial Citizens United decision endorsed this sort of disclosure as “the less-restrictive alternative to more comprehensive speech regulations.”

In a June 28, 2012, interview with NRA News, Cox spoke about a vote in the House of Representatives to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt for refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena for documents related to the “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border. Cox stated, “The truth is, we’ve talked a lot about our dislike of Eric Holder. There’s no surprise that we think there’s something there … We believe, and have every reason to believe, that this was all part of their agenda to undermine the Second Amendment … I can assure you that Eric Holder’s contempt for the Second Amendment is the only thing that probably is stronger than Congress’ contempt for Eric Holder … We called for Eric Holder’s resignation over a year ago … But the best way to deal with Eric Holder, the best way to deal with these problems, is to defeat this president in November and to get some new people in there that have a little bit of common sense, a little bit of law enforcement background, that is legitimate, and that won’t be used to pursue a political agenda.” A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2023 found that there is no evidence that “Fast and Furious” was part of a broader conspiracy to advance new gun regulations. The report also found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in the investigation until after it was concluded in 2011.

In an April 17, 2012, interview with NRA News at the 2012 NRA Convention in St. Louis, Cox stated, “This is a different kind of election. This isn’t a normal election. This is going to be the toughest fight of our lives…losing is simply not an option … We know what [President Barack Obama’s] campaign strategy is. They’re gonna tell people for the next six months that nobody’s guns have been banned, that the president supports the Second Amendment. It’s a lie .” He continued, stating, “This is about economic freedom. It’s about religious freedom. It’s about constitutional freedom and the most fundamental of all of ‘em is your ability to defend the rest, which is the Second Amendment. And it’s at risk. It’s in play in this election. And we simply can’t afford to lose it.”

In a November 15, 2023 op-ed for the Daily Caller, Cox wrote about the November 6 presidential election, stating, “As long as dedicated patriots continue to band together and fight as though freedom itself is on the line—because it is—we will defend the Second Amendment in [President Barack] Obama’s second term and save it for generations to come. For gun owners, the next four years won’t just be the fight of our lives, it will be a fight for the future of our nation. We’re ready to lead the charge.”

On October 5, 2012, Cox announced the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund’s endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Fishersville, Virginia. Cox stated, “Friends, what we do between now and November 6th will determine the type of country our kids and our grandkids grow up in. The question is, will it be a country of more government, more spending, more debt, more government intrusion into our personal lives, and less freedom? It’s important because that’s [President] Barack Obama’s vision for the future of our country. It’s a country we’d hardly recognize, let alone wanna live in … There are a hundred reasons to deny Barack Obama four more years in office, but none are more important than defending the freedoms that make this country great. These are the freedoms that we have to fight for because these are the freedoms that are at stake in this election. So fight. Do everything you can between now and election day … Today, we live in an America that is getting harder to recognize every day led by a President who mocks our values, belittles our faith, and is threatened by our freedom. Barack Obama is just another Washington, D.C. politician who will say whatever it takes to get elected. But don’t believe him … Thankfully we have a choice and the choice could not be more clear.”

On July 12, 2012, Cox wrote a letter to U.S. Senators in opposition to the DISCLOSE Act of 2012, a bill that would require disclosure of the corporations and high-dollar individual donors paying for “independent expenditure” political ads. In the letter, Cox stated that the Act’s “provisions require organizations to turn membership and donor lists over to the government” and would violate the right of citizens “to speak and associate privately and anonymously.” Cox threatened, “Due to the importance of the fundamental speech and associational rights of the National Rifle Association’s four million members, and considering the blatant attack on those rights that S. 3369 represents, we strongly oppose the DISCLOSE Act and will consider votes on this legislation in future candidate evaluations.” In fact, groups such as the NRA would not be required to disclose their entire membership or donor list, only the names of those donors whose aggregate donation during the reporting cycle was $10,000 or more. Organizations like the NRA could keep the names of some of their high dollar donors private under the legislation by setting up a separate bank account for independent political spending. Groups would only have to disclose the names of their high dollar donors whose money funded such independent expenditures. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in the controversial Citizens United decision endorsed this sort of disclosure as “the less-restrictive alternative to more comprehensive speech regulations.”

In the May 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Cox wrote, “If you’re like me…you’re disgusted by what has come out of the White House in the last three years. It’s not just [President Barack] Obama’s false claim of supporting the Second Amendment, whether to win election in 2008…or to dupe voters in electoral battleground states today. It’s also the repetitive, arrogant disregard for legal and traditional limits on presidential power.” Cox concluded, stating, “Together our ballots will help decide whether…election day 2012 goes down in history as the day we reaffirmed our belief that America is different, and ended the failed Obama experiment once and for all.”

On April 14, 2012, in a speech at the NRA Convention in St. Louis, Cox stated, “Friends, I know why President [Barack] Obama pays so little attention to the law. He thinks he’s above the law … He seems to think he’s the king of all three branches. How’s that for arrogance, folks?” Later, Cox referred to a discussion President Obama had with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in which he told Medvedev he would have “more flexibility” to deal with contentious foreign policy issues, such as missile defense, following the November 2012 elections. Cox quipped, “In other words, ‘cut me some slack Dmitry. Once I con these annoying voters into reelecting me in November, I can do whatever I want.’” Cox then warned the audience, “The stakes of this year’s election couldn’t be higher … Freedom is what’s at stake and it’s what we’ll lose if we fail. Let us cling to our firearms…with every fiber of our being.”

In the February 2011 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Cox accused “anti-gun groups” of a “secretive…assault on the Second Amendment through [administrative agencies],” stating, “anti-gun forces will use any means at their disposal, no matter how undemocratic, to undermine the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.” Cox made reference to Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ “Blueprint for Federal Action,” a document which calls for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to promulgate or clarify certain regulations, including a regulation to require firearm manufacturers, distributors and dealers to report thefts of their products as soon as they are made aware of them; a regulation requiring gun manufacturers to put a second, hidden, serial number on every newly manufactured gun, and; a regulation requiring domestic manufacturers to use a standardized system for numbering firearms. Legislation that creates an administrative agency often authorizes the agency to promulgate rules through notice-and-comment rulemaking. The agency may also interpret the provisions of the legislation that created it, if the legislation is ambiguous and the agency interpretation is reasonable.

In the February 2011 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Cox accused “anti-gun groups” of a “secretive…assault on the Second Amendment through [administrative agencies],” stating, “anti-gun forces will use any means at their disposal, no matter how undemocratic, to undermine the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.” Cox made reference to Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ “Blueprint for Federal Action,” a document which calls for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to promulgate or clarify certain regulations, including a regulation to require firearm manufacturers, distributors and dealers to report thefts of their products as soon as they are made aware of them; a regulation requiring gun manufacturers to put a second, hidden, serial number on every newly manufactured gun, and; a regulation requiring domestic manufacturers to use a standardized system for numbering firearms. Legislation that creates an administrative agency often authorizes the agency to promulgate rules through notice-and-comment rulemaking. The agency may also interpret the provisions of the legislation that created it, if the legislation is ambiguous and the agency interpretation is reasonable.

On May 15, 2023 in a speech at the NRA Convention in Charlotte, Cox asked the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, did you ever have the memory of some event in your life sneak up on you out of nowhere, smack you in the face and make you cringe with regret because you wish you had done something different? Now, I’m not talking about college indiscretions. I’m talking about Election Day 2008 [when President Barack Obama was elected president]. I bet a lot of people look back on that day and wish they could turn back the clock.” He continued, stating, “Every pro-gun leader you elect and anti-gun politician you defeat means fewer bad laws and more good laws. Good laws that make us all safer and prove that we're right, the gun-haters are wrong, and they need to keep their hands off our safety and our freedom ... That’s important, because every time we reduce fees, extend the length of your permit, or expand where you can carry can mean the difference between life and death. Self-defense reform is real health care reform.” He warned, “Look at what these politicians are doing. To pay for things we didn't ask for, can't afford, and don't need...they're scrapping things we can't live without ... When all this hits the fan and the politicians want cheap, easy answers, guess whose guns they're gonna come after? Yours and mine.”

On May 16, 2009, in a speech at the NRA Convention in Phoenix, Cox stated, “The sanctity of the Second Amendment, all of our rights, all of our freedom, is in your hands. Freedom calls you to her defense now more than ever before because she's under attack like never before.” This was because of the appointments/confirmations of Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief-of-Staff, Eric Holder as U.S. Attorney General, and Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Cox explained. “We all know what to expect from our opponents,” he said, “They exploit tragedies. But to be honest with you, I never thought they’d pick an international tragedy. And as you've seen— that's exactly what they're doing with Mexico ... It’s been estimated that 100,000 Mexican soldiers have deserted the military in recent years to go work for the cartels. This is Mexico's problem. But the media and anti-gun politicians want us to believe that one more American gun control law or some international agreement will turn these ruthless murderers into boy scouts. You have got to be kiddin' me! We need to find 'em, arrest em', and send em' with the rest of the terrorists to Guantanamo Bay. Oh yeah, I forgot, that would be too ‘cruel.’ We should welcome them with open arms into our neighborhoods.” Cox warned, “Friends, these threats are real. Americans are concerned, and they're buyin' guns. So let’s give credit where credit’s due: In these tough times, the Obama administration deserves credit for the only part of the economy that’s goin’ strong—gun sales.” Finally, Cox told a story that “sums up the sorry state of affairs in [Washington,] D.C.”: “It’s 2006. Melroy Cort [an Iraq War veteran who had both legs amputated] and his wife are driving from their home in Ohio to Maryland. They drive through Washington, D.C. to get there. Melroy has a valid Ohio [concealed handgun] permit and he's carrying his 9mm in the car for protection. While driving through D.C., they get a flat tire, and pull over to fix it. Concerned, he takes his gun from the car and puts it in his jacket. Someone sees it happen and dials 911. Within minutes, the police show up and arrest him ... Now let me tell you a little something about D.C. If neighbors call 911 about some crack deal in progress there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll even send someone. But when a Marine Corporal –confined to a wheelchair because of his service to our country—strays into D.C. with his legally owned firearm they can’t put him in jail fast enough. And that’s our nation’s capital for ya. If you’re a gun owner, they put you in jail. But if you’re Mayor, and get caught smoking crack, they put you on the City Council.” The latter reference was to former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who went on to serve on the D.C. City Council.

In 2011, Craig lobbied Congress to remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act. The former U.S. Senator’s client, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, wanted the gray wolf de-listed because of concern that a recovered wolf population would eat big game animals prized by hunters. Once common in throughout North America, the gray wolf is now extinct in all but a few locations in the United States.

In an August 2007 letter to a constituent who asked about the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy concerning homosexuality, Craig wrote, “It is unacceptable to risk the lives of American soldiers and sailors merely to accommodate the sexual lifestyles of certain individuals.”

In a video appearance at a 2007 “Friends of the NRA” dinner, Craig suggested that it was plausible that total firearm confiscation could occur in the United States and said, “When the government is the sole owner of firearms, you and I then become the subjects of a government, or the victims of a government, and not the free citizen that this country has been built on.”

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Craig was hesitant to provide federal funds to aid the recovery. Preferring instead that the damaged areas of New Orleans be abandoned, he said, “Fraud is in the culture of Iraqis. I believe that is true in the state of Louisiana as well.” Craig suggested that the Lower Ninth Ward be turned “back to what it was, a wetland.”

In a 1999 appearance on Meet the Press, Craig criticized then-President Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair, calling Clinton “a nasty, bad, naughty boy”.

Craig urged his sexual partners to keep quiet by using threats, reportedly telling one man in 1986, “I can buy and sell your ass a thousand times over. You were never here.”

On the June 20, 2023 broadcast of “Cam & Company,” Edwards hosted blogger Frank Borelli. Borelli likened police officers enforcing Maryland’s gun laws to German soldiers during the Nazi regime. Responding to a question by Edwards about an editorial criticizing sheriffs who refuse to enforce newly passed gun laws, Borelli said, “I'd like to ask Mr. [Maryland State Delegate Jon] Cardin one question: Does he feel that when Nazis working the death camps used the excuse of, ‘I was just following orders.’ Was that an acceptable excuse and did it exempt them for moral turpitude for their actions? And I'd like to hear him justify that.”

On the March 15, 2023 broadcast of “Cam & Company,” Edwards spoke about the arrest of New York linen mogul George Bardwil on illegal gun possession charges after Bardwil brandished a firearm not registered in his name in his home during an attempted robbery. “You are still looking at three years in prison for acting in self-defense in your own home,” Edwards stated, adding that the situation was "pretty awful.” “I thought we lived in the United States of America,” said Edwards. “[New York City] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg still has the, well I'll use the word tenacity, this is a family friendly show, still has the tenacity and the gall to say he is not anti-gun. If that is the case, why don't you call up your buddy the DA, chew him out, and get those charges dropped against George Bardwil?” In 2008, Bardwil pled guilty to assaulting a housemaid. In May 2012, Bardwil was arrested and subsequently charged with second degree assault, a class D felony in New York, after his ex-wife accused him of repeatedly slamming her head into the ground causing her to be hospitalized. (Criminal Activity, Women’s Rights)

On the March 15, 2023 broadcast of “Cam & Company,” Edwards spoke about the arrest of New York linen mogul George Bardwil on illegal gun possession charges after Bardwil brandished a firearm not registered in his name in his home during an attempted robbery. “You are still looking at three years in prison for acting in self-defense in your own home,” Edwards stated, adding that the situation was "pretty awful.” “I thought we lived in the United States of America,” said Edwards. “[New York City] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg still has the, well I'll use the word tenacity, this is a family friendly show, still has the tenacity and the gall to say he is not anti-gun. If that is the case, why don't you call up your buddy the DA, chew him out, and get those charges dropped against George Bardwil?” In 2008, Bardwil pled guilty to assaulting a housemaid. In May 2012, Bardwil was arrested and subsequently charged with second degree assault, a class D felony in New York, after his ex-wife accused him of repeatedly slamming her head into the ground causing her to be hospitalized.

On the October 18, 2023 broadcast of “Cam & Company,” Edwards spoke to George Kollitides, CEO of Remington Arms. Discussing the 2012 presidential election, Kollitides stated, “I think this will be the most important election of our lifetime. The next president is going to be in an incredibly powerful position to appoint [U.S.] Supreme Court justices. It’s one thing to legislate a gun ban. That can always be overturned by a future president, a future Congress, and Congress can fight it, of course, and hope they don’t get vetoed and overruled. We’ve had the benefit of a strict interpretist Supreme Court which has been conservative and really held up the core traditional values of our country. So, I don’t necessarily just worry about the next four years of an [Barack] Obama presidency, I worry about my kids and my grandkids futures, because if we change face of the Supreme Court, we’re looking at a thirty-plus-year uphill battle.” Edwards replied, “Absolutely right … We are likely to see, over the next four years, whoever is president have the opportunity to put one perhaps as many as three or four justices on the Supreme Court and that will impact our lives for decades to come … We really can’t afford a court that is going to be hostile to gun owners.” Kollitides continued, stating, “Not only will the Second Amendment be under attack if we go to a liberal non-strict-interpretative court, but it’ll be the entire American way of life. When we appoint liberal judges, they take it upon themselves not to interpret the laws but to legislate the laws and there’s a lot of liberal courts doing that. So, the appeal needs to be not just to gun owners, although that’s obviously critically important…but I think many of the things we think about, all of our freedoms will be at risk. You know the liberal courts and the liberal politicians believe they know what’s best for Americans. They’re gonna tell us when we have to get health care. They’re gonna tell us what time we have to get out of bed every day. They’re gonna tell us where we have to go to work. They’re gonna take our money and redistribute it. This is an issue that every American needs to be worried about.” After Kollitides finished speaking, Edwards replied, “Absolutely.”

On the August 17, 2023 broadcast of “Cam & Company,” Edwards spoke with James Manley, an attorney with the Mountain State Legal Foundation who represented a pro-gun group that brought suit against the University of Colorado for their policy prohibiting guns on campus. After the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the university could not prohibit students from carrying guns on campus, the university announced that gun-carrying students who wished to take advantage of on-campus housing would be required to live in a designated dorm. The University of Colorado cited concerns about “potentially dangerous living situation potentially dangerous living situations” as the rationale for its new policy. Edwards commented on the policy by stating, "Segregated dorms. Yes. How progressive. We are back to segregation now."

On the May 22, 2023 broadcast of “Cam & Company,” Edwards spoke with National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) adjunct fellow Horace Cooper. NCPRR was founded one day after the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) disbanded its Public Safety and Elections Task Force, which was responsible for model voter ID and “Stand Your Ground” legislation. NCPPR promotes the implementation of voter ID laws at the state level in order to “enhance integrity in voting.” On the show, Cooper claimed that voter fraud is “a real problem” and that “felons, illegal immigrants, or just people who are paid to show up...go from one voting site to the next and cast votes in the names of other people.” Edwards agreed with Cooper and displayed a graphic which claimed that newly enacted voter ID legislation in Virginia “will ensure that voters presenting themselves at the polls are who they say they are, and greatly reduce voter fraud.” Cooper expressed NCPPR’s preference for voter ID laws similar to those in Texas and South Carolina, stating that these laws contain “grade A voter ID requirements.” Those laws have been challenged in court by the Department of Justice over allegations that they disenfranchise minorities. Furthermore, research has shown that in-person voter fraud of the kind Cooper warns about is extremely rare in the United States. Finally, in 2010, Cooper, a former Department of Labor official, pled guilty to falsifying a document after he failed to report gifts worth thousands of dollars which he received from convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In the March 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Ermey was interviewed by NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox. Ermey told him, “Some things I’ve said have ended up on Keith Olbermann’s show and I consider that a badge of honor. When he gets upset about something, it makes me happy. When it comes to politics and religion, you can’t please everyone. The people on the wrong side of the fence need to do a little more research.” When asked about his role in the NRA’s “Trigger the Vote” campaign, Ermey stated, “We need to take this country back and do it right now. I fought for this country, and now I’m watching these protesters and politicians destroy this country, so I have to consider them my enemies–just politically of course.”

In December 2010, while appearing at a “Toys for Tots” rally, Ermey said, “We’re having a big problem this year.  The economy really sucks.  Now I hate to point fingers at anybody, but the present administration probably has a lot to do with that.  And the way I see it they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees.  So I think we should rise all rise up and we should stop his administration from what they are doing because they are destroying this country.  They’re driving us into bankruptcy so they can impose Socialism on us.”

Prior to the November 2006 Congressional elections, Froman urged NRA members to vote for Republican candidates in a column in America’s 1^st Freedom, writing, “Disaster is looming on Nov. 7, and I need your help to save our freedom. I’m not exaggerating. We are at the edge of a dangerous political precipice. If we stumble, we will fall back to a pre-1994 [Democratic] anti-Second Amendment Congress. If we fail to act, out of apathy or because we want someone else to do our job, we betray not only ourselves but our children and grandchildren. We betray our country and Founding Fathers. Every gain we’ve made for the Second Amendment could be reversed unless we win this critical election.” Froman also added, “We are at war. Our freedom is at stake. The Second Amendment is America’s original homeland security and you, my fellow NRA members, are at the heart of our national defense. But Pelosi and her fellow extremists, who are hoping to take control, oppose our national security efforts and oppose your Right to Keep and Bear Arms.” Democrats did gain control of the House during the 2006 elections, and were the majority party until the Republicans retook the House in 2010.

In a 2006 interview with her alma mater’s alumni magazine, Stanford Magazine, Froman said, “Everyone is safer when criminals don’t know who is armed. I’m this five-foot-two middle-aged lady, but they don’t know I’ll shoot their guts out.”

In a column in the August 2005 edition of America’s 1^st Freedom, From an wrote, “Activist judges in some courtrooms have been ignoring—or in some cases rewriting—the Constitution as they push a radical agenda on the American people. The political left, unable to pass its extremist agenda at the ballot box and losing elections across the board, has turned to the courtroom to undermine our constitutional order, Bill of Rights and basic American institutions.”

In a January 7, 2024 interview with the Florida Current, Hammer was asked, “Do you think that ‘the people’ can remain ‘sovereign’ if a democratically elected government imposes strict regulations on gun ownerships?” Hammer replied, “No. Second Amendment rights are the means with which the people retain sovereignty. Give up your power to remain free and you are no longer free. Just because a government was ‘democratically’ elected does not mean it is a righteous government or that the electorate got the government they thought they were electing.”

In a December 28, 2023 op-ed for the Tallahassee Democrat, Hammer responded to an op-ed by Martin Dyckman, a retired associate editor of the newspaper formerly known as the St. Petersburg Times, in which he wrote that the NRA must reclaim its moderate voices. Hammer wrote, “The NRA never has been, and never will be, ‘moderate’ in its defense of the Second Amendment and freedom in America … When our constitutional rights came under threat from those like Dyckman who would disarm America, we took up the mission of protecting the Second Amendment, which is at the very heart of freedom and safety for the law-abiding … Instead of blaming poor parenting for producing gang-bangers, they blame guns.”

In July 2012, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee sent Hammer a three-page letter in response to a survey she had sent to sheriff candidates around the state of Florida on behalf of the NRA and the United Sportsmen of Florida. One question asked, “Would you support legislation to restrict or ban the lawful manufacture, sale, transfer, ownership or possession of firearms?” Gee responded with examples of how courts have restricted the Second Amendment; including a prohibition on felons possessing firearms. Gee stated, “Since I am legally and morally bound to follow the law as defined by the Supreme Court of the United States, I freely accept their decision.” The survey also stated, “Businesses have been using off-duty law enforcement officers—in their official uniforms—as private security and have been SEARCHING private vehicles that are parked in business parking lots." Gee objected to the question, stating that it implies that when an officer asks for permission to search a vehicle, that officer is being "inherently coercive." He wrote, “Courts allow these consent searches.” The Florida Sheriff's Association drafted its own response to Hammer's questionnaire, writing, “The Sheriffs in our state have long defended a citizen's right to keep and bear arms as outlined in the Second Amendment of the Constitution. However, the Sheriffs also have a duty to oppose legislation that would reduce public safety and place citizens and law enforcement officers at greater risk. It is unfortunate that some would view this common sense approach as being anti-Second Amendment, as this is far from our position as our history has shown."

In June 2012, Hammer sent a survey on behalf of the NRA and the United Sportsmen of Florida to sheriffs candidates around the state of Florida. One question about Florida’s first-in-the-nation “Stand Your Ground” law asked, “Do you agree that no victim of crime should be required to surrender his life, health, safety, personal dignity, autonomy, or property to a criminal, nor should a victim be required to retreat in the face of attack from any place he or she has a right to be?” There were two possible answers: “Yes, I believe the ‘Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground’ is appropriate and victims have a right to fight back without a duty to retreat,” or “No, I oppose the ‘Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground’ and believe victims should surrender to criminals or retreat to avoid fighting back.” Another question asked whether candidates support a law that would allow someone with a concealed weapons permit to openly display a gun. Those in favor could answer, “Yes, I support open carry…as a means to stop harassment by those anti-gun law enforcement officers [who question or arrest individuals who openly carry guns in public].”

Several other survey questions addressed the NRA’s goal of prohibiting sheriffs from lobbying for gun safety legislation. One question asked, “Do you believe it is appropriate for a sheriff to lobby or use deputies and/or their deputies to lobby against the Second Amendment rights of the law-abiding citizens they are sworn to serve?” Another question asked, “Do you believe it is appropriate for a sheriff or any of his deputies or employees to lobby on issues against the constitutional rights of law-abiding firearms owners , in the name of the Sheriff, Sheriffs department or any Organization or Association in any official law enforcement capacity?” The two possible answers were: “No, I would not allow it. Our duty is to respect and serve our community and uphold the law and the Constitution,” or “Yes, I would allow it if it makes things more convenient for law enforcement.” Commenting on the issue, Hammer stated, “We don’t believe it’s appropriate for any law enforcement agency to be lobbying against the Second Amendment rights guaranteed by the constitution of the citizens they were elected to protect and represent.”

The cover sheet attached to the four-page survey warned in bold letters, “No endorsement or support will be provided to a candidate who fails to return the questionnaire.” Hammer said about the survey, “Voters have a right and a responsibility to know who they are voting for. I’m not apologetic if that offends the Florida Sheriffs Association and anti-gun sheriffs.” Florida Sheriffs Association Executive Director Steve Casey responded that sheriffs are neither “pro-gun” nor “anti-gun.” “They’re pro public safety,” he said. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson stated that the NRA “doesn't want the sheriffs to be in Tallahassee to work on any kind of legislation, which we have taken for years...to try and work for good laws for the state of Florida such as narcotics laws, pill laws, traffic safety.” Johnson, a longtime NRA member, added that it is “sad to see [the NRA] take such a hard line on it.”

On March 20, 2012, Hammer responded to the controversial shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. The shooter, who was not arrested, claimed that he acted in self-defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Hammer, the NRA lobbyist who championed the law in the Florida state legislature, stated, “So for law enforcement to rush to judgment just because they are being stampeded by emotionalism would be a violation of law. This law is not about one incident. It's about protecting the right of law-abiding people to protect themselves when they are attacked. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the law. And if the [Republican] governor [Rick Scott] wants to waste time looking at it he can knock himself out.” Since its enactment in 2005, the “Stand Your Ground Law” has been tied to a number of shootings that involved the questionable use of deadly force.

During the 2011 legislative session, Hammer lobbied for a bill to force Florida’s cities and counties to repeal local rules regulating firearms that are stricter than state law. The legislation instituted fines for local officials who fail to comply, and gave gun owners a right to sue for damages if they believe their rights have been violated.

Municipal leaders stood in strong opposition to the bill. “This probably passed because of someone from the NRA, someone who doesn’t care about urban conditions,” said Aaron Campbell, vice mayor of Miami Gardens. “It’s sad that a piece of legislation can pass like this.” Elaine H. Black of the Liberty City Trust stated, “I’m concerned about some deranged person who doesn’t like what our government is doing coming in and shooting someone. If I can go now into the Miami Riverside Center, the main operating office of Miami, or any municipal building—and there’s always someone who’s walking into that door who’s not happy with government. Maybe you put a lien on my property, and I think that’s not right—I can walk in with a gun and shoot you.” The Florida League of Cities was concerned that the bill changed a longstanding common law practice of shielding elected and appointed officials from civil lawsuits relating to their job function.

Hammer dismissed these concerns, saying, “You’re not going to have every Tom, Dick and Harry carrying a firearm on their person up and down the streets and into buildings because it’s a felony [unless the person has a license to carry a concealed weapon].” When asked why it why it was OK for municipal leaders to beef up local laws on a host of other issues, such as where sex offenders can live, Hammer replied, “Sex offenders are not protected by the Constitution.” She added, “The right to keep and bear arms has Constitutional protection and ocal governments have been violating the Constitutional rights with no punishment.”

Hammer described elected officials who wish to regulate guns on the local level as “gun hating-Liberals.” “The legislature...made it clear in [1987] legislation that no future ordinances regulating firearms and ammunition could be adopted," she said. "And through that 24 years, there have been a number of counties that have arrogantly done it anyhow because there were no penalties in that bill.”

The legislation was signed into law by Republican Governor Rick Scott and went into effect on October 1, 2011.

During the 2011 legislative session in Florida, the Florida Sheriff’s Association opposed a bill that sought to allow people to openly carry firearms in public without storing them in safety holsters. Seminole Sheriff Don Eslinger, speaking on behalf of the association, testified that the legislation was a bad idea in a tourist state, and pointed out that visible weapons are ripe targets for thieves—especially if a gun isn't properly secured. "Many officers are killed with their own guns," Eslinger noted. "And keep in mind, these are skilled practitioners."

Hammer, who was the primary lobbyist for the bill, explained that an Open Carry law was needed because, “Silly as it may sound, if a license holder is carrying a concealed firearm and the wind blows open a jacket or a shirt exposing the firearm, the person can be charged with a crime for violating the Open Carry law ... This is Florida. It gets really hot here in the summer. A lot of times folks might go into a restaurant or into, you know, a meeting and they have on a suit with a coat and it’s hot and they want to take off their jacket, if they’re carrying in a shoulder holster or in a pants holster they can’t take a jacket off and expose the firearm because then they would be violating the Open Carry law." She was unable to provide any specific examples of permit holders being arrested for such violations.

Speaking about opponents of the bill, Hammer said, "Open Carry was one of those things that we lost here in Florida when we passed concealed carry because the gun haters said that carrying openly would scare people so we ended up with Open Carry being banned in Florida 24 years ago ... claim that everybody’s going to strap a holster on and a gun on their hip and walk up and down Main Street. Well, that’s nonsense, that’s nothing more than emotional hysterics designed to try to kill a bill.”

When she was asked about the Florida sheriffs who lobbied against Open Carry, Hammer accused them of "bullying" legislators and said, "a lot of 'em are [anti-gun radicals]." "In my 34 years, I’ve not seen anything this egregious," Hammer added.

Republican Governor Rick Scott eventually signed a watered-down version of the bill into law on June 17, 2011.

Hammer was the primary lobbyist for a bill introduced in the Florida state legislature in January 2011 that sought to force the state’s colleges and universities to allow guns on campus. Under SB 234, anyone with a concealed handgun permit recognized by Florida would have been able to carry a loaded gun onto a college campus—including into classrooms and dormitories.

The bill was introduced just days after Florida State University sophomore Ashley Cowie, 20, was accidentally shot and killed at a fraternity party by fellow student Ryan Wilhelm, who discharged his semiautomatic AK-74 assault rifle while showing it off. Wilhelm had a blood alcohol level of approximately .10 at the time of the shooting and had also been smoking marijuana.

Commenting about the shooting, Hammer emphasized it happened off-campus in a fraternity house where guns are banned. “With shootings on campus, they are essentially a gun-free zone and in a gun-free zone the good guys don’t have a chance,” she said.

When asked why SB 234 was necessary, Hammer replied, “There’s a lot of safety by allowing guns on campus. That’s how a lot of us protect ourselves because law enforcement can’t be there when we need them. Law enforcement is not stopping rapes on campus, and not stopping a lot of crimes ... "Nothing about a university or college campus should take away an individual's right of self-defense."”

In response to those who questioned the wisdom of arming young people in an academic environment often characterized by stress and heated debate, Hammer made the following argument: “In order to qualify for a license, a person has to be 21 years of age or older. We’re not talking about teenage freshmen or underclassmen, so folks shouldn’t let anybody put that false image in your head However, we need to remember that this country asks 18 year olds to go to war and die for this country but we don’t let ‘em carry firearms until they’re 21 years of age or older and the reality is when we do let ‘em carry, we currently are denying that right if they decide to go to college and get a better education and make a better life for themselves.”

The police chiefs of Florida’s states universities came out in unanimous opposition to SB 234. The Florida Police Chiefs Association also opposed SB 234.

SB 234 was amended to remove the guns on campus provision on March 9, 2023 after Dr. Robert Cowie—the father of slain student Ashley Cowie and a registered Republican—testified against the bill in front of the Senate Florida Criminal Justice Committee. “Allowing guns in an atmosphere of college parties puts everyone involved at increased and undue risk,” he told committee members. "I challenge anyone present today in this room who is a parent—or for that matter any voter in this state that is a parent—to come forward to meet me eye to eye and comfort me with the thought that our campuses will be better and safer places if the possession of firearms is permitted by anyone other than a law enforcement officer ... If you wish to see further evidence of what a weapon on campuses can do, I invite you to attend my daughter's memorial service. " After the bill was amended, Dr. Cowie commented, “If my making a statement would possibly prevent another family from going through what we did, I knew I'd make the effort. I think Ashley would be proud of me."

A 2010 IRS Form 990 filed by Hammer’s United Sportsmen of Florida (USF) organization revealed that the organization loaned Hammer over $50,000 to assist her in purchasing a home (to be repaid at 2% interest). This loan is in addition to the $110,000 in compensation Hammer, the only paid employee of USF, received that year.

While lobbying for an NRA-drafted bill that sought to prevent Florida’s private businesses from prohibiting employees from keeping guns locked in their cars in company parking lots, Hammer commented, "The Constitution begins, 'We the people,' not ‘we the Chamber,’ not ‘we the Retail Federation,’ not ‘we the Disney.’ It's 'we the people.'" David Daniel, the chief lobbyist for the Florida Chamber of Commerce—which strongly opposed the legislation—dismissed the bill as a “big government solution looking for a problem.”

The legislation was eventually signed into law by then-Republican Governor Charlie Crist and became effective July 1, 2008.

In response to an independent investigation that revealed Florida had issued concealed handgun permits to more than 1,400 people who plead guilty or no contest to felonies; 216 people with outstanding warrants, including for murder; 28 people with active domestic violence restraining orders against them; and 6 registered sex offenders, Hammer said, “We do not participate in legislation that gratuitously takes away the rights of people, because when you begin taking away the rights of people that you don’t like, that’s the slippery slope." She then explained, “When people plead guilty or no contest in these cases frequently, very frequently, these are people who have not committed any crime, but their lawyer advises them to take a plea bargain.” Hammer lobbied successfully against the efforts of three major police organizations—the Florida Sheriff’s Association, the Florida Fraternal Order of Police, and the Florida Police Chiefs Association—to tighten the eligibility rules for permit holders and prevent dangerous people from legally carrying guns in public.

On May 8, 2006, Hammer accused business leaders of deceiving her and lying to Florida state legislators. She was upset that a bill that she had lobbied for— which sought to prevent companies from prohibiting employees from keeping guns locked in their cars in company parking lots—had died on the last day of the legislative session. "They can interpret this any way they want to,” said Hammer. “I'm interpreting it as another opportunity to work this issue because it's not over until I say it's over. We intend to work until we pass legislation that protects the existing right of law-abiding gun owners in Florida to keep a lawful product in their car whether they go to buy groceries, visit an amusement center, stop at a doctor's office or anywhere else that people commonly go."

Florida Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Jennifer Krell Davis commented that, “It was clear to most people this was bad policy, and you can’t take a basic property right away from thousands of Floridians without a fight.”

In 1996, Hammer told the New York Times that the solution to ending the gun control debate in the United States was to “get rid of all Liberals.”

On June 8, 2012, in an interview at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Chicago with Cameron Gray of NRA News, Heil stated, “There’s not enough women involved [in the pro-gun community]. Yes, women want to protect themselves because; after all, think about it, it is self defense. It’s not waiting for a boyfriend or a husband to protect you, or calling the police. Because they can’t be there, they would love to be there to protect you, but they can’t. So, it’s self defense. More women need to really realize that what they have to do is get involved, be educated, and find out what they need to do to be able to defend themselves. And a firearm–Sam Colt said it best–it’s the great equalizer. Talk about equal rights.” When asked why it is important to defeat President Barack Obama in the 2012 elections, Heil replied, laughing, “That’s a question that goes without answer, isn’t it? We all know. We all know. We need to get him out because he does have an anti-gun agenda … You hear it every four years: this is the most important election of your lifetime. Well, guess what? It really is the most important election in this country, in the history of this country.”

In a February 19, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Heil expressed concerns about the “anti-gun-biased public-education system,” stating, “Showing children pictures of what a 9 mm round actually does to human flesh at point blank range is not the same as showing the mangled bodies of drunk drivers, or the lungs of smokers. Drinking and smoking are choices people make for themselves. Being a victim of a criminal is something that is done to you.”

In a July 29, 2023 interview on C-Span, Heil stated, “Licensing and registration has time and time and time again led to confiscation. And it is. Licensing and registration is a restriction on gun ownership and it is not something that should happen.” When asked what other gun laws she opposed, Heil responded, “Three day waiting period can kill people. It's simple as that, it can kill people … And background checks, I can see their point, but it is an infringement." Heil also stated, “First of all, the entire Bill of Rights protects all of our rights whether they are enumerated there or not. What the Second Amendment does, it protects us from a corrupt government. And everybody needs to realize that. It's the threat—if you want to call it that—it's the threat to keep the government in line.”

During a December 7, 2023 speech before the Free Congress Foundation, a controversial think tank that promotes the far-right’s viewpoint in “The Culture War,” Heston compared the perceived plight of white conservative Americans to “European Jews … The Nazis forced them to wear six-pointed yellow stars sewn on their chests as identity badges. It worked. So what color star will they pin on our coats? How will the self-styled elite tag us? There may not be a Gestapo officer on every street corner yet, but the influence on our culture is just as pervasive.” He went on to say, “Heaven help the God-fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle class, Protestant, or even worse Evangelical Christian, Midwest, or Southern, or even worse rural, apparently straight, or even worse admittedly heterosexual, gun-owning or even worse NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff, or even worse male working stiff, because not only don't you count, you're a downright obstacle to social progress … The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of those wise old dead white guys who invented this country. Now, some flinch when I say that. Why? It's true...they were white guys. So were most of the guys who died in Lincoln's name opposing slavery in the 1860s. So why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is ‘Hispanic pride’ or ‘black pride’ a good thing, while ‘white pride’ conjures up shaved heads and white hoods? Why was the Million Man March on Washington celebrated in the media as progress, while the Promise Keepers March on Washington was greeted with suspicion and ridicule? I'll tell you why: cultural warfare.” Heston also declared, “I find my blood pressure rising when Clinton's cultural shock troops participate in homosexual-rights fund-raisers but boycott gun rights fund-raisers...and then claim it's time to place homosexual men in tents with Boy Scouts, and suggest that sperm donor babies born into lesbian relationships are somehow better served and more loved … Mainstream America is depending on you counting on you to draw your sword and fight for them. These people have precious little time or resources to battle misguided Cinderella attitudes, the fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach that it's a divine duty for women to hate men, [and] blacks who raise a militant fist with one hand while they seek preference with the other.” Heston’s speech is still featured on the website of white supremacist David Duke, who lauds the remarks by stating, “A few years ago I was astounded to read these courageous remarks by Charlton Heston. I am thankful to hear a man with such high esteem say essentially the same things for which I have been reviled by the liberal media. His words should be reproduced and put into the hands of every American.” Julian Bond, then-Board Chairman of the NAACP, reacted to the speech by saying, “Charlton Heston's civil rights credentials are seriously sullied by his bigoted and homophobic remarks and his attacks on racial minorities. The endorsement by white supremacist David Duke further threatens to erode the considerable respect many Americans felt toward Heston for his years-ago commitment to human rights.”

In August 2011, Reverend Eric Rapaglia apologized to the public for hiring white supremacist Frank Borzellieri as the principal at a
Bronx Catholic school. Rapaglia said, "Neither myself, nor any of the members of the search committee knew of Mr. Borzelleri’s political writings at the time of his hiring. In addition, it is my understanding that Mr. Borzelleri had the support of many minorities including Roy Innis, the national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a black civil rights organization." Borzellieri—who believes that African Americans and Latinos are genetically inferior to whites—claimed that Innis has said, “I am proud to call Frank Borzellieri my friend.”

Then-American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene presented Innis with the John M. Ashbrook Award at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference and said, “There is no living American I admire more than Roy Innis.” The award is named after one of the founders of the ACU who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 21 years as a Republican from Ohio. In his remarks, Innis warned of “a growing tyranny in our country” and said the candidates for the 2008 presidential election were “some of the most dangerous people to ever run for the presidency of the United States.” Speaking on the influence of CPAC, Innis said, “We have developed some skills. We are able to influence the Republican Party, and nudge it, and push it in certain directions. Let us teach those skills to our young brothers in the Tea Party.”

In 2008, oil and gas interests recruited Innis to serve as the lead plaintiff in a legal challenge to listing the polar bear as a threatened species. Innis claimed the listing would "result in higher energy prices across the board which will disproportionately be borne by minorities," causing "countless families in our country in winters ahead to choose between food on the table and fuel in the furnace."

In 2006 Innis—whose CORE organization has taken money from original DDT manufacturer Monsanto—said, “We are fighting the same battle, for the liberation of black people. In the past that meant taking on old racists and colonialists—now it means challenging environmentalists too.” Innis also claimed that European Union restrictions on the use of DDT are “killing black babies.” Medical research has linked human exposure to DDT to diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and reproductive problems, including miscarriages, developmental disabilities, and premature births. DDT is also a “probable human carcinogen,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

A CORE dinner to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday on January 17, 2024 featured far right wing Austrian politician Jörg Haider as an honored guest. Before his death in 2008, Haider was criticized for frequent remarks in defense of the Nazi party and Wafen SS.

In a 1989 appearance with Rev. Al Sharpton on “The Morton Downey, Jr. Show,” Innis became enraged and physically assaulted Sharpton.

In 1986, Innis was forced to pay $56,000 in back taxes as well as $28,000 in civil fraud penalties after the IRS discovered that he had used unreported income from CORE for personal expenses including travel, rent, jewelry and entertainment.

In 1984 Innis testified as a character witness for political activist Lyndon LaRouche in his slander lawsuit against the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), defending LaRouche against charges of racism and anti-Semitism.

In 1981, CORE paid $35,000 to settle allegations of illegal fundraising techniques.

Innis was a "supporter" of Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator accused by human rights groups of being responsible for the deaths of up to 500,000 people. Innis awarded Amin a lifetime CORE membership and claimed, “Ugandans are happy under General Amin’s rule of Africa for black Africans.” “He has the ability to make decisions, unlike other leaders who theorize but do not execute,” Innis said of Amin. He was also supportive of Amin’s decision to expel 50,000 Asians from Uganda. Asked how he could support Amin, a known admirer of Adolf Hitler, Innis said, “We have no records to prove if Hitler was a friend or an enemy of black people.” In return, Amin awarded Innis Ugandan citizenship in 1973.

In a February 4, 2023 interview with the Daily Caller, Keene stated, “The armed citizenry is the final bulwark against tyranny … That’s why the Second Amendment was written. It was not written to protect squirrel hunters.”

In a January 14, 2024 interview with Lou Dobbs on Fox News, Keene spoke about President Barack Obama’s upcoming recommendations on gun violence prevention, scheduled to be revealed at a press conference on January 16, 2013. Keene stated, “What Newton gave [the Obama administration] was an excuse to do what they’ve wanted to do for some time, which is to launch a full-breadth attack on the Second Amendment and that’s what they’re doing regardless of what the President claims.” Keene was referring to a mass shooting on December 14, 2023 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 first-graders and six adults were killed.

In a December 28, 2023 interview on CNN, Keene stated, “This country does not keep and should not keep a national gun registry…because history shows that nations that register guns are in a position then to take the guns away from the citizens.” When asked if there was any measure he would support, Keene responded, “You know, if you expect me to say, ‘Yeah, let’s jettison the Second Amendment,’ then there’s no middle ground … If you’re asking me, ‘Are there things that can be done,’ for example, if the proposal is to include those who are adjudicated mentally unfit to own a firearm to be put into the registry so that they can be denied the right to purchase firearms, I can find a middle ground on that.“

On October 4, 2012, in a speech at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Colorado, Keene spoke about the 2012 presidential election, stating, “This is indeed an important election, a crucial election. We’ve said at the NRA that it may well be the most important election of our lifetime … There are…many reasons this President [Barack Obama] needs to be retired. There are many reasons why it’s so important that we elect conservatives to the Congress and the Senate this year … There’s the willingness of this administration, in unprecedented ways, to flout the laws and, indeed, the constitution of this country … If this president is reelected, he will have the opportunity to appoint one, two, maybe three justices of the United States Supreme Court. What will happen to the [District of Columbia v.] Heller decision, which ratifies the constitutional right of Americans as individuals to keep and bear, arms if he does that? It will vanish. What will happen to that decision and other decisions guaranteeing our rights, not just on Second Amendment grounds, but think recently of the attacks on the First Amendment by this administration? … Much of what our forbears fought for, much of what we inherited, many of the values that we share will vanish … Let’s face it, this is not about guns. It’s about freedom. The Second Amendment is crucial to the nature of this society … Americans know that it’s not just about guns, it’s about values. It’s about an America that the elites today wish was passé … It’s up to us to defend those values and defend those rights … We’ve got a strong ticket [in Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romeny and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan] … We’ve got believers in our values.” Keene offered no examples of ways in which President Obama has restricted First Amendment free speech. Keene also referred to the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held for the first time in U.S. history that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to firearm ownership for self defense in the home; striking down D.C.’s handgun ban.

In an October 4, 2023 interview with Newsmax TV, Keene stated, “The greatest accomplishment of the believers of the Second Amendment today over a decade ago or more is that guns are cool. That wasn’t the case before … We came to a sort of consensus in this country that Americans do have the right to keep and bear arms that good people should not be denied access to firearms, that the shooting sports are important and that bad people, we should try to prevent them from getting guns. ... The problem is you can’t prevent evil and you can’t prevent insanity, and that’s a difficulty that a modern society has to contend with in a whole lot of different areas. But there is a consensus. There is no need to have a debate.”

In the September 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Keene wrote, “Governor Mitt Romney is the Republican Party’s presidential nominee and the one man capable of denying President Barack Obama another four years in the White House … Gun owners in Massachusetts fared well under Romney … During his speech at NRA’s 2012 Annual Meetings, Romney, an NRA Life Member, championed the U.S. Constitution. Romney commended the NRA for calling for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder, who continued to be defiant before Congress’ demand for answers in the so-called ‘Fast and Furious’ scandal … The choice is clear: if President Obama wins a second term in November, he will go after America’s gun owners, our freedoms and the values we cherish.” Keene was referring to the discontinued “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border and Attorney General Eric Holder’s failure to comply with a congressional subpoena for documents related to the operation. A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2023 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in the investigation until after it was concluded in 2011.

In an August 27, 2023 interview with NRA News, Keene stated, “Don’t hesitate for a moment to realize that if [President Barack Obama] gets a second term, if he appoints people to the [U.S.] Supreme Court and to the lower courts, and if he has a chance by regulation and executive order or an opportunity to go back to the U.N. to get the gun treaty…he’ll do all these things and we’ll suffer." When asked what he thought of Vice President Joe Biden’s plan to attend the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Keene replied, “Maybe nobody else will have him … This guy is a joke … I think [the convention] is very important because of what’s at stake. The fact is, that this is probably the most important election of our lifetime. It’s certainly true for believers in the Second Amendment and that makes this convention incredibly important because of the stakes.” Keene was referring to a U.N. Small Arms Treaty which would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.”

On June 8, 2012, Keene spoke at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Chicago on a panel entitled “President Obama’s Fast and Furious Disregard for the Rule of Law.” Keene stated, “The Obama administration has played loose with the rule of law since this president’s first day in office. Sadly, he and his principal advisors seem to me to come from a generation that sincerely believes that the ends in almost all circumstances justify the means. Thus they enforce laws that further their goals, they ignore those that do not. They interpret the laws and the Constitution itself in light of what they want them to say rather than either the intent of Congress or the words of the Founders. And when anyone, including the Supreme Court itself, disagrees, they go on the attack.” He added, “It goes far beyond gun questions. Consider their current assault on the various states’ attempts to protect the integrity of the democratic process itself. I think we’ll have some discussion of what’s going on in Florida right now where the Justice Department, without any basis that most experts can see, are trying to stop the state of Florida from purging non-citizens and the dead and others from their voting rolls prior to the next election on the ground that it’s unfair, I guess, to the dead and the non-eligible voters.” One week prior to Keene’s remarks, 67 Florida election supervisors stated they were going to stop removing names from county rolls because the state's data is flawed—and because the U.S. Department of Justice says the process violates federal voting laws.

Keene also criticized the administration's support for the "DISCLOSE Act," observing, "Consider the president's personal disdain for the democratic process. While spending more than any of his predecessors on fundraising and bragging that he's going to have a billion dollars in the upcoming campaign to bury his opponents, he publicly attacks his opponents because they spend money to get their message out to the public." The DISCLOSE Act would ban U.S. corporations controlled by foreign governments from influencing election outcomes through the use of campaign contributions; prevent Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) recipients from making political contributions; give shareholders, organization members, and the general public access to information regarding corporate and interest group campaign expenditures; and create transparency mechanisms for organizations with more than 500,000 members to publicly identify themselves in their political ads. The NRA has publicly opposed the “DISCLOSE Act.”

At a second panel, entitled “Defending Self-Defense: The Liberal’s Shadow War on the Second Amendment.” Keene stated, “In 1968, the Johnson administration forced through what was known as the ‘Gun Control Act of 1968,’ a bill that Senator Edward Kennedy said was a good first step toward eliminating firearms in the United States. Richard Nixon’s attorney general, two years later, proposed a plan that would have eliminated the private ownership of handguns by 1983.” The Gun Control Act of 1968 was, in fact, the product of a compromise between the bill’s sponsors—including Senator Thomas Dodd—and the NRA, who supported the final version of the legislation. The Gun Control Act created a list of individuals prohibited from purchasing weapons; including, felons, drug abusers, and individuals adjudicated mentally defective. The law did not ban any firearms. In addition, Elliot Richardson, Nixon’s attorney general, never publicly proposed a plan to eliminate private handgun ownership. Keene added, “When it was decided that this new challenge faced us, the old board decided they wanted to move the organization to the Midwest and make it into a conservation group because they thought that politics was tacky… By 2000, the NRA’s influence was such that Bill Clinton would say that gun owners cost Al Gore the electoral vote of five states and the presidency of the United States and in a overt sense, at least, most Liberal politicians decided it was time to take guns off the table and do what Barack Obama is trying to do, which is to say, as he promised Sarah Brady, to proceed to deliver on his anti-gun promises, but to do so under the radar if possible because the electorate is not exactly friendly.”

Keene also spoke about the 2012 Wisconsin recall election of Governor Scott Walker, stating, “The NRA spent a lot of effort in Wisconsin targeting of different groups, but particularly targeting union members who are gun owners and hunters and in the recall election earlier this week I believe that Scott Walker in facing a recall generated by union bosses received more labor votes than he had when he ran for election in the first instance.”

Finally, Keene told the following story, “I was elected to the presidency of the National Rifle Association at our annual meeting in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago, and there was in attendance a member of the Supreme Court in the state of Pennsylvania who asked if I could stop in Harrisburg on my way home because he wanted to show me the Supreme Court chambers… He said the court would be in session, but I should stop and they would take me to the justices’ lounge and then they’d call a recess so they could take me on this tour. And I went there and they did indeed did call a recess and the justices came out and then the justice who’d invited me said, ‘Gentlemen, disrobe.’ And they opened their robes and five of them were carrying firearms, which is different from Illinois. And I said I understand that contempt of this court is a very serious offense.”

In a May 15, 2023 editorial for the Washington Times, Keene accused President Barack Obama of having a plan to “crucify” political opponents. He made specific reference to an Obama campaign blog that sought to foster transparency about donors to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s political action committee (PAC). “By calling out, investigating and doing their level best to demonize major Romney contributors, [President Obama and his “managers”] clearly are hoping to make others pause before opening their checkbooks to the former Massachusetts governor,” Keene wrote. “These threats are aimed… at the hundreds and perhaps thousands of potential Romney contributors who will slink away lest they, too, become targets of the Obama attack machine.” The previous evening, Idaho businessman and Romney finance co-chair Frank Vandersloot, who was listed on the blog, had made an additional donation of $100,000 to Romney’s PAC on the “Bill O’Reilly Show.” “I think the only response is to make another donation,” Vandersloot noted.

In the March 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Keene accused New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg of being a “gun-hating politician…willing to ignore the law, the Supreme Court and due process to harass those…who believe in the Right to Keep and Bear Arms or who engage in shooting sports.” Keene also complained that “an anti-gun jurisdiction ruled by someone like New York’s Michael Bloomberg can have a legal firearm owner transiting his fiefdom arrested.”

During the February 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Keene awarded Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Republican Attorney General, the “Defender of Freedom Award” on behalf of the American Conservative Union and the National Rifle Association. In his remarks, Keene described Cuccinelli as “a man who has never turned his back on his values, has never turned his back on his beliefs, and has never refused to stand up when principle demanded that he do so.” Cuccinelli thanked the NRA for the award, and remarked, “James Monroe voted against the U.S. Constitution because he didn’t think it was cautious enough with respect to federal power. Seems like he had a crystal ball, one might think. But that’s the role of states when the federal government oversteps its boundaries. And the worst example of course is the health care bill [The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]…signed by the president on March 23, 2010. And about 34 minutes later, give or take, we filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia … We filed suit in the Eastern District of Virginia … Seventeen blocks to the east, 235 years to the day…Patrick Henry gave his ‘Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death’ speech … And that seemed very appropriate, given that that legislation represents one of the greatest legislative invasions of liberty in the lifetime of anyone in this room.” Turning to the topic of the environment, Cuccinelli said, “We sued the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]—which I have taken to calling the Employment Prevention Agency, because they are so good at that—for their greenhouse gas endangerment finding ... And when the EPA said that the CO2 that you are exhaling right now, let’s all annoy [EPA Administrator] Lisa Jackson together [exhales loudly], ‘Hi, Lisa.’ When they passed that regulation in violation of the law they brought on enormous consequences … The only science behind that regulation is political science ... They relied on a U.N. associated scientist; we now know them as the ‘Climate-gate’ scientist.” He also added, “You all are familiar with the National Labor Relations Board’s assault on South Carolina and Boeing. Make no mistake about it, that is an assault on the right to work…the right to hold a job without being coerced into joining a union … We have never seen such an across the board assault on the rule of law by any administration in the lifetime of anyone in this room. It has never happened.”

In the October 2011 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, Keene suggested that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents purposefully armed criminals during their botched “Fast and Furious” operation. “What [gun dealers] perhaps didn’t fully appreciate is that the [ATF] agents wanted [guns] in the wrong hands and were hoping they would later show up at crime scenes in Mexico to perhaps prove that many of the firearms used there were coming from this country,” Keene wrote.

In a September 2011 column for America’s 1st Freedom, Keene suggested that, “Gun control advocates from this country have joined literally hundreds of like-minded Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOS) to work with international anti-gun delegates to develop a treaty that could destroy private gun ownership in this country.” He also warned that “friends of the Second Amendment must be prepared to defend our rights against international as well as domestic enemies.”

In a February 28, 2023 op-ed for The Hill, Keene compared Wisconsin public school teachers who opposed anti-union legislation to University of Wisconsin-Madison students who spent their “waking hours doing drugs, demonstrating, occupying campus buildings and dreaming of revolution” during the 1960s. Commenting on Wisconsin legislation that would largely eliminate collective bargaining rights for state employees, Keene wrote, “[Republican Governor Scott] Walker is doing exactly what he said during his campaign would have to be done to save the Badger State from bankruptcy … That doesn’t make Walker an extremist, but a governor whose state books won’t balance because those who preceded him ignored those warnings and ultimately governed as if the ’60s would never end.”

Keene presented Roy Innis, the controversial director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), with the John M. Ashbrook Award at the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference and said, “There is no living American I admire more than Roy Innis.” The award is named after one of the founders of the ACU who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 21 years as a Republican from Ohio. In his remarks, Innis warned of “a growing tyranny in our country” and said the candidates for the 2008 presidential election were “some of the most dangerous people to ever run for the presidency of the United States.” Speaking on the influence of CPAC, Innis said, “We have developed some skills. We are able to influence the Republican Party, and nudge it, and push it in certain directions. Let us teach those skills to our young brothers in the Tea Party.”

In June 2009, when FedEx and rival UPS were embroiled in a legislative dispute, ACU sent a letter to FedEx offering to go to bat for the company at the price of $1.39 per grassroots activist contacted ($2 to $3 million for the entire project). One of the services offered to FedEx was op-ed pieces written by Keene. In the letter to FedEx, ACU expressed support for FedEx’s attempt to kill a piece of legislation that would have allowed nearly 100,000 FedEx workers to unionize. After FedEx declined ACU’s offer, the organization switched sides and supported UPS’s position in the dispute. In a letter in support of UPS signed by Keene, he called FedEx’s allegations against UPS “a disinformation campaign...that should be stopped.” The letter was also signed by fellow NRA Board Member Grover Norquist. The reversal in ACU’s position was widely seen as representative of the “pay- to-play” nature of Washington politics.

In a May 5, 2023 op-ed for The Hill, Keene wrote, “President Obama and his advisers are determined to turn control of Chrysler Corp. over to the United Auto Workers in spite of the fact that concessions to the union are largely responsible for the automaker’s inability to make a profit.”

On February 29, 2008, Keene registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as a lobbyist for the government of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Between 2006 and 2007, the Bayelsa government paid Carmen Group—the lobbying firm that employed Keene—over $900,000. The contract stipulated that lobbyists from Carmen were to “gain support for Bayelsa and the Niger Delta from the U.S. government.” The primary focus of Nigeria’s economy is the trade of oil, which account’s for 90% of the country’s exports. A February 2007 report by National Geographic stated, “Oil fouls everything in southern Nigeria [the Niger Delta]. It spills from the pipelines, poisoning soil and water. It stains the hands of politicians and generals, who siphon off its profits … The cruelest twist is that half a century of oil extraction in the delta has failed to make the lives of the people better. Instead, they are poorer still, and hopeless … Where does all the oil money go? That question is asked in every village, town, and city in the Niger Delta. The blame spreads, moving from the oil companies to a bigger, more elusive, target: the Nigerian government … On paper, a mechanism does exist for distributing oil revenues somewhat fairly. The federal government retains roughly half and gives out the rest each month, on a sliding scale, to the 36 state governments. The core oil producers—Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom—receive the most.” The Nigerian government’s conduct towards oil profits has also been called, “the institutionalized looting of national wealth.” According to the Nigerian government, over 7,000 oil spills occurred in the region between 1970 and 2000 (although some analysts believe the true figure is ten times higher) resulting in an estimated spillage of 1.5 million tons of oil (50 times more than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster). Williams Mkpa, an Ibeno, Nigeria community leader lamented, “Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable.” In a high profile incident in the 1990s, the Nigerian government executed a number of anti-oil activists that had protested against Shell’s incursion into their homeland, after convicting the men of murder in a sham trial.

Keene authored a November 20, 2023 op-ed for The Hill entitled “Iraq is Dems Tar-Baby.” The phrase “tar baby” is considered by some to have a negative racial connotation and its use by Mitt Romney in July 2006 received widespread media scrutiny.

Documents filed in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act on January 17, 2024 indicate that Keene managed a lobbying contract between the government of Algeria and the consulting firm, Carmen Group, where he was employed. Keene was tasked with projecting “an up-to-date image of Algeria, her government and her role in regional and world affairs,” while promoting “Congressional, non-governmental organizational, public and media support for Algeria’s legitimate interests and policy goals.” The lobbying contract also required Keene to facilitate “official and unofficial visits to Algeria for elected officials.” The government of Algeria paid Carmen Group $25,000 per month plus additional expenses for each month of lobbying work. In December 2010, Keene wrote a column for The Hill taking the side of the Algerian-based Polisario Front in that group’s conflict with the government of Morocco. In response, a column written by Robert M. Holley, executive director of the Moroccan American Center for Policy, stated, “The Dec. 7 commentary, ‘Our friends in the desert’ by David Keene, distorts the history and current realities of the Western Sahara conflict. It is also important to know that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mr. Keene and his consulting firm received tens of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees from Algeria, the Polisario Front’s ideological and financial supporter—a fact Mr. Keene fails to disclose. Mr. Keene seriously misrepresents the position of the United Nations on the Western Sahara conflict … As well, Mr. Keene egregiously mischaracterizes the position of the U.S. government in the Western Sahara conflict. The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, and bipartisan majorities of the U.S. House and Senate, support a resolution of the conflict based on autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. Furthermore, the author’s description of life in the Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria is the writer’s fantasy. In the tightly controlled camps—where the refugees are denied the most basic freedoms—there is only one permitted political party, the Polisario Front. Its appointed ‘president’ for more than three decades hails from a dubious class of Cold War leaders including their continuing ally, Fidel Castro. Mr. Keene’s distortions dishonor the lives of the 11 Moroccan police officers savagely killed by violent, pro-Polisario militants who infiltrated what began as a peaceful social protest over economic issues near Laayoune [Algeria].” The Polisario refuge camps are not the only place that human rights violations are alleged against Algeria. According to a 2008 report by the U.S. Department of State, Algeria’s human rights problems include “failure to account for persons who disappeared in detention during the 1990s, reports of abuse and torture, official impunity, abuse of pretrial detention, poor prison conditions, limited judicial independence, and restrictions on freedom of speech, press, and assembly. There were also increased limitations on religious freedom and problems with security-based restrictions on movement, corruption and lack of government transparency, discrimination and violence against women, and restrictions on workers' rights.”

In a March 14, 2023 op-ed for The Hill, Keene claimed that former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan “facilitated a genocidal uprising in Rwanda.” Annan, who was the director of U.N. Peacekeeping Operations during the Rwanda genocide, has said, “I believed at that time that I was doing my best. But I realized after the genocide that there was more that I could and should have done to sound the alarm and rally support.”

On July 13, 2023 King posted the following status update on Facebook: “The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”

On July 7, 2011, King posted a photo on his Facebook Wall that reads, “Now just why in the HELL do I have to press ‘1’ for English.” King then commented below the photo, “A question that should be asked more often!”

In an April 19, 2023 editorial for the Albany Times-Union, King expressed fears about “Muslim extremist literature and the occasional lost Koran” that are found on the U.S.-Mexico border—despite a total lack of evidence indicating that such material is actually being recovered. King then complained, “The Obama administration continues to ignore or down play the border threat while continuing his stealth campaign to take our firearms.”

“A random but important thought for the day” posted by King on his Facebook Wall on October 29, 2023 was an image that reads, “If You Can’t Read This [Arabic writing] Thank A Soldier.”

On October 21, 2010, King posted a photo on his Facebook Wall reminding viewers to “Take out the trash” on Election Day 2010. Below the image he commented, “Just a friendly reminder.”

In February 2010, King wrote an editorial for the Albany Times-Union in which he announced his opposition a bill in the New York State legislature that sought to prohibit the carrying of firearms in public by individuals who are intoxicated. King said the legislation was “about the persecution of the legal and lawful gun owners of New York state and [the New York state government’s] attempts to control [them].”

King criticized the lifestyle and ancestry of “downstate” New Yorkers (people from New York City) in a February 7, 2023 blog for the Albany Times-Union, writing, “We are not Downstate sheeple that need to be protected from violence, the weather or ourselves. We are descended from strong stock that came to this country to escape oppression. We choose to live here because of the weather rather than in spite of it. The cold, the mountains, the lakes and the ocean provide opportunities to hunt, fish, shoot and enjoy the activities that have become part of our culture maybe even a part of our DNA. This proclivity for the blood sports is a part of our nature that the downstate sheeple are unable and unwilling to understand.”

In a September 24, 2023 blog for the Albany Times-Union entitled "Loosely Organized Young Men and Women," King wrote, "Have you noticed the increase in this activity lately. Must be a lot of competitive neighborhood groups competing for the lucrative corners to sell Kool Aid. Ask the kids better yet ask the residents of those neighborhoods; they will tell you what is really happening. That will not happen it is easier to blame the gun rather than the real cause of violence in Albany. Any news on the Common Council’s picks for the Gang oops… I meant Gun Violence Task Force?"

In a February 23, 2023 speech at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo in Salt Lake City, LaPierre spoke about universal background checks, stating, “It’s aimed at registering your guns. And when another tragic opportunity presents itself, that registry will be used to confiscate your guns … Picture this: your name, your address on a map giving directions to your home that could include a list of all the specific firearms you own. That’s a pretty handy list if you’re a seasoned criminal or a drug dealer or a gang member, isn’t it? How safe do you think that government list would be?" In fact, throughout U.S. history, federal and state laws have required registration of certain firearms, and such measures have never led to any confiscation of firearms from those in compliance with the law. Additionally, existing federal law prohibits the creation of a national gun registry and none of the proposed gun violence prevention legislation referred to by LaPierre sought to change that.

On January 22, 2013, in a speech at the Weatherby Foundation International Hunting and Conservation Awards in Reno, Nevada, LaPierre stated, “[President Barack] Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word. Just another word for extremism. He wants you, all of you, and Americans throughout all of this country, to accept the idea of principles as he sees fit. It’s a way of redefining words so that common sense is turned upside down and that nobody knows the difference.” LaPierre was referring to President Obama’s second inaugural address, in which he stated, “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.” LaPierre also addressed President Obama’s January 2013 proposals to reduce gun violence, stating, “He wants to put every private, personal firearms transaction right under the thumb of the federal government. He wants to keep all of those names in a massive federal registry. There’s only two reasons for a federal list on gun owners: to either tax ‘em or take ‘em. That’s the only reasons. And anyone who says that’s excessive, President Obama says that’s an absolutist.” In fact, the Obama administration had never proposed the creation of a universal list of gun owners. “Absolutes do exist,” added LaPierre. “Words do have specific meaning in language and in law. It’s the basis of all civilization. Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on, well, who to eat for lunch.”

On October 5, 2012, LaPierre announced the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund’s endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Fishersville, Virginia. LaPierre stated, “The dream is to save America and our freedom … You’re sure not free if you can’t defend yourself and everyone knows that. And I also know something else about ya. You’re not gonna surrender submit, succumb, or be marginalized. You’re ready to make a difference for freedom in this country. And we have to do that, because we’re standin’ on the edge of a [President Barack] Obama cliff with our freedom. If President Obama gets reelected, he’s gonna have one to three Supreme Court appointments and I guarantee you this, if that happens, one to three more [Justice Sonia] Sotomayors and [Justice Elena] Kagans and we can kiss our constitutional right to own a firearm in the United States goodbye, along with a lot of the rest of our freedoms. And we can’t let that happen … Does anybody trust an Obama Administration in the second term to be anywhere near negotiating with a club of governments called the United Nations on our freedom? Their gun plan is: Turn over your firearms and your protection to the government. The government will protect ya… That U.N. plan is about global agencies monitoring, surveillance, supervision, lists, all institutionalized within the bureaucracy of the United Nations … I guarantee this, if your glass breaks at 2:00 a.m. at night somewhere from some criminal, you all know that those baby blue helmets of the U.N. aren’t gonna be there to protect ya and neither is President Obama or [U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder. What will protect ya is our freedom that we have here in the United States under the Second Amendment to the Constitution. And there’s not a government or authority on the planet that can match that if you’re ever in that situation.” LaPierre was referring to a U.N. Small Arms Treaty that would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.” Finally, LaPierre added, “We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg on what’s in store if President Obama is reelected … It’s the most dangerous election of our lifetime … All of our freedoms, all of our rights, all of our way of life, all of the Second Amendment is on the line.”

In the August 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre wrote, “For months I’ve warned you of the grave consequences our freedoms will face if [President Barack] Obama, his administration and its Capitol Hill enablers are reelected on Nov. 6 [2012] … Now Obama’s allies on Capitol Hill want to deny the right to political free speech to you, me and groups like the NRA completely and forever–even if they have to amend the U.S. Constitution.” LaPierre was referring to the “People’s Rights Amendment” introduced by Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) in response to the controversial Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In Citizens United, the Court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. Rep. McGovern’s amendment to the U.S. Constitution would clarify the meaning of ‘people,’ ‘person’ or ‘citizen,’ defining them not as “corporations, limited liability companies, or other corporate entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state,” but as individual human beings. The amendment would also subject corporate entities to “such regulation as the people, through their elected State and Federal representatives, deem reasonable and are otherwise consistent with the powers of Congress and the States under this Constitution.”

In a July 5, 2023 interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News, LaPierre spoke about a proposed U.N. Small Arms Treaty, stating, “The fact is the U.N. doesn’t protect people. It doesn’t save the innocent. You could stack to the ceiling the bodies of the innocent a thousand times over that the U.N has failed to protect. The dead people don’t get to vote on this U.N treaty. And Americans don’t want to be added to that pile of dead people that have been left defenseless by the U.N. policies … The U.N. gun control plan is the most extreme imaginable. It says people in the United States turn over your personal protection and your firearms to the government and the government will protect you.” In fact, the U.N. Small Arms Treaty would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.” When pressed on this by Kelly, LaPierre responded by saying, “Right now it would affect every handgun, rifle, and shotgun American citizens own … It sets up global agencies, data centers, tracking, monitoring, surveillance, supervision, it institutionalizes the whole U.N. gun plan within the bureaucracy of the United Nations with a permanent funding mechanism. And included in this gun plan is implementation legislation that they are going to press for the United States to adopt.” Treaties must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate.

On June 29, 2012, in a speech at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado, LaPierre stated, “If you don’t remember anything else I say tonight, mark this down: this is the most dangerous election in our lifetimes ... It’s a fight for our country, it's a fight for our values, it's a fight for the freedoms we believe in, all of our Second Amendment liberty, all of the rights we’ve worked so hard to defend, all of what we know is good, and what we know is right about America. All of it could be lost if [President] Barack Obama is reelected ... The fight is on. Everything we believe in’s at stake and at risk ... Never has American freedom been more disregarded, denigrated, diminished, and often destroyed ... Almost every way you look at it, almost every aspect of American freedom is in some state of decline. Just think about it. Our right to speak out, our right to assemble, our right to practice our religion, our right to seek the kind of health care we want for our families, the economic freedom to earn and spend and save, to own our own homes, to buy the kind of food we want to feed our children, to raise and discipline our kids, even the simple right to fly the American flag. The increasing collapse of American freedom is becoming staggering. Because, by almost every measure, we are less free today than we were a short decade ago. President Obama? He won’t tell you that ... Never has honest leadership been so lacking as in the Barack Obama White House.” LaPierre also spoke about the discontinued “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border and President Obama’s decision to invoke executive privilege over documents subpoenaed by Congress, stating, “I guarantee you that there’s somethin’ that stinks to high heaven in those papers in order for this administration to be willin’ to walk into this briar patch. Executive privilege really is the last gasp of a cover-up ... [Barack Obama] chose the Richard Nixon option to cover it up until after the coming election. No one died as a result of Watergate, yet several members of Nixon’s cabinet and staff went to prison ... Just like Nixon, this president has put his administration in the same state of vulnerability, at the edge of a federal penitentiary.” A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2023 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in “Fast and Furious” until after it was concluded in 2011.

In a June 25, 2023 interview with Lou Dobbs on Fox News, LaPierre stated, “So much of the national media oughta just take down their logo and put an Obama bumper sticker on because they’re so tied to reelecting this president. I mean, the Washington Post writes the other day, I mean, they’re still writing stories patting themselves on the backs for Watergate, which was a third-rate burglary. I mean, even Bill Clinton was a dalliance with an intern. This is hundreds of peoples dead, federal agent dead. And the Washington Post writes the other day, ‘it was an honest bureaucratic mistake.’ I mean, there’s all kinds of double standards, political dishonesty, duplicity here that make the American public sick of what the political class does.”

In the June 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned, “American freedom as we know it is in jeopardy.” He wrote, “There is no greater freedom than the ability to own a firearm to protect yourself, your family, your community and your country. That freedom is the heart and soul of our nation. And that soul is at stake in this election … If [President Barack] Obama wins this year, he will wage an all-out assault on America’s heart and soul. This isn’t just the most important election of our lifetimes–it’s the most important election for our children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s lifetimes.”

On April 14, 2012, in his keynote speech at the NRA Convention in St. Louis, LaPierre stated, “we live in the most dangerous of times.” “We will never surrender our guns,” LaPierre declared. “The Second Amendment has never been more relevant as it is today. When all is said and done, we may have nothing left but our gun rights, but that’s the one right that gives us a fighting chance to reclaim freedoms lost.” LaPierre made almost no mention of the national controversy surrounding the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. The NRA was one of the authors of the “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida that significantly liberalized the use of lethal force in public. LaPierre spoke of the tragedy only to accuse the media of “sensational[izing]” it, claiming they “manufacture controversy for ratings.”

In the March 2012 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, LaPierre warned that if the NRA fails to end the “Barack Obama regime…the Right to Keep and Bear Arms could well perish in a Supreme Court heartbeat.” He added that an “Obama majority” on the Supreme Court would “rule that only the government has a right to guns, not individuals like you.” “We have time to stop the Obama juggernaut and to make history together,” LaPierre stated, “but we must start now—not only to save our guns but to save our heritage. The future of freedom in America depends on it.”

On February 10, 2012, during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), LaPierre warned listeners that “This is the most dangerous election in our lifetime … Our soul is at stake in this election. The campaign is a fight for our country, our values and the freedom we believe in.” LaPierre then detailed a “massive” conspiracy by the administration of President Barack Obama to “deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment.” LaPierre then boasted, “We’ll spend and do whatever it takes to tell the truth the media ignores.”

During a January 2012 radio interview with Glenn Beck, LaPierre agreed with Beck’s assertion that when it comes to raising money in politics, “You have to go out and drum up the money, the unions just take it. They just have it. They just take it out of everybody's paycheck.” LaPierre went on to claim, “We raise it all through 5, 10, 15, 20 dollar contributions that Americans are willing to preserve freedom. And they're willing to support it. But, you know, that's what NRA is about. I mean, I always say we're about our membership and we're about giving voice to our membership.” In fact, the National Rifle Association does not raise all of its money from small donors. A report by the Violence Policy Center indicates that since 2005, the NRA has received between $19.8 million and $52.6 million in contributions from corporate interests. After Beck raised the specter of the reelection of Barack Obama leading to private gun confiscation in the United States, LaPierre responded, “We can’t let it get to this point. Every Second Amendment supporter needs to make sure that President Obama does not get a second term to destroy the Second Amendment.”

Under LaPierre’s leadership, the National Rifle Association has frequently promoted gun confiscation conspiracy theories surrounding the administration of President Barack Obama and/or a treaty being considered by the United Nations to curb illegal, international sales of small arms. In a November 3, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, LaPierre wrote, “The Obama administration … hatched a political conspiracy to deceive Americans and hide its true agenda to dismantle the Second Amendment and our freedom. By delaying its anti-gun legislative agenda, it’s tried to dupe gun owners into believing our fundamental freedom is safe. The political calculation of the White House is clear: Deceive the voters and get re-elected at all costs and then, with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling the Second Amendment and destroying American freedom forever … Mr. Obama…is responsible for his administration’s efforts to support a United Nations treaty that could severely restrict or effectively ban civilian ownership of firearms worldwide.” In fact, since assuming office, President Obama has not advocated for any gun control measures, instead signing legislation to allow firearms in national parks and on Amtrak trains. Furthermore, the UN has no power to alter American gun laws. Any UN treaty that called for changes in U.S. gun laws would have to be ratified by a 2/3 vote of the U.S. Senate.

Under LaPierre’s leadership, the National Rifle Association has frequently promoted a gun confiscation conspiracy theory concerning the administration of President Barack Obama. On September 23, 2011, LaPierre addressed the Florida Conservative Political Action Conference and told those in attendance, “The fight for 2012 is a fight for our country, our values, and our freedom. And if NRA has anything to say about it, President Barack Obama won’t get a second term … Our freedom is at risk in this election like never before … The president will offer the Second Amendment lip service and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the Second Amendment, but it’s a big, fat, stinkin’ lie, just like all the other lies that have come out of this corrupt administration. It’s all part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment in our country … Before the president was even sworn into office, they met and they hatched a conspiracy of public deception to try to guarantee his re-election in 2012 … We see the president’s strategy crystal clear: Get re-elected and with no more elections to worry about, get busy dismantling and destroy our firearms freedom. Erase the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights and exorcise it from the U.S. Constitution. That’s their agenda … President Obama and his cohorts, yeah they’re going to deny their conspiracy to fool gun owners. Some of the Liberal media, they’re probably already blogging about it. But we don’t care, because as far as we’re concerned, the lying, conniving Obama crowd can kiss our Constitution.” In fact, since assuming office, President Obama has not advocated for any gun control measures, instead signing legislation to allow firearms in national parks and on Amtrak trains.

In his 2011 book, “America Disarmed: Inside the U.N. & Obama's Scheme to Destroy the Second Amendment,” LaPierre compared the United Nations Small Arms and Light Weapons Destruction Day, first held on July 9, 2001, to the public burning of books authored by Jews in Nazi Germany. He wrote, “The burning of Jewish and un-German books was followed within a few years by the burning of Jews and other supposedly un-German people. Jewish Books Destruction Day helped change popular consciousness so as to pave the way for genocide. Likewise paving the way for genocide was the systematic disarmament of Jews and all other opposition elements, in Nazi German itself and in conquered territories. How long until a U.N.-declared official day of hate is celebrated with governments actually killing people? Will the mass burning of firearms help set the stage for mass executions of gun owners?”

In a 2009 speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, LaPierre told attendees, “As you know, two days ago, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a massive new gun ban based on a new foreign threat. And it hit me almost like it was déjà vu, so I asked my folks to go track this down. Listen to this. As billionaires buy the laws and lawmakers they want, as bureaucrats conduct personal crusades, as zealots indoctrinate our kids, as criminal gangs infest our neighborhoods, as the UN applies global gun ban pressure, and as anti-gun forces control the House and Senate, if an anti-gun president occupies the White House, then the perfect storm is upon us. Its arrival would be hastened by a terrorist threat, an event experts say is inevitable. Then the final disarmament of law-abiding Americans will take place beneath the shroud of anti-terrorism legislation … Our Founding Fathers understood that the guys with the guns make the rules … and its no different today. That’s why we own guns. We’re not giving them up. The Constitution says it. We believe it. And that settles it.” LaPierre then suggested that a United Nations small arms treaty could lead to private gun confiscation in the United States, stating, “We all know Hillary Clinton’s anti gun record. Or do we? Because we better. Because right now the United Nations global gun ban needs American to cooperate with them. And the timing is perfect.”

In 2005, LaPierre called for the boycott of ConocoPhillips after the company filed a lawsuit to defend its ban on the possession of firearms at an Oklahoma refinery. He then made the following statement: “ConocoPhillips went to federal court to attack your freedom. Now freedom is going to fire back … Idabel, Oklahoma, is a new Concord Bridge. Our forefathers didn’t run from the Redcoats in 1775 and we’re not going to run from the corporations in 2005.”

In a November 23, 2023 fundraising newsletter, LaPierre wrote, “You and I are now making history in the final, decisive battle for the future of our precious Second Amendment freedoms.... Al Gore intends to force every American gun owner to carry a national ID card. He didn't exactly say tattoo a number on your forearm, but you get the idea.”

In 2007, John Amaechi, the first openly gay NBA player, called Karl Malone a “xenophobe.” Amaechi played for two seasons with Malone on the Utah Jazz.

In 2003, Malone donated $4,000 to the presidential campaign of Republican George Bush and $2,000 to Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The next year he donated $4,000 to the Republican National Committee.

Mitchell led opposition to a decision by the American Conservative Union (ACU) to allow GOProud, a gay conservative group, to participate in the 2011 CPAC conference. GOProud Board Chairman Chris Barron called Mitchell a “nasty bigot” in response to her efforts to shut out his organization.

In 2009, Mitchell spearheaded an initiative to overturn the legalization of gay marriage in the District of Columbia.

In 2006, Mitchell appeared on MSNBC to defend a number of Republicans embroiled in ethical scandals. Of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Mitchell said, “Those allegations, the indictment against Tom DeLay, were completely politically motivated.” She then bet public relations strategist Cliff Schecter dinner that DeLay would not go to jail. In January 2011, DeLay was sentenced to three years in prison for money laundering.

In a July 21, 2023 interview with the Hill, Norquist addressed calls by President Barack Obama to restore tax rates for the top 1% of American earners to the levels they were at prior to the administration of President George W. Bush. Norquist stated, “Last time Republicans won the House [in the 2010 elections] and [were] a little strengthened in the Senate and Obama folded completely. We’re going to be stronger this time than after last time; our hostages are the 20 Democrats up in ’14. We’ll send them either piece by piece or one at a time over to the White House to negotiate.”

In a June 15, 2023 speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual summit, Norquist stated, “The left is not made up of friends and allies; the left is made up of competing parasites … Our job is to stop feeding them so that they turn on the guy next to them and start chewing on their ankles so that when we meet them in two and four years in the next election, there are fewer of them and they’re shorter.”

In a May 19, 2023 interview with The Hill, Norquist commented on legislation designed to penalize Americans who renounce their citizenship in order to evade taxes, comparing it to a departure tax the Nazis imposed on Jews seeking to flee Germany before World War II. Norquist stated, “I think [the legislation’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Chuck] Schumer can probably find the legislation to do this. It existed in Germany in the 1930s and Rhodesia in the ’70s and in South Africa as well. He probably just plagiarized it and translated it from the original German.” Senator Schumer is Jewish. Norquist remarked that the communist East German government after World War II implemented a similar plan as well, stating, “The East Germans had the position that if you wanted to leave the country you had to pay them back for all the wonderful Communist education they gave you K through 12. Schumer’s effort has a really distinguished history.”

In a February 28, 2023 interview with the Daily Show’s Samantha Bee, Norquist claimed to have come up with the idea for the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge" (in which elected officials promise to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates”) at age 12. He stated, “Some things are simple. At 12, basically the thought was this, if one of the party’s would brand itself as the party that wouldn’t raise taxes, that that I thought would be a way for the Republican Party to succeed … The goal is to make it easier for people, they know what they’re going to get … If you want to know who you’re voting for, it’s helpful if there’s some sort of brand identification … One party wants to raise your taxes, one won’t. It makes it easier for you to choose.”

During a February 2012 appearance on The Daily Show Norquist stated that there was no scenario under which he would advocate for any tax increase. Norquist went on to claim that he came up with the idea for his “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” —which calls on lawmakers to swear to never vote for any legislation that would raises taxes—in 1968 when he was 12 years old, stating, “At 12, basically the thought was this: If one of the parties would brand itself as the party that wouldn’t raise taxes, that I thought would be a way for the Republican party to succeed.”

In a November 9, 2023 article in Rolling Stone, David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s budget director from 1981 to 1985, described Norquist as a “fiscal terrorist” for his role in the debt ceiling crisis of 2011. Norquist was able to veto any resolution to the crisis that raised the marginal tax rate because nearly every Republican member of Congress was a signatory to his Americans for Tax Reform organization’s pledge to never raise taxes. Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also criticized Norquist, calling him “a good guy with a very bad idea" who “should be examined into.” Simpson went on to ask, “Where does he get his money? ... Who is he slave to? ... How does he terrify people?” Paul O’Neill, who served as Treasury Secretary in the administration of Republican George W. Bush, also commented on the debt ceiling debacle, stating, “Congress was willing to cause severe economic damage to the entire population simply because they were slaves to an idiot's idea of how the world works.”

Reacting to President Barack Obama’s call for the wealthiest Americans to “pay their fair share” of taxes, Norquist compared Obama’s economic policies to former Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin by tweeting, “ Obamas [sic] ‘new’ strategy to divide America: Get the Kulaks.” The Kulaks, a group of relatively affluent peasants who owned land, were the “class enemy” of the poorer peasants under Stalin’s totalitarian regime. Beginning in 1930, Stalin called for the elimination of Kulaks, endorsing methods including execution and deportation to unpopulated areas of Siberia. MSNBC host Chris Matthews called Norquist’s tweet, “Another far right attempt to frame the president as some type of foreigner who doesn’t really know America.”

In 2011, Norquist lobbied the U.S. State Department to approve the Keystone XL project, an extension to the controversial Keystone Pipeline that brings oil from Canada into the United States. The Natural Resources Defense Council has said the Keystone XL extension would “lock the United States into a dependence on hard-to-extract oil and generate a massive expansion of the destructive tar sands oil operations in Canada. In addition to the damage that would be caused by the increased tar sands extraction, the pipeline threatens to pollute freshwater supplies in America’s agricultural heartland and increase emissions in already-polluted communities of the Gulf Coast.”

In a 2011 article in Rolling Stone, Norquist was quoted as saying that he is “not focused on the [federal government] deficit. The metric that matters is keeping spending down.”

Commenting on the fiscal crisis of 2008 that occurred at the end of the presidency of George W. Bush, former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee said, “The wreckage was left by Dick Cheney, Grover Norquist and the gang. This was their doing.”

In 2007 and 2008, the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF), a special project of Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform
organization, awarded U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) the "Guardian of Worker Freedom" award for “voting in favor of workers [sic] rights and freedoms.” As of 2008, Rep. Bachmann's lifetime voting rating with the AFL-CIO was 8% out of 100%.

In 2006, the Associated Press reported that Norquist—who visited the White House 97 times between 2001 and 2006—helped arrange meetings for clients of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff with officials in the administration of George W. Bush. At the same time, Norquist was soliciting donations from these clients for his group Americans for Tax Reform. When the Bush administration tried to seal records of visitors to the White House, Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney said, “By trying to extend a special privilege typically reserved for U.S. government employees to protect their Abramoff cronies like Grover Norquist…the Bush administration showed just how willing they are to manipulate the law to hide the truth and protect their political interests.”

Between 1991 and 2004, Norquist donated over $15,000 to Republican political candidates and conservative PACs . He did not donate any money to Democrats during this time.

In a February 2001 article for The American Spectator, Norquist wrote, “[President George W.] Bush now has the incentive to level the playing field by stripping the Democrats of their ill-gotten gains. To do that he'll have to shake the Democrats' five pillars.” Norquist identified these five pillars as; “labor unions,” “taxpayer funded lobbies,” “greedy trial lawyers,” Big City political machines,” and “voter fraud.” Labor unions, Norquist explained, use money from government contracts and give “political kickbacks to Democrats.” He also complained that “funding earmarked to promote hunting and outdoor sports has been redirected to animal rights groups.” Trial lawyers need to be targeted, Norquist explained, because “in some states trial lawyers give more to Democrats than union leaders do.” Norquist proposed tort reform, which would deprive trial lawyers of “billions of dollars from American consumers,” as a solution. Norquist asserted that mayors and precinct workers who handle federal funds to help the poor comprise a Democratic machine to “deliver the votes in Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and St. Louis.” Finally, Norquist stated, “The whole 36-day circus in Florida was designed to give the local politicians in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties a chance to manufacture or find enough Gore votes, or lose or damage enough Bush votes, to overcome Bush's margin. Although the effort failed, it is estimated that 5,000 felons, mostly Democrats, voted illegally in Florida, and we may never know how many illegal aliens voted.” He is referring to the voter recount in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. The results of that recount were controversial and several irregularities are thought to have favored George W. Bush, including, the "butterfly ballot," which produced an unexpectedly large number of votes for third-party candidate Patrick Buchanan, and a purge of over 54,000 citizens from the Florida voting rolls, of whom 54% were African-Americans.

In 1998, Norquist directed his Americans for Tax Reform Organization to pump money into an anti-labor ballot initiative in California
that sought to limit the influence of labor unions under the guise of “paycheck protection.” Norquist’s told supporters of the “paycheck protection” ballot initiative that he could raise $10 million for their cause, but failed to deliver. The AFL-CIO said Norquist was responsible for “producing and disseminating a resource and strategy guide for introducing anti-worker state ballot initiatives and legislation” across the country.

In 1997, Norquist founded Janus-Merritt Strategies, a lobbying firm, along with David Safavian. Safavian was later convicted on felony obstruction of justice charges in relation to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. The Janus-Merritt clientele included:

• Hamas and Hezbollah supporter Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was later convicted for his role in a terrorist plot and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Alamoudi was also an agent of dictator Muamarr Ghaddafi’s Libyan government. Norquist also helped activist Sami Al-Arian—an associate of Alamoudi—obtain meetings with White House officials during the Bush Administration. Al-Arian was later convicted of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. Department of State.
• Mortgage lender Fannie Mae, which paid the firm $160,000 in lobbying fees in 2001 (when the 2008 mortgage crisis occurred, Norquist would nonetheless comment, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac brought us this collapse … This was criminal negligence on the part of [U.S. Representative] Barney Frank and [former U.S. Senator Chris] Dodd.").
• Corrupt foreign rulers, including former president of Gabon Omar Bongo, who was accused of using his country's budget as a personal slush fund; and exiled former president of the Republic of Congo Pascal Lissouba, who has been convicted in absentia of corruption and treason by his home country. Human rights conditions in Gabon were poor during Bongo's 42 year rule, with a United Nations report citing the "limited ability of citizens to change their government; use of excessive force, including torture toward prisoners and detainees; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; an inefficient judiciary susceptible to government influence; restrictions on the right to privacy; restrictions on freedom of speech, press, association, and movement; harassment of refugees; widespread government corruption; violence and societal discrimination against women, persons with HIV/AIDS, and noncitizen Africans; trafficking in persons, particularly children; and forced labor and child labor."
• Corporate clients, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (the owner of Fox News), the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (a former Abramoff client), and oil and gas giant British Petroleum.

In 1995, in the wake of the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives, Norquist, then- House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (who has since been convicted of money laundering), and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff founded The K Street Project. The goal of the project was to facilitate the hiring of Republicans at top lobbying firms and then reward the firms by offering access to influential GOP officials. The explicit “pay-to-play” nature of the project is now illegal, however, in 2003 Republican lobbyists held 33 of the 36 top-level lobbying positions in Washington. During the midst of the project, Norquist told journalist Elizabeth Drew, “There should be as many Democrats working on K Street representing corporate America as there are Republicans working in organized labor—and that number is close to zero.” Norquist credited Abramoff—who was later convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy charges in a far-reaching political scandal—with “instigating the whole [K Street] project.”

In 1995, Norquist told the National Journal, “What the Republicans need is 50 Jack Abramoffs. Then this becomes a different town.”

According to The Nation magazine, “During the second half of the 1980s, Norquist detoured from his tax work to engage in a series of safaris to far-off battlegrounds in support of anti-Soviet guerrilla armies, visiting war zones from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to southern Africa. Working alongside Col. Oliver North's freelance support network for the Nicaraguan contras and other Reagan Doctrine-allied insurgencies, Norquist promoted U.S. support for groups like Mozambique's RENAMO and Jonas Savimbi's UNITA in Angola, both of which were backed by South Africa's apartheid regime (Norquist represented UNITA as a registered lobbyist in the early 1990s).” In June 1985, Norquist—with the help of (now convicted) Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff—organized a “conference of worldwide insurgent leaders called the Democracy International.” The conference was located in Angolan territory held by UNITA. Attendees included mujahedeen from Afghanistan.

Norquist made regular visits to UNITA controlled territory during the 1980s. Although now a legitimate political party in Angola, the United States Department of Homeland Security has characterized UNITA from 1998 until the killing of Savimbi in 2002 by Angolan government forces as a terrorist organization. During this time period, Human Rights Watch described UNITA as “a rebel group led by Jonas Savimbi, [that] killed, abducted, and terrorized civilians with impunity.” The United States Institute of Peace wrote, “Savimbi is indeed responsible for a litany of crimes against humanity.” UNITA employed child soldiers throughout the Angolan Civil War, including during the time that Norquist was a registered lobbyist for the organization. Norquist ties to Savimbi were close, and he admitted to ghostwriting a number of op-eds for Savimbi during the 1980s promoting UNITA’s war against Soviet-backed MPLA. He even wore a UNITA issued uniform while visiting Angola, but admitting to taking it off when fighting broke out.

Norquist also supported RENAMO, an insurgent group accused of killing over 1,000,000 civilians in Mozambique. After Norquist visited RENAMO-held territory in 1987, he wrote a report praising RENAMO for calling for free elections and the free practice of religion, while falsely accusing RENAMO’s opponents of anti-Semitism. Norquist even met with President Ronald Reagan and urged him to support RENAMO, but the administration declined to aid RENAMO’s cause because of the group’s human rights record.

On November 1, 2012, Norris endorsed Judge Roy Moore for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and released a radio ad with his wife, Gena. In the ad, Norris states, “America is at a tipping point and we must act. We need true patriots to get us out of the mess we're in. I know Judge Moore, and he is a true patriot.” Gena stated, “He has fought the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and liberal judges to preserve our rights and freedoms … He knows our liberty is given by God, not government.” In 2003, Judge Roy Moore was removed from the office of chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to abide by a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of a state judicial building.

In an October 9, 2023 op-ed for Newsbusters, Norris stated, “On Oct. 7, 1780, American patriots prevailed against loyalists in the Carolinas and won their first Southern battle. The Battle of Kings Mountain is a victory not often highlighted today but was a critical win nonetheless. It shows the importance of patriots everywhere persevering in every battle against adversarial forces—even against those born on American soil. The cable network History documented how a loyalist militia under Maj. Patrick Ferguson, largely made up of South Carolina frontiersmen, was defeated by a patriot militia under Col. William Campbell at the Battle of Kings Mountain in North Carolina near the South Carolina border. Ferguson warned the patriots to lay down their arms or watch the loyalists ‘lay waste’ to their country ‘with fire and sword.’ But 1,000 patriot militiamen…courageously confronted Ferguson's loyalists, who were positioned on the rocky ridge of Kings Mountain. Losing the upper hand to what he called the ‘band of banditti,’ Ferguson tried to intimidate the patriots by sending a wall of loyalists blitzing down the mountain, but they were cut down in a hail of patriot bullets … Feels a lot like how we patriots are often outnumbered in modern cultural and political wars and elections, doesn't it? Surrounded by bands of adversaries born on American soil? Gone are the days when patriots…led attacks against loyalist posts during the Revolutionary War. But present today are many other great patriots, aside from the one in the presidential race—such as Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.; Rafael Edward ‘Ted’ Cruz, R-Texas; Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo.; Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, ‘Joe the Plumber,’ R-Ohio; and Judge Roy Moore, R-Ala.—who are fighting worthy battles in state election arenas at this very moment … We patriots, Christian and otherwise, must not allow that to happen Nov. 6, 2012! It's time for patriots everywhere to rally together again and take back America. As patriots did in the battle on Kings Mountain, we must take a stand in local and national elections and wage war again for our republic.”

In a September 16, 2023 op-ed for WND, Norris wrote, “Last time I checked, Americans were responsible for making our own laws. We do not invite foreign nations to have a say in how we govern ourselves within our own borders. Yet if you follow what’s been going on with the United Nations this year, you would know the U.S. came perilously close to having other countries dictate our gun laws. And the fight isn’t over yet. The United Nations has been debating an ‘Arms Trade Treaty’ for nearly a decade now. While the treaty is ostensibly focused on military arms, it has long been clear that the majority of U.N. delegates consider our personal firearms to be crying out for international regulation as well. The focus of the treaty would demand that governments regulate the sale and possession of firearms worldwide–all of them, including yours and mine … This summer, the debate reached a fever pitch during a month-long marathon negotiation session in July. The goal was to disgorge a treaty in time for the Obama administration to sign it before Election Day … The treaty was actually intended as a mechanism to submit our unique Second Amendment guarantees to international inspection–and condemnation … What can we do? We can ensure that we have a president who will not support the treaty, and a U.S. Senate that will not ratify the treaty it. That’s not a one-time commitment. Remember, once a treaty is enacted, it can be picked up at any time by a president and Senate … Throughout my life I’ve been committed to preserving our freedom from threats, both foreign and domestic. This proposed U.N. global gun-control treaty may not be an ‘invasion’ in the classic sense of the word but believe me, over time it represents the potential for encroachment of the greatest kind. Protect your rights by registering to vote today!” In reality, the U.N. Small Arms Treaty would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.”

On September 1, 2012, Norris published a video to his YouTube channel in which he and his wife, Gena, issued a “dire warning” for America. He stated, “We are here to talk about a growing concern we all share. If we look to history, our great country and freedom are under attack. We’re at a tipping point and quite possibly our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don’t change the course our country is headed.” Gena stated, “With our country at a crossroads, Chuck and I have asked ourselves what we can be doing to support this great country we are blessed to live in and how we can encourage our like minded brothers and sisters to unite and let their voices be heard. It is estimated that in the 2008 election, 30 million evangelical Christians stayed home on voting day and [President Barack] Obama won the election by 10 million votes.” Norris continued, “We know you love your freedom as much as Gena and I do, and it is because of that that we can no longer sit quietly or stand on the side lines and watch our country go the way of socialism or something much worse … As Edmund Burke said, ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men and women do nothing.’ Our great President Ronald Reagan said, ‘Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream, it must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Gena stated, “President Reagan went on to say that ‘You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this last best hope for man on earth or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness.” Norris continued, stating, “Please stand with us. Let’s unite for God and country and may God continue to bless the United States of America.” The quote mentioned by Norris, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” is often attributed to Edmund Burke (who is often cited as the philosophical founder of modern Conservatism), but there is no evidence to indicate he ever said it.

In a July 31, 2023 op-ed for Townhall, Norris compared President Barack Obama’s statements in a July 17 speech in Roanoke, Virginia to ones by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Norris wrote, “President Barack Obama's recent business-related comments in Virginia (‘If you've got a business—you didn't build that; somebody else made that happen’) sounded more communistic than capitalistic … To Obama, government is your business partner; government is your savior; government is your hero; government is the economic caped crusader who swoops down like the Dark Knight to save your soul, sales and pocketbook … [His statements] represent, at the very least, his preferred philosophy for a European type of socialism.” President Obama stated in his Roanoke speech, “There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me—because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t – look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something–there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that.”

In a May 27, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Norris wrote about President Barack Obama’s “delusions” of a “stronger, safer, and more respected” United States. Norris claimed, “We have such a weak, unsecured, and disrespected U.S…because President Obama has paraded U.S. weaknesses and mistakes to the world since his 2009 ‘apology tour.’” “Mr. President, you don’t build national or leadership strength, safety and respect by groveling and groping,” Norris wrote.

In a May 13, 2023 op-ed for Ammoland.com, Norris criticized a proposal by the Obama Administration to prevent “children younger than 16 from doing ‘agricultural work with animals and in pesticide handling, timber operations, manure pits and storage bins’ while also forbidding them from using ‘power-driven equipment’ and working in the ‘cultivation, harvesting and curing of tobacco.’” Norris asked, “What’s next? The feds’ crackdown making it illegal for kids to wash dishes, because a knife might cut them? No grinding up food, because the garbage disposer might malfunction and start suddenly while their hand is in it? No more cooking or ironing, because their hands might get burned? No more housecleaning, because the Environmental Protection Agency has designated the mixture of certain cleaning chemicals as hazardous to touch or breathe in? Let’s get real, folks! How far do the feds have to mingle in our manure before we say enough is enough? How far do we have to slide down the slippery slope of socialism before the descent becomes irreversible, before we say, ‘Welcome to Greece’?” Norris further accused President Barack Obama of proposing the measure to continue “implementation of Agenda 21, a United Nations program launched in 1992 for the nebulous purpose of reaching global ‘sustainable development’ but which actually promotes a European socialist system that will undermine and chip away our freedoms, liberties and rights.”

In an April 6, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris suggested that President Obama’s “neutrality and respect for representing our nation’s religious melting pot” was to blame for false rumors that he is a Muslim. He went on to write, “One thing is certain. About this, we can have no doubt. America’s founders built this nation upon religious freedom. They valued denominational pluralism. They were unified in their diversity. They all believed in a Creator. And they were almost all vocal about their Christian beliefs.” Norris concluded, “Is Obama afraid of the ‘Jesus’ word? I’m not, and maybe that’s where my heart and mind should dwell during this period in which one billion people around the world commemorate his Via Dolorosa [Walk of Grief].”

In a March 8, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “On Glenn Beck’s radio show last week, I quipped in response to our wayward federal government, ‘I may run for president of Texas.’ That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state … How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?”

In a January 11, 2024 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris claimed “if [President Obama] and the Democratic majority have their way, America will have that new day, one in which hundreds of thousands of more abortions will be performed annually. I still think it is utterly hypocritical that a president and a political party that pride themselves on providing and protecting minorities don’t include the unborn among them.”

In a November 30, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris complained that the media was not portraying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan positively enough, claiming, “One can partially point the finger at the economy or election coverage as reasons for the reduction of Iraq war articles. But I believe those issues were used more as justifications for the liberal media’s intentional neglect to report U.S. Middle East military progress. Who doesn’t recognize that we live in a time in which there’s little if no publishing space for positive military stories about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?”

In a November 9, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris addressed president-elect Barack Obama, writing, “Quite frankly, that is why I’m surprised that a man like you, who professes to fight for minorities, would not recognize the clear value of a human life in the womb.”

In an October 26, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily referring to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, Norris wrote, “Today, presidential nominees can get away with murder, literally. They can smoke, toke and hang out with terrorists who do. What were once considered legitimate leadership litmus tests are now regarded as off-limit character assassinations and hate language.” He also wrote, “Abortion is not about a woman’s ‘right to choose.’ It is about a more fundamental ‘right to life,’ which is one of three specifically identified unalienable rights in the Declaration [of Independence].”

In a September 7, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris praised the selection of then-governor of Alaska Sarah Palin as Senator John McCain’s vice presidential candidate, writing, “Palin comes to Washington in the spirit of our Founding Mothers. I truly believe she represents an early-American patriotic spirit that lies sleeping among millions of Americans today and needs to be reawakened and replicated with the goal of winning back our country. Sarah is the type of politician who others need to mimic in committed civic service, character and integrity. She is the type of revolutionary who will help to wake up and revitalize America.”

In an August 10, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily about the extra-marital affair of Democratic politician John Edwards, Norris wrote, “I myself have experienced it, as I wrote about in the chapter ‘A sin that became a blessing’ in my autobiography, ‘Against All Odds,’ in which I discuss an adulterous one-night stand in the early ’60s that resulted in my wonderful daughter, Dina.” In “Against All Odds,” Norris described several dates he and his friend went on with two sisters, despite the fact that Norris was married at the time. According to Norris, “One night Johanna and I went to a drive-in movie alone, and we engaged in sexual intercourse, right there in the car.” Norris went on to harshly criticize Edwards for his affair, writing, “Enduring public humiliation is not the only price a political leader should pay for improprieties; I think they should be disciplined, suspended, if not disposed from areas of future public service. The consequence of corruption should also be increased restrictions, if not a banning from certain areas of public service. If one cannot properly handle their private affairs, can we truly expect them to handle political ones?” In another column published in February 2007, Norris encouraged Newt Gingrich—who participated in multiple extra-marital affairs—to run for president “because despite personal past shortcomings, I believe Newt is a Republican as they used to be and, even more, meets the criteria established by men of old.”

In a July 7, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “having just celebrated America’s independence a few days ago, neither Gov. Jindal nor any one of us should hesitate to legislate pro-Creator educational platforms, nor fear anti-theistic swells that try to shut God out of America’s classrooms. Our founders didn’t. And neither should we.”

In a June 16, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “If we are even more aggressive with drilling, we can drive down prices like a pile driver. More than 100 billion barrels of oil are available off the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts and under Alaska, and that’s not counting the oil shale reserves across the Midwest that rivals the reservoirs of the Middle East. It alone could satisfy America’s need for gas for 13 years! But it’s going to take those political pantywaists in Washington to get off their gas, get a little backbone against environmentalists (who now prevent 85 percent of drilling off our coasts), and pass an emergency resolution to drill here and drill now.”

In an April 21, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “Educational arenas have become limited learning environments, because of biases against God, the Bible and creationism.” He also claimed that the First Amendment “was written and adopted, among other reasons, so that Congress would neither establish a federal religion nor restrict religious or speech freedoms, which can include not barring religious instruction in the classrooms.”

In a March 10, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris attacked a court decision that required parents who homeschool their children to acquire teaching credentials. He wrote, “If one wants to control the future ebbs and flows of a country, one must have command over future generations. This is done by seizing parental and educational power, legislating preferred educational materials and limiting private educational options. It is so simple any socialist can understand it. As Joseph Stalin once stated, ‘Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.’ Is it merely coincidental that homeschooling was outlawed by the Soviet State in 1919, by Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1938 and by Communist China in 1949? Will California be next? America? Will we yield control and our educational rights as parents? Such would not only be an American travesty but a human disgrace.”

In a January 7, 2024 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris, who was a high profile supporter of Republican Mike Huckabee’s presidential run, discussed a political ad featuring a controversial statement he made about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “The ad mysteriously aired on the Web after a blogger asked me on the campaign trail, ‘How much do you want to roundhouse kick Mitt Romney?’” wrote Norris. “Picking up on his martial arts sarcasm, I laughed and quipped, ‘I don’t roundhouse kick. I choke.’ Of course I was joking—except, I guess, to one apparently hypersensitive Republican contestant.” He went on to defend Huckabee’s record on crime, stating, “Mike initiated a toll-free hotline to report tips on government corruption, has proven he’s a passionate advocate of the Second Amendment and gave permission 16 times for executions to proceed—more than any governor in the history of Arkansas.”

Shortly before the 2008 presidential election, Norris appeared in an ad for the National Rifle Association and stated, “I’m Chuck Norris, a black belt patriot. If some thug breaks into my home I can use my roundhouse kick, but I prefer he look down the barrel of my gun.”

In a December 3, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “This upcoming weekend I’m giving the worldwide release (Dec. 7) of the children’s movie, ‘The Golden Compass,’ a definite ‘Chuck Norris disapproval.’ I normally don’t critique others’ movies, but this one not only warrants critiquing but condemning. The reason is it will very subtly push agnosticism, atheism, secularism and anti-Christian thoughts upon youthful minds and hearts.” He went on to write, “I even urge others to join the American Family Association to protect children from inappropriate programming on television.” The American Family Association (AFA) has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of the organization’s stance on homosexuality. According to AFA Director of Analysis for Government and Policy Bryan Fischer “Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and 6 million dead Jews.” Fischer has also claimed that Adolf Hitler employed gay soldiers “because he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough.”

In an October 8, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily entitled “Is the American Military ‘The Christian Taliban’?” Norris wrote “The fact is, our country is more obsessed with highlighting Christian fundamentalist abuses than we are the plots and ploys of Muslim extremists who are attacking our troops.”

In an August 27, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “As illegal immigrants continue crime sprees from New Jersey to Oregon, and our government fails to produce a suitable resolution to the immigrant crisis, now more than ever is the time to beat the doors of change and save the shores of Americana.” He went on to offer a number of solutions to the immigration issue in the United States, suggesting, “We need to immediately quit subsidizing the costs for illegal immigrants’ residency in America. How long will we allow them to siphon millions upon millions from honest, taxpaying Americans by supporting their health care, welfare, education and criminal expenses? … If arrested, law enforcement needs to check the immigrant status of criminals. If they’re illegal, deport them. Far cheaper is their deportation than the lifelong leeching from genuine taxpaying citizens … To preserve our heritage, distinction and encourage one common language, we must make English the official (though obviously not the exclusive) language of the U.S.” Norris’s assertion that taxpayers subsidize illegal immigration is disputed. According to The Daily Beast, “The consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. They also replenish—and help fund benefits for—an aging American labor force that will retire in huge numbers over the next few decades. Also, an increase in the number of American workers is needed to prevent the U.S. from having too few working-age adults to pay for retiree benefits in a few decades, as many European nations currently do.”

In a June 18, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris supported the propositions that “Television today portrays husbands as bumbling losers or contemptible, self-absorbed egomaniacs” and “America’s judicial system is wildly biased in favor of the mother in child custody disputes.” He added, “With masculinity on the cultural butchering block, it is high time that men arise to not only protect our national borders but the boundaries of godly fatherhood!”

In a May 14, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “Though the U.S. Constitution outlaws religious discrimination, these [atheist] organizations and individuals would love nothing more than to help society look with distain upon Christianity and, ultimately, make its components illegal. In fact, right now, they are coalescing and rallying at least 5 million of their troops to mount counter offensives to Christianity. For that reason I believe theistic patriots need to be wise to atheists’ overt and covert schemes, exposing their agenda and fighting to lay waste to their plans.” Norris also bemoaned that “Congress passed what might become one of the most religiously restrictive pieces of legislation in history: H.R. 1592, ‘The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.’ With Senate approval, this bill will expand the law against such hate crimes, allowing federal funds and other resources to assist local law enforcement to deter and punish acts of violence committed against an individual because of the victim’s race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. While the bill purports to target crimes of brutality, not speech, it could very easily end up (even inadvertently) restricting First Amendment rights of Christians to speak freely against such anti-biblical practices as homosexuality and transvestitism … Once enforced, what would stop a clergy from being accused as an accessory to a hate crime, after he preached to his church on Sunday about the woes of same-sex marriage and discovered on Monday one of his congregants got in a fight with a homosexual co-worker as a result of a moral altercation? The fact is, if the hate-crime bill passes, pastors could easily become pulpit partners in crime.”

Commenting on a mass shooting at Virginia Tech University where a gunman killed 32 and wounded 25, Norris wrote an April 23, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily in which he stated, “I believe those who wield the baton of the secular progressive agenda bear significant responsibility for the escalation of school shootings. Even conservatives who refuse to speak when evil flourishes must acknowledge some culpability. We teach our children they are nothing more than glorified apes, yet we don’t expect them to act like monkeys. We place our value in things, yet expect our children to value people. We disrespect one another, but expect our children to respect others. We terminate children in the womb, but are surprised when children outside the womb terminate other children. We push God to the side, but expect our children to be godly. We’ve abandoned moral absolutes, yet expect our children to obey the universal commandment, ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ Though I respect the Buddhist, Muslim and Jew who shared at the VTU convocation, our country needs to return and call out to the God of our founders, Jesus Christ.”

In an April 9, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily entitled, “Bringing the Bible Back into Public Schools,” Norris claimed, “The Scripture was the bedrock and blueprint of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, academic arenas and heritage until the last quarter of a century.” He then endorsed the controversial National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS). The constitutionality of the NCBCPS curriculum is highly suspect, and the program has been withdrawn from a number of school districts after legal challenge. According to a report by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, “the NCBCPS curriculum was plagued by shoddy research, plagiarism and a bias that favored one religious perspective Protestant fundamentalism over all others.”

In a February 5, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris urged his readers to support only Christian candidates for political office, and claimed that Thomas Jefferson “could never have imagined a democracy in which its congressmen were sworn into government upon a Quran.” Members of Congress raise their right hand to take the oath of office and do not place their hand on any religious book. Some Members choose to hold a religious text during the process and, in 2007, Democrat Keith Ellison held a copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

In a December 11, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris addressed a perceived “War on Christmas,” stating, “The ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] tries to justify and hide behind these anti-Christian crusades by saying its motivation is to preserve First Amendment and minority rights. The first problem is that its [sic] not equally protecting the rights of Christians, when they are in the minority. If the ACLU wants to fight for the underdogs, then why not battle for the Christian voice that is being progressively suppressed every Christmas? The second problem is that they are not preserving First Amendment rights but are perverting the subordinate Establishment Clause (which prevents government from establishing a national religion, like there was in England) and the Free Exercise Clause (which preserves our rights to worship as we want). Both clauses were intended to safeguard religious liberty, not separate church and state. Nor was their objective to keep religious symbols away from public places! As is often noted, the Framers were seeking to guarantee a freedom of religion, not a freedom from religion.”

In a November 6, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “With the culture wars at full tilt, it is somewhat surprising that expected voter turn out is forecasted as low as 35 percent. This is particularly troubling since Democrats only need to pick up six seats to gain a majority in the 100-seat Senate [during the 2006 congressional elections]. They need only 15 seats out of the 435-seat House to achieve their first majority since being swept out of power in 1994. To not vote is simply a vote for the opposition.” He also added, “I figure if the media can rally behind an actor when he takes a stand for stem-cell research, they can equally back me when I support the [Iraq] war and our troops, increasing border control or voting for Governor Rick Perry in my home state of Texas.”

In a May 26, 2023 op-ed for WorldNetDaily, Norris wrote, “America needs retraining in constitutional education! The First Amendment wasn’t written to exclude religion from public places but to prohibit government from restricting our rights to exercise freely our religious convictions and speech—including the combination of both in prayer!”

On the December 18, 2023 broadcast of the Glenn Beck Radio Program, North spoke to Joe Pags about President Barack Obama’s administration, stating “We’re in deep trouble in America … The background of all of this is a condition of governance today which is bereft of moral leadership. It is absent of any vision for America other than leading from behind and acquiescing to a global perspective that somehow the United Nations is gonna solve our problems if we simply surrender our sovereignty, our independence and our ability to defend ourselves.” North was referring to a U.N. Small Arms Treaty that would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.” Pags asked North, “How is it that we’ve gotten to that point in this country that the government thinks we work for them and not the other way around?” North replied, “This, I think, relates a lot to what just transpired up in Connecticut and what we’ve now seen with these killings. Over the course of the last fifty years, basically two and a half generations, this country has walked away from its founding principles. We’ve said, we’re not gonna allow prayer in schools. Role models that I grew up with, to give you an example my dad was a soldier. Two wars, Korea and World War II. Every one of my male teachers was either a veteran of World War II, or Korea, or both. These were people I looked up to … Where are those guys and people today? Are parents taking the kids to Sunday school or church? Are they taking them and showing them the positive, adult, male role models in life?” North was referring to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 20 first-grade students and six adults were shot and killed. Pags asked North, “I think we’ve got too many single parent households. I don’t know how we got here. Is government to blame for that at all, or have we as a society rolled over and said, ‘Forget it. We don’t have to worry about the old value system’? North replied, “Well, I think to an extent both are true. First of all, the idea of no-fault divorce became very, very attractive back in the 60s. The idea that we’re not gonna allow prayer or God to be mentioned in schools. We’ve all talked about the War on Christmas the last couple of years but, it’s not just Christmas. It’s the entire Judeo-Christian framework of our country.”

In a September 27, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, North wrote to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney some of the things U.S. Armed Services members would like to hear from him at the first presidential debate, stating, “I proffer a few lines you may want to use in the upcoming debates. Full disclosure here: These aren't my ideas. This is what the brightest and bravest of this generation now in uniform hope to hear from our next president:”

• “If you make me your commander in chief, I will bow to God Almighty—but never to a foreign potentate.” North was likely referring to President Barack Obama bowing to several foreign dignitaries during the course of his presidency, including the Saudi King, the Emperor of Japan, and the Queen of England.
• “I never will apologize for the blood and treasure our country has sacrificed in offering others the hope of freedom.” North was likely referring to speeches President Barack Obama gave in 2009. For example, in a speech in Strasbourg, France, April 3, 2009, President Obama stated, “America has shown arrogance.” In President Obama’s address to the Summit of the Americas opening ceremony in the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on April 17, 2009, he stated, “While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership.”
• “I never will call an act of terrorism ‘workplace violence.’” North was referring to a mass shooting at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. In that shooting, Nidal Hassan, an Army psychiatrist killed 12 people and wounded 30 others. The Defense Department classified the shooting as “workplace violence.”
• “I never will announce an arbitrary deadline for withdrawing from battle and give advantage to our adversaries.” North was referring to President Barack Obama’s June 22, 2011, announcement that he would withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2014 as Afghan security forces replace them.
• “I won't beg the Russians –or anyone else—for more ‘space,’ saying I can be more ‘flexible’ after an election.” North was referring to a discussion President Obama had with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in which he told Medvedev he would have “more flexibility” to deal with contentious foreign policy issues, such as missile defense, following the November 2012 elections.
• “Though I am committed to reducing the size and cost of the federal government, I will insist that Congress provide funds necessary to deter aggression, keep America's military No. 1 in the world and keep faith with all who have served and who now look—often in vain—for a good job.” North was likely referring to President Obama’s plan to cut $487 billion in planned military spending by 2022. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called the cuts acceptable and because of budget restraints, inevitable.

In a July 28, 2023 op-ed for Townhall, North wrote, “When Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 in 323 B.C., his once unbeatable army began a 2,900-mile withdrawal from India and headed home to Macedonia. As they retreated, the empire they had created collapsed behind them. To prevent pursuit, Alexander's royal cavalry and infantry dealt viciously with all internal dissent, destroyed cities and burned bridges. The Russians employed a similar scorched-earth tactic against Napoleon in 1812, as did the Red Army when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It's a maneuver now being employed both domestically and internationally by [President] Barack Obama.” North also addressed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” gun trafficking investigation on the southwest border, stating, “[In Mexico] nearly 50,000 people have been killed in drug-fueled violence since 2006. With narco-terrorism now spreading to neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, the [Obama administration] decided to allow thousands of firearms to flow across the U.S. border to drug cartels in the ill-conceived "Fast and Furious" operation. The result: more dead Mexicans, at least one dead American Border Patrol agent and Attorney General Eric Holder held in contempt of Congress [for failure to comply with a congressional subpoena].” A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2023 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in "Fast and Furious" until after it was concluded in 2011.

On June 6, 2012, the Washington Post published an article reporting that Oliver North may have plagiarized a part of his May 18, 2023 Memorial Day op-ed at a Fox News website. In the piece, North claimed that he turned to a “dear friend”—an Army vet and Medal of Honor recipient named Sammy L. Davis—to explain why it is important for veterans to travel to Washington to honor those who died in the Vietnam War. Davis, responded, according to North, by stating, “Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted their best, men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped raw, right down to their humanity … I did not pick these men. They were delivered by fate. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life. They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another.” These words appear verbatim in “These Good Men: Friendships Forged in War,” a 1990 memoir written by Michael Norman, a Vietnam War veteran. Davis told Norman that North never asked him for the comment, and though Davis emailed Norman’s quote to North, he never intended for North to publish it. After a reporter brought the issue to Fox News’ attention, the op-ed was removed and re-posted without the passage. An appended editor’s note was included that mentioned, without explanation, that the paragraphs had been removed and that North had included them “through no fault of his own.” Later, the column was removed from Fox’s website altogether.

In October 2011, North phoned into America’s Radio News to criticize a decision by the Obama administration to recall all troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. North said, “This administration was committed to doing away with America’s military force, basically, years ago. They are now carrying that out.” He also claimed that the “the people who are most glad of this [withdrawing from Iraq] aren’t going to be Americas soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines. Its gonna be the Iranians.” When the interviewer began to ask, “You say this administration has failed foreign policies, but they got [Osama] bin Laden, they got [Muammar] Ghaddafi, they’re doing what most Americans want which is getting out of Iraq,” North interrupted, “The unmanned aerial vehicles—which our colleagues in the media mistakenly call ‘drones’—were bought under the budget provided by George W. Bush. They’ve more than quadrupled the numbers of them available. As you’ve noticed, most of the action is now taking place with special operations troops who were recruited and funded by the Bush Administration.” When asked whether President Obama could take any credit for using the drone program “to great effect,” North stated, “[The President] is taking some of the advice provided by the military commanders on the battlefield, using assets that were not available during the Bush Administration. But they had the foresight to go ahead and start building these things, paying for them, and recruiting the people—I’m talking specifically now about the special operators—who could go on the ground and validate that the target was the real thing.” North also called the United States intervention in Libya a failure because of the Obama Administration’s decision to not send American combat troops into Libya.

In an April 29, 2023 address at the NRA annual convention, North thanked the crowd for “making Fox News number one in America.” In his remarks, he asked, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a president of the United States who respects the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage as something we Americans hold dear?” North also questioned Obama’s credentials on foreign policy, saying, “We need a Commander in Chief who’s unafraid to describe our enemies as who they are. They’re not extremists. They’re radical Islamic terrorists that threaten this country.” Finally, he added, “We need a Commander in Chief who cares more about the troops he leads than his birth certificate.”

In a January 7, 2024 op-ed for the Patriot Post, North expressed his belief that “death panels” existed in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 health care reform bill.

After an admirer told North, “The way our government is acting today, I think I understand why the South seceded,” North called the man’s comment “strong stuff,” and continued: “Academics still debate whether President James Buchanan and his successor, Abraham Lincoln, could have prevented the cataclysm over states' rights. Sadly, the Obama administration, by ineptness or design, seems intent on enflaming similar disputes through repeated assertions of federal ‘authority.’”

In March 2010, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accused North of misrepresenting how donations to his Freedom Alliance charity were being used. CREW disputed North’s claim that, “There’s no overhead. There’s no expenses taken out. Every penny that’s donated or that’s raised through things like the Freedom Concerts goes to the scholarship fund.”

North's Freedom Alliance has donated money to the Team America PAC, an anti-immigration Political Action Committee founded by former Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO). Team America PAC is perhaps best known not for its political work but for an incident in which intoxicated Executive Director Marcus Epstein attempted to karate chop an African American woman in the head while calling her the N-word. Epstein pled guilty, but retained his position with Team America.

In an April 3, 2023 op-ed for the Patriot Post, North wrote, “Julius Caesar was murdered by Brutus and his friends in the Roman legislature on the ides of March 44 B.C. Free enterprise died at the hands of Barack and his friends in the American legislature on the 30th of March 2009 [when General Motors Chair and CEO Rick Wagoner stepped down after being asked to resign by the Obama administration as part of the government’s conditions for GM and Chrysler to restructure before receiving more federal aid]. The following day, those same ministers of American government completed the death warrant for civic duty in our republic. They called it the "Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act." The bill passed—as did the killing of Caesar—with overwhelming support from the legislature.” The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act funds AmeriCorps and other organizations that promote volunteerism.

On June 2, 2008, North praised Republican presidential candidate John McCain by saying: “In all the many months that I’ve spent covering these young Americans on the battlefield there’s only one candidate running for public office who I have seen in places like Ramadi or Fallujah. There’s only one candidate running for president of the United States who has said, ‘I will not fail you.’ There is only one candidate running for president of the United States who has said, ‘I have a formula for victory and I will not abandon your fight.’ I have heard him tell that to the young Americans he has seen and listened to on the battlefield. My friends, I don’t believe our nation can handle four years of Barack Obama. I don’t believe our nation can survive abandoning the cause for which these young Americans have fought.”

North was a central figure in the Iran-Contra Affair. The political scandal, which came to light in November 1986, involved U.S. officials violating an arms embargo to sell weapons to Iran, and then using the residual profits to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua. North oversaw the transfer of the arms profits to the Contras, who engaged in widespread human rights abuses, including the rape and murder of civilians. They also had links to drug traffickers. In July 1987, North admitted to lying to Congress and shredding important documents related to the Iran-Contra scheme, which he referred to as a “neat idea.” He was later indicted on 16 felony counts before being convicted on three of them in 1989. The conviction was vacated in 1990.

In March 2014, the city of Longview, Texas paid Nugent $16,000 not to appear at the town's Fourth of July festival. The city had reached a verbal agreement with Nugent to perform as the headliner at the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center during the town's Independence Day celebration. To break that agreement, the town paid Nugent half of his guaranteed performance fee of $32,000 from Maude Cobb's annual budget. A city spokesman said Nugent was "not the right feel for this kind of community event."

As a guest on Denver’s KNUS 710-AM talk-radio show on February 3, 2014, Nugent likened the “media in this country [to] Joseph Goebbels' propaganda ministry.” Joseph Goebbels was the Reich Master of Propaganda for the Nazi regime.

During the NRA News show “Cam & Company” on January 16, 2014, Nugent compared Harvey Weinstein, a Jewish anti-NRA filmmaker, to Nazis. Nugent elaborated that “You have to be brain-dead to believe that the gun-free zones of Chicago and Nuremberg [Germany] in 1938 are a desirable condition” and claimed, "Harvey Weinstein is on the side of criminals. The NRA is on the side of innocent victims protecting themselves from criminals.” In truth, law-abiding residents of Chicago are allowed to purchase and own firearms.

In a January 14, 2024 op-ed for Newsmax, Nugent asserted, “The whole global warming lie is a giant, international environmental scam and hoax designed to control people by instigating fear and panic. There is no global warming, only hot-air from Al Gore and his gaggles of Woodstock rejects who have made many millions by perpetuating something that just isn’t so.” Contrary to Nugent’s statement, global climate change is a phenomenon that is well-supported by research conducted by agencies such as the National Academy of Sciences, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”

In a December 4, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Nugent proposed a compromise that would trade regulating private sales of firearms for closing "the federal voting loophole." He wrote, “Left-wing anti-gun adherents believe closing the so-called gun-show loophole will be a big step forward in making America safer. While I don’t believe this for a [former New York City] Mayor Bloomburg [sic] smoke-free, fat-free gun-hating second, I’m willing to lead a charge for closing this ‘loophole’ if the left wing, say Piers Morgan or Michael Moore, will agree to promoting and advocating closing what many hardworking and taxpaying Americans believe to be a federal voting loophole. The federal voting loophole is this: People who pay no federal income taxes are allowed to vote in federal elections. Arguably, this is a ‘loophole’ since these voters have no federal income tax flesh in the game. The producers who pay more than our fair share believe that it is grossly unfair for those who pay no federal income taxes to be able to vote in federal elections determining how other Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars are spent.” The “Gun Show Loophole” refers to private sales of firearms that are conducted at gun shows without background checks.

In a November 6, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Nugent claimed that an FBI investigation into the fatal police shooting of a California teen who had been holding a pellet gun was “another hollow attempt” by President Barack Obama “to stir up controversy and divide America further.” On October 22, 2013, 13-year-old Andy Lopez was shot seven times by a sheriff's deputy in Santa Rosa, California. The deputy, identified by media as a "gun expert,” apparently believed that the pellet gun Lopez was spotted carrying was an AK-47 assault weapon (the weapon did bear a striking resemblance to an AK-47). Nugent continued, stating, “Sending the Department of Justice to investigate if the boy’s civil rights were violated is solely designed to stir up racial strife just as it was when the Department of Justice showed up in Florida to investigate if Trayvon Martin’s civil rights were violated after George Zimmerman killed him in self-defense.” Nugent has made other controversial statements about the Trayvon Martin case in the past. Finally, Nugent stated, “The Obama administration looks to stir up racism where there is none because they believe there are big political points to be scored in the minority communities. It’s call vote scamming. Meanwhile, due to the big-government central planning boogie woogie of the Obama administration, minority communities have been led to the economic slaughterhouse at the hands of their great scam master leader.”

In an October 14, 2023 interview on Gater 98.7, a Florida radio station, Nugent blamed President Obama for the record rate of veteran suicides, stating, “[W]hen you've got leadership that is the enemy of America, you've got the heroes of the U.S. military committing suicide at record numbers because their Commander-in-Chief is the enemy of the country. I mean it's so ugly right now, you got a bunch of pimps, whores and welfare brats running our government.” Nugent also spoke about the government shutdown, which began on October 1, 2023 when Congress failed to pass legislation funding government operations and agencies. Nugent made recommendations to fix the situation, stating, “I would love to see America run like the Nugent household. You get up early, you maximize your productivity, you be the best that you can be, you live within your means, you save for a rainy day and you don't be some gluttonous, slovenly, criminal, wasteful paycheck fire-torching bastard like most of the people in politics today … I celebrate that they're shut down because Fedzilla is a bloated monster. I would recommend and I think an honest review of the federal government would conclude the same that I have, and other thinking, caring people who understand the U.S. Constitution and how to run a household or how to run a business. That for every federal employee, let's put it this way, for every 5,000 federal employees, I could hire one person to do a better job. It is so wasteful. It's engineered obsolescence, it's engineered redundancy. The whole battle cry of the federal government is waste, corruption, fraud, abuse of power. So I'm glad it's shutdown … You can't run a family like that, you can't run a business like that. But Fedzilla is convinced they can operate with impunity. And I have a message for [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and the President, ‘Eat me!’"

On September 17, Nugent tweeted, “Liberal democrats are soulless slavedriving scam artists bribing voters.”

In an August 13, 2023 radio interview on “The Mike Huckabee Show,” Nugent spoke about his hunting dog Gonzo, stating, “We literally hunt anywhere between 250 and 300 days a year. And you think Gonzo is good on ducks, you should see him on squirrels and doves and rabbits and woodcock and grouse. He really is a mystical, wonderful hunting dog.” Huckabee replied, “Well, maybe we ought to turn him loose on some Democrats and see if he can hunt them, too.” Nugent then stated, “Well, there’s a lot of varmints out there. I think he would do good pointing to varmints and then we could vote them out of office. What do you say?”

In a July 31, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Nugent endorsed the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery, stating, “More of us believe in the American hero Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s thorough investigation into your phony birth certificate and phony history than the phony media’s smoke and mirrors.” In July 2012, Joseph Arpaio, a controversial Arizona sheriff, announced that a "Cold Case Posse" under his direction determined that Obama's "long-form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in a paper format as claimed by the White House." The "Cold Case Posse" reportedly attempted to uncover evidence that Obama was born in Kenya.

In the same editorial, Nugent said to President Obama, “[W]ith all due respect, your holy phoniness, who can’t see the terminal phoniness of wasting more tax dollars with more phony charges against George Zimmerman in defiance of your own FBI investigation and the same exhaustive evidence that proved his obvious innocence to the jury of his peers and everyone paying attention who was not blinded by your phony racism?” On July 13, 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter after shooting and killing unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. After the trial, the U.S. Justice Department began investigating whether to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.

Finally, Nugent suggested that Nidal Malik Hassan, the man responsible for a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, is President Obama’s “Allah Ahkbar buddy.” Hassan allegedly yelled "Allahu akbar!” which means “God is Great” in Arabic, before opening fire.

In a July 24, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Nugent spoke about the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who was tried after shooting and killing unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. Nugent stated, “The first step toward genuine healing for the denial-riddled hysterical black community would be to admit that George Zimmerman was indeed getting his ‘a– whooped’ by an angry, violent, wildly overreacting young man, and that Trayvon Martin was not an innocent child … Why the nasty ‘creepy a– cracker’ racism and impulse to attack? Where does this come from? Is it the same mindless tendency to violence we see in black communities across America, most heartbreakingly in Chicago pretty much every day of the week?” Nugent was referring to the testimony of prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel, who testified that shortly before George Zimmerman killed him, Martin told her on the phone that he was being followed by some “creepy a—cracker.”

On July 22, 2013, Nugent tweeted, “Damn shame TavisSmiley Sharpton et al r blind drunk on terminal racism.” Nugent was referring to Tavis Smiley, a liberal political commentator and Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and television/talk radio show host. Nugent also tweeted, “We sincerelypray for black America but enuf[sic] of the self indlictedracism[sic] already.”

In a July 16, 2023 interview on the Alex Jones Show, Nugent said "The Black Problem" needed to be addressed. Nugent explained: “The blacks have bought into this lie that somehow they're oppressed when the President is black, the Attorney General is black, governors are black, senators black, congressmen are black, mayors are black, Oprah Winfrey, the richest people in the world are black. It’s a dirty lie … If I could impress upon and inspire and beg everyone listening now, we got to reach out to every black person we know and encounter. We have to pray for black America and beg our fellow Americans who are black to admit to this suicidal, self-inflicted curse that you've bought into the big lie of Jesse Jackson and Eric Holder and Al Sharpton, that you're not helpless, you're not a slave, you're not worthless, you're not inept, you can do anything you want to do to get out of the self-inflicted shackles that have been brought upon the race baiters and the racist industry … The food stamp scam. The welfare scam. Blacks can fix the black problem tonight if they just admit they can do anything I can do, anything Alex Jones can do, anything Thomas Sowell can do, anything that any American can do if you put your heart and soul into being honest, law abiding, delivering excellence at every move in your life.” Finally, Nugent added, "Racism against blacks was gone by the time I started touring the nation in the late 60s. It was gone. I have black musicians, I see blacks ascending to whatever heights they wanted. There was no oppression … They might have run into racism occasionally like I did because I had long hair ... and by the 70s … Nothing of consequence existed to deter or compromise a black American’s dream if they got an alarm clock, if they set it, if they took good care of themselves, they remained clean and sober, if they spoke clearly, and they demanded excellence of themselves and provided excellence to their employers.”

In a July 15, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Nugent Nugent spoke about the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder for shooting and killing unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. Nugent wrote, “[A]ll thinking people are very relieved that George Zimmerman was found not guilty by the intelligent, justice-driven women of the jury, in spite of the façade presented by the prosecution and forced by the threat of racism by everyone from President Obama, to Eric Holder, the New Black Panther gangstas, NAACP, excuse-makers of every stripe and even the governor of Florida, but still this innocent man who simply defended his life from a violent, life-threatening, bloodying, head and face slamming attack by an enraged black man-child has so wrongly paid an inexplicable price financially and emotionally … George Zimmerman and his entire family, innocent of any wrongdoing, have lost everything and will be in debt for a long, long time for having to fight the trumped-up charges that he ‘profiled’ and/or set out to murder the poor, helpless, dope-smoking, dope-peddling, gangsta wannabe, Skittles hoodie boy.” Zimmerman’s lawyers set up a website last summer titled “George Zimmerman Defense Fund” to accept donations and raised almost $500,000 by the July 10 start of the trial. There is no evidence that Trayvon Martin ever sold drugs or was a member of a gang.

On July 14, 2013, in an interview with Newsmax, Nugent spoke about the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder for shooting and killing unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26, 2012. Nugent stated, “The entire prosecutorial team should be ashamed of themselves and disbarred for kowtowing to the hateful anti-justice racist pressures.” Nugent praised the jury, saying, “Smart and honest America rejoices that the jury got it right. This was the purest case of self-defense you could have ever asked for.” Nugent added, “The ultimate lesson for anyone paying attention is ‘Be sure you educate your children to not attack people for no reason whatsoever.’”

In June 27, 2023 radio interview on the Christian Nationalist radio show “Sons of Liberty,” Nugent called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a “murderer” for her role in responding to the September 2012 Benghazi embassy attacks during which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others State Department employees were killed. Nugent also called President Obama a “Chicago gangster” and “die-hard communist.” “It's gone tipsy turvy where we have a Chicago gangster, ACORN community organizer, scam artist and diehard Communist as the President of the United States, a gunrunning Attorney General, an absolute buffoon for a Vice President and a murderer as the Secretary of State who intentionally kept security away from American citizens so they can get blown to smithereens,” added Nugent. An investigation by the State Department Accountability Review Board found that mistakes were made in the response to the attacks, but that those decisions were not made at the level of Secretary of State. Nugent’s reference to the failed “Fast and Furious” operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) similarly ignored the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder has always stated that he was unaware of the operation until it was concluded. Holder’s statement was supported by an extensive investigation by the Department of Justice Inspector General.

On March 26, 2013, Nugent appeared on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ radio show. Jones has accused the U.S. government of being involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On the show, Nugent compared a video in which actor/comedian Jim Carrey criticized the NRA to what the Nazis did during the Holocaust, stating, “In Nuremberg 1938, we got there late, but when we finally got there we made those subhuman, Nazi, brown-shirt punks walk through Auschwitz and look [at] what they caused. Look what they did and this Jim Carrey moment is a mirror that we can show somebody, hopefully soon, that these people enhance crime, they encourage crime, they facilitate and guarantee more innocent dead citizens.” (Religion)

In March 2013 Nugent spoke on conspiracy theorist Pete Santilli’s online radio show. On his website, Santilli has promoted a conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, in which 20 first-graders and six adults were killed, was a “satanic sacrifice.” Santilli also posted images that suggest the shooting was predicted by a map seen in the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises.” Nugent told Santilli, “I know that if you believe animals have rights, I promise I will kill an extra hundred just for you … You see, I never poisoned my body. My parents taught me that my gift of life is embodied in the sacred temple. So no drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco and no fat chicks. Stuff will kill you, Pete, I'm telling you, it's deadly. But I have been known to chew on a Cuban, that's a cigar. I wouldn't chew on a Cuban, they haven't figured out personal hygiene yet.” Nugent also spoke about President Barack Obama, stating, “The President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall. He did his smoke and mirrors scam. He pretended to show respect and honor, 58,000 American warriors who died fighting communism. And then he hired, appointed and associates with communists.” There is no evidence that President Obama has ever hired a communist. As for Nugent, he admitted evading the draft for the Vietnam War by taking controlled substances and smearing his body with feces before a fitness exam. Nugent continued in the interview, stating, “If you can't see through the dishonesty and the scamming of this president with that scenario fresh in your mind, then that's literally like, I guess that would be like, I don't know, a German in 1938 pretending to respect the Jews and then going home and putting on his brown shirt and forcing his neighbors onto a train to be burned to death. So we really have a rotten, rotten man in the White House who I am convinced hates America, hates individuality.”

In a February 20, 2023 op-ed for World Net Daily, Nugent wrote, “[President] Barack Obama, the guy who received roughly 93 percent of black American votes, is the clear and present engineer of the destruction of black America … [It is] unbelievable that black Americans continue to support Democratic politicians who have raped and plundered black America forever … The truth is that the Democratic Party has been the engineer of the destruction of black Americans, and everyone knows it except the very people who need to know it the most—black Americans.”

In February 2013, Nugent appeared on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ radio show. Jones has accused the U.S. government of being involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Nugent said, “Alex, you're doing God's work … What you're celebrating, and what you are sharing with the radio listeners out there is indisputable, it's irrefutable, and I got to thank you because it's so late in coming that those of us with the balls and the inside view of the criminality of this government right now, the unprecedented abuse of power and corruption and fraud and deceit by the Chicago gangster scammer ACORN-in-Chief [President Barack Obama] is so diabolical that I just wanted to say thank you from the trenches.” Nugent was making reference to ACORN, a community activist organization and its affiliate, Project Vote. After the 2008 election, the John McCain (R-AZ) campaign accused the group of perpetrating “massive voter fraud.” Neither ACORN nor its employees have ever been found guilty of—or even charged with—casting fraudulent votes. Several ACORN canvassers have been found guilty of faking registration forms. The evidence shows that the canvassers faked the forms to get paid for work they didn’t do, not to stuff ballot boxes. A report by the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan public policy research arm of the U.S. Congress, stated that there were no instances of individuals who were allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN or its employees and who were reported "attempting to vote at the polls."

In fan videos from Nugent’s “Black Power 2013” tour, he attacked President Barack Obama, calling him the "lying racist in the White House.” Nugent also attacked the "criminal pieces of sh-t in the IRS," "dirty cocksuckers in the government," "the jack boot Nazi motherf--kers in the Department of Justice," "f--king retarded mongrels" who support animal rights, and "well-fed motherf--ker food stamp cocksuckers." Nugent also stated, "When the British came to take our guns we met them at Concord Bridge and we blew their f--king brains out," and told the audience, "keep a f--king gun in your hand, boys." He was referring to the American Revolutionary Battle at Concord in which the militia defeated three companies of King George’s troops at North Bridge.

In a December 18, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 20 first-grade students and six adults were shot and killed. Nugent wrote, “Something is causing young loners to pick up guns and slaughter people … The ugly and dangerous truth is that we live in an embarrassing, politically correct culture that exalts and rejoices in the bizarre; aggressively promotes an ‘anything goes’ value system; and vilifies, condemns and mocks traditional societal values and customs at every opportunity. More laws and more restrictions won’t fix our culture. T he problem we face is much deeper and more insidious. What ails us is a spiritual bankruptcy of cultural values that actually matter … As with most things, the cure to this mess begins and ends with the family. Traditional family values have been under siege for decades by our culture of contempt. In the absence of a solid family, the whole thing slowly unravels and rots.”

In a November 21, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “In yet another never-ending series of terminal ding-dong moves, members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike and drove Hostess out of business, providing one more stinking example of how labor unions can no longer have their cake and it eat it, too … Labor unions are bad for business. With just these four short opening paragraphs, the allergic-to-logic, empty Twinkie heads of anti-capitalism liberals are surely spinning ‘round and ‘round. They will ignorantly shriek that big business is greedy and needs more government regulation, that businesses have all kinds of obligations to their employees, that labor unions are still needed and that liberals know what is best for the economy … Unemployed long enough, even liberals with noggins full of economic balderdash put there by comedians Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, and liberal college instructors who have never owned or managed a business will begin to understand that anti-business, pro-union liberalism doesn’t pay the rent. Ding-dong that.” Hostess, the maker of Twinkies and Ding-Dongs, filed for bankruptcy in January 2012. On November 9, 2012, Hostess employees went on strike after the company imposed a contract cutting worker’s wages by 8 percent and benefits by 27 percent to 32 percent. In mid-November 2012, the company began selling its factories and assets. Hostess also began laying off its 18,500 workers.

On November 13, 2012, Nugent tweeted, “Since soulless animal rights fools hate nature I will kill many deer for them.”

In the early hours of the morning following Election Day 2012, Nugent tweeted the following:

• “Pimps whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters hav [sic] a president to destroy America”
• “So [President Barack] Obama still demands the hardest workers provide for the nonwotkers [sic]. Shared opportunitiesmy ass.”
• “What subhuman varmint believes others must pay for their obesity booze cellphones birthcontrol abortions & lives.”
• “Goodluk [sic] America u just voted for economic & spiritual suicide. Soulless fools.”
• “So 4 SCOTUS idiots dont believe in self defense. Pure evil.” Nugent was referring to Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Justices Breyer and Ginsburg dissented in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago. In Heller, the Court held for the first time in U.S. history that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to firearm ownership for self defense in the home; thereby striking down D.C.’s handgun ban. In McDonald v. Chicago, the Court held that the Second Amendment, as interpreted in Heller, applied to the states through the Due Process Clause. Justice Sotomayor joined the dissent in McDonald. Justice Kagan has indicated that she also disagrees with the Court’s decisions in Heller and McDonald.
• “I cry tears of blood for The Last Best Place & the warriors who died for this tragedy.”

On October 26, 2012, Nugent tweeted, “The Obama gang turned their soulless slimy backs on Americans in Benghazi. Criminal corruption & abuse of power.” Nugent was referring to an attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya on September 11, 2012. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack. Congressional hearings revealed that the State Department was aware of, and rejected, several requests for increased security in Benghazi. In addition, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives reduced funding for embassy security. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, when asked why Republicans took this step, stated, “Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country. We have…15,000 contractors in Iraq. We have more than 6,000 contractors, a private army there, for President Obama, in Baghdad. And we’re talking about can we get two dozen or so people into Libya to help protect our forces. When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices. You have to prioritize things.”

On October 17, 2012, Nugent tweeted, “Apparently soulless liberals & zombie democrats dont care that their president lies thru his teeth. Go Mitt [Romney].”

On October 10, 2012, Nugent tweeted, “Yeah thats it-The FtHood massacre was a workplace act of violence Yeah, thats the ticket Goodcall gang Obama lying enemies of America. damnU.” Nugent was referring to a mass shooting at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. In that shooting, Nidal Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 12 people and wounded 30 others after legally purchasing a handgun and ammunition. The Department of Defense classified the shooting as “workplace violence.”

In an October 8, 2023 radio interview with Rusty Humphries, Nugent stated, “You know why you love my greasy soulful black soul music? You know why you love it so much? Because on all my Gibson guitars, I have illegally imported Indian fretboads. That's one thing I demand from Gibson is that if they are going to make me a guitar they will use illegally imported wood so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has a conniption fit every time I play." Nugent was referring to several U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department raids on the guitar maker Gibson for importing endangered wood. Nugent told Humphries that one of his new songs was about how, “The whole word sucks, but America still sucks less and if we don’t get these gangsters out of the White House we’re gonna suck ourselves to death … [Government is] so out of control now, the new normal is offensive, vulgar, obscene, and anti-American at the hands of a community organizer who is intentionally dismantling the greatest quality of life in the history of mankind.” When asked what he thought of polls that showed President Barack Obama holding a slight lead over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Nugent replied, “Well, when you read those kind of manipulated and dishonest polls it actually does increase confidence [in Mitt Romney] because the leftist media is so addicted to dishonesty and misrepresentation and manipulation … I believe there’s more of us than the bloodsuckers that [President] Barack Obama and his gangsters have bought and paid for and if that offends somebody who is listening to Rusty Humphries and Ted Nugent, you need to get a clue because this president has bought his votes by offering something from the productive Americans to the non-productive Americans … If you look at the average voter for Barack Obama, he’s either receiving something from the taxpayer or he’s an elected official or government employee that is being overpaid.” Turning to the topic of his family, Nugent stated, “We shoot pretty much every day. I shoot every day … Unarmed citizens are slaves so we take our shooting very seriously.”

In an October 4, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “Not so amazing, but the backbone of the Democratic Party, the ones buying the most lottery tickets, are the ones who can least afford it. Duh. If these mouth-breathers promise not to vote, the GOP should buy them a lottery ticket. That would be cheaper than trying to reach them with political ads. The Democrats are once again playing class warfare. Jacking the poor and downtrodden against wealthy Americans is a core Democratic political strategy … The message the Democrats send to their base is that wealthy Americans are to be despised, maligned and punished. The Democratic Party will never admit that wealthy Americans might just be smarter, have a greater tolerance for risk and a stronger work ethic than supporters who carp about how the system is rigged against them and seek a fantasy of ‘shared opportunity.’ Show me where life is fair and I will vote for President Obama. The only things rigged against these comfortably dumb Americans is the image staring back in the mirror and the Democratic Party, which has intentionally enslaved and victimized them for decades … To demonize wealthy people is to spit in the face of the American dream. You might want to note that there is no demonization of the wealthy from Republicans, only Democrats.”

In an October 2, 2023 radio interview on 101 KXL, a Portland, Oregon news radio station, Nugent stated, “[Michigan] turned into a liberal cesspool of slovenliness and gluttony and just entrenched irresponsibility…the opposite of what I grew up in Michigan … Positive spirit and entrepreneurial work ethic…is still alive and well in Michigan, it’s just been overwhelmed by the pimps and the whores and the welfare brats.” Nugent continued, stating, “I couldn’t be more proud, in 2012, hippies and communists hate me. They hate me, which means I’m really really a good person.” When asked what he would do if President Barack Obama won the election in November 2012, Nugent replied, “I’ve saluted too many flag-draped coffins to give up. I’ve spent too much time with U.S. Marines with no legs and Army heroes with no arms and Navy and Air Force and Coast Guard and National Guard guys who have given up everything to give up … If Barack Obama gets back in, I’ll just turn up the heat and fight to demand the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and that ‘We the People’ get more engaged and take this country back from these criminals. Barack Obama and [U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder and [U.S. Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton and [U.S. Treasury Secretary] Tim Geithner and other czars, they’re all America-hating punks. They hate this country. They hate freedom. They hate excellence. They hate entrepreneurialism. They hate genuine effort. They think there’s somehow some kind of fairness available where people who don’t try as hard somehow benefit the same way as people that try really hard. That’s just buffoonery. That’s just a Karl Marx [author of the ‘Communist Manifesto’], [Former Leader of Communist China] Mao Tse-tung insult.” Nugent, by his own account, evaded being drafted for the Vietnam War in the 1970s by taking controlled substances and smearing his body with feces before a fitness exam.

In an October 1, 2023 interview with Big Hollywood, Nugent stated, “[President] Barack Obama hates America. Barack Obama hates freedom. Barack Obama's voting record, his upbringing, his education, his words, his actions, his misdeeds, all reek of everything anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-Bill of Rights. The latter of which is most deviously manifested in his voting record against the individual right to keep and bear arms … America faces doom if we re-elect Barack Obama to the presidency. It is a dire, dangerous forecast for freedom … If he wins in November he won't have to kowtow, he won't have to placate anybody anymore. He will be able to go for the jugular, and that includes the jugular of the Second Amendment. He will begin again what he did in Illinois as a gangster politician and go against gun rights, he will tax ammunition, he will ban certain types of bullets, and he will ban certain types of firearms. His goal is Attorney General Eric Holder's goal: namely, to brainwash Americans into believing that guns are bad and that the Second Amendment does not mean individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. Barack Obama is a smoke-and-mirrors scam artist who has convinced people he believes one and one equals two, while he shoves three-and-a-half down your throat … In November 2012, we are voting for [Republican presidential candidate Mitt] Romney/[Republican vice presidential candidate Paul]Ryan because we are voting for the very soul of America. If Barack Obama is elected again, this country is done." Nugent was referring to a speech Eric Holder, then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, gave to the Woman’s National Democratic Club on gun violence in 1995. Holder stated, “We want to have…an informational campaign to change the hearts and minds of people in Washington, D.C. and particularly young people. They are saturated in the media and entertainment, or by the entertainment industry, with violence. And I think too many of our young people, in particular our young men, are fascinated with violence, and in particular fascinated with guns. What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes. When I was growing up, people smoked all the time…but over time we changed the way people thought about smoking…and that’s what I think we need to do with guns, really change the way people think about them … This is not going to be something that’s very easy to do, because we are, quite frankly, fighting something that appears every day on television, on the radio, in our popular music, in movies that these kids are exposed to … We need to get really innovative, really creative things that are gonna grab the attention of these kids and change, as I said, the way in which they think about guns … I have asked the school board to make a part of every day some kind of anti-violence, anti-gun message. Every day, every school, at every level. One thing I think is clear with young people, and adults as well, is that we just have to be repetitive about this … We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”

On September 27, 2012, Nugent tweeted, “Who could possibly not admit that [President Barack] Obama & the dem[ocrat]s are slavedrivers creating a sheeplike subclass of bloodsuckers. buy the vote buy the vote.”

In a commercial for Nugent’s Discovery Channel show, “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country,” published September 25, 2012, Nugent stated, “I bleed red, white, blue and liberty. And nothing says liberty more than the right to bear arms. Guns built this country and good men with guns made it the American dream. This is a look into the world of guns and America’s obsession with guns through the eyes of the biggest gun nut of all, me.”

In a September 3, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “What a psychotic piece of subhuman debris [mentally ill mass shooter Jared Lee Loughner] did on Jan. 11, 2011, outside a Tucson Safeway store where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was holding a ‘meet and greet’ with constituents was an unfathomable act of barbarism … The obviously guilty mass murderer has pleaded guilty and has been spared the death penalty. Yet the death penalty is exactly what he deserves. For his crimes, he will spend the rest of his life in prison while six innocent Americans are dead and 13 more are struggling to recover from their wounds. Sparing the killer’s life is not justice, it’s legalized barbarism. Allowing him to live out his days in prison is our convoluted legal system allowing Lady Justice to be mugged again and again … If a killer is deemed to be psychotic, he is held to a different standard by our legal system than a killer who is deemed not to be crazy. That’s a legal system that is certifiably nuts … Locking up the terminal whack-job shooters in prison for the remainder of their lives will cost taxpayers many millions of wasted dollars when all that is required is a 25-cent bullet to the back of their deranged heads. But the do-gooders among us say we shouldn’t do that, that the state shouldn’t sanction ‘murder,’ especially of those who are deemed to be mentally incompetent. Do-gooders are more dangerous than a sow grizzly with cubs or a coiled rattlesnake, as do-gooders champion and sanction legalized barbarism … The McNaughton rule, which basically states that terminal whack jobs can’t be held responsible for their crimes, is the ultimate definition of nuts. It should be replaced with the McNugent rule, which states that regardless of your mental state, if you slaughter innocent people, expect a bullet to the back of the head, most preferably at the scene of the crime. So long as the American justice system is held hostage by mindless do-gooders who wish to enforce their toxic, brain-dead legalized barbarism on the rest of us, our only recourse is to be vigilant and ready to protect ourselves and our loved ones from these psychotic monsters. Shoot them. Punks deserve to pay for their crimes with their lives instead of living out their lives and attending group therapy sessions on the taxpayers’ dime and further burdening the society they already have hurt deeply.” The McNaughton Rule, which Nugent refers to, is a legal standard for insanity. Under the rule, there is a presumption of sanity. The defense must prove "at the time of committing the act, the accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong." In addition, studies show that it is typically less costly to imprison an individual for life than to sentence him/her to death.

In a September 1, 2023 interview with Patriot Update, Nugent stated, “The Fourth Amendment is trampled on all the time … Do you know that game wardens, who I adore and have great respect for, they’re heroes of law enforcement – most of them—law enforcement agents of Game Department can come into your house without a search warrant, without just cause. Maybe cause they don’t like you. Maybe you’re the wrong color. Maybe they don’t agree with your politics. Maybe they don’t like your music. It doesn’t matter the reason. A law enforcement official of Game Departments of the United States of America do not respect and are not limited by the Fourth Amendment … They don’t need just cause. They don’t need a search warrant. They can cut the lock on your gate–while you’re home or you’re not home. They can break into your freezer and examine the meat and see if it’s legal. On a hunch. On a rumor. Or just on a bad day … So that’s offensive on all levels but there’s also some other jack-booted Gestapo maneuvers going on these days like the Gibson raids … While we’re sitting here, my email’s going [noise] blowing up with stories of heartbreak: where a teenager, who’s never broke the law in his life, who’s never been in trouble with the law in his life, his family [is] law-abiding, their family has been bankrupted because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife thugs, the same ones that raided Gibson … Just the examples would gag you … When Governor [and Republican presidential nominee Mitt] Romney becomes Commander-in-Chief, I pray to God, along with a great Vice President, Paul Ryan … have got to look into these violations of civil rights and basic human rights at the hands of agencies gone mad … Vote Romney and Paul Ryan as president.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is subject to the requirements of the Fourth Amendment; however, some statutes give U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents authority to conduct warrantless searches. Nugent was referring to several U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department raids on the guitar maker Gibson for importing endangered wood.

Turning to the topic of sexual assault of minors, Nugent stated, “We’ve got to create community review boards for judges who keep letting child rapists out, when that judge knows if that child rapist is let out on the streets, he will rape again. And our court systems answer to that is to register them? To know where they live? In a neighborhood instead of a cage, instead of jail?” In 1978, Nugent began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa. Due to the age difference they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa’s parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian. In 1998 interview with VH1, Nugent spoke about his “weakness for young women.”

In part two of the interview with Patriot Update, Nugent stated, “I hold the most important office on earth, ‘We the People.’ I am a we the people activist on behalf of my family, my neighborhood, my state, my country, and mostly that soldier in a box who died fighting for the U.S. Constitution. We all owe [that soldier] to make sure our elected officials abide by that document that he gave the ultimate sacrifice for.” Nugent evaded being drafted for the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Nugent then spoke about Kasim Reed, the Mayor of Atlanta, stating, “Me and old Kasim go way back. Kasim condemned me recently on one of the news shows … I love when the brown-shirts hate people saving Jews. Anyhow, the idiots and the America-haters hate me. That proves I’m doing God’s work because the devil is upset.” Regarding The Badger State, Nugent said, “Wisconsin is the guiding force and light for what America should be doing, between Scott Walker as Governor, Paul Ryan as Congressman, and now the Senator Tommy Thompson. America should go the way of Wisconsin because Wisconsin turned into a lump of liberal snot hair, just embarrassing. Everything was wrong with it and then come from the debris came Scott Walker.” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, whom Nugent refers to, appeared on “Meet the Press” and was asked about a comment Vice President Joe Biden made to a crowd in Danville, Virginia. Biden stated, “Every Republican’s voted for [the House GOP budget]. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney…said in the first hundred days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, ‘unchain Wall Street.’ They’re going to put y’all back in chains.” Reed replied, “When Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan stands up to Rush Limbaugh…when they’re disparaging a Georgetown law student or stands up to Ted Nugent, really stands up to anybody or stands up to Donald Trump, then I’ll be willing to have a conversation about a comment that the vice president made.”

In an August 29, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “The root of evil is not the want of money, but rather a government that thinks it knows better than free-thinking individuals how best to provide for our well-being. Socialists like [President Barack Obama] use the law and courts to force their failed big-government ideas on those of us still helplessly drunk on freedom, rugged individualism and liberty. You know, the American way. Socialists argue that fairness is the goal. For their version of fairness to occur, socialists must take the earnings and wealth from one person who earned it and give it to another who has not. Karl Marx would be proud of Mr. Obama. We would be wise to remember when then-Sen. Barack Obama was campaigning for the presidency and told Joe the Plumber, “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” Those are the words of a socialist who learned his lessons well from his socialist upbringing and on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer … Socialists are punks who think they are smarter than ordinary Americans and that ordinary Americans are so dumb they need to be managed by Fedzillacrats in Washington. These punks are smug, arrogant and wrong … Join me at the dead-end brick wall of freedom and liberty. Let’s ring the Liberty Bell once again. Educate and remind all the people you know every day that if they’re not registered to vote and they fail to vote Romney-Ryan, the socialists win. And the shining city upon a hill comes tumbling down.”

On August 25, 2012, at a concert in Fort Worth, Texas, Nugent stated, “I vow that I will use our freedom to get these dirty [expletives] out of the White House. The president is a bad man. The vice president is a bad man. They’re all bad people. If you don’t get that, you’re a dead [expletive]. If you don’t get that, get out of Texas. Move to Illinois … It’s time to celebrate the taking back of America in 2012 … The whole word sucks, America just sucks less.” While holding up a machine gun, Nugent said to the crowd, “All the skinny girls get a free machine gun tonight. The big girls can load them.” Turning to another topic, Nugent stated,“This is an illegal Gibson guitar, the game warden told me it was illegal. They’re soulless [expletives]. Those spineless, soulless pieces of [expletive] from the Wildlife Agency should take me down now, because all of my Gibsons are made of dangerous species. This one is made of platypus! My audience will beat them within an inch of their lives. Is that illegal? [Expletive], it’s just entertainment!” Nugent was referring to previous U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department raids on Gibson for importing endangered wood.

In an August 24, 2023 interview with Newsmax, Nugent addressed a shooting that had occurred earlier that day at the Empire State Building in New York City. Gunman Jeffrey T. Johnson, a disgruntled former employee of a women’s clothing shop across the street from the Empire State Building, shot and killed a former co-worker. Nugent said, “The Empire State shooting is yet another gun free zone.” Officers posted at the front entrance of the Empire State Building shot and killed Mr. Johnson shortly after the shooting.

On August 10, 2012, in an interview with Newsmax, Nugent stated, “Everybody dead in Aurora was unarmed and helpless. Everybody dead in Milwaukee was unarmed and helpless. Everyone dead at Virginia Tech was unarmed and helpless. How dare President [Barack Obama] or [Congresswoman] Nancy Pelosi, or [New York City Mayor Michael] Bloomberg want more of that? [Republican presidential candidate] Mitt Romney made the terrible mistake of banning a certain type of firearm in the past — what they call assault weapons, which is not what they are. But he has seen the light. I spoke with him at length. I am convinced in my absolutist Second Amendment heart and soul that Mitt Romney will never even consider any more infringements on guns, ammo, fire power, access of guns ever again for Americans. He’s learned his lesson. Compared to Barack Obama and his team, Mitt Romney is indeed Michael the Archangel. He is a knight in shining armor for individual rights to self-defense.” Nugent also spoke about a proposed small arms treaty at the United Nations, stating, “When they talk about reducing unnecessary violence by eliminating small arms in the hands of citizens around the world, they’re talking about the same thing that Hitler talked about: Disarm the populace so you can control them at your every whim.” In reality, the treaty would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.”

On August 7, 2012, Nugent Tweeted, “what kind of subhuman demon would actually want more gunfreezones proven to be THE slaughterzones wasserman schultz holder lunatic fringers.” Nugent was making reference to U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D – FL) and Attorney General Eric Holder. There is no data to demonstrate that a majority—or even a significant minority—of the approximately 34 gun homicides that occur in the U.S. each day occur in “gun-free zones.”

In an August 6, 2023 interview with the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Nugent was asked what rock bands would represent President Barack Obama and the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Nugent responded, “Out and out politicians are anathema to rock-n-roll, so I hesitate to attempt to connect the two. But on important issues, I am saddened to admit that Obama represents everything bad about humanity and Romney pretty much all that is good. It is really that stark.” Nugent, also asked about gun rights and knife rights, stated, “The right to self-defense is secondary to the pure righteous instinct to self-defense. Historically, monster freedom crushing tyrants, kings, emperors, despots, and evil slavedrivers denied mankind of such basic God-given rights, and this sacred experiment in self-government is based on refusing to give any of them up ever again … If a man is forced to be unarmed and helpless, you are at the mercy of evil, and that simply does not compute to conscientious, thinking people, so we stand and fight.”

In an August 6, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a “punch-drunk senator” making “buffoonish comments this goofy blurt being just the latest.” Nugent was referring to a statement Reid made to reporters on July 31, 2023 claiming that Romney hadn't paid taxes for ten years. Nugent commented, “This is a typical left-wing, Saul Alinsky playbook ploy: denigrate, besmirch, lie, deceive, then try to slip away under the cover of darkness.” Saul Alinsky was a community organizer and writer in the mid-20th century. In 1971, he wrote a book called “Rules for Radicals” which describes his theory and methods of organizing. Nugent also wrote about President Barack Obama’s administration, stating, “The Obama team will continue to embarrassingly play the hateful race card, the vile class-warfare card, and every other divide-and-conquer card they can think of. Now that they have backed themselves into a corner with their failed policies and agenda, they will resort to yet more desperate political ploys … Smoke, mirrors, lying, cheating and trumped-up character assassinations are the Chicago way. Let’s be smarter than four years ago when we got exactly what we deserved—a die-hard leftist amateur community organizer with no productive experience except being a political street hustler.”

On July 28, 2012, Nugent Tweeted, “Dear UN Blue Helmut gangsta punks & all freedom hating people everywhere, I am the NRA. Eat shit & die. Sincerely, Ted Nugent.” Nugent was likely referring to a small arms treaty discussed at the United Nations in July. The treaty would set only international standards for the import/export of conventional weapons—leaving it to individual countries to “regulate internal transfers of arms and national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership.”

In a July 26, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “Fedzilla is growing fatter, less accountable and less transparent by gorging itself on our tax dollars. Instead of tightening Fedzilla’s fiscal belt, government bureaucrats just buy him bigger belts and suspenders, and he gets fatter and smellier each day. The only good pig is a dead pig. Regrettably, there are way too many intellectually stunted Americans who support this gluttonous and irresponsible spending curse. They are called socialists. Socialists believe in Keynesian economics, which supports government control and meddling in our economy … It’s akin to Jerry Sandusky managing a little boys’ football team. Another, more accurate name for Keynesian economics is Kamikaze economics.” Keynesian economics are based on the ideas of 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes. Advocates of Keynesian economics argue that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes which require active policy responses by the public sector. Nugent also made reference to Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State University who was convicted of sexually abusing ten boys during a 15-year period. Finally, Nugent described fellow NRA board member Grover Norquist as “The Dirty Harry of tax and government reform.” “Dirty Harry Norquist, president of Americans For Tax Reform, has never seen a tax increase he supports,” wrote Nugent, “which should immediately put him at the head of the line for a Presidential Medal of Freedom once Mitt Romney is elected. If there was a Hall of Fame of Common Sense, a huge statue of Grover Norquist would at be the front door.” ATR’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” calls on lawmakers to swear to never vote for any legislation that would raises taxes, no matter how modestly.

In a July 26, 2023 interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck, Nugent spoke about a mass shooting that had occurred at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado six days earlier. In that shooting, severely mentally ill gunman James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 others. Holmes wore full body armor during the attack. Nugent commented to Beck, “And remember, Glenn, this monster in Aurora took 20 minutes to do his evil. In 20 minutes you don't need an assault weapon, you don't need a machine gun, which he didn't have either of, but you could do more damage with a single shot or a bolt action because he had 20 minutes … His AR-15 Smith & Wesson rifle is now the most popular sporting rifle in America. It is the number one competition, number one in self-defense; it's the number one sporting rifle for big game and small game. And if they keep calling it an ‘assault weapon,’ I may have that aneurysm.” In fact, the shooting in Aurora lasted only two minutes, after which time Holmes was apprehended by police in the parking lot of the theater. Single shot rifles and bolt action rifles, which Nugent made reference to, must be reloaded manually after each shot is fired. A semiautomatic firearm reloads automatically and can keep firing until its magazine is emptied. Holmes had three semiautomatic firearms on the night of the Aurora shooting, including an AR-15 style rifle (the civilian version of the military’s M-16 rifle) equipped with a 100-round drum magazine. Paul A. Smith, outdoors editor for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has stated that while AR-15s "have gained favor among some hunters and sport shooters in recent decades, they constitute a small fraction of deer hunting rifles in use today."

Finally, Nugent compared target shooting to the scenario that an armed citizen might have encountered had he/she attempted to return fire against Holmes in the theater: “I know the hysteria about tear gas and it was dark in the theater. Glenn, I am not making this up. Last week my wife Shemane and I were filming a segment for our Spirit of the Wild show and we were shooting at watermelons surrounded by human silhouette targets just as kind of a competition and from 20 feet and from 20 yards and we were shooting from every imaginable angle, under cover, from sitting, from squatting, from prone position, from behind cover and from in the open, and we never hit an innocent and we never missed the watermelon. And I'm just a guitar player. If a guitar player can neutralize a watermelon from 20 feet—and this is with live fire, by the way. We would shoot while the other would take the target shots. So there was that tension of live fire. And this was done in a scenario—and I understand it wasn't real bullets coming at us and it wasn't people screaming, running around … But dear God in heaven, doing nothing is not an option. Training, having a firearm to neutralize an evil gun maniac is a way to go, and we train for that. And I wish I would have been in the theater that day.”

In an email interview published July 9, 2023 in Michigan Live, Nugent responded to a question about threatening remarks he had made towards President Barack Obama and Democrats by stating, “I have been deeply involved in this tragic culture war raging in America for a very long time. I am painfully aware of the criminal abuses by the president, his attorney general and most of his administration. Anyone unaware of these violations is either brain-dead or woefully disconnected from reality. I know what I am doing and I know what I am saying. I meant it then and I mean it now.” He also spoke about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s chances of winning Michigan, stating, “Even those feeble-mined [sic] Michiganiacs on the receiving end of the government’s communist offenses of redistribution are waking up to how unfair and suicidal this system is for any meaningful quality of life in MI and America. This waking up is alarming all smart people to the disastrous results of the liberal democrats' destruction of our great state. By any honest scrutiny, Romney will stop this destructo derby and re-institute some accountability.”

In a July 3, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “In a sea of soulless, sheeplike dependency, it’s easy to spot the fiercely independent people who continue to declare our independence. We are the producers, the people who make the country work. We are business owners and hardworking employees. We are fiercely American; we believe in self-reliance and rugged individualism … Fiercely independent Americans are shocked and saddened by how far our beloved country has slid into socialism … Defiance is in the DNA of fiercely independent Americans. We defy the notion that the wealth we create through our hard work, sweat and risk can or should be spread around for others. We find that concept to be abhorrent—anti-freedom and anti-American … Fiercely independent Americans expect no charity but are the first in line to give generously when charity is needed. We are givers, not takers. We can always be counted on to offer a hand up to those who want to help themselves. We don’t give handouts, as we know that destroys self-reliance.” He added, “As we continue to slide further into the big-government abyss that our Founding Fathers warned us about, we must either reverse course and embrace the ideals of freedom and limited government our founders envisioned, or we choose big government, unsustainable debt and ultimately, tyranny.”

In a June 29, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent praised a 14-year-old boy from Phoenix, Arizona who shot and nearly killed an intruder who broke into his home and pulled a gun on him while he was watching his three younger siblings. Nugent wrote, “Today I’m screaming with joy. A young man saved himself and his three young siblings by using his father’s gun to blow a hole in the maggot, who probably is a paroled punk with an arrest record 3 feet long … We should honor the actions of this young man by training an army of other young people how to use guns so, God forbid, if they are ever in a similar situation to this Phoenix teenager, they, too, will blow holes in maggots. You want a safe, prosperous America? The first thing we need to do is remove evil instead of releasing it time and time again to prey on law-abiding Americans … Smile, America. Good conquered evil in spite of the liberal anti-freedom agenda.”

In a June 21, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “Regretfully, there are Americans who actually want to maintain President [Barack] Obama’s socialist course that will lead to our ultimate destruction, just as it has for every other country that embraced this form of government control. Socialism restricts. Freedom rocks. It’s 'We the people,' not 'We the sheeple' … Boil it down to its core, and the upcoming election is simple: Do you want more freedom or less freedom? It isn’t any more complicated than that … The president wants to continue growing the federal government, continue borrowing and spending at record levels, and he wants to advance a socialist agenda. This is a recipe for disaster.”

In a June 13, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent offered presidential candidate Mitt Romney advice on attracting the Latino vote. He stated, “The key to attracting Latino voters is to appeal to their sense of independence and to inform them the GOP believes in the power of the individual, not Fedzilla whose track record is one of dependence and destruction.” Nugent continued, stating, “Mr. Romney should continue to press for education reform, and remind Latino voters that education is vital to success. He should illustrate the importance that Americans of Asia-Pacific descent place on education and how fast their children move into the middle class. It doesn’t have to be an Asian thing … Mr. Romney should also hammer away at the welfare state that Democrats have largely created and continue to support. He should tell Latinos the welfare state is fiscally unsustainable and creates dependence instead of independence. Mr. Romney has little to lose by illustrating how Fedzilla has wreaked untold havoc on black America.”

In a June 5, 2023 radio interview on WJBC, a central Illinois station, Nugent stated, “The whole world sucks, America sucks less. But we’re catching up because we have a president who will quote the founder of communism and recommends that the government redistributes people’s earnings. Then he’ll visit the Vietnam Memorial Wall and lie claiming that he wants to thank 58,000 dead American soldiers and Airmen and Marines and Seamen while he quotes the man they fought against.”

In a May 17, 2023 editorial for the Washington Times, Nugent offered the following “words that no tenured professor ensconced in an ivory tower could possibly have taught” to 2012 college graduates:

• “If becoming the best was easy, everyone would do it. Instead, only a few become the very best. Equality is for sheep and Mao fans.”
• “The world is full of cheats, liars, lazy bloodsuckers and people who cut corners.”

On May 7 2012, Christopher Hecker, whose last known address was in suburban Philadelphia, was charged with threatening to kill President Barack Obama after emailing the following threat: “I sent a bomb to the White House today and to several radio stations. Sooner or later I will grab someone, maybe in the woods, on the trail, and beat the life out of them.” Hecker also wrote, “[Obama] is the one that is destroying patriotism in the U.S.A. Ted Nugent is right. So, Obama is allowing me to be tortured to the point that I may murder someone, rather than deal with the mess he made. Your president is a coward.” Nugent had made national headlines just three weeks earlier after making threatening remarks toward the president and Democrats at the 2012 NRA convention in St. Louis. After being charged, Hecker pled no contest and asked to be sentenced to the death penalty immediately.

In an April 23, 2023 editorial for the Washington Times, Nugent made several observations about the “War on Poverty,” stating, “Poor people are poor because they make poor decisions. That’s the root cause of poverty … Poor people will quit being poor when our government quits enabling, bribing, training and rewarding them to be poor.” Nugent went on to claim that “condemn[ing]” Americans to a life of poverty “is one of the driving political platforms of the Democratic Party.”

During an April 17, 2023 radio interview with Dana Loesch , a Tea Party activist and CNN contributor, Nugent stood by the threatening remarks against President Barack Obama and Democrats he had made three days earlier at the NRA Convention, calling his message “ 100 percent positive .” Nugent continued by calling the Obama Administration’s policies “ toxic ,” “ corrosive ,” and “ an abuse of power ” that are carried out by Obama’s “ czars and his henchmen .” Nugent added derogatory comments about Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, calling Wasserman-Schultz a “brain-dead, soulless, heartless idiot ” and Pelosi a “subhuman scoundrel ” and “ wicked witch .”

On April 14 2012, Ted Nugent signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, admitting that he had illegally shot, killed and transported a black bear in southeast Alaska in May 2009 and transported it in violation of the federal Lacey Act. Nugent agreed to a $10,000 fine and a two-year probation. He also agreed to pay Alaska $600 . After signing the agreement, Nugent advised fellow hunters, “ even when you are aghast at a maniac, inexplicable, illogical law, please abide by those laws at all costs .” According to Nugent, his prosecution for killing the black bear was the result of a “ witch hunt” inspired by his political activism. “ We are the people turning up the heat, and that’s why I’m being singled out by certain fish and game agencies and certain U.S. attorneys ,” he stated.

During a live interview at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting on April 14, 2012, Nugent called the administration of President Barack Obama “vile,” “evil,” and “America-hating.” He also stated, “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” Continuing on the topic of the 2012 presidential elections, Nugent added, “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop [Democrats'] heads off in November. Any questions?” In the wake of Nugent’s comments, a spokesperson for the Secret Service confirmed that he had been placed under investigation. The campaign of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney—who sought and received Nugent’s endorsement—released a statement saying, “Divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from. Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil.”

During an April 4, 2023 appearance on CNN’s "Piers Morgan Tonight," Nugent discussed the killing of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by concealed carry licensee and self-appointed neighborhood watch “captain” George Zimmerman on February 26, 2023 in Sanford, Florida. “Piers you have expressed that you don’t want to try this on television. I also do not want to try this on television. I think we both agree that there is a tragedy that it is being tried and that Zimmerman has been convicted across the media in many instances. So let’s not do this here. So let me propose to you a scenario that I think you can grasp and support. You must be aware, and if not ill inform you now, how many professional law enforcement heroes are killed every year with their own weapon. I’m not juxtaposing this with the Trayvon and the Zimmerman situation, but it does happen where an assaultant will start beating a person so badly that those of us that are armed, we have a responsibility to keep that new assault from taking our weapon. Because if the assault escalates to that degree, certainly the fist can go into a deadly situation if they get ahold of the gun bearer’s gun. So we have to be cognizant of that. If it wasn’t for backup guns in law enforcement and in civilian hands oftentimes, that the perpetrator and the person getting beat up is killed with his own gun. So let’s not dismiss that reality that is documented over and over again across this country,” stated Nugent. Morgan then asked him, “Do you believe that a neighborhood watch official acting in that capacity should be armed and using that firearm?” to which he responded, “Yes.” In a March 24-25, 2012 CNN poll, three-quarters of Americans said that neighborhood watch volunteers should not be armed.

On February 27, 2012, Nugent conducted a wide-ranging interview on KFYI’s “Mike Broomhead Show.” He made the following comments:

• Commenting on the position of the administration of President Barack Obama that the wealthy should pay more taxes, Nugent stated, “Let’s call a spade a spade. I mean the entire current administration under the America-hating Barack Obama, and the America-hating Joe Biden, and the American Constitution criminal Eric Holder. Tim Geithner is the perfect example of what the current American government stinks like. Because Tim Geithner is a tax thief. Tim Geithner was caught not paying his taxes. So instead of being in jail, Tim Geithner, the tax thief, is actually in charge of our financial system. Are you kidding me, why don’t we just hire [serial killer] Jeffery Dahmer to be in charge of the children’s playground? I mean this whole administration is so corrupt. It abuses power like no one in the history of the United States of America has ever done. And Tim Geithner is a poster child. Just like Eric Holder. Running guns to the Mexican drug kings. Are you kidding me? Could it get crazier? Could it get more criminal than this? We have criminals. We have American-hating maniacs in our government. And Tim Geithner’s latest nonsense is a perfect example of that.” At one point, while pronouncing U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s last name, Nugent appeared to call him a “kike.”
• Commenting on 2012 Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul, he stated, “I have great admiration, in varying degrees, for each and every one of them. Each and every one of these candidates have some really really quality positive points about them. And each one of them would make a vastly superior president of the United States than the current mess that we’re in right now. That should be perfectly clear to anybody with a brain. But ultimately these guys got to go down to the Army-Navy surplus store and buy themselves a box of scrotums. They’ve gotta get some balls … These four presidential candidates have to get a little tougher, a little bit more fist pounding on the bully pulpit, and identify the curse, the abject curse that is the United States government the way it stands right now in the hands of Barack Hussein Obama and Eric Holder, et al.”
• Continuing on the topic of the Obama administration, Nugent stated, “Speaking of ridiculous policies, anti-American policies, this current anti-American monster in the White House, this administration is blatant and flagrantly abusing the Constitution, violating the Constitution, and continuing on a death march for America.”
• Turning to the topic of entitlement programs, Nugent claimed, “The entire welfare program is slavery. We are literally enslaving people to feed off of a government and rewarding people to be the worst that they can be, to not try something. Get rid of this embarrassment that there is a list of jobs that Americans aren’t willing to do. Are you kidding me? How about the condition where Americans have actually given up looking for work. That is so embarrassing, why don’t these people just move to France.”

In a February 16, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “There remains a segment of the American public who would rather shovel junk into their mouths and sit on the couch than follow a healthy lifestyle. When these Americans become ill, they want others to pay for their health care, which is a key reason why America is broke and in debt. We live in a La-La Land entitlement society where poor choices are condoned and rewarded and individual responsibility and accountability are largely ignored by the bloodsuckers who want the rich to ‘pay their fair share.’ Unbelievable.”

In a January 23, 2024 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “The real reason [2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt] Romney is being pressured to release his tax returns is because his fellow GOP presidential candidates, his hateful critics and crazy Demoncrats live to wage class warfare against him for being successful. This is so very wrong. We should respect a person’s financial privacy and celebrate any American who succeeds … There is this toxic, anti-American idea that has surfaced that financial success is something that should be questioned, maligned and condemned and is somehow malicious. This is dangerous and dumb. The Occupy idiots who condemn and blame Wall Street for America’s stagnant economy are simpletons. Let’s hope these morons just keep getting stoned and forget to vote in November.” The release of Romney’s tax returns led to the disclosure that he earns most of his multi-million dollar income in capital gains and placed millions of dollars in offshore investments in an account located in the tax haven Cayman Islands.

In a January 9, 2024 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “Diversity is America’s greatest strength, according to the left and its socialist, Marxist, commie cohorts and co-conspirators running rampant across the country. If you listen carefully to these America-hating, social-engineering liberals, virtually all behavior, conduct, morals and beliefs make America stronger. This, of course, is toxic, brain-dead logic that leaves ordinary Americans shaking and scratching their heads in confusion and disgust. We recognize bull dung when we hear, see and smell it, and we have no desire whatsoever to embrace it … The left is forcing its version of diversity throughout our society and culture. According to the left and its acolytes, we are supposed to respect people who refuse to respect Old Glory or learn English, look for a job or put forth the effort to do an honest day’s work. We are supposed to respect all cultures, values, laws and religions—even when they have proved throughout history to be dangerous and diametrically opposed to our American way of life, customs, laws and traditions. It will be a cold day in hell before I embrace voodoolike religions and unclean stone-age cultures that retard progress instead of advancing it. The real issue is that by forcing diversity and multicultural nonsense in our workplaces, schools and government agencies on people who still cherish common sense and traditional American values, we’re ripping the nation apart.” Nugent went on to claim that Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement that some critics of President Obama are motivated by race is “the ultimate act of racism.” He continued, “I respect diverse people who respect and cherish basic American customs, traditions, goodwill and values. I have no respect for left-wingers who employ intimidation to make multiculturalism or diversity mandatory as the law of the land. The diversity punks believe in racial set-asides and preferences. You won’t ever solve discrimination by engaging in reverse discrimination. Maybe a racist like Jesse Jackson or Mr. Holder believes in reverse discrimination, but ordinary Americans do not. We are much too focused and intelligent to buy into such Jabberwocky. Real diversity, real change, real progress is accomplished by promoting and embracing Western culture, values and traditions, which is what made America great and created the greatest quality of life ever. Weakening this proven methodology under the artful guise of diversity, multiculturalism and political correctness is every bit as insidious a threat to America as are voodoo-inspired terrorist punks.”

In a December 14, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “At least the Three Stooges were hilarious. The Occupy [Wall Street] stooges are much different, though they certainly qualify for classic numskull stooges nonetheless. They are dirty, political punks. I seriously doubt the majority of them could identify five reasons why they are protesting. No one else in the country can. You don’t need to search the Internet far to read story after story of the Occupy stooges committing crimes, fighting the cops, destroying personal property, stinking the place up and engaging in other noble expressions of First Amendment rights. I find that beautiful—priceless, actually. Only human cockroaches spotlight themselves … What America is witnessing is the Democratic Party on parade. I say let the parade of simple stooges continue. Let them continue to demand something for nothing, try and close down streets, fight with the cops, live in filth, dance like Timothy Leary zombies. It’s beautiful. It’s so Democratic Party. Let working hard, playing hard mom-and-pop America witness the Democratic Party in all its shameless, numskull and dirty glory. As the party clowns work tirelessly to falsely paint conservatives as heartless, cold, evil, sexist and racist, I say conservatives should do whatever we can to encourage the Occupy stooges to stay on course, painting themselves for what they are. While I don’t condone violence, watching the cops pounce on and pepper-spray a few Occupy stooges and then drag the dirtballs off to jail in shackles is good for my conservative soul and gold for my sense of humor. Everyone needs at least one hearty laugh every day … What America is witnessing by watching the Occupy clown brigades is the future of America if the Democratic Party is in control.”

In an October 7, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent described the country of Iran as “the land of Allah freaks” and added, “Convert to Islam or die is the mantra of many of the world’s Muslims … It may be a religion of peace, but the religious voodoo whack jobs who embrace the faith are an oppressive, cruel and violent lot … A quick search of the Internet reveals hundreds of instances of Muslims terrorizing and killing Christians and destroying their churches. And we are supposed to believe that Islam is the religion of peace. I think not. Go to jihadwatch.com and read about Islam, the religion of persecution, death and destruction.” He concluded by writing, “Green energy ain’t cuttin’ it. Tilting at windmills is for idiots. Like it or not, America still runs on oil. I’m all for clean energy, such as nuclear, but I’m also a realist who understands that it is brain-dead to be doing business with voodoo extremists when we have access to so much oil and so many other energy resources that we could be mining but aren’t because of our own environmental extremists.”

Nugent authored a September 27, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times to take issue with comments that actor Morgan Freeman made about the Tea Party movement. Nugent wrote, “If Mr. Freeman could further remove his racist blinders and study the historical condition of black America, he would find the black community was vibrant and strong 60 years ago. This is not the case today. Instead of leaping to ugly and unfounded charges of racism, Mr. Freeman should ask some fundamental questions about what has happened to black America and who is responsible for the destruction. The real architects of the destruction of black America are Democratic Party members who have lied to and manipulated black Americans into believing that the federal government is the answer to improving their condition when, in reality, it is the destroyer of black America. One has to wonder if Mr. Freeman could admit this obvious conclusion.”

During a September 9, 2023 appearance on BBC Radio, Nugent said, “The American dream is based on putting your heart and soul into being the absolute best that you can be. I am convinced that the Republicans in general—and [2012 Republican presidential candidate] Rick Perry, specifically—represent that spirit and that spirit is alive and well across this country. And if we just went to the core of those that are collecting unemployment checks that will look you right in the eye…and go, ‘Yeah, there’s a bunch of jobs I can take, but why bother? I’m getting a pretty good check as it is and they’ll give it to me for two years.’ Do you realize that curse is widespread in this country? But Rick Perry, as a servant of we the people in Texas, respects the basic premise that an able-bodied American should dedicate themselves to be productive.” Nugent also stated that Rick Perry “is the great white buffalo. The fact that it is ‘great white buffalo’ has nothing to do with ethnicity. The great white buffalo was a Native American legend of a mystical beast that found the battered herd and led ‘em across the land.” Finally, Nugent predicted that “America will come to grips that America needs to look like Texas ... Some of the greatest hunting in the world plus there’s no income tax plus I can carry a machine gun in my truck. I mean, how could you not move there?”

During an August 27, 2023 concert in Peoria, Illinois, Nugent “invited his audience to storm down to [the Illinois state capitol in] Springfield and take it over.”

In an August 23, 2023 interview with the Houston Press, Nugent described his musical inspirations by saying the following: “So many other maniac, black animals continue to drive me and my band and my music wild.”

In an August 18, 2023 interview with conservative talk radio host Vicki McKenna, Nugent said the following:

• Nugent called himself the “funniest black man in America.”
• “You have a warrior [in Wisconsin] now. Scott Walker, the [Republican] governor of Wisconsin, is a warrior. He is a great man. He is upgrading the quality of life in Wisconsin—bringing accountability, pragmatism, and rugged individualism back to the forefront of a great state.”
• “There’s a lunatic fringe. There’s always been a lunatic fringe. Unfortunately and heartbreakingly, the lunatic fringe now has a president. The lunatic fringe has given the green light to corruption, fraud, deceit, lying, the abuse of power the likes of which I’ve never seen… Let’s be perfectly honest—we have a president of the United States of America who was raised by communists that hate America. Went to a church regularly—well, they call it a church, I call it a voodoo cave. They went to a voodoo church where they preached hate for America, where it was racist worse than the Ku Klux Klan. Are you kidding me? This guy is the president of the United States?”
• “America has the dumbest, fattest, most disconnected, slovenly children in the world thanks to the [National Education Association (NEA)]. NEA, unions, no thank you. Move to Canada. They already have policies that reward slovenliness up there.”
• “Let me tell you who the goons are, who the lunatic fringe is: Eric Holder, Tim Geithner, Hillary Clinton, who side with the goons, the savages, the rapists, the murderers of the U.N.”
• “By voting in [Republican] Scott Walker as Governor of Wisconsin you just said thank you to the family of a dead soldier.”

In an August 5, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times entitled “Hiroshima’s Lesson Remembered: Ending War with Overwhelming Force is Quickest Path to Peace,” Nugent wrote, “We face new enemies today, many of whom belong to voodoo terror cells that will use any weapon or means to kill as many Americans as possible. Let us pray that we have a plan to kill every one of these voodoo maggots before they kill another American.”

Nugent, who was rejected by a draft board during the Vietnam War, claimed in a July 25, 2023 interview with Military.com that he has trained with the Navy Seals, Green Berets and Army Rangers in both an official and unofficial capacity since the late 1970s. Nugent claimed his military experience included “sniper work and some various combat type-training.” Referring to the administration of President Barack Obama, Nugent said, “over my dead body will I let this current regime continue in their abuse of power.”

On July 21, 2011, Nugent tweeted, “HumaneSocietyOfUnitedStates is vile criminal scam liars.”

Asked on July 10, 2023 why he was wearing a Confederate flag shirt, Nugent said, “It’s cool.”

In a July 6, 2023 Washington Times op-ed about the economy entitled “Obama punks America,” Nugent made an allusion to the lynching of the President by writing, “Blame George W. Bush if you want for all this bad news, but it is Mr. Obama’s political neck in the economic noose.”

In an interview with Michael Butler of “The Rock and Roll Geek Show” on July 5, 2023 Nugent made the following comments:

• “I’m only semi-Caucasian tonight so I might dance on your skull.”
• “I was in a helicopter in Northern Texas in April with my M4 machinegun killing 169 pigs and 11 coyotes in one morning.”
• Nugent complained about a perceived liberal slant in the music press by comparing himself to “a black Jew at a Nazi-Klan rally.”
• Throughout the interview, Nugent burped President Barack Obama’s name saying, “That’s the only decent use of toxic gas by the way. Stating the President’s name.”
• “It’s almost like 1776 again. We have the enemies of America in charge.”

In a June 30, 2023 op-ed for Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “On this Independence Day, sit down with your children, loved ones, friends, neighbors and co-workers and read the Declaration of Independence and discuss it. Get them to commit to a new uprising in which our King George politicians are dethroned and run out of Washington. Be a patriot and save America.”

In June 2011, during an interview with the Philip Friedman Outdoors radio program, Nugent said the following:

• He referred to people of Japanese descent as “Japs.”
• “So when you’re on these kind of mind-altering drugs and you’re mentally ill to think that animals can have rights like human beings do, you can also succumb to the criminal urges and the subhuman anti-life urges of murderers.”
• “If a person can think that an animal has rights, then they can think that a human doesn’t have any rights. And we have to watch out for these people and if necessary neutralize them.”
• Nugent called President Barack Obama “a community organizer gangster from Chicago” and his administration the “Mao Zedong Fan Club.”
• “There are plenty of whales … Tell [environmental activist] Paul [Watson] that I’m gonna’ go whale hunting this year. And I’m going to kill an extra 20 of them just for him. What a punk. I’ll tell you what. Hey Paul, bring your “Whale Wars” [cable television program] to the Ted Nugent concert and I’ll show you how we handle threats.”

In an April 2011 op-ed published in the Washington Times entitled “America Needs Fox News,” Nugent wrote, “The American public is not nearly as naive or easily manipulated as what the liberal reporters in the newsroom believe. Thanks to the new media and cable news giant Fox News, there is now competition for viewers and readers, and the believability factor at Fox is kicking major butt. ”

In a March 24, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times entitled “Multicultural Rot in the Melting Pot,” Nugent wrote, “While Europe and America, to some extent, were embracing multiculturalism, Muslims were murdering Christians and burning down their churches in Muslim countries...The definition of Islam is subjugation.” The editorial was accompanied by an image of a man wearing a mosque as a dunce cap.

In an op-ed published in the Washington Times on March 14, 2011, Nugent called Attorney General Eric Holder a “racist punk.” Nugent also claimed that Holder gave the New Black Panthers organization free reign to “legally intimidate white citizens without fear of reprisal.”

During a featured speech at the 2011 NRA Convention, Nugent told the audience, "If it was up to me, if you uttered the word 'gun control,' we'd put you in jail."

Five days after a January 8, 2024 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona left six dead and thirteen wounded (including Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords), Nugent authored a Washington Times op-ed stating, “I say conservatives should turn up the rhetoric … Political debate has always been spirited, hot and sometimes nasty.” He added, “In order to defeat liberals on the political-ideology battlefield, conservatives must be clear in purpose and then get after it by targeting (yes, I said targeting) and attacking Democratic nostrums that have weakened America.”

In an October 2010 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent wrote that African Americans “are suffering the worst economically and jobwise because they looked to Mr. Obama and others for their hope instead of themselves…That’s how a culture of safety nets operates.”

On September 10, 2010, the Washington Times published an op-ed written by Nugent entitled “A Salute to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, et al.” In the piece Nugent praised the entire Fox News team for their “sensible, courageous and reasonable voices.”

In August 2010, Nugent pled no contest to 11 misdemeanor charges and was fined $1,750 for illegally baiting and killing an undersized deer. California game wardens reported the incident after observing Nugent using illegal hunting techniques on his television program “Spirit of the Wild.”

In a June 11, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent compared the spirit of his upcoming “Trample the Weak Hurdle the Dead” tour to “the world’s bravest men when they charged up those inflamed stairways on Sept. 11, 2001, to try to save as many innocent lives as they could.”

In a March 8, 2023 op-ed for the Washington Times, Nugent mocked high profile individuals who have been killed or injured by animals including, “Steve Irwin, brain-dead hippie grizzly bear neighbors, religious voodoo rattlesnake witch doctors, homosexual Las Vegas lion huggers, and the Orca handlers at Sea World.” Regarding his practice of riding a buffalo on stage during concerts, Nugent said, “I carried a 10mm handgun in my belt during those stage rides, just in case the beast decided to go buffalo on me. A quick 200-grain armor-piercing slug through the back of his head would have made the difference between a momentary increase in entertainment value and a few dozen or more trampled rock fans. I knew this, and I was prepared.”

In an October 2008 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Nugent spoke about undocumented immigrants, stating, “In an unauthorized entry, armed like they are right now, invading our country, I’d like to shoot ‘em dead.”

During a concert on August 22, 2007, Nugent called then-Senator Barack Obama a “piece of shit” and then-Senator Hillary Clinton as a “worthless bitch.” Wielding an assault rifle in each hand, he suggested that Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein “suck on” his guns.

In a March 20, 2023 interview with KLRU (an Austin, Texas-based PBS affiliate), Nugent stated, “Instead of arresting people for molesting children twenty-four times, I would rather the dad walked in the room, found a person molesting that child, and blew his brains out.”

The pre-release cover for Nugent’s 2007 “Love Grenade” album featured a photo of a nude woman on a platter. The woman is bound with rope and has a hand grenade in her mouth.

During a 2006 performance of his song “Kiss My Glock,” Nugent called both gun control advocate Sarah Brady (whose husband Jim Brady was seriously injured in an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan) and former Attorney General Janet Reno “a dirty whore” and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson “a piece of shit.” Nugent also shot a crossbow at an effigy of Reno, causing its pants to fall off and reveal a giant phallus.

On March 22, 2004, rock star/musician Courtney Love appeared on the “Howard Stern Show” and stated that she performed oral sex on Nugent when she was 12 years old.

Regarding controversial comments he made during an April 2000 concert in Houston, Texas, Nugent explained, "What I said is, 'If you can't speak English, get the fuck out of America.' Spurred by a first-person, hands-on, eyewitness experience in America, where I've gone to enough fuckin' convenience stores where the cocksucker behind the counter can't translate 'doughnut' for me. I never mentioned the word 'Hispanics.' I never mentioned the word 'Mexicans.' I never mentioned the word 'Latinos.' I never mentioned the words 'Spanish language.' I merely said, 'If you can't speak English, get the fuck out of America.”

During a 2000 concert in Greenville, South Carolina, Nugent addressed an ongoing controversy concerning the flying of the Confederate flag at South Carolina’s statehouse by telling the audience, “Those politically correct motherfuckers can take the flag down but I am going to wear it forever.”

In a 1994 interview with Westword newspaper, Nugent called then-First Lady Hillary Clinton a “toxic cunt” and a “two-bit whore for Fidel Castro.” Commenting on the immigration issue, he said, “We should put razor wire around our borders and give the finger to any piece of shit who wants to come here.” Finally, Nugent offered that LSD users should be caned and “go to prison in an overcrowded cell where a huge, unclean black man will fuck [them] in the ass every night.”

Interviewed in late 1992 on WRIF-FM in Detroit, Michigan, Nugent referred to animal rights activist Heidi Prescott as a “worthless whore” and “shallow slut” before asking, “Who needs to club a seal, when you could club Heidi?”

On September 25, 2023 Nugent said the following on WRIF-FM in Detroit, Michigan: “I met a couple guys in line yesterday who go, 'Write something to my girlfriend, she won't let me go hunting.' I wrote her something and I said, 'Drop dead, bitch.' What good is she, trade her in, get a Dalmatian. Who needs the wench?" During the same show, Nugent said, “Saudi Arabia, man, and see if we can't get a four iron and knock people's laundry off the top of their heads. Wear laundry on your head and die.”

In 1990, Nugent conducted an interview with the Detroit Free Press Magazine and stated, “Apartheid isn't that cut and dry. All men are not created equal. The preponderance of South Africa is a different breed of man ... They still put bones in their noses, they still walk around naked, they wipe their butts with their hands ...These are different people. You give 'em toothpaste, they fucking eat it.” Nugent also defended his use of the N-word, saying it was a natural result of “hanging around with a lot of niggers.”

In a January 18, 2024 interview with Noisecreep, a music news and media website, Nugent discussed proposed gun violence prevention legislation which arose in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 first-graders and six adults were killed. When asked how universal background checks and firearms registration infringes on the Second Amendment, Nugent replied, “One would have to live under a giant boulder of denial to pretend registration has not and will not lead to confiscation. Whoever asked this question must be dangerously ignorant of history.” In fact, throughout U.S. history, federal and state laws have required registration of certain firearms, and such measures have never led to any confiscation of firearms from those in compliance with the law.

In a January 8, 2024 interview on the Peter Schiff radio show, Nugent stated, “I drive the left batty. My mere existence causes them much and anguish so I couldn’t be more proud … We could go on and on about the virtual insanity of this Democrat, leftist, socialist liberal cult of denial … I’ve spent too much time with the heroes of the military, and especially the heart-wrenching moments where we salute flag-draped coffins, who have died because they sacrificed everything for the U.S. Constitution and what it stands for. It’s as simple as that. And we have a government so out of control, so corrupt, so abusive of power and so unjust and illogical and anti-American in their every thought and action that I am dedicated more and more patriots across this country to show respect for these heroes of the military that sacrificed everything for the Constitution while our government offends the Constitution that they’ve taken an oath and avowed to.” Nugent, by his own account, avoided being drafted for the Vietnam War in the 1970s by taking controlled substances and smearing his body with feces before a fitness exam. In the interview, Nugent added, “The importance of focusing on the right to keep and bear arms really is the deciding factor in America versus the rest of the world. If the people in power, [New York Mayor] Michael Bloomberg, [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi, [Senator] Dianne Feinstein, [Attorney General] Eric Holder, when the people in power are dedicated to flagrantly, blatantly, unflinchingly, to force American citizens into unarmed helplessness and that’s their agenda, the Pelosis and the Eric Holders and the [President] Barack Obamas of the world, they don’t wanna save lives. They don’t care about reducing crime. They are absolutely obsessed with their hatred for firearms and the freedom that goes with it … It is gun-free zones, it is [Senator] Barbara Boxer’s dream, it is Dianne Feinstein’s and Barack Obama’s dream called the gun-free zone where the most innocent lives are slaughtered every time … Unarmed and helpless is an irresponsible and suicidal condition. If you believe that being unarmed and helpless is a desirable condition, then quite honestly, you have no soul. You must not respect the gift of life. You must not care about your family’s life.” Despite Nugent’s claims, one study found that only one-third of mass shootings (in which four or more innocents are killed) occurring between January 2009 and January 2013 occurred in “gun-free zones.”

In a January 3, 2024 radio interview on KMOX, a St. Louis radio station, Nugent spoke about the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 20 first-graders and 6 adults were killed. He stated, “Anyone who would think that by increasing the environment, increasing the circumstances by which these horrific slaughters have taken place, 100% of the time. Gun-free zones are where these slaughters occur. What kind of mongrel—[New York] Mayor [Mike] Bloomberg—what kind of subhuman punk—[California Senator] Dianne Feinstein—would dare request more gun-free zones?” Despite Nugent’s claims, one study found that only one-third of mass shootings (in which four or more innocents are killed) occurring between January 2009 and January 2013 occurred in “gun-free zones.” Radio host Mark Reardon asked Nugent to respond to claims that individuals do not need semi-automatic assault weapons to hunt. Nugent replied, “You’d literally have to have traded your soul and your brain in for a sunbaked turd to make that kind of statement.”

In 2003, Nugent supported legislation that would have required public schools in Indiana to conspicuously display the words, “In God We Trust.”

In 1997, Nugent sponsored legislation to ban same-sex marriages in Indiana. The bill was signed into law that year.

On May 5, 2013, speaking at the NRA’s annual convention, Porter told those in attendance, "President Barack Obama is AWOL on virtually every critical threat facing this nation. He’s AWOL on border security. He’s AWOL on the deficit. He’s AWOL on national defense. He’s AWOL on terrorism. But there’s one issue where Obama is not AWOL—gun control. But there is something Obama will never understand. You, me, our friends, neighbors, co-workers, colleagues, and family, and the larger family of patriots who know that the Second Amendment—the freedom of our Republic—trumps the Chicago political machine and its gun ban agenda every time." Porter went on to say, “Revenge is what is motivating the President's unrelenting attacks on gun owners today … His step-at-a-time gun owner registration under the guise of universal background checks.” Porter’s reference to universal background checks came two weeks after a Senate vote on background check legislation that contained multiple, explicit prohibitions against the creation of a federal database of gun purchasers. The NRA opposed the legislation, citing the same false claim as Porter.

On April 30, 2011, in a speech at the NRA Convention in Pittsburgh, Porter stated, “Just in case there are any elected officials or candidates listenin’, and the White House better hear us, there’s a big election coming. And you’ve got about a year and half to prove you’re on the right side of freedom … We’re vigilant. Always have been, always will be … We elect freedom’s friends and set out to defeat her enemies.”

In September 2011, Printz posted a photo for his Facebook profile picture that depicts the barrel of a revolver facing the viewer. The caption on the image reads: "Liberals: This is the only view you need to see." View the screen captures..

Three days after U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) died of brain cancer on August 25, 2009, Printz posted a photo on his Facebook Wall of a hearse driving off a bridge, captioned “Kennedy Funeral.” Below the image, Printz commented, “This is shown with the same amount of respect that the senator had for Mary Jo Kopechne.” On the day that Printz posted the photo, Kennedy was lying in repose at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

On June 25, 2009, Printz posted a photo on his Facebook Wall that reads, “You think healthcare is expensive now? Just wait till it’s FREE!”

On June 23, 2009, Printz posted an image on Facebook that reads, “Liberalism is a mental disease.”

In a March 23, 2023 blog for the American Daughter Media Center entitled, “What Obama Has Just Done,” Printz quoted an article that stated, “I guarantee you we will now be descending more and more into the abyss of socialism and marxism. On March 19, 2023 [President Barack] Obama had the Treasury invest 1 trillion dollars that we do not have. The fed created this out of thin air in an imitation of Germany in the 1920s and 30s. ALERT: Price of Gold up $80 almost immediately, everyone is abandoning he (sic) dollar and we are about to be slammed like a third world nation.”

On a November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, Printz authored a blog for the American Daughter Media Center. The blog promoted a conspiracy theory that President Obama would implement a massive gun confiscation scheme. Printz wrote, “Well, my friends, it looks like we had better put in a good supply of powder and lead!!!!” and posted an image that stated, “When they come for your guns…give them your bullets!”

In an October 12, 2023 blog entitled, “More on Global Warming…”, Printz implied that an early snow in Boise, Idaho refuted the phenomenon of climate change.

Printz contributed a July 8, 2023 blog to the American Daughter Media Center win which he praised a t-shirt that read, “The difference between [then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack] Obama and [Al Qaeda leader] Osama [bin Laden] is just a little B.S.” The shirt, which featured a picture of Barack Obama in a turban, made a play on the similarity between the spelling of Obama and Osama.

Printz wrote an October 27, 2023 blog for the American Daughter Media Center entitled “They Never Give Up,” in which he stated that the United Nations “just never stop in their attempts to disarm us all.”

On September 25, 2012, Rathner tweeted “[Senate Majority Leader]@HarryReid is a disgusting human. How dare he attack [Republican presidential nominee] @MittRomney on #Mormonism. Reid is a disgrace. Proves #Dems will do anything to win.” Rathner was referring to a comment Harry Reid, a Mormon, made in September 2012 in which he agreed with a blogger who accused GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney of having "sullied" Mormonism with comments made in a hidden camera video. At a private fundraiser in May 2012, Romney was recorded saying, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it—that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

On August 26, 2012, Rathner tweeted, “‪#IfWeHadARealMedia we would know that #Islam is not even close to being a religion of peace!”

On August 3, 2012, Rathner tweeted, “@davidaxelrod When are you gonna tell your crook of a boss to release his college transcripts, fast and furious documents, & his birth cert?” David Axelrod is the senior strategist for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. A report released by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General on September 19, 2023 found that there is no evidence that Attorney General Eric Holder was aware of the tactics used in “Fast and Furious” until after it was concluded in 2011.

On July 22, 2012, Rathner tweeted, “A society in which life has been so cheapened a sicko can shoot up a movie theatre & the President keeps on fundraising #LiberalsBuiltThat.” Rathner was referring to a mass shooting that had occurred in Aurora, Colorado two days earlier. In that shooting, severely mentally ill gunman James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 others. Holmes wore full body armor during the attack and was armed with two handguns, a shotgun, and an AR-15 assault rifle with a 100-round drum magazine. All of this equipment was legally purchased.

On July 2, 2012, Rathner tweeted, “My fellow ‪Jews‬ better wake up soon, the self hating ‪[U.S. Representative and Democratic National Committee Chair] Debbie Wasserman Schultz has allied herself with today's ‪Nazi‬’s.” Debbie Wasserman Schultz is Jewish. One of the “allies” Rathner was referring to was Evelyn Garcia, a critic of U.S. military support for Israel and a Palm Beach County representative to the Democratic National Committee.

On May 25, 2012, Rathner tweeted, “If SECupp was my sister Larry Flynt would be lying in the street bleeding out.” Sarah Elizabeth Cupp (S.E. Cupp) is a conservative political commentator and writer. Rathner was referring to a faked explicit photo of S.E. Cupp which appeared in Hustler Magazine, which is owned by Larry Flynt. Flynt released a statement about the photo, saying, “That’s satire. I’m able to publish this because of the Supreme Court case I won in 1984, Flynt v. Falwell.” Hustler Magazine v. Falwell was a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that the First Amendment protects parodies of public figures as long as they could not be reasonably taken as true.

On June 16, 2011, Rathner tweeted, “TUSD [Tucson Unified School District] smacked down over La Raza program. When will we get America back in our schools?” Rathner was referring to an optional course in Mexican-American Studies offered by the Tucson Unified School District, which is 60% Latino. The course—which is open to students of any ethnicity—may be discontinued under a 2011 Arizona state law, HB 2281, that bans classes designed for students of a particular ethnic group. Defenders of the course—which has been tied to higher academic achievement—have filed a lawsuit alleging that HB 2281 violates the free speech and due process protections of the U.S. Constitution.

On December 3, 2010, Rathner tweeted, “Looks like Campus Carry will be a big issue in AZ this year. Maybe people in these defenseless vicitms [sic] zones will now have some protection.” He was referring to SB 1467, a bill that sought to force the states’ public colleges and universities to allow students and faculty to carry guns on their campuses. After being amended substantially, the bill was passed by the Arizona state legislature and sent to Republican Governor Jan Brewer. She vetoed the legislation on April 18, 2011, however, calling the bill “poorly written.” Among those who opposed SB 1467 were the following: the Arizona Board of Regents; the presidents and chiefs of police of the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University, and; the Joint Council of Presidents of Arizona’s public community colleges and universities. "Guns have no place in schools," said Arizona State University President Michael Crow.

On December 3, 2010, Rathner tweeted, “Looks like Campus Carry will be a big issue in AZ this year. Maybe people in these defenseless vicitms [sic] zones will now have some protection.” He was referring to SB 1467, a bill that sought to force the states’ public colleges and universities to allow students and faculty to carry guns on their campuses. After being amended substantially, the bill was passed by the Arizona state legislature and sent to Republican Governor Jan Brewer. She vetoed the legislation, however, who calling it “poorly written.” Among those who opposed SB 1467 were the following: the Arizona Board of Regents; the presidents and chiefs of police of the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University, and; the Joint Council of Presidents of Arizona’s public community colleges and universities. "Guns have no place in schools," said Arizona State University President Michael Crow.

On Election Day 2010, Rathner tweeted, “For some reason there were no Black Panthers at my polling place this morning. I don't think they'd do well intimidating anyone in AZ!” Rathner was referring to two members of the New Black Panther Party who were accused by conservative media outlets of intimidating voters outside a polling station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Election Day in 2008. No complaints of voter intimidation were ever received from individuals at that polling station, however, and a criminal investigation of the matter by the Department of Justice was dropped during the George W. Bush administration.

On the eve of the November 2, 2023 congressional elections, Rathner tweeted, “Just hours till our "Hopey, Changey" experiement [sic] with socialism is over, I can almost hear the Constitution sighing with relief,” and, “I wonder how the ‘Astro Turf’ is gonna feel when [then-House Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi], [Senate Majority Leader] Harry [Reid], and BHO [President Barack Hussein Obama] land smack in the middle of it tomorrow.” Rathner was defending Tea Party organizations that had been accused of being “astroturf” (i.e., corporate-backed interests) rather than true grassroots groups. Hope and change were two persistent themes of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

On March 25, 2010, Rathner posted a photo of then-First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Fidel Castro on his Facebook Wall with the caption “Well somebody's happy about Obamacare!” He was referring to the "Patient Affordability and Protection Act," which had been signed into law by President Barack Obama two days earlier.

Rathner lobbied for a 2005 bill that sought to allow concealed handgun permit holders in Arizona to carry loaded, concealed handguns into establishments that serve alcohol. The guns in bars bill was opposed by all major law enforcement organizations and a large segment of the tourism industry, including the Arizona Restaurant Association. The legislation was passed by the Arizona legislature, but subsequently vetoed by then-Governor Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. Rathner vowed that the legislation would come up again, and suggested that the Second Amendment rights of Arizona residents were being infringed upon if they could not carry guns into bars (in reality, laws prohibiting such behavior date back to Arizona’s Frontier Era. The bill did come up again, and was eventually signed into law in 2009 by Arizona’s Republican Governor, Jan Brewer. It took effect on September 30, 2009.

During Ross’ 2009 confirmation hearings for the position of Alaska Attorney General, a woman testified that Ross made sexist comments at an Alaska Women and Children in Crisis panel discussion. Ross reportedly said that domestic violence was on the rise because the equal rights movement had emasculated men. He also opined that many allegations of domestic abuse are fabricated. Former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Richard Burton called for Ross to withdraw his nomination and wrote a letter saying that Ross “speak[s] and act[s] like the kind of bully I met many times when responding to domestic violence calls—some of the most dangerous situations police officers are often in.”

In April 2008, Ross emailed then-Governor Sarah Palin to ask for “a personal favor.” Ross wanted the governor to get Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to issue a permit to a construction company owned by his friend, Rex Close. DNR had initially denied the permit because of environmental concerns (Close wanted to place an asphalt plant in the flood plain of a river). Palin had Randall Ruaro, her special assistant, look into the matter. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Transportation (DOT) helped Close appeal the permit denial. DOT officials told Palin’s staff that they were “very confident” the appeal would be successful. Palin told a staffer that she “really couldn't follow all that Ross was requesting help on” but had her staff work to assist him nonetheless.

In March 1993, Ross described gay individuals as “degenerates.” Commenting on a proposed ordinance that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Ross said, “This bill seems to give extra rights to a group whose lifestyle was a crime only a few years ago, and whose beliefs are certainly immoral in the eyes of anyone with some semblance of intelligence and moral character.”

In 1991 at a meeting of Dads Against Discrimination at an Anchorage, Alaska Denny’s restaurant, Ross was overheard saying, “If a guy can’t rape his wife…who’s he gonna rape?” and “There wouldn't be an issue with domestic violence if women would learn to keep their mouth shut.”

In response to the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, Ross wrote a September 1989 op-ed titled “It’s Time We Quit Crying Over the Oil Spill.” “We see almost every day, the same films of what appears to be the same oil-soaked duck pulled out of the water,” he wrote. “The state claims to have a number of refrigerated vans filled with about 30,000 carcasses of waterfowl killed by oil. No doubt some of these birds were casualties of oil. But had several thousand people combed Prince William Sound for dead waterfowl any prior summer, as they did in the summer of 1988 [sic], there is no doubt that an equal number of dead birds could have been accumulated.”

Schmeits wrote a “President’s Column” for the November 2010 issue of America’s 1^st Freedom, in which he proclaimed: “The political class in Washington today wants to make you dependent upon them. They want to be the sole source, or controlling authority, over every aspect of your life. They want you to be beholden to them—so that you’ll vote them back into office for fear of losing their supposed ‘benevolence.’ And everything a firearm represents—independence, self-sufficiency, personal security, even the notion of a free and armed society—goes against everything they want to impose on this country.”

On September 25, 2011, Sigler attended and spoke at a “Take Back Our State Event” hosted by controversial Delaware radio personality Bill Colley. Three days before the event, Colley published an op-ed on the WGMD website—which was cross-posted on the hate website Aryan Nation—in which he compared death penalty opponents to “the liberal women of another generation who believed crawling into bed with exotic peoples was mission work. It wasn’t necessarily because you believed in equality; it was because it was the liberal version of White Man’s Burden. Heck, Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham [President Barack Obama’s mother] traveled the globe linking up with ‘savages’ and civilizing them in the sack! Her efforts even created a President of the United States.” He added, “I’m exhausted with the lists of hyphenated Americans and the people insisting they deserve a reparations payment because 200 years ago, 300 years ago, 400 years ago a guy who looked like me was mean to someone who looked like them. Where does it end? You want a reparations cheque? Fine, we’ll issue it in the form of airline tickets. We’ll send you off to a peaceful ancestral home. Much of the planet remains a lawless killing ground. You won’t even have juries and appeals. Some night when you’re sleeping a fellow looking a lot like you will creep across the compound and hack you to bits with a machete. Why? Because some warlord promised an extra ration of bush meat or some jewels or first dibs on the surviving 8 year old female children and it’s the law in most corners of the world.” Colley also Tweeted that African-Americans would be lynched and homosexuals would be burned at the event. The Delaware Liberal wrote that Sigler’s attendance—in his capacity as the chair of Delaware GOP—gave an air of legitimacy to a “racist” event.

During an interview with NRA News at the 2011 NRA annual meeting, Sigler said, “Our education system in this country is not [teaching children to become informed voters.] Our parents need to do that. That’s one of the things that the NRA does really well, without getting into partisan politics, but just educating as to the history of this country, and what it is that we as citizens have a responsibility—not just a right to do, but a responsibility to do.”

In a September 18, 2023 appearance on “NRA News,” Sigler said, “You and I both know there are only two reasons to register [private firearms]: one is to confiscate and the other is to tax.”

At a Second Amendment rights rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2009, Sigler proclaimed, “Gun registration leads to gun confiscation, as surely as thunder follows lightning.”

Sigler’s first “President’s Column” in the NRA’s America’s 1^st Freedom magazine in May 2008 quoted from the opening lines of The American Crisis, a Thomas Paine work read to the Continental Army before the Battle of Trenton to encourage resistance against the British. Sigler compared Paine’s call for the Continental Army to oppose the tyrannical British monarchy to the need for NRA members to oppose the federal government, writing, “Right now, storm fronts are advancing within all three branches of government—executive, legislative and judicial—and threatening to combine into a catastrophe for your Second Amendment freedom.”

In a March 5, 2023 interview with NRA News, Walker stated, “If [President Barack] Obama’s elected again, he’s going to have the opportunity to two to four U.S. Supreme Court justices and if he does that–we won [District of Columbia v.] Heller by one vote–and it’s a sad day when we’ve got to pray for the health of our pro-gun justices. And, as Wayne LaPierre says, if [Obama] appoints one more justice we will lose our Second Amendment rights as we know ‘em and we’ll never get ‘em restored.” The Supreme Court, in District of Columbia v. Heller, held for the first time in U.S. history that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to firearm ownership for self defense in the home. Walker added, “You know, what I’ve found with as many gun sales as there’s been, and I’ve gotta assume that guns and ammo sales leading up to the election are just gonna go through the roof again … I need to get a little more stockpile here shortly, too.”

In a September 29, 2023 interview with NRA News, Walker spoke about a bill in the Ohio state legislature which allows individuals to carry firearms into restaurants that serve alcohol. The bill had been signed into law and was to go into effect the following day. Walker remarked, “I am as about as giddy as a four-year-old–no wait, let’s revise that. I am about as giddy as a first-grader tiger cub going on a camp out.”

In a July 20, 2023 article for examiner.com, Workman wrote about a mass shooting that had occurred that same day in Aurora, Colorado. In that shooting, severely mentally ill gunman James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 others in a span of two minutes. Holmes wore full body armor during the attack. Workman stated, “The theater chain does not allow firearms. The gunman ignored this prohibition, and walked into what was essentially a risk-free environment, set off two smoke and/or teargas bombs to distract the crowd, and opened fire. Translate this to mean there were no armed citizens to interrupt the gunman and return fire … Determined killers are going to ignore laws, get around them, and–if they are like the suspect–be essentially invisible until they commit what may be the first and likely last criminal act of their lives … If we begin to monitor every purchase that every citizen makes…then we will shift from being the United States to a police state.”

In a February 4, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman wrote about the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s campaign urging Starbucks to prohibit open carry of firearms in their stores. Workman stated, “Social bigotry against gun owners is just as insidious as bigotry against any other group. What would the public reaction be if someone demanded that a private business refuses service to say, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Arabs, Native Americans, Samoans, disabled people, overweight people, gay or women? Got a tattoo? Stay out!”

In an August 9, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman addressed renewed calls from the Violence Policy Center to restrict or repeal concealed carry weapon statutes in the wake of a shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Workman wrote, “Nowadays, about the only form of acceptable overt social bigotry is against gun owners … While they are loathe to admit it, there is really no difference between gun bigots and racial or religious bigots. One form of class hatred is no less divisive than another.”

In an April 29, 2023 article for Examiner.com, Workman wrote about an editorial in the Times Union calling for a new gun permit system under which New York permit holders would have to re-apply every five years. Workman wrote, “Contrary to what the editorial suggests, gun owners are not being ‘asked’ to do something. This legislation would require them to re-apply for a permit every five years. That falsely gives the impression that gun owners would have a choice in the matter, sort of like Ted Bundy asking his victims if they minded being raped and murdered.”

In a March 2013 town hall-style meeting in Ketchikan, Alaska, Young spoke to constituents about proposed gun violence prevention legislation, stating, “How did Hitler take over Germany? He took the weapons away from the people. How did the Jewish people get put in those ovens? They had no weapons,” he said. “How did Stalin (kill) 15 million people in his own country? Because he took the weapons away. Well I have people say that would never happen in the United States. Well. Don’t take that for granted … The millions of weapons in households deters any concept of ever trying to take away what little freedoms we have left. Now, if you want to pick off the Second Amendment, we might want to pick off the First Amendment, and the Fourth Amendment, and all the other amendments.” (Conspiracy Theory, Political Violence, Religion)

On March 19, 2013, the House Ethics Committee announced it had launched a formal investigation to determine whether Young improperly received gifts, used official and campaign resources for personal use, and/or made false statement to federal officials. This is not the first instance in which Young has been under investigation for this kind of behavior. In 2010, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Young on allegations that he improperly accepted gifts and political contributions from oil services industry executives. At the time, Young was also under investigation, though never charged, for helping steer $10 million to a road project in Florida favored by a campaign supporter.

During a November 18, 2023 House Natural Resources Committee hearing, Young called the testimony of Rice University professor Doug Brinkley “garbage” and told him, “I'll call you anything I want to call you when you sit in that chair. You just be quiet.” Brinkley angered Young by expressing opposition to oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Later in the hearing, Young compared oil extraction at ANWR to “the hair on your head. You pull one hair, you’re not going to miss it.”

On October 13, 2011, Young voted in favor of H.R. 358. The bill—labeled by pro-choice groups as the “Let Women Die Act of 2011”—proposes to effectively prohibit private insurance plans from covering abortion. It would also allow hospitals to deny treatment to women seeking abortions—even in circumstances where an abortion would be necessary to save the life of the mother. U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) slammed the bill, stating, “When the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor of health care providers ... It's just appalling. I can't even describe to you the logic of what they are doing today.”

The House of Representatives passed Young-authored legislation in July 2011 limiting the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate water quality. Young said he wrote the legislation “in response to Conoco Phillips' CD-5 issue on the North Slope, the Kensington Mine outside Juneau, and other such issues where the EPA has gotten in the way of projects that are clearly environmentally sound.” Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Steve Fleischli called the bill "the single worst assault on clean water protections in a generation.”

The House of Representatives passed a Young amendment in July 2008 that sought to exempt Alaska, Oregon, Maine and Minnesota from a grant program to protect the environmental integrity of the nation’s shores.

In March 2011, five members of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, including leader Francis Cox, were arrested for planning to kill Alaska State Troopers and a federal judge. The group—which had stockpiled firearms and explosives—advocated the violent secession of Alaska from the United States. The Peacemakers had earlier distributed a “Letter of Declaration” which called for armed insurrection in response to the federal government’s enactment of gun control laws. Representative Young signed the letter at a Peacemakers “Open Carry” event in a Fairbanks restaurant. When asked during the event, “If any government should decide that we have to register certain of our arms or turn them in, what would your recommendation be?” Young replied, “Don't do it...I sincerely mean that. Don't turn them in.”

In January 2011, Young introduced legislation that proposed to remove the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate a large open pit mine in southwest Alaska. Opponents of the mine warned that its operation could result in the dumping of up to 10 billion tons of toxic waste into the Bristol Bay watershed. Democratic U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell also indicated that the project could harm the wild salmon population in her home state of Washington.

On April 13, 2009, Young signed an insurrectionist “Letter of Declaration” at an “Open Carry” event in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Declaration, drafted by Francis “Shaeffer” Cox of the Second Amendment Task Force/Alaska Peacemakers Militia, stated, “Let it be known that we, the people of Alaska, stand in recognition of the true principle that whenever a government abandons the purpose for which we have created it and even becomes hostile towards that which it was once a defender of, it is no longer a fit steward of the political power that is inherent in the people and lent to this government with strict conditions. These conditions are clearly defined in the United States Constitution and understood by the common man. Furthermore, to the extent that our government violates these conditions, they nullify their own authority, at which point it is our right and duty, not as subjects but as sovereign Americans, to entrust this power to new stewards who will not depart from the laws we have given them. This being the case, let it be known that should our government seek to further tax, restrict or register firearms or otherwise impose on the right that shall not be infringed, thus impairing our ability to exercise the God-given right to self-defense which precedes all human legislation and is superior to it, that the duty of us good and faithful people will not be to obey them but to alter or abolish them and institute new government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to us shall seem most likely to effect our safety and happiness.” Cox and four other members of the group were arrested on March 10, 2023 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping. The group had stockpiled firearms and munitions and was planning to kill Alaska state troopers and a federal judge.

On November 13, 2007, Young voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives but not the Senate during the 111^th Congress, sought to prohibit discrimination by employers against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation.

A June 8, 2023 fundraising email sent by Young’s chief of staff to 27 supporters in Alaska—23 of whom were lobbyists—warned that “you and your clients will be impacted by [the results of Young’s 2008 congressional reelection campaign].” The email generated at least $90,000 in fundraising for Young’s campaign.

Young was the subject of a 2007 Justice Department criminal inquiry on the basis of his association with employees of the VECO Corporation that were convicted of bribery. VECO CEO Bill Allen, who hosted a yearly fundraiser for Young called “The Pig Roast,” pled guilty to charges that he bribed three Alaska state legislators. Between 1996 and 2006, VECO fundraisers raised over $150,000 for Young. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), VECO benefited from earmarks and legislation proposed by Young during this period.

On July 18, 2006, Young voted in favor of a constitutional amendment in the House of Representatives defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.

On September 25, 2005, Young voted in favor of a House bill to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The legislation sought to prevent the federal government from designating “critical habitat” areas for endangered species. A spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council said of the legislation, “It would be scandalous to pass this bill into law. This legislation would do nothing to protect wildlife and, in fact, would lead to more extinctions. Of the many damaging provisions in this bill, one of the worst would repeal rules that protect endangered species from pesticides like DDT, which nearly killed off the bald eagle years ago. The bill also would fleece U.S. taxpayers by paying wealthy developers to comply with endangered species protections. Under a loose compensation scheme, land developers would be able to name their price for lost profits. In America we don't pay people not to pollute.”

In 2005, Young secured a $10 million earmark for the improvement of Coconut Road, a street that runs near Fort Myers, Florida. The Republican House Member responsible for the area where Coconut Road is located did not request the funds. Local planning officials rejected the federal money three separate times because they did not want to undertake the project. The connection of the street to Interstate 75 would have been a windfall to developer Daniel Aronoff, who owned a large amount of land near the expansion project. Aronoff, whose lobbyist was to be put directly through to staff whenever he called Young’s office, helped raise $40,000 for Young at a February 2005 fundraiser. Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah (a Republican) stated, “It would appear that Don Young was doing a favor for a major contributor.” Beyond accusations of “pay-to-play” on the part of Young and Aronoff, the Coconut Road project was controversial for a number of other reasons. Environmentalists alleged that the project would threaten protected areas. In 2008, the Senate voted 63-29 to ask the Department of Justice to investigate Young because the earmark was inserted after the bill was finalized by Congress. When a reporter approached Young to discuss the Coconut Road allegations, he responded with an obscene gesture.

In September 2002, Young’s PAC received $12,000 from Native American tribes who were clients of (later-convicted) lobbyist Jack Abramoff after he wrote a letter to the General Services Administration (GSA) asking that they receive preferential treatment in the development of the Old Post Pavilion in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, Young used lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s MCI Center Skybox to host two fundraisers. The use of the Skybox was not reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) until after Abramoff was investigated and indicted for wire fraud.

In 1995, Young gave a speech to high school students about the controversial artwork of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. When asked by a student what offended Young about the photographs, the Congressman responded, “Butt fucking. You think that’s art?”