National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent appeared on Alex Jones' radio show where the two swapped conspiracy theories about Benghazi and other topics, called for President Obama's impeachment, and praised the National Rifle Association's new “hardcore” direction. Nugent claimed that Jones, a prominent pusher of 9/11 and New World Order conspiracies, is doing “God's work” and that the information on his radio show is “indisputable” and “irrefutable.”

Nugent legitimizing Jones is the second recent instance where a high-profile member of NRA leadership has conducted an interview on conspiracy-geared programming. On February 16, NRA president David Keene appeared on the television show of Gary Franchi, a well-known 9/11 truther.

Jones, one of the country's leading conspiracy theorists, describes himself as “one of the very first founding fathers of the 9-11 Truth Movement” and has also promoted the existence of FEMA concentration camps as part of his claim that President Obama is transforming the United States into “something that resembles Nazi Germany.” He has also theorized that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was “carried out by intelligence agencies” with “Bill Clinton's involvement.” 

Furthermore, Jones believes that Obama's birth certificate is a forgery and has pushed conspiracy theories involving weather control, mass sterilization by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and an effort by the government to use “estrogen-mimicking” juice boxes to “encourage homosexuality with chemicals so that people don't have children.”

Nugent's appearance was billed by Jones' InfoWars.com website as “a surprise call in to thank Alex Jones for waking him up to the NWO.”

Jones: The NRA Is “Getting Hardcore ... So I Salute The Direction The NRA Is Going.”

During his appearance, Nugent discussed NRA politics with Jones with both men expressing admiration for the NRA's absolutism on the Second Amendment. Nugent, a longtime NRA board member, expressed satisfaction that the NRA has moved beyond a “soft period”:

NUGENT: Alex, you're doing God's work, but the number one battle cry of freedom lovers and Americans who cherish this unique quality of life called the American dream, you've got to be engaged, you've got to be a member of the NRA, number one you've got to be a member of the National Rifle Association, and you got to make sure that your buddies are members of the NRA, and your coworkers, and the guys at school with you, the guys who go to church, and to the...

JONES: I've got to say this since you raise it. I like where the NRA's been going since you've been there. It's getting hardcore and we need to be on the offense so I salute the direction the NRA is going.

NUGENT: There was a soft period that pissed off all patriots for a long time. But the NRA is the only real fist in the fight. And I got to tell you, you're right Alex, the NRA has taken a much stronger, a much firmer, an absolute stance for the Second Amendment. And if I can right on the Alex Jones radio show, God Bless everybody who keeps voting for me on the board of directors. I've received some of the highest votes in the history of the National Rifle Association because people know that I am a...

JONES: Yeah. No, no, no. We need to clone you and then have it all Ted Nugent. 

In recent weeks, the NRA has received widespread attention for an op-ed written by the organization's executive vice president Wayne LaPierre that fearmongered on topics ranging from “Latin American drug gangs” to hurricanes to terrorist attacks in order to suggest that Americans must buy guns to ensure their “survival.” MSNBC host Joe Scarborough criticized the op-ed, which he said was “so laced with racial overtones.” The NRA also recently devoted the cover story of its America's 1st Freedom magazine to a conspiracy theory that a United Nations treaty that seeks to stem the flow of arms to human rights abusers around the world is actually a plot to disarm Americans.

Nugent, who has a history of making inflammatory comments on a wide spectrum of issues, infamously wrote a column less than a week after the Tucson, Arizona, mass shooting that seriously injured then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and left six dead that, “conservatives should turn up the rhetoric.”

Nugent To Jones: “What You Are Sharing With The Radio Listeners Out There Is Indisputable, It's Irrefutable.”

In addition to stating that Jones is doing “God's work,” Nugent heaped praise upon Jones and the radio show that he uses to disseminate his conspiracy theories:

NUGENT: I'm just calling to let you know that those of us who dance on the skull of [CNN host] Piers Morgan ought to communicate more often, because you did God's work, man, and I'm calling in to say thank you.

JONES: No, I want to thank you.

[...]

NUGENT: 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 is so diabolical that I just wanted to say thank you from the trenches. 

Nugent Claims That The ATF's Failed Fast And Furious Operation Was A Government “PR Campaign” Against Guns

Although other conspiracy theorists have alleged that Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama were personally involved in the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Operation Fast and Furious, Nugent expanded this theory to include other administration officials including former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

NUGENT: And you've got the fact that the evidence is irrefutable that the Attorney General [Eric Holder], the number one cop, the number one law enforcement official in the United States of America, created this Fast and Furious scam, this gun running scheme, defying his vow, his oath to the U.S. Constitution to enforce the U.S. Constitution including the Second Amendment, and the memos are, they're numerous, where Eric Holder and Barack Obama and even Tim Geithner and Rahm Emanuel and even Hillary Clinton, they are all in on this, where they were using the Fast and Furious scam, again illegally running guns to the Mexican drug gangs, to somehow promote with the big government organized PR campaign to let Americans know that American guns are being used in Mexican crimes killing people. Well they are, but they were provided by the American government.

JONES: A false flag.

NUGENT: It's just diabolical. 

An independent investigation into Fast and Furious - a failed attempt by ATF to stop the trafficking of firearms from the United States into Mexico - conducted by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General did not name Obama, Clinton, Geithner, or Emanuel as involved parties and did not find Holder culpable for the operation's failure.

Furthermore, the report issued by the OIG dismissed the conspiracy theory that Fast and Furious was conceived as an Obama administration plot against gun ownership in finding “no evidence that the agents responsible for the cases had improper motives or was trying to accomplish anything other than dismantling a dangerous firearms trafficking organization.”

The NRA has made similar conspiratorial claims about Fast and Furious. In June 2012, LaPierre said on NRA News that, “This was about putting these guns down there in Mexico and then when they found them at crime scenes going, 'Aha, we need more gun laws in the United States.'”

Nugent And Jones Call For Obama's Impeachment And Theorize About Benghazi

Both Jones and Nugent agreed that Obama has committed impeachable offenses. On the subject of the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, Jones suggested that the United States government used the attack as a cover to assassinate Ambassador Christopher Stevens:

JONES: What about impeachment? This memo, Fast and Furious, saying our military is under NATO, saying he will shut down power plants without congressional approval in the last State of the Union. I mean it's time for Congress to impeach Barack Obama's butt.

NUGENT: Alex, there's no question that this guy's violations qualify for impeachment. There's no question. But when you have got, let's take the most recent outrage, when you've got the Secretary of State of the United States of America [Hillary Clinton], who was brought in for questioning regarding the murder, the slaughter, the predictable slaughter of four American citizens in Benghazi. Alex, what kind of subhuman numb-nut would not know you need security in Benghazi?

JONES: They ordered the stand down. They ordered the stand down for eight hours. The question is why did they want that guy dead?

NUGENT: And why does Hilary Clinton know that she's got the backing of the president and the government overall when she has the audacity to scold those elected officials who asked proper questions? The hearings are over. Nothing. No accountability for Hillary Clinton in Benghazi. No accountability for Eric Holder in Fast and Furious. 

Nugent Pushes Conspiracy That The Department Of Veterans Affairs Is Arbitrarily Disarming Injured Veterans

Reacting to false reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs was sending letters to disabled veterans that revoked their ability to own a firearm, Nugent suggested that wounded veterans are being “targeted to lose their Second Amendment rights” by the Department of Justice:

NUGENT: Yes it is true. The Department of Justice is now trying to identify the most heroic Americans of all, the heroes that have volunteered and served this great nation in the U.S. military, some of the finest human beings, most outstanding and certainly most courageous warriors amongst us, they're being targeted to lose their Second Amendment rights, which they've sacrificed dearly for. 

The claim that “US veterans are receiving letters from the government informing them that they are disabled and not allowed to own, purchase or possess a firearm” was posted by right-wing blogger Jim Hoft on his blog, The Gateway Pundit, and popularized by the Drudge Report. Hoft did not make clear that the letter was for individuals involved in competency proceedings and not injured veterans generally.

These claims were even debunked by conservative blogger Bob Owens - who has made his own outrageous statements in the past - who wrote that the VA only prohibits the purchase of firearms for individuals that are “seriously mentally compromised” and noted that individuals found to be incompetent can request a hearing to restore their ability to purchase a firearm.

Nugent Claims He Is The Victim Of Federal Government “Scams” Trying To Remove His Gun Rights 

Nugent alleged that the federal government is attempting to obtain a felony conviction against him in order to remove his right to own a firearm because federal officials are “scared to death” of him:

JONES: So what you're saying is [federal government officials] are getting a green light to do whatever they want?

NUGENT: They've got a green light to do whatever they want. And Alex, you know we were talking off the air, and we will get together, I can tell you some stories about how the feds have come after me. And how they have tried to get me on numerous felonies for the most nonsensical, ridiculous scams against me, trying to shut me up, trying to take away my gun rights, trying to take away my voting rights, because they are scared to death of me.

JONES: Because you're a leader. You're a leader and they are scared of you.

Since 2010, Nugent has twice been convicted of misdemeanors for illegal hunting in California and Alaska. In April 2012, Nugent drew the attention of the Secret Service after telling an audience at the NRA's annual meeting that, “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November” and that “If Barack Obama becomes the president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”