Bud Light is putting on a concert featuring National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent despite Nugent’s recent promotion of racist and anti-Semitic material and use of violent rhetoric against Hillary Clinton.
Nugent is scheduled to perform on August 6 in Peoria, IL, as part of the “Bud Light Concerts” series. Bud Light is brewed by Anheuser-Busch, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Nugent, who called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel,” has a history of racist and other inflammatory commentary. In 2016 alone, Nugent promoted anti-Semitic content, used a racial slur against a Latino critic, promoted misogynist reasons why guns are better than women, shared a racist meme advertising the fake moving company “2 niggers and a stolen truck,” and smeared Minnesota police shooting victim Philando Castile as a criminal.
Nugent, who has endorsed GOP nominee Donald Trump for president, this year has called for Clinton to be hanged for treason and promoted a fake video of her being shot.
The Bud Light Concert is scheduled for the day after a Nugent concert at the Freeborn County Fair in Albert Lea, MN. Local residents plan to protest that concert with an area teacher writing to community leaders, “The fair reflects the values of the entire county, and having Ted Nugent perform at the fair would reflect tolerance of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, xenophobia, ableism, and incivility toward people who protest his remarks or cancel his shows” and that “We don’t want to let our students of color and our girls down by being silent.”
Nugent responded to controversy over his upcoming fair appearance by calling his critics “America hating lying Saul Alinsky scumdogs,” and “assholes,” while adding, “Hopefully we will get photos/vid of the dopey protestors with their American Communist Party regalia xposing their disdain for personal hygiene.”
In 2014, several of Nugent’s concerts were cancelled or protested because of Nugent’s “subhuman mongrel” comment and because of several racist attacks he made on American Indians that summer.
Media Matters documented in 2013 how Nugent’s hateful rhetoric joins him on the concert stage. During his “Black Power 2013” tour, Nugent railed against the “lying racist in the White House," “criminal pieces of shit in the IRS,” “dirty cocksuckers in the government,” “the jack boot Nazi motherfuckers in the Department of Justice,” “fucking retarded mongrels” who support animal rights, and “well-fed motherfucker food stamp cocksuckers.” He also drew a comparison between the American Revolution and the present, stating, “When the British came to take our guns we met them at Concord Bridge and we blew their fucking brains out,” and warned his audience, “keep a fucking gun in your hand, boys.”