Fox News’ The Specialists included racist Ted Nugent on its panel for the full hour one day after President Donald Trump praised the “very fine people” participating in a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA, that resulted in the murder of a woman protesting the racism and bigotry espoused by the white supremacists.
Nugent was introduced as a “rock and roll legend” who specializes in “planting trees.” The hosts neglected to mention Nugent’s history of racism and gave him the forum to spout white supremacist talking points and give cover to the Nazis who murdered a woman by claiming “all sides” instigated violence at the rally:
Fox News’ decision to book Nugent should embarrass everyone at the network given his history of racist comments. In January 2014, Nugent referred to Barack Obama as a “subhuman mongrel,” a slur he said before, referring to African-American rappers as “big uneducated greasy black mongrels.” In 2013, Nugent appeared with conspiracy theorist and Trump ally Alex Jones, and said African-Americans could solve “the black problem” if they put their “heart and soul into being honest, [and] law-abiding.” In 2013, Nugent defended George Zimmerman's shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin by claiming Martin showed “the same mindless tendency to violence we see in black communities across America.” In 2012, Nugent wrote in The Washington Times that he was “beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War.”