By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau –
WASHINGTON — Rocker Ted Nugent said he had an amicable meeting with the Secret Service on Thursday, seemingly ending the dustup over controversial comments Nugent made at the National Rifle Association convention last weekend.
Nugent, a longtime conservative and NRA board member who endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, had Democrats howling after comments in which he described the Obama administration as “vile, evil and America-hating.”
If Obama won re-election, Nugent said he “will either be dead or in jail,” and also called on conservatives to “ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November.”
Democrats called on Romney to disavow the comments. The Republican’s campaign said that “divisive language is offensive no matter what side of the political aisle it comes from.”
The Secret Service, the agency charged with protecting the president, had said it would investigate, a process that included Thursday’s meeting.
In a statement posted on Nugent’s website, he said the “good, solid, professional meeting” ended with the agency “concluding that I have never made any threats of violence towards anyone.”
“I thanked them for their service, we shook hands and went about our business. (God bless) the good federal agents wherever they may be,” he said.
Nugent also stood by his speech at the NRA gathering, saying that “by no stretch of the imagination did I threaten anyone’s life, or hint at violence or mayhem.”
“Metaphors needn’t be explained to educated people.”
A Secret Service spokesman told The Washington Post that after the interview, “the issue has been resolved,” and the agency “does not anticipate any further action.”
