During a brand new appearance on "The Joe Pags Show" , outspoken conservative rocker Ted Nugent criticized Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer for her stringent stay-at-home order amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democratic governor last month extended one of the nation's strictest stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of COVID-19. The order continues to prohibit in-person work that is not necessary to sustain or protect life, with exemptions for various critical jobs. Whitmer said imposing some of the country's toughest restrictions was necessary because of what were rapidly rising cases and deaths that threatened to overwhelm hospitals.
Nugent , who moved to Texas from Michigan in 2005, said about Whitmer 's aggressive stay-at-home order: "By all evidence — you can't deny the irrefutable evidence that liberals are allergic to common sense, logic, the Constitution, understanding that we the people hired them based on their oath to the Constitution that limits their power; it doesn't limit our power.
"I thank God every day for the Nancy Pelosis and the Gretchen Whitmers , because they are so offensive, they are so rotten to the core, so dishonest, so not only abusing power, but forcing power on other people.
" Gretchen Whitmer is an embarrassment to good, decent, hard-working American families, especially in my beloved birth state of Michigan.
"It's not her fault. It's the apathy of the conservatives that didn't vote…
"If you and I talked 20 years ago, that was my first condemnation of the American Dream — that apathy ushers in tyrants in power and criminals like [former FBI director] James Comey and [former CIA director] John Brennan and Gretchen Whitmer ."
Nugent also defended the hundreds of demonstrators who protested Michigan's coronavirus emergency measures. On Tuesday, Whitmer claimed that some of the people who demonstrated at the state Capitol building "carried nooses and Confederate flags and swastikas."
" Gretchen Whitmer is not only nasty, but she's a liar," Nugent said. "She claimed there were guys there with automatic weapons. I happen to know for a fact there was not one automatic weapon in that protest. They're liars — they lie, they lie, they lie. They are possessed by hate of freedom and individual choice on some issues, but then they force that individual choice on everybody else on other issues — need I explain.
"So, God bless the protesters, but now is the time for civil disobedience against illegal laws, against unjust decrees, and I'm proud to see that happen. And the Nugent family stands shoulder to shoulder with all those great independent, freedom-demanding… You can't just love freedom — you have to demand it. So God bless them."
Last year, Nugent , a vocal supporter of the Republican Party and various associated conservative causes, defended Trump after the U.S. president was accused of making racist remarks about Democratic congresswomen from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Nugent and fellow Detroit-bred rocker Kid Rock got to spend some time in the Oval Office with Trump in April 2017. They were joined by Sarah Palin , the former Alaskan governor and GOP vice presidential nominee, who posted photos of the visit on social media the following morning. Nugent later told the Detroit Free Press that he and Kid Rock represent a salt-of-the-earth American demographic that helped Trump land the presidency.
