Ted Nugent: Don't Compare Me to Kathy Griffin

As Kathy Griffin continued to express her thoughts regarding the severed President Trump head photo that has caused her to lose her CNN gig and stirred up some noise on social media, another celebrity is addressing somewhat-related commotion surrounding himself. Singer Ted Nugent, who has been slammed himself for diatribes against Barack Obama and who has visited the current White House as a guest of President Trump, phoned into Fox News on Friday to play down comparisons between himself and Griffin for inflammatory comments he made in the past about Obama, Mediaite reports. In his call to Fox News Specialists, Nugent clarified a 2012 statement he'd made that he'd be "dead or in jail" if then-President Obama won reelection and one in 2007 in which he said Obama could "suck on my machine gun."

"I did not threaten anybody's life," he insisted to the Fox News crew, backing up what he'd said on conservative radio host Ben Ferguson's show on Wednesday, when he noted, "To compare what I said ... we're talking apples and grenades here," per the Hill. The "dead or in jail" quote was simply an expression of his fear of Big Government, he told Fox, while the machine gun statement was an "outrageous metaphor" on gun control. "I did nothing to harm anyone," he said. "[Griffin] came out with symbolism that was truly vile." He did concede to Ferguson he'd "recommended" Hillary Clinton be hanged for her "certainly treasonous" actions concerning Benghazi, Media Matters notes. He added to Fox that Secret Service had cleared him for any suspicious remarks. (More Kathy Griffin stories.)