By Steve Olafson
OKLAHOMA CITY, April 19 (Reuters) – Musician and gun-rights
advocate Ted Nugent said on Thursday he had a positive meeting
with U.S. Secret Service agents investigating his recent
criticism of President Barack Obama, and the agency confirmed
the issue had been resolved.
Nugent, who told NRA supporters in St. Louis last week that
he would be “dead or in jail” next year if Obama was reelected,
said in a statement that he had “met with two fine, professional
Secret Service agents” in Oklahoma.
“Good, solid, professional meeting concluding that I have
never made any threats of violence towards anyone. The meeting
could not have gone better,” the 63-year-old singer and
guitarist said. He was due to perform a concert in Ardmore,
Oklahoma on Thursday.
The Secret Service, which is tasked with protecting the U.S.
president, senior officials and other figures, confirmed the
meeting with Nugent.
“The Secret Service interview of Ted Nugent has been
completed,” agency spokesman Brian Leary said. “The issue has
been resolved. The Secret Service does not anticipate any
further action.”
Earlier Leary said the agency respected freedom of speech,
but also had a responsibility to “investigate intent.”
Nugent, a Michigan-born conservative who has endorsed
Obama’s presumed Republican challenger in the November
elections, Mitt Romney, drew Secret Service attention with his
blunt remarks about Obama and administration officials at the
NRA event.
“We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads
off in November,” Nugent said at the convention.
U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of
the Democratic National Convention, responded earlier this week,
saying “threatening violence – or whatever it is that Nugent’s
threatening – is clearly beyond the pale.”
A Romney spokeswoman said the Republican candidate believed
“everyone needs to be civil,” but stopped short of condemning
Nugent’s original remarks.
Nugent is best known for hit 1970s songs such as “Cat
Scratch Fever” and “Motor City Madhouse.”
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Paul Simao)
