Mitt Romney’s campaign is ready to go into high gear and start attacking President Barack Obama, rocker Ted Nugent — who says he is in regular contact with the GOP challenger’s camp — told Newsmax in an exclusive dressing-room interview.
And Nugent for one is pleased that the race for the White House is about to get scrappier as the two candidates go toe-to-toe in the final three months.
“I have heard back from the Romney camp that they’re pumping gas and they’re preparing to ignite some increased heat, and I’m expecting that any day now,” he told Newsmax.TV as he prepared for a concert in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Watch our exclusive interview. Story continues below.
But Nugent said Romney missed an ideal opportunity by refusing to come out strongly in support of Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy in his opposition to gay marriage. It would have been “a perfect opportunity to make a bold statement, ‘This is who I support.’” he said.
“I’m anticipating that to be made real soon, especially when you’ve got the crazy strategies of the Harry Reid puppets of Barack Obama making these obnoxious, false accusations about Mitt Romney’s taxes.”
Nugent, an avid hunter and gun enthusiast, said he never eats chicken, seeing such a meal “an admission of failure” but the Chick-fil-A issue has become a battle over First Amendment rights, he said.
“I have been prodding, as everyone I know . . . as politely as we can, ‘Mitt turn up the heat!’ Make bolder definitive statements on these critical issues,” Nugent said. “Chick-fil-A . . . was indeed a critical moment and statement to be made. Yes, I believe he should have stepped forward.
“The conservative movement has been mushy for far too long,” he admonished. “We’ve got to get more aggressive. We’ve got to get to spotlight the cockroach that much more.
“We are heartbroken that the basis of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the 10 Commandments and the Golden Rule has been abandoned for a terrible socialism that has ruined every life it’s come in contact with.
“It’s time to turn up the heat,” he said.
A member of the NRA’s board of directors, Nugent is a passionate supporter of the Second Amendment freedom to bear arms and he unceremoniously dismisses recent calls for gun control based on what he considers to be an uninformed reaction to the mass-shooting tragedies in Aurora, Colo., and Oak Creek, Wis.
“Everybody dead in Aurora was unarmed and helpless. Everybody dead in Milwaukee was unarmed and helpless. Everyone dead at Virginia Tech was unarmed and helpless,” he told Newsmax.TV. “How dare the president or Nancy Pelosi, or Bloomberg want more of that?
“That’s what gun control is . . . It’s literally opening the door as wide as possible for evil to do to unarmed and helpless victims what they want.”
Nugent, who is also a Newsmax contributor, insisted there are hard statistics to back up his position. “Where there are more concealed weapons permits, oftentimes — more often than not — rape doesn’t go down, it disappears.
“How do you not embrace that? How do you not see how lives are saved? I can name you instance after instance where armed people stopped evil and saved lives,” he continued. “You know which one I’m going for? I’m not going for the gun-free-zone slaughter areas. I’m going for the right to self-defense, crime-stopping areas. It is that stark.”
He wrote in a recent Newsmax column: “You either stand with the Second Amendment or you don’t,” which raises the question how Romney as governor of the liberal state of Massachusetts fared under such a litmus test.
“Mitt Romney made the terrible mistake of banning a certain type of firearm in the past — what they call assault weapons, which is not what they are. But he has seen the light,” declared The New York Times best-selling author.
“I spoke with him at length. I am convinced in my absolutist Second Amendment heart and soul that Mitt Romney will never even consider any more infringements on guns, ammo, fire power, access of guns ever again for Americans. He’s learned his lesson.
“Compared to Barack Obama and his team, Mitt Romney is indeed Michael the Archangel. He is a knight in shining armor for individual rights to self-defense.”
Nugent also stressed his opposition to efforts by the U.N. to win support for an arms-trade treaty that opponents fear could be a back-door strategy to bring gun control to the United States.
“When they talk about reducing unnecessary violence by eliminating small arms in the hands of citizens around the world, they’re talking about the same thing that Hitler talked about: Disarm the populace so you can control them at your every whim,” he insisted.
Pointing to fellow conservative rocker Kid Rock, fiddler-guitarist Charlie Daniels and actor Gary Sinise, Nugent said that conservative celebrities are far more likely to go public with their political views now than in the past — though there have been consequences for him in doing so.
“Oh I’m attacked all the time and I couldn’t be more proud of it,” he acknowledged. “The media stumbles over themselves in a mad scramble to lie about me literally every day. If you Google my name, you’ll see just the most hysterical, crazy accusations against me.”
Even so, Nugent has no plans to tone down his rhetoric. “I’m trying to get more involved because I’m sick and tired of people going, ‘celebrities just shut up and paint pictures and play your music.’”
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