Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has fired back against Democrats who have criticized him for inviting outspoken conservative rocker Ted Nugent on the campaign trail.
Abbott, the Republican front-runner in the race for Texas governor, said he would rather have the Motor City Madman on his side than be associated with President Barack Obama like his Democratic rival, state Sen. Wendy Davis, the
Dallas Morning News reported.
Standing next to Nugent at a rally in Denton, Texas, Abbott said, "I don't think there is anybody in the state that is disliked more than Barack Obama."
Nugent, a Newsmax contributor and gun advocate who sits on the board of the National Rifle Association, has been attacked for allegedly making racial slurs against Obama, calling him a "subhuman mongrel," a term once used by Nazis.
He's used the N-word during radio interviews and has been branded a racist for his views on blacks, according to the Morning News. He's also described feminists and female politicians as "fat pigs."
Nugent, who has admitted having affairs with several underage girls, also came
under fire from Democrats this week for being a sexual predator.
Davis, the likely Democratic nominee in the gubernatorial election, slammed Abbott on Tuesday for taking Nugent on the campaign trail. "Abbott's embrace of Ted Nugent is an insult to every Texan — every man, woman, husband and father," said Davis. "If this is Greg Abbott's ideas of values, it's repulsive."
Abbott has also been vilified by his own party for campaigning with Nugent. His primary opponent Lisa Fritsch, a talk show host and a black Republican leader, said Abbott put the GOP in danger by offending voters who "are leaving this party in droves."
"It is sad, insensitive and arrogant in 2014 for seasoned Christian conservative leadership to not know better than to keep company with a noted misogynist and bigot, no matter how fervent his love of guns and the Constitution," said Fritsch, according to the Morning News.
On Tuesday, CNN's Crossfire, host and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich came to Nugent's defense, saying that there was "
selective media outrage" surrounding the comments by the '70s rocker.
Nugent ignored the attacks while telling Abbott supporters in Denton that liberals have turned his home town of Detroit into a "cesspool" and have wrecked Chicago, California and New York. "Everything they get their hands on, they destroy everything. I want Texas to remain Texas," Nugent said.
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