Fact Check

Ted Nugent: 'I Don't Get How a Chimp Gets to Invoke Human Rights'

Ted Nugent recently made comments about President Obama's support for NFL player Colin Kaepernick's protests, but he didn't call the athlete a "chimp."

Published Sept. 15, 2016

Claim:
Ted Nugent called Colin Kaepernick a "chimp" when discussing the President's support for the athlete's protest.

On 12 September 2016, the web site Newslo published an article claiming that conservative rocker Ted Nugent had used a racially pejorative term when discussing San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during pre-game playings of the U.S. national anthem:

Recently, NRA board member and musician Ted Nugent attacked President Obama for saying that NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is “exercising his constitutional right” not to stand for the national anthem, calling it a sign of Obama’s racism. Nugent, who has threatened to kill Obama, referred to the president as a “chimpanzee” and “subhuman mongrel,” and claimed he’d be “dead or in jail” by 2013 if the president was re-elected, told radio host Joe Pags that Obama “is the biggest racist in America.” “No one is oppressed in America unless you choose to be oppressed,” he added.

“Let me just clarify on what we’re seeing here, and what we’ve been seeing in America since 2008,” Nugent loaded his guns while preparing to go on another rant. “We have this guy, right, who happens to be the president, and he spends most of his time regretting tragedies that have transpired because of ‘guns’ and the fact that people are allowed to protect themselves and their property by any means necessary. At the same time, he constantly screams about democratic values and how they’re not being respected in this country.”

“However, when a mediocre — and I mean that — when a mediocre football player insults millions of Americans and the country that gave him a shot at greatness by sitting down while the national anthem is being played, Obama changes his tune and says the Constitution grants such a ‘liberty.’ Well, excuse me, Mr. President, but I’ve read the Constitution several times and nowhere does it say that chimps get to invoke human rights. And by ‘chimp,’ I’m on this occasion referring primarily to the has-been quarterback. Now, therein lies a paradox. How does, in fact, a chimpanzee get to invoke human rights? I mean, that’d be like turkeys trying to invoke PETA or something during Thanksgiving,” Nugent fired away.

Like all items published by  Newslo (and sister sites  Religionlo and  Politicalo), the article's first paragraph was based on actual remarks made by its subject (in this instance, Ted Nugent), the lead-in lifted from the web site  Right Wing Watch's 12 September 2016 coverage of Nugent's speaking about President Obama and Kaepernick. But the material following that lead-in was fabricated, particularly the portion where Nugent was quoted as saying he'd "read the Constitution several times and nowhere does it say that chimps get to invoke human rights."

Across Newslo's three fake news sites (frequently attributed in Facebook shares to the  Politicops domain) articles present a button enabling readers to "show facts" or "hide facts." But all articles appear in "hide facts" mode by default, obfuscating reader ability to highlight untruths:

newslo satire


Newslo, Politicalo, and Religionlo articles typically begin with a paragraph of fact-based information and subsequent embellishments to exclusion.

Previous Newslo fabrications includ items asserting Chris Christie surmised a female Viagra would lead to an increase in "lesbianism" (and that he voted down a gender pay parity bill for religious reasons), an Alabama politician suggested saliva-based "hunger tests" for all food stamp recipients, Ted Cruz said the death of Antonin Scalia was suspicious, televangelist Pat Robertson said David Bowie was still alive after his death, Mike Pence opined that if abortion was allowed in instances of rape that women would try to "get raped" in order to obtain an abortion, and the father of Brock Turner lamented the absence of punishment for the victim in his son's case.

Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes.