Hank Williams Jr. issued a statement regarding his comments comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler after ESPN pulled his usual opening to Monday Night Football on Monday.
Williams' statement read, according to whosay.com:
"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme –- but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President."
"Every time the media brings up the tea party it's painted as racist and extremists -– but there's never a backlash -– no outrage to those comparisons… Working class people are hurting -– and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job -– it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change."
On an interview with FoxNews on Monday morning, Williams posed an analogy about Obama playing golf with House Speaker John Boehner in June.
"That would be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. Not hardly. In the shape this country is in?"
"They're the enemy," Williams added, later clarifying that by "they" he meant Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
"You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president," anchor Gretchen Carlson said.
"Well, that is true," Williams replied. "But I'm telling you like it is."
