Hank Williams Jr., who is possibly best known for the theme song to “Monday Night Football,” was canned today by ESPN after comparing President Obama to Hitler.
On Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” Williams said that this summer’s golf summit between the President and Speaker of the House, John Boehner was “one of the biggest political mistakes ever,” and claimed, ”It would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli leader) Benjamin Netanyahu.”
When asked by the Fox host to explain his statement, he responded that President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are “the enemy.” Even the Fox hosts seemed perplexed.
Video below:
Williams is not happy with the current GOP field either, although he is considering supporting Herman Cain. Williams is considering a run for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee.
In a statement, ESPN said, ”While Hank Williams Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize he is closely linked to our company through the opening to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”
thank you sir for a bit of sane and lucid interpretation.
I think HW Jr shouldn’t have done the interview in the first place. However, I don’t think he was comparing anyone to anyone else. IMHO, he was making a simile stating that “this summer’s golf summit between the President and Speaker of the House, John Boehner would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli leader) Benjamin Netanyahu.” Simply put, he is comparing interactions between the former party to interactions between the latter.
Said they were the enemy. Case closed.
That’s nearly as crazy as saying “Bush having dinner with the Bin Ladens”. Oh wait…..
How do you know that he was comparing obama to Hitler? He may have been comparing Bohner to Hitler and obama to Neytenyahu?
Whilst I hesitate to defend someone as obviously mentally deficient as HW Jr, I can’t ignore this one ; he was not comparing Obama to Hitler. He was suggesting that the divide between the two golfers was analogous to what he imagines the divide between Hitler and Netanyahu.
Sure, it was an utterly idiotic thing to say, but then taking it out of context to make his words even more sensationalist is (unfortunately unsurprisingly) irresponsible journalism.
Just because HW Jr chose to use an absurd variant of Godwin’s Rule, aka Reduction ad Hitlerum, does not in any way make it okay to throw back the corollary as part of a discrediting effort.
He discredits himself, and all his ancestors, just fine, without his critics resorting to flawed logic to help him out.
The only thing that comes to mind is “sad.” This was just sad to see and hear. But tell me, was anyone really that surprised? In some parts of the South, Williams’ words would seem tame. We still have a long way to go in this country.
this is the canonical argument for why nobody should reproduce. we’re all just a generation away from or towards douchebaggery.
Not for the first time, Hank Williams is spinning in his grave.