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Hank Williams Jr.: 'Sorry If It Offended Anyone'

<p>Hank Williams Jr. </p>
Scott Boehm
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Hank Williams Jr.

A quick follow to the news that ESPN pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s iconic opening song from this week's Monday Night Footballbroadcast because he had compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler.

As you may recall, on Fox & Friends Monday, Williams compared the round of golf that President Obama played this summer with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to "Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu." He also referred to Obama and Vice President Biden as "the enemy."

Tuesday, Hank posted two statements on his website. The first said:

"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."

The second statement read:

"I have always been very passionate about Politics and Sports and this time it got the Best or Worst of me. The thought of the Leaders of both Parties Jukin and High Fiven on a Golf course, while so many Families are Struggling to get by simply made me Boil over and make a Dumb statement and I am very Sorry if it Offended anyone. I would like to Thank all my supporters. This was Not written by some Publicist."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.