Source: Splash News / Splash News
Comedian George Lopez has caused an uproar, particularly with MAGA supporters, over an Instagram joke alluding to Donald Trump being assassinated. However, the [fake] outrage caused Twitter to give a friendly reminder about assassination comments country singer Ted Nugent made about Barack Obama years ago.
According to Newsweek, Lopez made his comment in response to an Instagram post about a suggested $80 million bounty for Trump after the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The military leader was killed in a U.S. airstrike on Friday sparking outrage, including sharp criticism from Black leaders. Many thought the move could spark a war between the U.S. and Iran, especially after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised “revenge” for “those criminals who have tainted their filthy hands” with Soleimani’s blood and “the blood of the other martyrs of last night’s incident.”
Things escalated at Soleimani’s funeral when a eulogist at the procession, broadcast live on Iran’s state-owned Channel One T.V. station, reportedly called for an $80 million bounty for Trump while addressing crowds in the city of Mashhad. “We are 80 million Iranians. If each one of us puts aside one American dollar, we will have 80 million American dollars, and we will reward anyone who brings us [Trump]’s head with that amount,” the unidentified man said.
The Instagram account Chicano Worldstar mistakenly attributed the award to Iranian officials, writing on Sunday, “#Iranian authorities have put a bounty on American President Donald Trump’s head during the televised funeral of General #QasemSoleimani after he was assassinated last week. What are your thoughts?”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B69B4XApv6m/
In the comment section of the post, Lopez responded to the $80 million bounty, writing, “We’ll do it for half.”
The top comment almost immediately caught the eye of right-wing social media users and MAGA minions, causing a near meltdown. Ryan Fournier, co-chair of Students For Trump, tweeted: “George Lopez just said he’d assassinate President Trump for half of the $80 million dollar bounty. @SecretService should take a look at this. The Left is sick.”
However, many people defended George Lopez including comedienne Kathy Griffin, who’s had her own share of backlash for suggesting violence against Trump. “Calm down trump cult! @georgelopez is a professional comedian and…OH F**K OFF. THIS JOKE IS HILARIOUS & you all know it,” she tweeted.
Many people on Twitter thought this was a perfect moment to bring up another famous person’s suggested violence against Obama.
Back in 2007, Nugent, a far-right country singer, went on a rant at one of his concerts during which he threatened the lives of Hillary Clinton and Obama (both presidential candidates at the time). The video showed Nugent making the comments while decked out in full camouflage hunting gear and holding two machine guns. “Obama, he’s a piece of shit,” Nugent exclaimed to an adoring audience that cheered his every word. “I told him to suck on my machine gun.”
“Hey Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch,” he continued. He ended by screaming, “Freedom!”
When Obama was running for president again in 2012, Nugent went on TV at an NRA Annual Meeting and again, threatened the former president’s life. “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November,” he said at the time.
Where was the conservative outrage then?
Twitter was quick to bring this up on Sunday night and Monday morning, causing Nugent’s name to trend. Many folks also broke down how Lopez’s comment doubled as a Mexican joke whereas Nugent didn’t seem to be joking. Check out some of the commentary below.
