And the Romney camp is refusing to deny the story.

Ted Nugent, after a Secret Service investigation, a canceled Army concert and an outpouring of criticism, said presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s camp “expressed support” for the controversial comments he made about President Obama last month at the annual National Rifle Association meeting. The no-holds-barred Texas rocker told CBS’ “This Morning” that Romney’s campaign told him to “stay on course” and not to tone it down after Nugent said he will “either be dead or in jail by this time next year” if President Obama is re-elected.

The Romney campaign responded by re-issuing the statement it put out two weeks ago, shortly after Nugent’s comments at the NRA went viral.

Except the earlier statement had nothing to do with whether the Romney campaign had privately urged Nugent to continue with his controversial, and somewhat violent, comments.

It’s odd that the Romney camp has such a hard time clearly condemning extremism. Then again, they let a gay spokesman go rather than defend him against anti-gay religious right hate groups. Not exactly a backbone of steel on this guy.