National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent said that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are “promoting” racism and that the Obama administration has a “racist agenda.” In the past week Nugent has been praised by media figures on CNN and Fox News.

Nugent made his comments during an interview on WorldNetDaily's radio program; he recently joined the birther website as a columnist:

NUGENT: Again it really is a nation divided. And it's never been more divided. The racism that President Obama and Eric “Gunrunning” Holder promote is just heartbreaking and it's tragic and those of us that know better have got to constantly expose their ruse and their scams and their racist agenda.

Just a week ago, CNN reporter Deb Feyerick praised Nugent as having a “deep connection with the facts” in the gun policy debate. In a follow-up segment on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront, Feyerick and host Erin Burnett treated Nugent's conspiracy theory that Obama will confiscate firearms as a serious policy debate. On Tuesday, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly applauded Nugent's opposition to gun violence prevention proposals, stating, “Now that kind of straight talk is what the Republican Party needs.”

This is not the first time Nugent has addressed the topic of race for WND. On January 9, the conspiracy clearinghouse published an interview with Nugent where he claimed, “there will come a time when the gun owners of America, the law-abiding gun owners of America, will be the Rosa Parks and we will sit down on the front seat of the bus, case closed.” Nugent's comparison between gun owners and Rosa Parks was roundly denounced by civil rights leaders.

Nugent, an ardent defender of the Confederate flag, has a lengthy history of making racially charged comments. In a July 6 column for The Washington Times, Nugent wrote, “I'm beginning to wonder if it would have been best had the South won the Civil War.” He has also claimed that real Americans are “working hard, playing hard, white motherfucking shit kickers who are independent” and that African-American rappers appearing on MTV are “big uneducated greasy black mongrels.”