Fact check: Viral letter to Joe Biden is misattributed to rocker Ted Nugent

Madeleine Ngo, USA TODAY
·4 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The claim: Musician Ted Nugent authored a viral letter criticizing Joe Biden

Social media users are sharing a letter criticizing President Joe Biden and rejecting his election win. The author of the letter, they falsely claim, is musician Ted Nugent.

“Ted Nugent wrote Joe Biden a letter via Facebook moments ago and it is going viral fast,” a Facebook user wrote on Jan. 24. The post has been shared 1,400 times. USA TODAY has reached out to the user for comment.

Letter puts forth debunked claims

In the letter addressed to “Vice President Biden,” the author alleges that Biden’s “criminal dishonesty is treasonous” and "this Trump supporter” will not be unifying with the Democratic Party.

More: Fact check: Facebook configuration change caused users to be logged out

“Although I refused to listen to it, I understand that during your presidential acceptance speech, you were calling for the unity of Trump supporters. I remember four years ago my President Trump also called for unity,” the letter begins.

The letter also claims that Biden and the Democratic Party “stole the election” from Trump. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and these claims have been debunked multiple times.

Nugent did not write the letter

Versions of the viral letter have been circulating on Facebook since early November. Although some users have recently reposted it with Nugent’s name attached, older posts do not list an author.

“Mr. Nugent did NOT author the piece,” Nugent’s spokesperson Linda Peterson said in a statement.

Posts claiming that Nugent is the author could have cropped up after Nugent reshared the letter on Nov. 18. He does not claim to be the author of the letter in the Facebook post.

Reuters and Snopes have also debunked similar claims.

Ted Nugent performs at a rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James in Pontiac, Mich., Wednesday.
Ted Nugent performs at a rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James in Pontiac, Mich., Wednesday.

Who is Ted Nugent?

Nugent, an American rock singer, is known for his conservative and provocative stances.

After survivors of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, organized a “March for Our Lives” demonstration to advocate for tighter gun control, Nugent called the survivors “poor, mushy brained children” who “have no soul.”

Nugent frequently praises former President Donald Trump’s style of politics.

“Donald Trump is as close to Ted Nugent as you’ll ever get in politics,” Nugent said on the conservative network The First in April.

More: Fact check: National Guard members didn't turn away from Biden's Inauguration Day motorcade in dissent

Since Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20, Nugent has shared posts on Facebook criticizing the new administration.

“Nuge Predictions on Impacts of Biden presidency: unemployment rises, energy and food costs soar, real wages shrink, freedoms are severely restricted or lost…” reads a Jan. 22 post.

USA TODAY has previously debunked claims that Nugent wrote a viral “Take a knee” essay on national anthem demonstrations.

More: Fact check: Meme of fake email perpetuates conspiracy theory

Our rating: False

The claim that Ted Nugent authored a viral letter to President Joe Biden is FALSE, based on our research. Nugent’s spokesperson confirmed that he did not write the letter and he only shared it on Facebook. Versions of the viral letter have been circulating on Facebook since early November, before Nugent reshared the post.

Our fact-checking sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Ted Nugent did not write viral letter to Joe Biden