'I am reaching out across the aisle': Ted Nugent says he doesn't want Obama's 'lips near my machine gun'

Conservative rocker Ted Nugent on Sunday blamed Democrats for inciting vicious partisan rhetoric and insisted that he had "never threatened anyone."

Following the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and other Republicans at a congressional baseball practice last week, Nugent announced that it was time to stop using incendiary rhetoric to demonize political opponents.

On Sunday, Fox & Friends noted that liberals are calling Nugent a hypocrite because he once told then-President Barack Obama to "suck on my machine gun."

"Let me make it perfectly clear, I have never projected hate," Nugent insisted. "When I said that about sucking on my machine gun, that was a direct response to the liberal Democrats -- Obama and Clinton, et al -- [trying] to ban certain types of firearms, violating their oath to the Constitution and the Second Amendment."

"That was a metaphor and nobody is too stupid not to know that," he continued. "The left is so dishonest that they misrepresented that, and make it perfectly clear with my Fox & Friends, I have never threatened anybody. I have never hinted at violence."

According to Nugent, the "Detroit street slang" he used came during "adrenaline-charged rock and roll performances"

"I am reaching out across the aisle, and I am saying we must unite to bring no violence, no harm to any of our fellow Americans," he opined. "I have alway been civil. Again, during the outrage of a rock and roll performance, machine gun references have been made but nobody could possibly think I want anybody's lips near my machine gun."

Nugent complained that there had been no signs of civility from "the left."

"They're still going to burn down buildings if they disagree with your speech, and turn over cars and attack people if they don't agree with you," he remarked.

"I think that's all something we needed to hear right now," Fox News host Abby Huntsman concluded.

Watch the video below.