On Monday, MLive.com reported that "Trucker Randy" Bishop, a right-wing talk radio host running for Michigan State Senate as a Democrat, is defending himself following reports about a racist comment he made on families during one of his episodes.
"Can’t even watch a college basketball tournament without commercials telling me I have to feel guilty because I think a family should be a white mom, a white dad and white kids,” said Bishop. “They want us to die and go away and they’re going to try and do it through politics this year. Well, we have got to be just as smart.”
Bishop now claims that this line was taken out of context, and he was simply responding to a comment made by one of his callers. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body,” he told MLive.com.
According to the report, Bishop also seemed to suggest that he was only running as a Democrat to "confuse" voters — although he claimed this comment was taken out of context, too.
"Earlier on in the same show, Bishop encouraged listeners regardless of party affiliation to register to run for statewide office as Democrats. 'We need to run the absolute craziest strategy in the history of Michigan politics this year,' Bishop said during the March 31 recording. 'We need to confuse the Democrats,'" said the report. "Bishop clarified those comments were in regard to the bipartisan party infrastructure, and that he would be the Democratic Party’s best option to win a majority Republican district."
“Candidates who say or believe these things are not welcome. Randy Bishop is not a Democrat,” said the Michigan Democratic Party in a series of tweets in response to the controversy. “He is a dishonest minor social media personality that enjoys getting attention from making outrageous statements. He shows nothing but disrespect to our system of government by using a run for office to promote his personal agenda, entirely based on lies, hate and fear.”
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