Trump’s Impeachment Reaction: Giving Toby Keith and Ricky Skaggs Medals – By Jon Freeman (Rolling Stone) / January 14 2021
President awards National Medal of the Arts to country singers minutes after House votes to impeach him for a second time
Country musicians Toby Keith and Ricky Skaggs were reportedly presented with the National Medal of the Arts by president Donald Trump on Wednesday. The presentation took place on the same day the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for a historic second time in the wake of the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th.
Because of Keith’s unwavering military support and jingoistic anthems like “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),” the Oklahoma native has long been assumed to be a conservative Republican, though as he explained to the Chicago Tribune, he’s actually a former Democrat who is no longer affiliated with either party. In 2017, he performed at Trump’s inauguration ceremony, drawing some criticism.
Skaggs was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018. A lifelong Republican and evangelical Christian, he voiced his support for Trump in a 2016 interview with the Gospel Herald. “I love [Trump’s] enthusiasm and his fighting spirit,” he said. “He’s not going to let anyone bulldoze over him because he’s a bulldozer himself. Mr. Trump is someone who tears down and rebuilds. I believe Donald Trump is the right person in the right place, and that it’s prophetic.”
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