Many conservative Americans are seething over President Joe Biden’s decision to remove singer Lee Greenwood from the National Council on the Arts.
The singer, whose signature song “God Bless the U.S.A.” has been played at patriotic events ever since Greenwood penned the anthem in 1984, said he was surprised that he was ousted from the panel, having been first appointed by former President George W. Bush
“So, hearing now under the Biden administration and he’s cleaned house and finally he’s fired a patriot. I was quite shocked to tell you the truth. I didn’t get a phone call or letter. It was just an email,” Greenwood said in a “Fox & Friends” interview Thursday.
Greenwood will be the subject of a tribute on Oct. 12 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Greenwood’s ouster irked Perry O. Hooper Jr., chairman of the Lee Greenwood VIP Dinner that will be held in conjunction with the tribute.
“I went from shock to anger,” Hooper said in a statement released Thursday. “I guess there is no room for a true American Patriot in Joe Biden’s world. From Woke Generals running the Military to the National Endowment of the Arts he wants to tear down the America we love.
“This is disgusting. Lee’s masterpiece ‘God Bless the USA’ has become a patriotic hymn behind only the National Anthem and God Bless America in importance to the soul of our great country,” the statement said.
Hooper said he believes the concert now takes on a new significance.
“Once the word of this firing gets out, this sold-out event will become standing room only as Alabamians show their support for an adopted favorite son, Lee Greenwood,” Hooper stated.
Many vented their outrage on Twitter:
Lee Greenwood wrote “God Bless The USA.”
Now Biden wants him cancelled, too.
So much for uniting the country!https://t.co/OucHBwgj06
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 23, 2021
Joe Biden is such a mean and hateful POS.
Joe Biden Removes Country Music Legend Lee Greenwood From National Arts Council – Washington News https://t.co/KbIICMjcZe
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) September 24, 2021
Lee Greenwood wrote God Bless the USA. Now Biden wants him canceled and fired. So much for unity huh. https://t.co/xfpPfjW8Fi
— David Bromwell (@bromwell79) September 24, 2021
In an interview with Newsmax in May, Greenwood said the United States America is a very special place — and he wrote the song to reflect that.
”Everywhere I go, I see people who want to be just an American. They just want to have a great life and live every single day helping their neighbors and helping veterans,” he said.
“God Bless the U.S.A.,” Greenwood said, “reflects for me the freedom that I had to do, what I wanted to do to make my life fun and it is. I thank every single soldier, sailor, Marine, Coast Guard, Space X people that are doing their very best to make this country free.”
Biden’s nominations to the Council on the Arts were announced on June 23. Those severed from the council were not announced at the time.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts website, the National Council on the Arts includes 18 citizens members and six members of Congress, who serve in a non-voting capacity. Its citizen members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for six-year terms.
Greenwood was most recently appointed in 2014.
Biden’s nominees to the National Council on the Arts were: Huascar Medina, the poet laureate of Kansas; Fiona Prine president of Oh Boy Records; Kamilah Forbes, executive producer at the Apollo Theater and director of Broadway’s “Soul Train”; Jake Shimabukuro, international ukelele player;
Ismael Ahmed, co-founder of the Arab American National Museum of Dearborn, Michigan; Kinan Azmeh, clarinetist and director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Players; Christopher Morgan, Washington dance choreographer; Constance Williams, businesswoman, politician and chair of the board of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.