LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Morton says that President Donald Trump's core base will support him "no matter what."
The musician, who has been an outspoken critic of America's 45th president, made the comment on the day that audio recordings were released of Trump acknowledging the severity of the COVID-19 crisis months before he would ever admit its seriousness in public.
In a February interview with legendary journalist Bob Woodward for his new book "Rage", Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed U.S. coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and "more deadly than even your strenuous flus," and that he repeatedly played it down publicly. "This is deadly stuff," Trump said. A month later, Trump acknowledged downplaying the threat, telling Woodward: "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to create a panic."
Earlier today, Morton took to his Twitter to write: "Democrats all high fiving & doin cartwheels about the Woodward tapes as if it's gonna change anyone's mind.
"You're ignoring a fundamental truth. TRUMP SUPPORTERS DONT CARE WHAT HE DOES. They're all in no matter what. He told you that from the jump. It simply does not matter."
This is not the first time Morton has publicly weighed in on the political situation in the U.S. Back in July, Morton blasted Trump over his claim that the United States is only seeing a spike in new coronavirus infections because more testing is being carried out. At the time, Mark tweeted: "It must be so insulting for the people that make up his actual base of support to see shit like this. He really thinks y'all are this stupid?? To have your intelligence so grossly underestimated over & over, I would imagine it's got to be exhausting to stay loyal to this regime."
Morton recently told A&P Reacts that it's important for him to use the platform that he has, including his Twitter account, to create awareness about the things that are happening around him.
He said: "When something's really wrong or there's a discussion not being had or there's something being ignored… I have a platform, and I have a platform in our music, in what we talk about lyrically, and social media, for better or worse, is a platform — I don't know if it's the best one, but it is one, and it's one I engage in.
"So I do speak my mind," he continued. "And I try to be open to other people's opinions and the fact that not everyone's gonna agree with me. I don't think my opinions can be put into a tight, neat little box, because there are things that I'm very liberal on, things that I'm very conservative on and things that I'm in the middle on. But lately, particularly in the last week or so, I've had a hard time keeping my mouth shut. And I don't make any apologies for that."
Addressing the fact that he has at times alienated some of the LAMB OF GOD fans with his views, Morton said: "Look, if I had a nickel for every time someone told on social media to just shut up and play guitar… I always actually take it as a compliment, because I'm, like, no matter how mad I made them, they're still saying that it's worthwhile for me to play guitar. [Laughs] So I'm doing something right; that's a compliment to me.
"I get to have an opinion too — I just do," he said. "Everybody does. And hopefully we can all start learning to respect each other's opinion and even maybe find some common ground. 'Cause a lot of that seems to be getting overlooked lately, and I hope we can plug into that.
"It's a trying time, man — there's so much going on — and everybody's really tense and anxious, and there's a lot of fear and a lot of anger," he added. "And I don't know what to do except to talk about when I see something that's wrong. And I'm not always great at not riling it up — sometimes I'm venting in anger myself; I'm a human being — but I'm trying to be a little more positive as I go. That's all I can do."
