(VIDEO) Oliver Anthony Calls Out Political Grifters Co-Opting His Message

Oliver Anthony skyrocketed to fame with his hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

In a new video, the musician took shots at political grifters attempting to use his song and message for their gain.

Anthony blasted conservative media and GOP presidential candidates from this week’s debate who tried to identify with a song written about them.

“It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them. It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle,” Anthony said.

“It was funny seeing my song…at the presidential debate,” he noted. “Cause it’s like, I wrote that song about those people.”

“I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own, and I see the left trying to discredit me. I guess in retaliation,” Anthony explained.

“I don’t know that I’ve seen anything get such positive response from such a diverse group of people, and I think that terrifies the people that I sing about in that song.”

The singer noted the effort to spin his words and place him in a political bucket to make him look like a fool.

“They’re sending a message out that that initial song that sort of shot me up the radar, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” is an attack against the poor. If you listen to my other music, it’s obvious that all of my songs that reference class defend the poor,” he explained.

“You know the words say that there’s people on the street with nothing to eat and the obese smoking welfare. And that’s not the fault of those people. Welfare only makes up a small percentage of our budget. We can fuel a proxy war in a foreign land but we can’t take care of our own. That’s all the song is trying to say,” he said.

WATCH:

Oliver Anthony just dropped a new video. In it, he BLASTS the right-wing political grifter class trying to co-opt his message, and CONFIRMS his songs are about CLASS STRUGGLE.

Some highlights:

– “I see the Right try and characterize me as one of their own, and I see the Left… pic.twitter.com/C6vX3WfOGk

— Haz Al-Din 🇷🇺 (@InfraHaz) August 25, 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has attempted to utilize Oliver Anthony’s song in his political campaign.

WATCH:

NEW: ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ star Oliver Anthony calls out grifter politicians like Ron Desantis who’ve been invoking his song for political gain

“I wrote that song about those people” pic.twitter.com/YJ7JmYzYhL

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) August 26, 2023

Fox News reports:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the “rich men north of Richmond” in Washington, D.C., have put Americans in the economic “situation” they find themselves in.

DeSantis was asked about Virginia musician Oliver Anthony’s hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond” during Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate.

The GOP presidential candidate said our “country is in decline” but that the “decline is not inevitable.”

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“It’s a choice. We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline,” DeSantis said. “And it starts with understanding we must reverse Bidenomics so that middle-class families have a chance to succeed again.”

“We cannot succeed as a country if you are working hard and you can’t afford groceries, a car or a new home, while Hunter Biden can make hundreds of thousands of dollars on lousy paintings,” he continued. “That is wrong.”

DeSantis said America “also cannot succeed when the Congress spends trillions and trillions of dollars” and that those “rich men north of Richmond have put us in this situation.”

In what he called his “last post about politics,” Anthony said his song is about “corporate owned DC politicians on both sides.”

“Though Biden’s most certainly a problem, the lyrics aren’t exclusively knocking Biden,” he said.

“It’s knocking the system collectively. Including the conservative corporate owned politicians that were on stage that night.”