Wrestling legend Hulk Hogan has spoken out about his speech to the Republican National Convention and said he felt like a coward for previously keeping his support for Donald Trump to himself. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, said he was reluctant to put a Trump sign on his lawn or wear a MAGA hat because he was “afraid of what might happen.” However, after the attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania, he felt he had no choice but to speak out.
The wrestler said he did not prepare for the speech and spoke entirely off-script. “I tried to do what they wanted me to do, but I couldn’t do it. And I started losing my confidence,” he said, admitting that a script he received from the GOP did not reflect how he would usually speak, so he rejected it and decided to talk off the cuff.
During the controversial speech, Hogan asked what “criminal lowlifes and scumbags” would do when Trump becomes President again and “Trumpamania” is unleashed for a second time. He stated that the United States experienced “peace” and “safety” under the first Trump administration, but with Democrats in charge, crime was again “out of control.”
Since he delivered his speech and ripped off his shirt at the RNC, Hulk Hogan has been mired in controversy over remarks he made about Vice President Kamala Harris and her racial identity. Appearing intoxicated, Hogan asked a crowd if they wanted him to “bodyslam” or “drop the leg” on the Vice President. He also asked if Harris was a “chameleon” and whether she was “Indian” before using a hand gesture stereotypically associated with Native American culture.
The questions mirrored those of the former President, who told an audience at a National Association of Black Journalists event in Chicago that Ms. Harris had only recently begun identifying as a black person to enhance her political appeal to black voters. The event’s hosts, however, contradicted Mr. Trump and told him that Harris attended a black university, joined a black sorority, and was a member of a black caucus when she was a US Senator.
