Liddy Sticks To His Guns On Talk Show He Shot At Pictures Of Clintons, Suggests Shooting Feds In Groin

G. Gordon Liddy says he meant no harm when he said on the air that he used handmade drawings of Bill and Hillary Clinton for target practice.

“I thought it might improve my aim,” he said Tuesday.

The former Watergate burglar did nothing to tone down his radio show Tuesday, a day after President Clinton assailed “loud and angry voices” for spreading “hate” on the airwaves.

During an on-air news conference at WJFK-FM in Fairfax, Va., the onetime FBI agent stuck to his rhetorical guns, saying talk radio is in no way responsible for the climate that led to last week’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

“I don’t believe I’m fueling the lunatic fringe,” Liddy said.

Liddy, 65, is a former Nixon White House aide who once oversaw the Treasury Department’s firearms policy. As general counsel of President Nixon’s 1972 re-election committee, he was convicted of plotting the Watergate break-in and served five years in prison. He has acknowledged once plotting to kill columnist Jack Anderson for disclosing classified information, saying he would have considered it “justifiable homicide.”

Liddy has drawn criticism for repeatedly saying that if one is confronted by hostile Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, “I advise shooting them in the head.” He stressed Tuesday he was talking only about self-defense and the unprovoked shooting of federal agents is “clearly unacceptable.”

“If they smash in unannounced, screaming at you and assault you with lethal force, you have two choices,” Liddy said. “You can die under their bullets, or you can shoot back and try to defend your wife and family. If they’re wearing flak jackets, don’t shoot them there, shoot them in the head.”

He then modified his advice, saying most people are not skilled enough to shoot agents in the head. “Shoot twice to the body, center of gravity,” he said. “If that does not work, shoot to the groin area.”