Joey Bear.

Hank Williams Jr has become the second musician in as many weeks to accuse Barack Obama of plotting to destroy the United States. Just days after Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine claimed Obama had “staged” this month’s shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, Williams offered his own polemic against the US president, falsely accusing him of being a Muslim.

The son of Hank Williams made his remarks during a recent performance at the Iowa State Fair. As the crowd chanted “USA! USA!”, Williams Jr grabbed the microphone, Metromix Des Moines reported, declaring: “We’ve got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the US and we hate him!” The comments were reportedly met with “loud and enthusiastic” cheers.

Williams, 63, lost his job at ESPN after comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler last October. He later apologised, calling it an “extreme … analogy”. “I have always respected the office of the president,” he said. When contacted this weekend, a spokesperson from Obama’s Iowa campaign office told Metromix: “That type of absurd nonsense doesn’t really deserve a response.”

Comments by Representative Todd Akin, a Republican running against Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, are drawing condemnation after he asserted that victims of “a legitimate rape” have biological mechanisms to prevent pregnancy.

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Mr. Akin told KTVI-TV of St. Louis in an interview that was broadcast on Sunday.

The comments drew a sharp rebuke on Sunday from Senator McCaskill, who is in a tough fight against the Republican candidate.

“It is beyond comprehension that someone can be so ignorant about the emotional and physical trauma brought on by rape,” the senator said in a statement. “The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive.”