During a new appearance on the “Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show” on New York City’s Q104.3 radio station, TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider, who has been very outspoken on a number of political issues, was asked if he would be willing to take the job as House Speaker now that the chair has been vacated. He responded: “I get asked a lot to enter the realm of politics because people think I’m sort of a voice of reason. To the point where one group — it was tied to The Lincoln Project, actually — called me up and they said, ‘Not taking no for an answer. We’ve already started the Super PAC. You’re running.’ And I don’t know for. I didn’t even say, ‘For what?’ I said, ‘Guys, it’s flattering that you’re working that hard, but I’ve seen the job, and it’s awful.’ Those people are not — they’re awful people, and that’s across the board. I’m sure some people get in there with hopes of making a change, but they get tainted and it’s all about their personal agendas and pleasing their financers more than their constituents. So I don’t want the job. No, thank you.”

Dee went on to say that he already has “an excellent job,” before clarifying: “I’m basically semi-retired and I get to hang out on the beach a lot. And now I just sort of do whatever I want to do. I don’t perform anymore, except go out — like, I’m gonna join Bret Michaels in Arizona for a few songs, and then I’ll go back to the beach.”

This past July, Dee explained to the Hal Sparks radio show why he calls himself neither liberal or conservative but moderate. He said: “People ask me, ‘In 2023, what is a moderate?’ They know what a moderate used to be. But what a moderate is — if you believe that there’s room for conversation, negotiation and compromise, you’re a moderate. If you’re all the way over on the right but you’re willing to talk and consider a compromise, you’re a moderate. And if you’re all the way over on the left, they’re the same. Beyond those lines — and that’s a wide swath — I am in there. And that’s a wide swath. And the bullying minorities on the extremes on either side, they’re very loud, they’re very vocal, they’re very in your face, but they’re not (part of the majority). And people get very confused with me, because one minute I’m being lauded and applauded by the left and reviled by the right, and the next minute I’m being cheered by the right and hated on by the left.

“I’m a moderate,” Dee continued. “Best example of that — I have a Tesla and a Hummer H2. That’s a moderate. I’ve got in that closet behind me — my wife says, ‘You have too many guns.’ But there are no AR-15s and I believe in intelligent gun control. So that’s a moderate.

“People (look at and say), ‘What is your deal, man?’ You’re hating on me because I kind of leaned right in the recent press that I’ve gotten. At other times you’re hatin’ on me because I’m a leftie and I was the guy who fought censorship and, ‘How could you wanna wear a mask?’ I’m a moderate. So to try to figure it out — you can’t. Unless you too are a moderate; then you only get what I’m saying. And remember — we are the majority. We are the majority. We decide, not the crazies on the extremes. They don’t decide.”

More than five months ago, Snider sparked backlash when he replied to Paul Stanley‘s April 30 tweet, which many have deemed transphobic. A day later, the San Francisco Pride Parade announced that Snider, who had previously been asked to serve as the Grand Marshal at the event, had “mutually agreed to part ways,” adding that its members appreciated “Dee seeing this as a teachable moment and a reminder that even allies need to be educated to ensure that they are not casually promoting transphobia.”

A few days later, Snider posted a statement on social media in which he described himself as a “proud moderate” and argued that “the transgender community needs moderates who support their choices, even if we don’t agree with every one of their edicts.”