Dog the Bounty Hunter Brings Up Eminem While Attempting to Argue He Was Given ‘Pass’ to Use N-Word (UPDATE)

In a new interview, Dog made the proximity argument when again addressing claims of racism and homophobia, saying he has "more Black friends than Eminem."

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UPDATED 9/3, 10:50 a.m. ET: Dog the Bounty Hunter’s former pastor Tim Storey has criticized his use of the n-word, but insists he still has a good head on his shoulders.

As TMZ reports, Tim Storey called Dog shortly after the interview started to pick up steam online, and told his friend the heavily publicized comments were “not wise.” Storey, who is Black, said he’s still very close with Dog and explained it’s never okay for the former reality TV star to say the n-word regardless of his claim he has a “pass.”

Storey also defended Dog, saying he’s not a racist but doesn’t think through what he says sometimes. The pastor also said he’s never personally heard Dog say the word outside of the leaked phone call recording that led to the cancellation of his show back in 2017.

See original story below.

Dog the Bounty Hunter, for reasons not entirely clear, is still being given screen time. And in a recent example of this, he used that platform to make the proximity argument when addressing his use of the n-word.

In an interview with Kevin Frazier for Entertainment Tonight, Dog—whose real name is Duane Chapman—responded to recent criticism from his daughter alleging that he is racist and homophobic, and was unfaithful to his late wife Beth Smith. Smith, notably, died of cancer in 2019.

Dog is now set to be remarried, althought daughter Bonnie Chapman has not been invited. She has argued that she wasn’t invited because of her support for Black Lives Matter, among other things.

“I have never been a racist,” said Dog, who was previously recorded using the n-word multiple times during a phone conversation with his son. “I’m 33-and-a-half percent Apache. But because of, over 15 years ago, I have an Achilles heel because I used the wrong word.”

When pressed about using the word, Dog attempted to pull the topic of Eminem into the conversation.

“I thought I had a pass in the Black tribe to use it, kinda like Eminem,” he said, later adding that “the brothers” gave him this mythical pass.

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“I had just gotten out of prison in 1979 after spending 18 months in Texas and it was probably three quarters from the Black tribe, so that was a word that we used back and forth as maybe a compliment,” he said. “My pass expired for using it but no one told me that. To say a racist name doesn’t qualify to make you a racist.”

Kevin Frazier expertly pushed back against this, pointing out the lack of logic in Dog’s argument. But Dog continued.

“I have more Black friends than Eminem,” he said, at which point the host noted that he was making the “proximity argument,” which he again made in response to his daughter’s criticism of him as allegedly being homophobic.

“Would I die for a gay man or a Black man? I’d lay down my life!” Dog said.

In a statement to Entertainment Tonight in response to Dog’s claims that she was being “brainwashed” by a TV network, Bonnie Chapman said that stands as “the dumbest thing my father has ever said.”

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