by , @Joe_Gerth –

Dan Johnson, the Bullitt County preacher who had photos on his Facebook page depicting President Barack Obama as an ape, defiantly said on Tuesday that he would not follow the wishes of his Republican Party and end his campaign for the state legislature.

Instead, standing outside the Bullitt County Courthouse, Johnson denied that the representations of Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were based in racism and were, in fact, fair comment on the job that Obama has done.

“I have a personal issue with this president,” he said.

Since the photos — one meme called for the banning of all Muslims from the United States, and another said “I (love) being white” — were first reported, the Republican Party of Kentucky has said that Johnson, the “bishop” of Heart of Fire Church, should step down. If he did so, that would essentially mean that Democratic Rep. Linda Belcher would win another term in office.

Tres Watson, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said that Johnson should not be in the Kentucky General Assembly.

But Johnson — who is not the Dan Johnson who sits on the Louisville Metro Council —  said that the state Republican Party hasn’t supported him anyway and that nothing has really changed.

“The state Republican Party wasn’t supporting me to start with, so I really didn’t lose anything,” Johnson said at the press conference he called to attack Belcher. “But the people of Bullitt County are. … I’m looking forward to finishing out this campaign and winning this campaign.”

Johnson has removed controversial photos from his Facebook page but said that doing so was not an admission that he erred in posting them. He then changed the subject, saying that he thought a lot of politicians have “made a monkey” out of the people of Kentucky.

And he said no one should be offended by the posts.

“First off, there was nothing there to be racially offensive,” Johnson said, saying that similar characterizations had been used in newspapers to mock presidents as far back as Abraham Lincoln.

Images portraying black people as monkeys have been around for more than a century.

According to the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., its collection has examples “of the long and insulting history of simian representation of Africans and African Americans. There are postcards that show African Americans as almost indistinguishable from monkeys and apes. There are prints that show Blacks and monkeys romantically involved.”

In 1983, sportscaster Howard Cosell resigned from Monday Night Football after he was roundly criticized for calling Alvin Garrett, a wide receiver for the Washington Redskins, a “little monkey.”

But Johnson was steadfast in his argument that depicting a black person as a monkey is not racist.

“It’s not racist and you can’t make it that way,” he said. “Not with me.”

In the press conference, he also called banning all Muslims from entering the United States, before stepping back and acknowledging that there are peaceful Muslims in the country.

Citing a 1952 immigration law that prohibited people who want to overthrow the U.S. government from entering the country, Johnson said those who practice Islam should be kept out.

“As long as the law says they should be banned, they should be banned,” Johnson said. “The law is against any religion that is trying to take over this country and their religion is of one that says they are to take over and put (Sharia) Law, or put Islam in charge.”

Then-President Harry Truman vetoed the law but it was overridden. The law has never been used to ban a religion from entering.

Johnson said the controversy over his Facebook posts has brought about a wide range of support for his candidacy and said that he’s had black ministers and legislators voice support for him, although he wouldn’t name any of them when pressed by the CJ.

And Johnson said that his pitch to black and Muslim voters would be simple. “I would be their very best representative for the state of Kentucky.”

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702 or [email protected]