A Sabattus town official is under federal investigation and facing fierce criticism after he posted a message on Facebook calling for President to be shot and referring to him with a racial slur.

David Marsters, 68, who is running for selectman [ed: A New England term for town councillor], says he told Secret Service agents who questioned him Tuesday that he was not threatening the president when he posted the message at 8:17 p.m. Friday. It appeared above a picture of Obama and a link to a story about how some Republican lawmakers think the president deserves to be impeached.

The message said, "Shoot the ..." and included a racial slur.

"I think it's a lot of hogwash," Marsters said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I did not threaten the president. ... I might have used the wrong words. ... I didn't say I was going to do it."

He said his post was taken out of context.

"What I really meant to say is, 'When are we going to get rid of this (expletive),'" he said. "I should have said, 'I hope the bastard dies.'"

The Bangor Daily News goes futher into his list of grievances:

“I’m pissed off at the system, OK,” he said in an interview at his house Tuesday night. “We’re about to lose our benefits because of this ass****.”

Marsters said his wife, Mary, had been in and out of the hospital recently and if they lose spousal benefits, something he fears Obama will suspend, his wife will die.

He said in retrospect that he should have chosen his words more carefully, adding, “I’m a forward man. I say what I mean.”

He said his comments would have been no different had the president been Mitt Romney. “I would say, ‘Shoot the n*****, because white people are n******, too.” He said where he comes from (Massachusetts) black people call white people by the same slur.

“I fought 30 years for this f*****’ country,” he said “I’m not gonna let him take it away!”

Marsters commented on Facebook that “(Obama) is not a legal president.” Marsters was adamant that Obama’s birth certificate was a fraud.

“They’ve shown us how it’s done,” he said. “It’s all done in layers on computers. How come nobody from his school’s come forward to say, ‘Oh, I know him.’ How come people from his family never say, ‘I know him. I went to his wedding; I was his best man?”

Nobody’s saying, ‘I’m a friend of his.’”

Marsters believes Obama was placed in power by people Marsters wouldn’t name.

“I apologize for what I said; that’s all I can say,” Marsters said. “I did it out of frustration against the man.”