Papa John’s Founder Implores He’s Not Racist, Claims It Was The Aim To ‘Get Rid of This N-Word in My Vocabulary’

While it’s been more than 3 years since Papa John’s founder John Schnatter has not been at the helm of the company, it hasn’t really stopped him from attracting controversies.

On an interview with the cable news channel named One America News, which describes itself as the far-right “great supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump, Schnatter denied any allegations which suggested that he is racist.

The very reason Schnatter was outed as the CEO of Papa John’s was because of his comments about the NFL national anthem protests, following which he was recorded dropping the n-word while a conference call took place on “internal sensitivity training.”

Schnatter has made the serious claim that it was a conspiracy against him to get him fired from the company. In an attempt to take over the company, he implied, he was painted as a racist.

They know he’s not a racist. I used to just lay in bed and go, ‘How did they do this?’ And we’ve had three goals for the last twenty months; Get rid of this n-word in my vocabulary and dictionary, and everything else because it’s just not true. Figure out how they did this and get on with my life.

The interviews comes directly a week after the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky unsealed a complaint filed by John Schnatter which said that an ad-firm was bankrolled on the company’s dime which “conspired to directly and willfully harm their image and brand.” In a statement, Schnatter said:

The chilling details from this taped conversation make clear the intent of Laundry Service to destroy my reputation, as well as the Papa John’s brand, harming our employees and franchisees in the process. It’s time for Laundry Service to be held accountable, and for Papa John’s to correct the record and apologize to me for validating the media frenzy that led to my forced departure as the company Chairman.

While it is not known whether Schnatter is telling the truth, the court’s decision to unseal the complaint perhaps favors his side of the story more than the other.