John Schneider, who starred in the "Dukes of Hazzard" television series, released a video this week criticizing "Rust" producer and star Alec Baldwin over the recent interview he gave saying he did not pull the trigger of the gun involved in the fatal shooting.
Baldwin told ABC’s "Good Morning America" host George Stephanopoulos in his first interview since the incident that during a rehearsal, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins "was standing next to the camera, looking at a monitor … guiding me for how to hold the gun for this angle."
He said, "I pulled the hammer as far back as I could without cocking the gun. I let go of the hammer and bang, the gun goes off."
Baldwin added, "I was told I was handed an empty gun. She goes down, I thought to myself, did she faint? The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me until 45 minutes or an hour later."
Schneider said in a video titled, "Seriously Alec?" that the interview was "all designed to make us feel sorry for Alec Baldwin," and dismissed his emotional responses during the interview, asking if viewers are supposed to "believe that a gun went off by itself?"
He went on to say that "Guns do not go off by themselves. Let us not forget this was a single-action — it was not a Colt, it was a replica … a single-action weapon needs to be cocked and fired. So what kind of idiots do you take us for?
"There is just no world in which guns go off by themselves … Hutchins is still deceased. And their family is not getting an apology, they're not getting any — in my opinion — they're not getting any justice, they're not getting any answers."
An attorney for the assistant director who handed Baldwin the prop gun that went off told ABC News that her client has always said that the actor never pulled the trigger on the weapon.
Lisa Torraco, who represents assistant director David Halls, said, "He told me since day one he thought it was a misfire. Until Alec said that, it was just really hard to believe, but Dave has told me since the very first day I met him, that Alec did not pull that trigger."
Schneider also said in his video that Stephanopoulos is "the poster boy for leftist propaganda," adding, "why in the world anyone would look at an interview with George as being anything enlightening or having a modicum of truth, I don't know. But that's just me."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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