While several conservatives and Republicans in Hollywood are keeping quiet about their support for Donald Trump — especially in the wake of the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the media’s assertion that the president did not condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacists fast enough — actor Scott Baio insists that “conservatives in Hollywood have had it.”
“I don’t give a sh*t about Hollywood liberals,” Baio told The Hollywood Reporter, which contacted several members of the secretive group of Hollywood conservatives called Friends of Abe.
Baio said liberals in Hollywood will hate President Trump “no matter what.”
“If he cured cancer, they’d be on him for putting oncologists out of business,” said the 55-year-old actor, who endorsed Trump last March and delivered a fiery primetime speech in July at the Republican National Convention.
Baio said other Trump backers in the entertainment world are fired up after watching what he calls the endless stream of anti-Trump “propaganda” coming from late-night hosts, celebrities, and the establishment media.
“All this does is help Trump because people have had it. Conservatives in Hollywood have had it,” the Happy Days actor said. “We know who Trump is, and we don’t believe the propaganda, and I don’t think most of the country does, either. The media is almost irrelevant. It’s predictable and boring. I want the man to get his agenda through, and everything else is a sideshow.”
Scores of celebrities blamed Trump for the violence that broke out in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month during a “Unite the Right” white nationalist protest. In an initial press conference, President Trump said “We condem in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred” – “from all sides,” referring to the violent Antifa protesters. A few days later, Trump defended his initial comments, which were slammed by media members as being insufficient in their denunciation of white supremacy and extremism.
“There was no way of making a correct statement that early,” the president said. “Unlike you and unlike the media, before I make a statement, I like to know the facts.”
Trump also condemned the neo-Nazis and white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville. “I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups,” Trump said, before calling the man who rammed a car into counter-protesters and killed a woman a “disgrace” to his country and family, and a “murderer.”
Earlier this week, actor James Woods tweeted that his fellow conservatives in Hollywood were “terrified” of losing work and not being able to provide for their families if they were to express their political beliefs.
But Baio apparently isn’t terrified.
“I don’t give a sh*t if I ever work again,” Baio told the Hollywood Reporter. “My country comes first. I guess I’m just an old, angry, successful white guy who stole everything he has from someone else.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson