Will & Grace star Debra Messing fired a sweeping attack on the President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday, claiming its members are “all going to hell.” Messing missive was prompted by a hyperbolic NBC News report about a proposed change to federal hunting regulations in Alaska.
In response to the proposed National Park Service rule changes, NBC suggested hunters will now be luring bears with ” bacon and doughnuts,” “using spotlights to shoot mother black bears and cubs hibernating in their dens,” and chasing down Caribou in “motor boats.”
NBC quotes several organizations like the Humane Society of the United States expressing their outrage but fails to note these organizations oppose the legality of virtually all hunting in the United States.
Messing, a Hillary Clinton campaign supporter, was apparently so affected by the report she felt it was evidence that Trump administration officials were fated for eternal damnation, listing a litany of her political priorities she felt more important than “killing sleeping bear cubs:”
“This is so DISGUSTING. THIS is where you are putting your time and energy???” Messing asked. “Killing sleeping bear cubs? What about health care? Gun violence Ag POC by cops? Women’s rights? KEEPING OUR ELECTIONS SAFE? Good G/d you are all going to hell.”
Indeed, the proposed change in regulations would simply par back rules put in place — against the will of Alaska’s own regulators — during the Obama administration in order to ensure the same rules apply for Alaskan hunters on state and federal lands. Some 60 percent of land in Alaska is owned by the federal government.
“The purpose of this proposed rule is to align sport hunting regulations in national preserves in Alaska with State of Alaska regulations and to enhance consistency with harvest regulations on surrounding non-federal lands and waters,” National Park Service officials explained in a statement. “The proposed rule would apply the State of Alaska’s hunting regulations to national preserve lands, with limited exceptions.”
The regulations in question affect the use of bait, hunting under artificial light, the use of dogs and boats in hunts, and the killing bear cubs who, without their mother, stand little chance of avoiding a slow death on their own, practices which Alaska rules allow in certain exceptional circumstances. The Obama era regulations mention “bacon and donuts” as examples of bait used for brown bears, although Alaska’s rules make no mention of these and prohibit the use of, for example, pet food. None of the proposed changes affect the number of animals that are permitted to be taken a year in Alaska, where the control of predator populations is a serious public safety concern and hunting is both a popular pastime and a utilitarian necessity.
Long-active in left-wing politics, the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump has led Messing to frequent bouts of outrage. Back in March 2016, when fellow leftist celeb Susan Sarandon suggested she might not vote for Hillary Clinton if her preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders, lost the Democratic nomination, Messing went on a three-day Twitter rant condemning Sarandon. Since Trump took office, Messing has resorted to using her social media to post “solidarity selfies, signal approval of her son refusing to stand for the national anthem, and now, judge administration officials as worthy of hellfire over a proposed change to bear hunting regulations.