The U.S. Secret Service has launched a formal inquiry after legendary Broadway star Carole Cook joked about President Donald Trump being assassinated over the weekend, according to a new report.
Upon leaving West Hollywood steakhouse Craig’s Sunday evening, TMZ caught up with Carole Cook and her husband Tom Troupe, and asked what she thought about Frozen the Broadway Musical actor Timothy Hughes stealing a ‘Trump 2020’ flag from an audience member the previous week.
“I didn’t see that,” Cook told the cameraman. Asked if a Broadway musical was the proper venue to wave a pro-Trump flag, Carole Cook replied, “My answer to that is, where’s John Wilkes Booth when you need him?”
“Now you’re going to ask me who the hell John Wilkes Booth is,” the Broadway actress added. “He killed presidents,” Troupe said of President Abraham Lincoln’s killer.
The controversial remark reportedly sparked concerns among Secret Service agents, who would like to interview Cook as a precautionary measure.
“Our sources say the Secret Service saw our post and are concerned enough that they want a chit chat with the 94-year-old actress. They were quick to add it’s not an official investigation — just due diligence. If the interview unearths anything ominous, only then would it become an official investigation,” TMZ says.
Last Wednesday, Hughes snatched a pro-Trump flag from an audience member while the Frozen cast took a bow during the encore. Infuriated by the display, Hughes, who plays Pabbie the elderly troll, grabbed the flag and tossed it behind the stage.
In a defiant Instagram post, the actor refused to apologize for snatching the ‘Trump-2020’ flag. “What does it say about our country and politics when a man at the show tonight felt the need to protest Disney’s Frozen on Broadway with a pro Trump flag?? How frightening is it that our show’s messages of love, acceptance, and diversity have become the opposition to supporting Trump?” Hughes wrote. “The curtain call is a thank you between actors and audience, a final connection to end a shared experience. I will not apologize for how I responded to the disrespectful man trying to interrupt this moment with a pathetic political platform. Not at our show! Not in front of my beautiful, diverse, talented cast at @frozenbroadway.”