Baldwin calls Trump criticism following 'Rust' shooting 'surreal'
by Judy Kurtz - 12/02/21 9:32 PM ET
Alec Baldwin is responding for the first time to former President Trump's criticism of him in the wake of the fatal shooting on the set of the actor's movie, "Rust," calling the attacks "surreal."
"Just when you think that things can't get more surreal, here's the former president of the United States making a comment on this tragic situation," Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos in a Thursday ABC News special.
Responding to a question from Stephanopoulos about whether he's become a target because of his political views, Baldwin — who is one of Hollywood's most outspoken critics of the 45th president and lampooned him while playing the then-commander in chief regularly on "Saturday Night Live" — said, "I don't think that anybody has said anything about and has used this as an opportunity other than people you would fully expect to have done that."
"He said, 'He killed her deliberately,'" the 63-year-old performer said of Trump's statements on the special, "Alec Baldwin: Unscripted."
Authorities say cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded when Baldwin fired a gun holding a "suspected live round" while the Academy Award winner was working on a scene for the Western film in October.
In an interview last month, Trump suggested, without evidence, that the shooting of Hutchins could have been intentional.
Slamming Baldwin as a "cuckoo-bird" and a "nutjob," Trump said, "And usually, when there's somebody like that, you know, in my opinion, he had something to do with it."
Following Hutchins's death, the former president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., made headlines when he sold T-shirts on his website that mocked the shooting. The $28 shirts featured the message: "Guns don't kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people."
Tags Alec Baldwin Donald Trump George Stephanopoulos Rust film Rust shooting
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