Hollywood liberals are up in arms over Tucker Carlson's remarks about a teenage vigilante arrested for murder after he shot at protesters in Wisconsin, asking Fox News to cancel his show and advertisers to yank their support.
But there is a minority in Tinseltown willing to defend Carlson, who asked on his Wednesday show: "Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?"
While some say it's risky business to express a conservative opinion in Hollywood, Nick Searcy, who starred for five years on FX's show, Justified, told Newsweek that "it is hard to believe that leftists in the media and in the Democratic party are trying to cancel Tucker Carlson because he stood up for the concept of self-defense."
"I suppose," he continued, "when we are attacked by rioting Joe Biden voters, we are supposed to let them brain us with skateboards and burn down our businesses."
Among the many calling for Carlson's head is Pod Save America host Jon Favreau, who called the remarks "revolting," which caught the attention of Robert Davi, who played the villain in The Goonies and License to Kill and whose credits include Die Hard, Showgirls and the NBC series, Profiler.
"My message to @jonfavs and the rest of (the) monkeys calling for the crucifixion of @TuckerCarlson — Can you handle the truth!" Davi said in a tweet that also contained a video response to Carlson's enemies.
Another in a long list of celebrity detractors is actor John Cusack, who listed some of the companies that advertise on Carlson's show when tweeting: "We need to boycott cable until they ban Fox News. We can also boycott their sponsors."
At the heart of the complaint about Carlson is the claim he was promoting violence (and racism) when he failed to sufficiently condemn Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting two people and killing one of them. Carlson's defenders, though, note that the gist of his remarks were an indictment of the officials who allow rioting in Kenosha to continue.
"To all the Hollywood celebrities screaming that Tucker Carlson is advocating murder—when someone tries to knock your brains out with a piece of wood or to shoot you with a pistol and you shoot them first, that isn't murder. That is called self-defense," Searcy said.
For the record, Fox News is signaling that it will not be following the celebrities who want to see Carlson fired by planning to air his show tonight, as scheduled, and Carlson is not backing down, either.
"Kenosha devolved into anarchy because authorities abandoned the people," Carlson tweeted after his show aired on Wednesday. "Those in charge, from the governor on down, refused to enforce the law. They've stood back and watched Kenosha burn. Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?"
Singer-actor Pat Boone, meanwhile, is calling on all of Hollywood and the media to withhold judgment until the facts are in.
"At worst, Tucker might have been assuming why a 17-year-old kid brought a high-powered weapon into a volatile situation. At worst, he's trying to ascertain his motivation and his mental state," he told Newsweek. "Of course this isn't a fireable offense. I believe Tucker is balanced and rational, but, look, everybody in Hollywood has said improvident things and has shot from the hip on occasion."
Davi also had much more to say than his mere tweet when contacted by Newsweek, including about Hollywood's treatment of those it disagrees with.
"Hollywood has made numerous movies on the Blacklist, but none of them have told the whole truth of what really happened. Someday that needs to be told—until it is, the left will continue to bamboozle," Davi said.
"What the left is doing today, is they want to silence and attack any who has a pro-American stance—labeling them racists, bigots and extremists," he continued. "All Tucker Carlson said was the truth—a truth they will never admit—so they lie in wait to snipe him, to assassinate him, because he has the courage to face issues head on, not worrying about political correctness."
And late Thursday, Kevin Sorbo, the actor who starred in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, also rose to Carlson's defense in an interview with Newsweek.
"George Orwell said, 'In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' Tucker is very engaged in finding truth, something most journalists would rather ignore," said Sorbo, who starred in and directed the 2017 Christian film, Let There Be Light. "For Tucker to be criticized for making a simple observation is absurd. He is just saying what most common-sense people believe: The left empowers criminals while seeking to disarm their victims. No wonder they want to silence him."
Update (8/27/2020, 7:10 p.m.): This story has been updated with comments from Kevin Sorbo and to correctly identify Jon Favreau.
