Alec Baldwin received a rare defense from Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade and others after he was confronted in a coffee shop by a person heckling him over the infamous Rust shooting and demanding the actor declare, “free Palestine.”
Video surfaced this week of Baldwin inside the Maman coffee shop in New York where the actor can be seen on the phone. The agitator, identified on X as “Crackhead Barney & Friends,” first asked why Baldwin “killed that lady,” referring to late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hutchins was killed in October 2021 on the set of Rust in New Mexico after a live round was put into a gun being used for a scene. The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was sentenced to 18 months this year for involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin, a producer on the movie and the actor in the scene in question, pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and is awaiting trial in July, though there is a motion to dismiss from his legal team.
In the video of Baldwin at the coffee shop, the agitator holding the phone said she would leave the actor alone if said “free Palestine just one time” amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Baldwin ended up holding the door open to allow the woman to leave as he told an employee he was being harassed. The woman continue demanding he say, “free Palestine,” and Baldwin eventually smacks the phone, ending the video.
“I do not blame him at all,” Kilmeade said Tuesday on Fox & Friends after watching the video.
Ainsley Earhardt added she felt “sorry” for Baldwin and argued the footage showed he was “trying to remain calm” as he was being screamed at.
“I know he has a temper, but anybody would react like this,” Kilmeade said. “This is something we have to deal with. I had a similar situation happen. You say to yourself, do I want to make this a bigger situation or do I want to just walk away? And he’s trying to walk away and tell her to come out.”
Kilmeade also made it clear on X that he fully backs Baldwin’s actions.
“[Alec] is right here!! These people are insane!” he wrote.
Baldwin is a vocal critic of Fox News and he’s faced plenty of criticism on the network over his political activism, controversies, and parodying of Trump on Saturday Night Live. Those SNL skits included Fox & Friends and portrayals of Kilmeade plenty of times.
Fox’s Kilmeade and others did defend the actor in December too over another tense exchange with a pro-Palestinian protester in New York City.
“Uhh, Alec? We’re in your corner on this one,” Kilmeade said at the time.
Watch above via Fox News.
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