Alec Baldwin Shooting Takes a Nasty Political Turn

As the investigation continues into the fatal shooting involving Alec Baldwin on a movie set, it won't be too surprising to learn that politics is becoming front and center. As Jack Coyle writes at the AP, some of Baldwin's many critics on the right are going after the celeb whose Donald Trump impersonation was a mainstay on Saturday Night Live in recent years. Coverage:

• Trump Jr.: The most prominent Baldwin critic in all this might be Donald Trump Jr., who is selling $28 T-shirts on his website with the slogan, "Guns don’t kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people,” reports the Daily Beast. He's also sharing photos with captions such as, "Let's all watch Alec Baldwin blame the gun," per the Hill.
• Trump Jr., II: Trump Jr. is taking no shortage of criticism about this—the New York Daily News dubbed him "Spawn of Hatin'"on its cover—but he doubled down on social media: "Screw all the sanctimony I’m seeing out there. If the shoe was on the other foot Alex Baldwin would literally be the first person p----ing on everybody’s grave trying to make a point. F--- him!”

• Others: GOP Senate candidate JD Vance wrote that Twitter should let former President Trump back on the platform so he could go after Baldwin. Conservative pundit Candace Owens called the fatal shooting "poetic justice" for Baldwin in a since-deleted tweet, reports E! Online. That prompted Baldwin's daughter, Ireland, to call Owens "the most disgusting, hateful, cancerous human being I've ever come across."
• Boebert: GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado mocked Baldwin by recalling that he once promised to make T-shirts reading, "My hands are up. Please don't shoot me!" in support of Black Lives Matter. Boebert wrote, "Alec Baldwin, are these still available? Asking for a movie producer.” Like Trump Jr., Boebert dismissed the resulting criticism. “You crazy Blue Checks want to take away our right to defend ourselves with a firearm, and know NOTHING about basic gun safety!” Boebert wrote. “If this was a conservative celebrity you’d be calling for his head.”
• Other side: On the View, co-host Sunny Hostin went after those criticizing Baldwin, accusing them trying to exploit tragedy for political points. “You know, a woman died here," she said of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, per Yahoo Entertainment. "A woman who was a mother, a wife, someone who was, they say, just wonderful at her craft. ... When you have people like that coming out, trying to, I don’t know, take some sort of opportunity and a shot at Alec Baldwin—I thought that that was pretty disgusting and despicable.”

(More Alec Baldwin stories.)