ABC’s “The View” co-host Joy Behar claimed that liberal actor Alec Baldwin will be charged with involuntary manslaughter because he “is a target for Republicans.”
“Rust” star Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter each for the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Assistant director David Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun, pleaded guilty “for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.”
Halls won’t get jail time, instead be required to be on six months of a probationary period, and his deal included a suspended sentence.
During Friday’s episode of the morning talk show, the panelists engaged in a lengthy discussion about Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and special prosecutor Andrea Reeb’s Thursday announcement about the impending charges.
“Also, you know, the DA who is indicting him, or whatever the legal term is right now, she’s a big Republican,” Behar remarked.
“I’m only saying this because Alec Baldwin is a target for Republicans. They can’t stand him. I’m not saying anything more than that.”
Behar amended her statement after a commercial break to clarify that Reeb is the conservative she accused of targeting Baldwin.
“It’s the special prosecutor [Andrea Reeb] who’s now the Republican politician in New Mexico, and not the current DA. I get them mixed up sometimes. So, sue me,” she corrected.
Both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed face up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine, but one of the charges could include an optional firearm enhancement, which is comes with a mandatory five-year jail term.
Behar argued that though Baldwin fired the gun, which he has publicly denied, as an actor, it wasn’t his responsibility to check if the weapon was armed.
“As a person who’s been in a couple of movies, all you’re thinking of is your part when you’re an actor,” she commented.
“I was not worried that my brassiere’s gonna fall off me or whatever. Somebody else has to worry about that.”
“You’re interested in your lines and your character and where am I now and where was I two minutes ago,” she continued. “That’s it. So I don’t really understand what this is about.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin “respectfully” disagreed with the charges.
“In the state of New Mexico, involuntary manslaughter means unintentionally killing someone by being negligent. So negligence alone is the standard that you have to meet,” the former Trump administration staffer said.
“Guns are used in movies every day and there are processes and steps taken.”
“There were a bunch of steps of negligence along the way and I do think as the actor who pulled the trigger, he does bear some responsibility,” Griffin continued.
“It’s a tragedy. I don’t relish this in any way but I do think he bears responsibility, the armor does, and the others who were charged in this case.”
Behar bemoaned that the other producers on the film were “off the hook,” and Griffin said said she’s “not sure if they should be.”
“There were four other producers on the show who have not been charged on the movie. Why? That’s one question I have,” she asked.
“He was a producer of story credit, so he had creative involvement, not exactly the job of somebody who would have to check the gun. That’s the job of other people.”
Co-panelist Sara Haines chimed in to note that Gutierrez-Reed was “young” and “maybe a little under-qualified” to be the film’s armorer.
“To be in charge of lethal weapons on a set is a big responsibility, and to know first and foremost regardless of who thought it was cold gun — the actor, the director, the producers on the show — it’s literally your job’s definition to be responsible for these lethal weapons.”
“But it is not the actor’s job. Why is it the actor?” Behar interrupted.
“Wait a minute, so someone hands you, the actor, someone says, ‘Here’s a cold gun, I’m the armorer,’ whatever they do, and you’re supposed to know to check it again? How? What are you supposed to do?”
“It seems like there was a lot of safety recklessness on this set,” Haines agreed.
“There were live rounds co-located with fake ammunition. It looks like they were cost-saving measures and they just were trying to do this low-budget.”
The district attorney, who plans to file charges at the end of the month, said that “Rust” had a “really fast and loose set” that lacked safety standards across the board, but particularly with firearms.
“Live rounds on set – they were mixed in with regular dummy rounds,” Carmack-Altwies explained. “Nobody was checking those, or least they weren’t checking them consistently.”
“And then they somehow got loaded into a gun, handed off to Alec Baldwin; he didn’t check it, he didn’t do any of the things that he was supposed to do to make sure that he was safe or that anyone around him was safe. And then he pointed the gun at Halyna Hutchins and he pulled the trigger.”
She also pointed out that Baldwin wasn’t just a hired actor, but an executive on the film.
“As a producer, he also had a duty to make sure that the set was safe,” she concluded. “And then as an actor that day, he should have checked that gun, checked those projectiles.”
The actor’s attorney said that the DA’s choice to file criminal charges against the actor was a “terrible miscarriage of justice.”
“Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set,” he remarked.
“He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer is also gearing up for the impending legal battle. “Hannah is, and has always been, very emotional and sad about this tragic accident. But she did not commit involuntary manslaughter,” he said.
“These charges are the result of a very flawed investigation, and an inaccurate understanding of the full facts. We intend to bring the full truth to light and believe Hannah will be exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury.”
Meanwhile, “Rust,” which has been on hold since the shooting took the life of Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza in October 2021, will continue.
Souza and Baldwin will return when production resumes at the end of this month, with Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, serving as an executive producer.