New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Peter Fonda apologizes for ‘vulgar’ Barron Trump tweet
NEW YORK — Peter Fonda apologized Wednesday for a late-night Twitter rant in which he suggested 12-year-old Barron Trump should be ripped from “his mother’s arms and put in a cage with pedophiles.”
Fonda also sent tweets calling for the sexual assault of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen and the removal of White
House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders’ children. Those tweets also featured misogynistic vulgarities.
The all-capitals tweet in
the wee hours went on to call President Donald Trump an expletive. The actor later deleted the tweet and drew sharp rebukes from first lady Melania Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
The actor, sister of Jane Fonda and son of Henry Fonda, said in a statement hours later that he was upset over children separated from families on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I tweeted something highly inappropriate and vulgar about the president and his family in response to the devastating images I was seeing on television,” Fonda said in the statement, released by both his manager and his publicist. “Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated from their families at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it and sincerely apologize to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused.”
In another tweet, the actor suggested people opposed to the border policy should track down the addresses of federal agents and “surround their homes in protest,” adding: “We should find out what
schools their children go to and surround the schools in protest.”
Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s spokeswoman, said via email regarding the Barron tweet: “The tweet is sick and irresponsible.” She said the U.S. Secret Service was notified. The agency did not immediately return an email seeking any possible response.
Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, did some tweeting of his own, addressing Fonda: “You’re clearly a sick individual” who behaved “like a bully and a coward.”