It speaks volumes about the kind of people Sean Hannity pals around with. UPDATED
John Schneider is an actor, probably best known for his role as Bo Duke on the 80s TV comedy, The Dukes of Hazzard. Last week, as Karoli Kuns reported at Crooks and Liars (where I am a contributor), he replied to a tweet by President Joe Biden about the many threats Donald Trump poses to our country, including our democracy.
Schneider responded with this:
"Mr President," he wrote, "I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung. Your son too." Note to Schneider: the proper use of the word is "hanged". But I digress.
"Your response is?" he continued, signing the tweet "Sincerely, John Schneider.”
Schneider deleted the tweet but that did not stop the Secret Service from looking into the matter, Deadline noted. And how did Schneider respond? Not with an apology but by playing the victim, claiming he merely stated a “position, which I am entitled to have” and that there was “no threat implied or otherwise.”
I’ll bet if someone tweeted that he and his son should be publicly hanged for treason, he’d see it quite differently.
In any event, this is the guy that Sean Hannity (“domestic bliss” partner of Super Duper Christian Ainsley Earhardt) partnered up with to produce a movie. It’s called “Jingle Smells.” Hannity described it as “a fun, family movie” that is also “heartwarming” and “has an anti-woke message.”
Nothing says fun, funny, family and heartwarming to a Super Duper Christian’s “domestic bliss” partner like a guy who has no problem calling for a president to be hung!
But I digress.
IMDB describes the plot as, “War vet Nick Gutman is forced to take a job with his dad's quirky garbage men buddies. When tasked to destroy canceled toys before Christmas - Nick takes on the secret identity ‘Jingle Smells’ and becomes a Robin Hood of the Holidays.” It got an IMDB rating of 3.5 out of 10 stars. The name alone feels - well, stinky.
Hannity, the executive producer who also plays himself in the movie, played a clip that I found decidedly unfunny. Your mileage may vary.
It's worth pointing out that Hannity’s pre-recorded interview with Schneider was aired well before he took to Twitter with his murderous daydreams.
Nevertheless, it’s obvious Schneider is not shy with his thoughts and opinions.
Hannity gushed, “You're amazing in the movie. I've always known you're amazing. It was great -- great to have the opportunity to be on this project with you.”
Even there, Schneider began whining:
SCHNEIDER: I would say one of the first groups to be cancelled by cancel culture, you know, the Dukes of Hazzard because of the rebel flag. You know, I am - I have been an action figure that has been cancelled. So, I love doing this movie.
I've written before that Hannity has long been a champion for white guys in racial hot water. He told Schneider, “It's interesting your background, your experience, what you bring to the film and there's a hero in this film, and I love that part of it, and the fact that it connects to real life cancel culture makes me even more happy.” What are the chances Schneider isn’t a racist, too? Slim to none in my book.
Hannity said the movie can be found on Rumble. He did not mention that Rumble is an “Extreme, right-wing video-sharing and web services company,” as Media Matters describes it. “The platform is rife with QAnon content and other dangerous conspiracy theories, harmful medical misinformation, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ hate speech, and white nationalist and antisemitic rhetoric.”
Hannity closed the interview by saying, “Merry Christmas, God bless you, my friend.”
You can watch it below, from the December 15, 2023 Hannity.
(H/T Joe W.)
12/26/27 - I am going to take a few days off to be with my family. I plan to return Friday, 12/29. I will remove this update at that time. See ya then!
LeVar Burton is absolutely right.
As for this movie, the name is just a big turnoff.
You’d think that “regular” Fox TV would be happy to air Right Wing comedy or whatever they produce. The fact that it’s not there shows that the Murdochs know it’s not appealing to the masses.
John Schneider formerly had a strong career in Hollywood, regardless of his politics. Dukes of Hazzard was obviously the biggest role, and one where he and co-lead Tom Wopat actually strong-armed Warner Bros by refusing to film the 5th season, which led to the infamous episodes with Coy and Vance Duke. Following that, Schneider regularly worked on many other series as a lead and series regular, including Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, where he replaced the male lead for much of their final season. And he’s been on a laundry list of other shows. I worked with him in 1998 on JAG and found him at that time to be a professional and polite man. But a lot can change over time, as noted. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that, like many Right Wingers, he was emboldened to come out with offensive statements he never would have made in years past.
The issue with the Dukes of Hazzard car isn’t that the Confederate flag is a “rebel flag”, and Schneider knows that. It’s that it celebrates the subjugation of people based on their ethnicity, and it’s frankly shocking that it took this long for mainstream culture to clue into it. The notion that the show was “cancelled” is a bit much – the issue was that the central image of the car in the show features a racist flag. And even in spite of that, the series was made available repeatedly on DVD and worldwide and the creatives on the show became millionaires many times over. Considering that the show was really launched as a TV-safe version of “Smokey and the Bandit”, one would think that Schneider would be happy with the outcome for himself.
I’ll note that what we’re dealing with is not “cancel culture” but rather what LeVar Burton has correctly termed “consequences culture”. It’s not that Angry Right Wingers are told they have no right to say vicious, bigoted things. It’s that they have to accept the consequences for expressing offensive comments to people who might not wish to be verbally attacked. If people don’t want to be called out for making vicious, bigoted statements, they could simply refrain from making vicious, bigoted statements.
As for the new direct-to-video piece, it’s telling that it was produced by Hannity and Jay Sekulow’s son. It seems to be part of a new movement by Angry Right Wingers to make “their” own separate content, with a particular emphasis on how incensed they are at the rest of us each time. None of these movies has been particularly successful, although the Qanon child trafficking movie did okay before the truth came out about the story behind the film.
