Huge: Tom Arnold Flips Out, Threatens Trump's Life, According to Witnesses
The actor Tom Arnold’s ongoing Trump-induced breakdown can only be described as the best damn dumpster fire, period.
In retrospect, he probably should have just settled for being best remembered as Roseanne’s former husband and/or “True Lies,” but nope. He decided he was going to try to take down President Donald Trump with his very own TV show even though he’s a national joke. In other words, he’s Michael Avenatti with a several more strands of hair and several fewer degrees.
This sort of thing is all fun and games, for the most part, until things get threatening. That’s certainly where things are trending for Arnold, who got into some sort of scuffle with MGM Television Chairman Mark Burnett at a pre-Emmy party last month.
Arnold has claimed that Burnett, the creator and producer of “The Apprentice,” is in possession of tapes from that show that include compromising outtakes of Trump.
There’s not any evidence for this, mind you, but if the Kavanaugh hearings have taught me anything, it’s that evidence isn’t required to make accusations anymore, at least when those accusations might reflect poorly on a Republican.
Going violent on Burnett is one thing; the showbiz executive doesn’t have Secret Service protection, after all.
Arnold should probably be a bit more careful going after Donald Trump, the erstwhile star of Burnett’s creation, given the office Trump now enjoys.
Let me give a bit of backstory here. Last week, Trump controversially defended Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte, who managed to win a special election in 2017 even after he body-slammed a reporter for the U.K. Guardian.
“Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of — he’s my guy,” Trump told an audience in Montana, according to CNBC.
Whether you agree with this jape or not is somewhat immaterial to what happened next since, in addition to drawing rebukes out of the press, Trump’s remark also drew the worst out of his opponents. Again:
I say put up or shut up @realDonaldTrump Me vs You. For America. First body slam wins. Any Rally. Any Time. Between now & the midterms. #FridayFeeling https://t.co/ITthF7dFWc
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) October 19, 2018
“I say put up or shut up,” Arnold tweeted.
“Me vs You. For America. First body slam wins. Any Rally. Any Time. Between now & the midterms.”
I’m sure at least one person reading this doesn’t see the difference between the two statements, so let me clear it up.
In Trump’s case, this was clearly a joke about an incident for which Gianforte has apologized profusely.
If you don’t think it’s something to make light over, at least it’s not an act of direct physical intimidation.
As for Arnold’s tweet, well, not so much.
More perturbing, however, was what he said in response to someone who invoked the name of one Kathy Griffin:
Next time Kathy won’t be holding his fake head!
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) October 20, 2018
“Next time Kathy won’t be holding his fake head!” Arnold tweeted.
This caused some who witnessed the exchanged on Twitter to think he was threatening the life of President Trump — and rightly so, given that expressing your support for the beheading of the president usually doesn’t elicit laughter from the Secret Service.
Hey @TomArnold, it’s a Federal crime to threaten POTUS @realDonaldTrump
You asked him to fight you, and responded with “next time Kathy Griffin won’t be holding his fake head”, which suggested you would kill him in your proposed fight @SecretService pic.twitter.com/Mn3A9iOSRG
— Gabe Hoffman (@GabeHoff) October 21, 2018
@SecretService ???? Please investigate this threat on @POTUS
— Rodney Howard-Browne (@rhowardbrowne) October 21, 2018
Um, @jack? 🤔🙄
— tekton (@tektonasd) October 21, 2018
Yes, while @jack — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey — was indeed made aware of this, it’s still up there. Meanwhile, James Woods got suspended for how long over a silly meme? I leave that out there for summary judgment.
While we’re exercising summary judgment, let’s talk about the fact that we had a national conversation about Kanye West’s sanity while Tom Arnold seems to skate by with absolute silence. Maybe it’s just the fact that we all thought he was certifiable already, but it’s still not the best look.
Then again, this is Tom Arnold. It’s never the best look.
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