Conservatives were quick Thursday to call top Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein a “hypocrite” for profiting off gun violence after he revealed he wants to film a movie that makes the National Rifle Association “wish they weren’t alive.”
Weinstein told radio host Howard Stern on Wednesday that he isn’t a gun owner and considers the NRA a “disaster area.”
“I’m gonna actually make a movie — I shouldn’t say this but I’ll tell it to you Howard — I’m gonna make a movie with Meryl Streep and we’re gonna take this issue head on,” he said. “They’re gonna wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.”
Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren opened a segment of her program discussing Weinstein’s “hypocrisy” with a montage of characters firing off rounds in some of the producer’s films.
A few of those titles: “Django Unchained,” “Gangs of New York,” the “Kill Bill” franchise and “Pulp Fiction.”
Tea Party star Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Van Susteren that a preachy “left-wing propaganda film” like Weinstein’s NRA takedown wouldn’t sell any tickets to begin with. He then criticized the producer for suggesting Americans don’t need guns for protection.
“The hypocrisy of a rich Hollywood producer that lives in a fancy neighborhood with all sorts of police protection, and he says he does’t own a gun — but I bet there’s good odds he has armed security around him,” he added.
The hosts of “The Five” also drew attention to clips displaying the prevalence of gun violence in Weinstein’s films. Dana Perino compared the producer to “a pimp who thinks he’s helping women in the workforce” and suggested he could better address gun violence through a film about teacher’s unions opposing school choice (profitability be damned), while Greg Gutfield joked the last time Weinstein found himself in actual danger he was “choking on a veal chop.”
In contrast to the cable hosts’ long-winded accusations of hypocrisy, the Washington Examiner’s Charlie Spiering got straight to his point in a column: “the multi-millionaire Democratic donor has profited heavily from movies featuring guns and violence,” he wrote, letting gifs of Weinstein’s biggest violent films speak for themselves.
Watch Van Susteren’s segment with Cruz below, courtesy of Fox News:
