Celebrity Democrat Alec Baldwin likened former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney to imprisoned Putin foe Alex Navalny.
During an episode of ousted CNN host Chris Cuomo’s rebound podcast on Tuesday, “The Departed” actor said that that Cheney, who was defeated by Trump endorsed GOP competitor Harriet Hageman, was the politician most similar to Alex Navalny, Putin’s top critic.
“Who’s the Navalny? Where’s the man or woman that’s willing to self-immolate over principle? You’re willing to end your career over principle,” Baldwin wondered. “And we do have one today. We do have one, who is the Navalny of our current political culture, and that’s Liz Cheney.”
Baldwin, who recurrently impersonated Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” stated that he was “very, very, very heartened” to see Cheney “do the right thing,” when she voted to impeach Trump and helmed the House Jan. 6 Committee.
“I mean, even though her politics heretofore was not my cup of tea, and her father was somebody who was like a villain to me on a movie poster,” he continued. “Liz Cheney, to me, is someone who I would certainly consider a great candidate for some political appointment.”
Baldwin made his point a second time on Tuesday, when he released an Instagram video he posted hours before the Wyoming election results were made official.
“I’m very proud of Liz Cheney today, because of the circumstances under which she is likely to lose the primary in Wyoming for her congressional seat. This thought on my part was prompted by the movie Navalny,” he started.
The documentary follows Russia’s “Anti-Corruption Foundation” founder, his attempted poisoning, and jailing on trumped up fraud charges under Putin’s rule. Baldwin praised Navalny for going home to Russia knowing that he would be imprisoned upon his return.
“But in his mind, he did what he had to do. Liz Cheney did what she had to do,” the “Glengarry Glen Ross” star said. “She knew that morally she had to risk it all—she had to risk it all in terms of her political career as a Republican to tell the truth about Trump and January 6th and so forth.”
“And if that meant falling on her sword politically, at least as far as elected politics in Wyoming is concerned, then she would do that—and she did,” Baldwin concluded.
Baldwin is facing his own legal troubles after a new FBI report concluded that he did pull the trigger on the gun that took the life of cinematographer Halayna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of their ill-fated film, “Rust.”
Baldwin has vehemently stated that he would “never” point a gun at someone and pull the trigger, but the FBI’s forensic report determined that the single action .45 Colt caliber F.lli Pietta revolver he had been holding would only be able to fire if the trigger was pulled.
In an interview with ABC News in December 2021, Baldwin said that a crew member told him the gun was “cold,” before he rehearsed the deadly scene with Hutchins.
“I’m not shooting to camera lens. I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which turned out to be below her armpit,” he recalled. “But we kept doing this…. I start to cock the gun. She said, just ‘cheat it down, could you see that, could you see that.’ I let go of the hammer of the gun, the gun goes off.”
“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never,” Baldwin remarked. “Someone is responsible for what happened, but I know it isn’t me.”
Ballistics experiments FBI forensic teams ran on the same model of revolver concluded that the gun “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger,” whether cocked a quarter of the way, halfway, or completely.
The New Mexico District Attorney’s office will determine if criminal charges will be brought against Baldwin, or any other members of the “Rust” production crew, after the FBI’s report is reviewed by investigators.