The U.S. Secret Service is investigating actor John Schneider’s post he made on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
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Actor John Schneider called for the executions of Joe Biden and the president’s son Hunter in a now-deleted social media post that drew ridicule and questions about whether he should be criminally charged.
This happened on Wednesday, hours after the “Dukes of Hazzard” star appeared on the Fox singing competition show “The Masked Singer.”
Schneider, perhaps best known for his role as Bo Duke on the TV series Dukes of Hazzard as well as his recent runner-up finish on The Masked Singer, fired off the post on X at 2 am local time on Thursday.
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“Mr President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung,” Schneider wrote to Biden. “Your son too. Your response is..? Sincerely, John Schneider.”
In a statement provided to Entertainment Weekly by a representative Thursday, Schneider said, “Seriously, folks? This is my final comment on this. I neither said nor implied any such thing. Despite headlines claiming otherwise, in my post, I absolutely did not call for an act of violence or threaten a U.S. president as many other celebrities have done in the past. I suggest you re-read my actual post and pay attention to the words before believing this nonsense.”
He added, “It’s my position, which I am entitled to have, that some of our nations leaders in Washington have lost their way, and corruption runs rampant, both on our nation’s borders and abroad. Transparency and accountability must happen in order for our constitutional republic to survive. There is no threat implied or otherwise in that statement.”
Fox canceled Schneider’s media appearances following Wednesday’s post.
The Department of Homeland Security, which the White House and Secret Service fall under, did tell Deadline they are aware of the comments but will not speak publicly about it.
“The Secret Service is aware of the comments made by Mr. Schneider, and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence,” a Secret Service spokesperson said. “We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees.”
Threatening the president is a federal felony and consists of “knowingly and willfully mailing or otherwise making any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict great bodily harm upon the president of the United States.”
A credible threat against the president can result in up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per Deadline.
Sources confirmed to Deadline that the investigation is in the “preliminary stage.”
