Country star John Rich torched Rob Reiner on Twitter after the actor worried about who Elon Musk will “allow” back on Twitter following the approved sale of the company to the billionaire.
The “All In The Family” star first tweeted Monday to his million plus followers his concerns that Musk buying the social media site would mean allowing “a criminal who used this platform to lie and spread disinformation to try to overthrow the US Government,” back on the site. While the star, best known for his part as Meathead in the family sitcom, didn’t name former President Donald Trump in his tweet, it is widely assumed, based on the responses to his tweet, that is to whom he was referring.
“Now that Elon Musk is buying Twitter, the question for all of us is: Will he allow a criminal who used this platform to lie and spread disinformation to try to overthrow the US Government to return and continue his criminal activity?” Reiner’s tweet read.
“And if he does, how do we combat it?” he added.
The 48-year-old country singer didn’t argue the point with the filmmaker, but instead hit back with a dig at the two-time failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Calm down Rob [Reiner], I’m sure he’ll let Hillary stay on,” the “Save A Horse” hitmaker tweeted to his hundreds of thousands of followers.
Calm down Rob, I'm sure he'll let Hillary stay on.
— John Rich (@johnrich) April 25, 2022
Shortly after news surfaced that Musk had bought the social media site, speculation surfaced on Twitter about whether or not Trump would be back after he was permanently banned from the site in 2021. Later, the former president responded with a statement that he didn’t plan to come back.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”
“We’re taking in millions of people, and what we’re finding is that the response on TRUTH is much better than being on Twitter,” he added. “Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can.”
“The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter,” Trump continued.
On Monday, Musk explained that he hopes everyone will remain on Twitter, even his “worst critics.”
“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk tweeted to his tens of millions of followers.
The Tesla owner released a statement following his acquisition of the site, calling free speech “the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” the statement added. “Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
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