The White House is dismissing Jane Fonda’s revival of a McCarthy-era Hollywood group on free speech, saying the actor is “free to share whatever bad opinions she wants,” The Hill reported Wednesday.
Fonda, 87, announced she was relaunching the Committee for the First Amendment, originally founded in 1947 by her father, Henry Fonda, and other entertainers. She said the U.S. government is “once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.”
“This is the most frightening moment of my life,” the “9 to 5” star wrote in a letter urging peers to join her committee, citing her experiences with war, protest, repression, and political backlash. According to reports, more than 600 Hollywood figures have signed on.
Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson referred to Fonda by her decades-old Vietnam War-era nickname, saying: “‘Hanoi Jane’ is free to share whatever bad opinions she wants. As someone who actually knows what it’s like to be censored, President Trump is a strong supporter of free speech, and Democratic allegations to the contrary are so false, they’re laughable.”
Jackson added that Trump is targeting “left-wing organizations that have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, [and] incited violence all across America.”
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