Baldwin passes blame, accepts none for himself

AP Photo/John Minchillo

Actor Alec Baldwin is still in hot water following the negligent shooting death of Halyna Hutchinson on the set of the film Rust. Production was suspended, of course, and authorities are still investigating. Recently, the FBI forensics team found that there was no way the pistol in Baldwin’s hand could have fired without him pulling the trigger, something he previously denied doing.

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So, it’s safe to say that at least part of the blame rests on him for pulling the trigger.

However, Baldwin recently decided to pass around a pile of blame while accepting none for himself.

Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin has long maintained his innocence regarding the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust,” choosing instead to blame everybody around him for the accident. But a new interview with CNN still leaves one question remaining: Why didn’t Baldwin just check the gun himself before handling it?

On Friday, CNN reported that Baldwin pinned the blame for Hutchins’ death last October on two of his colleagues. According to the Left-leaning movie star, the fault for the tragedy really lies with the movie’s armorer and props assistant, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, as well as assistant director Dave Halls.

“Someone put a live bullet in the gun who should have known better,” Baldwin told CNN. “That was [Gutierrez Reed’s] job. Her job was to look at the ammunition and put in the dummy round or the blank round, and there wasn’t supposed to be any live rounds on the set.”

“There are two people who didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” he alleged. “I’m not sitting there saying I want them to, you know, go to prison, or I want their lives to be hell. I don’t want that, but I want everybody to know that those are the two people that are responsible for what happened.”

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I can’t say anything about Halls, but I can about Gutierrez Reed.

You see, the New Mexico state version of OSHA looked into the incident–after all, while it was a shooting, it happened in a workplace and was the result of the work being performed–and they came away with a very different story than what Baldwin is trying to peddle.

Gutierrez Reed was reportedly not given the chance to do her job correctly. She wasn’t called in for tasks she should have been called in for and was not given the time and opportunity to do the work she was being paid for.

Now, for many people, that sounds like a dream gig. “You’re going to pay me and then not let me do the job, but still pay me anyway? Sweet.”

But that’s not the case when people’s lives are on the line.

Yet Baldwin is still slinging blame around. Then again, he has to. He needs the public to look in every direction imaginable so that people might stop looking at him.

I get that he doesn’t want to admit responsibility publicly. There’s an ongoing criminal investigation, after all. Saying he’s responsible might just result in charges being filed against him. It makes sense he wouldn’t admit to any of that.

What I have a problem with is throwing others under the bus when it’s clear that he pulled that trigger and that he didn’t check the weapon.

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It might not have been his job. It might have been against some insane union rules or something. None of that matters.

All Baldwin needs to do is remain silent. A simple statement saying what happened was a tragedy and that the investigation is ongoing and that he’ll cooperate fully. Maybe he adds a bit about how after the dust has settled, he hopes to be part of a process to keep something like this from happening again and then nothing.

Instead, he’s hoping to deflect blame onto literally everyone else, particularly people who don’t have a net worth reportedly in the $60 million range.

Saying silent would be the better course, but when has Alec Baldwin ever been able to keep his mouth shut?

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