0:03

Conservative actors have complained for years that

0:05

those who express anything other than progressive

0:07

political views can end up on blacklists.

0:09

They say this has long led many

0:12

in the industry to quietly self-censor. But

0:15

now some performers are speaking out and

0:17

looking to the courts to enforce more

0:19

balance in the entertainment industry. In

0:22

this episode of Morning Wire, Daily

0:24

Wire culture reporter Megan Basham talks

0:26

with veteran soap opera actor Ingo

0:28

Rademacher about the state of viewpoint

0:30

diversity in Hollywood and why he's

0:32

suing ABC for discrimination. I'm

0:34

Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with

0:36

Georgia Howe. It's Saturday, January

0:38

14th, and this is an extra edition of

0:41

Morning Wire. Protect

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e-x-p-r-e-s-s-v-p-n.com/Wire. Go to

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expressvpn.com/Wire to learn

1:12

more. In

1:18

this episode, Daily Wire culture reporter

1:20

Megan Basham speaks with actor Ingo

1:22

Rademacher, best known for his performances

1:24

on the soap opera General Hospital

1:26

and the reality competition Dancing with

1:28

the Stars. Thank

1:30

you so much for talking with us. You

1:33

know, I remember when you were

1:35

fired over the vaccine mandate,

1:37

and I was not aware of

1:39

some of the other elements of this

1:41

story. So obviously, we watched your Instagram

1:43

video. And you mentioned,

1:46

you know, that it wasn't just the

1:48

vaccine mandate, but it was in the

1:50

discovery process, you found out that they

1:52

were trying to fire you before that

1:54

because of your political and social views.

1:56

So one, what did you find? And

1:58

then what were those views? that they were

2:00

objecting to. So yes, to

2:02

answer your question, I was fired for not

2:04

complying with a vaccine mandate, but I

2:06

had kind of suspicions about maybe that it

2:09

was political because in 2020, I

2:12

started speaking out, you know, started

2:14

speaking my political views on my

2:16

social media accounts, my Twitter and

2:18

my Instagram, because I thought, you

2:20

know, that was my right. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

2:23

Little did I know. It is

2:25

my right, and everyone's like, oh, you're crazy to speak

2:28

out against this, and I'm like, well, no, this is

2:30

freedom of speech. This is very important. If other people

2:32

on the show get to speak, then so do I,

2:34

and if they have different views, that's totally fine with

2:36

me. So we

2:39

had to fight very hard in order

2:41

to expose the political animus towards me

2:43

at work, and the ADC lawyers insisted

2:45

that such evidence didn't exist, and

2:48

then at the last minute, you know, all

2:50

of a sudden, they found a bunch of

2:52

emails and text messages that showed the political

2:54

animus towards me, and that included emails and

2:57

text messages between cast and crew. One

2:59

of them was a producer calling me an ignorant

3:02

racist, you know, just name calling for no

3:04

reason, and I think that

3:06

kind of just shows the depth that

3:08

Hollywood goes to in order to cover

3:10

up the political discrimination, and

3:13

I really think, you know, Gina Carano is

3:15

a perfect example. When she

3:17

started speaking out against the narrative, you

3:20

know, they started looking for just any post of hers that

3:22

they could use to fire her, and they didn't even hide

3:24

it. I mean, they came out, I think it was on

3:26

Twitter, and they announced, he is no longer working with us,

3:29

and that's not allowed in California.

3:31

There are laws against firing people for their

3:33

political views. Well, so can you drill

3:35

down a little bit on what sort of political

3:37

views they were objecting to, because, you know, some

3:40

people can hear that, and they could think, well,

3:42

maybe he said something really offensive. So

3:44

what exactly was it, the kind of thing that they were

3:46

objecting to? None of the things

3:48

I said were offensive, and none of the

3:50

things I said were actually misinformation, as they

3:53

like to say, about the vaccine. So,

3:55

I Mean, just one of the posts, to give

3:57

you an example, was I posted a repost... The

4:00

story of a anti vaccine passport rally

4:02

s Now this is Not even anti

4:04

Vaccine hugs. Never said anything to anybody

4:07

that not taken the vaccines. This was

4:09

literally just. you know we shouldn't have

4:11

vaccine passports and they were really really

4:14

upset about that. You know they were

4:16

talking about recasting me and you know

4:18

as and things like that. You.

4:20

Know we have the email from them actively

4:23

talking about figuring out a way. To

4:25

let me go before well before the

4:27

vaccine mean that even seem alonso when

4:29

that came along. they would just like

4:31

okay was would just use. This is

4:33

not going to get vaccinated and what

4:35

is the neither religious exemption so you

4:37

know I didn't know about that before.

4:40

I didn't think that the was actually

4:42

possible. For. Them to mistreat me

4:44

and such a way out. Because it

4:46

is. You know I'm succeed. Maybe I'm

4:48

naive and that way, but I really

4:50

believe in you know of freedom of

4:53

speech and I advocate for anybody else

4:55

that on the show, like Nancy The

4:57

Ground, for instance, is very political about

4:59

her views. I advocate for heard enough

5:01

for her freedom of speech and that's

5:04

one of the main things I think

5:06

that we're fighting for. You know, besides

5:08

the vaccine mandating unconstitutional and the religious

5:10

exemptions in tonight's Freedom of Speech. Is

5:13

at the heart of a well functioning country.

5:15

We have to have debate and our nobody

5:17

was debate anymore. They just want a call

5:19

you names, try to smear you as much

5:22

as possible which is what happened with me

5:24

and then fire you as quickly as possible

5:26

and you're getting back to your question of

5:28

the think the said we're. We're. Wrong

5:30

I didn't say. And Twenty Twenty one.

5:33

That. This vaccine was never

5:35

designed. To. Stop the spread

5:37

of the virus. And.that turns

5:39

out to be one hundred percent

5:41

correct. This was never even tested

5:43

against transmission. So. you

5:46

know nobody ever walk sat back and also

5:48

by the way into rademacher was right all

5:50

the headlines google it's a single rademacher with

5:52

spreading misinformation about the vaccine it also was

5:54

pretty much every post of mine that they

5:57

didn't like and it's not i'm not a

5:59

republican or democrat like criticized the

6:01

media narrative and that alone was enough

6:03

to get me blacklisted in Hollywood and

6:05

fired from GH. And

6:08

that was going to be part of my

6:10

question and you did bring up Nancy Lee

6:12

Grant and she essentially cheered your firing. I

6:14

happened to see that post where she was

6:16

celebrating the fact that you had been fired.

6:19

It seemed like what she objected to was a

6:22

post where you expressive you that

6:24

sometimes transgender women are currently being

6:26

celebrated in a way that devalues

6:29

female achievement. It's essentially you might

6:31

say taking honors that once belong

6:33

to biological women and extending them

6:36

out to transgender women. So

6:38

my question on that point was going

6:40

to be if you pull that popular

6:42

consensus is with you on that. So

6:44

I mean what was that like for

6:46

you to see your

6:48

co-stars celebrating your

6:50

firing? What's the working environment like

6:53

when that's the reaction? She

6:56

jumped on the virtue signaling train I think

6:58

in a way and wanted to

7:01

announce to everybody that I was mercifully no

7:03

longer on the show I think she put.

7:06

I mean look I am for equal

7:08

rights for everybody but I'm not for

7:10

special rights and I believe that the

7:12

certain members of the trans

7:14

community when they are biological males and

7:16

they want to compete against the women

7:19

in sports you're asking for special rights

7:21

and in our society nobody gets special

7:23

rights. It's equal rights for everybody so

7:25

me pointing out the fact that

7:28

biological males shouldn't be put up

7:30

the woman of the year, shouldn't

7:32

be competing against females. I

7:34

think that is exactly

7:37

what you said. I think most of America is standing behind

7:39

me on that and I have a daughter, I have two

7:41

boys and a daughter and she's only two and a half.

7:45

I hope that we are done with all

7:47

of this insanity I call

7:49

it. So yeah just

7:52

getting back to Nancy announcing

7:55

that I was no longer on the show I

7:58

think was really disappointing. I

8:00

don't mind working with somebody

8:02

like that at work. It doesn't bother

8:04

me because again, it comes down to

8:08

freedom of speech, right? And I'm a huge

8:10

supporter of that. If you want

8:12

to talk about your political views and social views

8:14

on your social media account, which is what she

8:16

does, then I get to enjoy the same right.

8:19

Now, she can disagree with me and we

8:21

can argue about it, not at work, obviously.

8:24

But also, I don't

8:26

have a problem working with people that I

8:28

don't agree with. It doesn't bother me. I

8:30

don't talk about my politics at work, but

8:32

my social media is my social media account.

8:34

And I think I should have the right

8:36

to say whatever I want since somebody else

8:38

like her is enjoying her freedom

8:40

to say whatever she wants. So

8:43

again, that's what it comes down to.

8:45

So I don't have any problems with

8:47

somebody like that at all because

8:49

I actually believe the saying, you're

8:52

not defending free speech unless it's hard for you

8:54

to do. Yeah, absolutely. And one of

8:56

the things that struck me was another

8:58

of your co-stars in the heat of

9:01

this said that misgendering trans folks is

9:03

violence. And so one, I

9:05

wonder how you respond to that. Do

9:07

you think that your post, retweeting something

9:09

that Ali Bestaki had posted, is that

9:11

violent? No, it's

9:13

absolutely not violent. First

9:16

of all, that post was

9:18

100% correct. I

9:21

can walk that back. I could have

9:23

crossed it out and put transgender woman

9:25

instead of dude, right? That's what they

9:27

were upset about because I misgendered somebody.

9:29

This is purely a smear campaign against

9:31

somebody that speaks out against the media

9:33

narrative that they don't like. And,

9:35

you know, I mean, it's silly to say that,

9:37

oh, well, if you transition before the age of

9:39

12, and you take a bunch of hormones, you

9:41

are a woman. No, it's not

9:44

even a debate that we should be

9:46

having. We can't just say that trans

9:48

women are women, period. We have to

9:50

put trans in front of it. Otherwise,

9:52

that leaves it open to all of those things,

9:54

you know, being put up in Woman of the Year

9:57

and competing against the women. And I just don't agree

9:59

with it. everybody is behind

10:01

me and that's not transphobic. That

10:03

is just pointing out the

10:06

truth and I'm willing to have

10:08

a debate with anybody about that because at the

10:10

end of that debate, I think everyone's going to

10:12

agree. Again it comes down to

10:14

the reason we separate women and men's sports is

10:17

because the women can't compete against men in

10:19

sports. That's the only reason we do it. So

10:22

let me ask you then, what is

10:24

your sense in Hollywood of just how

10:26

many performers, how many other industry professionals

10:29

are suppressing their views out of fear

10:31

of the kind of job loss and

10:33

black list that you describe? I'm

10:37

going to be guessing it's

10:39

probably somewhere close to half

10:41

the people at

10:43

work with me that their

10:46

views do not align with the current

10:48

media narrative or the current narrative in

10:50

Hollywood. They are more on

10:52

my side of this than anything else.

10:55

You know, hey let me just throw this

10:57

out there too, Nancy. Nancy should be my

10:59

biggest advocate in this because

11:02

it's wonderful that she gets

11:04

to speak and say what

11:06

can be interpreted as horrible

11:09

things. I

11:11

think it was Ivanka Trump, a Nazi

11:13

for having a white dog and things

11:15

like that. There's so many posts that

11:17

I'm like okay but

11:20

again, I advocate for her

11:22

to speak whatever she wants. That

11:24

should be completely separate also

11:27

from the character that we play. Getting

11:30

back to your question about people at

11:32

work, people that do agree with my

11:34

views are afraid to speak up.

11:38

Anyone that you talk to and you get private

11:40

messages, you get phone calls from friends and they're

11:42

like man, you have a lot

11:44

of courage but I just can't do it. I

11:47

just can't fight the fight. It's

11:49

a little like that meme. Have you ever seen

11:51

that meme where the executioner is about to kill

11:53

the guy but he's whispering to him, I

11:56

agree with you. I mean is that what you

11:58

experienced? Yeah. That's exactly right.

12:02

They're just not gonna say anything. And to me,

12:06

I walked away from an incredible job.

12:09

And let me just say to everybody, suing

12:11

is not fun. It has

12:13

completely thrown our lives upside

12:15

down. We had to move from an

12:17

amazing community. My kids moved from an

12:20

amazing swim team with Olympic coaches, and

12:23

they had a great life there. And I

12:25

had to tear them

12:27

away from that life. And they destroy

12:29

lives when they don't stand for equal

12:31

rights for everybody and freedom of speech.

12:35

And yes, everybody is afraid to

12:37

speak up in Hollywood. And when you

12:39

do, then they find

12:42

a way very quickly to get rid of you.

12:45

Well, maybe a last question then, Angel. Do

12:47

you think that the protections for viewpoint

12:50

discrimination, do they need to be strengthened

12:52

in law? Well, we

12:54

do have laws in California that

12:56

protect political speech. You are not

12:58

allowed to be fired for your

13:00

political views or posts in

13:03

California. I think there are

13:05

other states that maybe allow that, which

13:07

I was shocked to hear. And I

13:09

think, yes, in that sense, it needs

13:12

to be strengthened. And that is why

13:14

it's also so very important for us

13:16

to win this case, is to set

13:18

a precedent that this kind of behavior

13:20

from a big corporation like ABC Disney

13:23

is not okay. What they did

13:25

to me was not okay. It

13:27

hurt me. And again, it's just not

13:29

something that we should ever be exposed to again.

13:32

And that's why it's so important to win this

13:34

fight and why everybody, doesn't matter if you left

13:36

or right or in the middle, you should be

13:38

behind me right now. That's all the things we're

13:40

fighting for. Everyone, for everyone to speak and everybody

13:43

to not be afraid to speak your social views

13:45

and political views without getting fired. That's the goal.

13:47

And that's what we have to get in this

13:50

country. Well, Angel, we

13:52

appreciate your time so much and

13:54

best of luck to you. Megan, I

13:56

appreciate your time. Thank you. That

13:59

was Daily Wire. culture reporter Megan Basham

14:01

talking with actor Ingo Rademacher and this

14:03

has been an extra edition of Morning

14:05

Wire.