Peter Fonda apologizes for anti-Trump Twitter rant

Actor Peter Fonda apologized Wednesday for a late-night Twitter rant prompted by his outrage over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which led to the separation of immigrant families at the U.S. southern border. In an all-caps message, Fonda said President Donald Trump’s 12-year-old son, Barron, should be ripped from “his mother’s arms and put in a cage with pedophiles.” Fonda quickly deleted the message but not before drawing rebukes from the first family and Sony Pictures Classics, which has produced a new film in which Fonda has a small part.

In the apology issued by his manager and publicist, Fonda blamed the “devastating” images from the southern border for his “highly inappropriate and vulgar” messages: “Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated from their families at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it and sincerely apologize to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused.” Donald Trump Jr. described two-time Oscar nominee, brother of Jane Fonda, and son of Hollywood legend Henry Fonda as a “sick individual” who acted “like a bully and a coward.”