The New York Post e-Edition

BITTER BALDWIN

Media diss & trigger talk on Web chat

By OLIVIA LAND

Alec Baldwin on Tuesday blasted media coverage of the investigation into the shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer

Halyna Hutchins — as he doubled down on his denial that he pulled the trigger.

The cantankerous Emmy-winning actor, 64, singled out The Post during an appearance on the YouTube show “The Chris Cuomo Project,” while whining about the media not dropping the story of the deadly October 2021 on-set shooting.

“I used to think The Post was something cops would read for the sports page . . . but I was surprised to learn some of the people who read The Post,” Baldwin told host Chris Cuomo.

Baldwin and Cuomo, who was unceremoniously ousted from CNN last year, each bemoaned what they deemed unfair press coverage intent on taking down their careers.

“[The media] have dined out on this and the thing they have in common is nobody was there,” Baldwin said.

The conversation took a bizarre turn when Baldwin tried to illustrate what he believes is the media’s skewed perception of his actions.

“If George Bush’s mother, Barbara, fell through the ice on a pond and I waded

into the pond and saved her life, they’d say I groped her. “They’d say I squeezed her breast while I was

pulling her out of the pond,” Baldwin insisted.

“It doesn’t matter what you do,” he said. “The ones that are out to get you are out to get you.”

Discharge denial

In the interview, Baldwin also denied that he pulled the trigger of the gun last fall on the New Mexico set, claiming that it discharged while he was practicing a technique called “fanning.”

“If you pull the hammer back far enough . . . the hammer didn’t lock . . . it would fire the bullet without you pulling the trigger,” he said.

Baldwin said a safety officer told him it was safe to do this since the weapon was “cold,” film-production lingo meaning it was not loaded with bullets.

“Everyone on set knows what happened that day,” Baldwin insisted.

“Everyone who was there knows exactly what happened and exactly who is to blame.”

Baldwin’s latest entreaty comes little more than 24 hours after his lawyer scrambled to ameliorate the scathing results of an FBI report that said the gun, an F.lli Pietta .45 Long Colt Revolver, could not have gone off without being deliberately fired.

“The FBI report is being misconstrued,” attorney Luke Nika charged in a statement Monday.

“The gun fired in testing only one time — without having to pull the trigger — when the hammer was pulled back and the gun was broken in two different places.”

The shooting was ruled an accident on Monday by New Mexico’s Office of Medical Investigator. It was unclear whether charges would be filed.

While Baldwin admitted that he was anxious to learn if the New Mexico DA would pursue criminal charges over the accident, he acknowledged that “the real tragedy” was Hutchins’ death.

“I am not the victim here,” he said.

“Nothing is going to bring this woman back,” he said of Hutchins, who was 42.

“She’s dead. She has a little boy.”

Baldwin, however, was optimistic about his own future.

“Things for me are going to get better, cleared up,” he said.

“I am 1,000% sure.”

CITY IN CRISIS

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2022-08-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://nypost.pressreader.com/article/281625309091104

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