Fired ‘General Hospital’ Actor Ingo Rademacher Says Conservative Co-Stars Stayed Silent: “It’s Not Public Support, So Is It Really Support?” – Update

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UPDATED throughout, with video: During an interview with Tucker Carlson streaming today, former General Hospital star Ingo Rademacher likened Covid to “a serious flu bug,” asserted without evidence that vaccines don’t “do a good job at stopping the spread” of the coronavirus, and speculated that Disney/ABC would have canceled the long-running soap if conservative cast members refused, en masse, to comply with the vaccine mandate.

The GH cast “kind of knew that the mandates were coming a few months ago because Disney had already started mandating for their theme park employees,” Rademacher said during the taped interview for Tucker Carlson Today on the Fox Nation streaming site, adding that although he received private support from some cast members and crew, a unified stance could have resulted in cancellation.

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“Let’s say everybody was standing up for me,” Rademacher said, “if we were all linking arms together and said, ‘We’re not taking this vaccine,’ Disney would have just canceled the show. That’s what I believe. We’re kind of that show over here on the side that has a slot. We’re always walking on thin ice.”

Rademacher offered no evidence to support the speculation about possible cancellation. Only two cast members – Rademacher and Steve Burton – were fired over their refusal to get vaccinated.

Rademacher went on to offer boilerplate anti-vax phrases – “This is about basic human rights and the medical freedom to choose” – and said, “Taking this vaccine goes against everything I believe in and how I live my life.”

“Western medicine has its place, I think, but we try to avoid it as much as possible because it’s not preventative, so we use alternative medicines in the entire family,” the actor said.

At one point, Carlson referred to Disney as “corporate monsters.” Fox News requires its employees to be vaccinated or submit to daily testing.

According to the Centers For Disease Control: “COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting people from COVID-19 and help keep adults and children from getting seriously sick. COVID-19 vaccines can reduce the risk of people spreading the virus that causes COVID-19. Getting everyone ages 5 years and older vaccinated can help the entire family, including siblings who are not eligible for vaccination and family members who may be at risk of getting very sick if they are infected.”

“People are going to try to paint me as this right-wing conservative nut which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Rademacher said. (The actor has come under social media fire in the past for referring to Covid as the “Chinese coronavirus,” his refusal to “call a transgender an empowered woman,” and admonitions to “stop [talking] about racism…it’s 2020 and it’s only the media that won’t shut up about it.”)

Rademacher declined to specify which General Hospital cast members supported his decision (“There are a lot of conservatives on the show,” he said), but added, “It’s not public support, so is it really support?”

As for the lawsuit he filed against ABC earlier this week, Rademacher said he was introduced to his attorneys at JW Howard Attorneys by Robert Kennedy Jr., and that he was being supported in the legal battle by Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense and PERK, the organization that’s involved in various other similar lawsuits.

Rademacher was asked by Carlson about the “very unhappy person” in the GH cast who has been outspoken in criticism of the actor, an obvious if unnamed reference to Nancy Lee Grahn. “A complete bigot,” Rademacher responded without explanation, quickly adding, “I love her. I love her work and advocate for her freedom to speak.”

Grahn, with whom the onetime Jasper “Jax” Jacks has exchanged back-and-forth swipes on social media over the mandate, wasn’t impressed with the Carlson booking, tweeting earlier, “When u get hoisted by ur own petard (dragged mercilessly 4 being indefensibly racist, transphobic & anti science) by EVERY major media & social platform who overwhelmingly disapproved of you, you go on #tuckercarlson.”

Rademacher’s firing and lawsuit has brought the soap veteran considerable attention in recent weeks. Last night during his Late Show monologue, late night host Stephen Colbert skewered the actor, referring  to the longtime GH cast member as a “random collection of consonants.”

“Sorry, buddy,” Colbert joked, “but you have to follow the medical advice – you’re on General Hospital, not General Stuff I Read On Facebook.”

To explain Rademacher’s claim that the vaccine mandate violates his religious freedom, Colbert quoted from the lawsuit, saying, “my body is endowed by my creator with natural processes to protect me.”

“Now, a lot of people say Ingo Rademacher is being ridiculous,” Colbert continued before launching into a mock-soap opera plotline: “Unless…that’s not Ingo Rademacher! It’s Ingo Rademacher’s twin brother Vigo Rademacher, who just woke up from a coma…”

After unspooling a string of unlikely soap storylines – coma, amnesia, attempted murder – Colbert came to his point: “Or maybe, in just one final twist, none of that is true and Ingo Rademacher is just a stupid dingus. That makes more sense. That’s the one.”

Watch the monologue below, with the Rademacher jokes arriving at the 6:43 mark.


 

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