Err, John Schneider Seems to Have Taken The Masked Singer a Little Too Seriously

Few reality shows elide popular culture and the shitshow that is American politics like The Masked Singer, a show in which the famous and famous-adjacent pose as animals, perform, and compete for a shot at fleeting cultural relevancy. Case in point: Just last spring, the now-bankrupt Rudy Giuliani was revealed to be one of the performers. (Whatever happened with that???) Now, at the end of the show’s 10th season, John Schneider of The Dukes of Hazzard came in second place during Wednesday night’s finale. And he seemed to blame one person in particular for this heartbreaking loss, tweeting into the AMs early Thursday. “Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung,” he tweeted at President Biden. “Your son too. Your response is…?” And, to make clear that the tweet came from him and no one else, he signed it, “Sincerely, John Schneider.” The tweet was deleted shortly after. Welp, that’s one way to cope with second.

Now, according to a Thursday night report in People, however much of a joke Schneider may be, his tweet is being taken pretty seriously: The Secret Service has “opened a probe into his statements.” In a statement shared with People, Schneider denied threatening the president. He offered similar denials to Deadline in a two-part statement that begins with, “Seriously, folks?” and continues: “I suggest you re-read my actual post and pay attention to the words before believing this nonsense.”

OK. Sure. Let’s reread his tweet. It says: “Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung. … Sincerely, John Schneider.” IDK, there’s not a lot of plausible deniability when you explicitly tell someone on the internet that you believe they should be executed. Schneider further elaborated to Deadline that his tweet was meant to criticize “rampant” D.C. “corruption,” and is merely a call for “transparency and accountability”—again, specifically, by publicly hanging the president.

Federal law enforcement seems undeterred by Schneider’s claims to not be a threat. (After all, this is a man who’s proven quite adept at donning disguises and concealing his identity—scary stuff…) An insider told Deadline the probe is in the preliminary stage, but confirmed that it is, indeed, happening. “We look at all threats against our protectees and, due to intent, this falls under the definition of a threat,” they said. Alas, it seems there’s nothing that’ll push you over the edge like coming in second on The Masked Singer.

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