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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Kevin E G Perry

Morgan Freeman tears into ‘convicted felon’ Trump during live TV tirade

Morgan Freeman has lashed out at President Trump during a live television interview, calling him a “convicted felon” who is “leading us down a s***hole.”

The Oscar-winning actor, 88, is currently promoting Prime Video’s new historical drama The Gray House, which he executive produced. During an appearance on The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell on MS NOW, Freeman was asked to describe how he sees the world now.

“Can I use any profanity?” he responded. “Well, we have somebody sitting in the White House who is leading us down a s***hole.”

He continued: “I can’t personally understand how a convicted felon... convicted! [Someone with] 34 felonious counts of wrongdoing gets to be president. How do you do that?”

In response to those who have defended Trump’s right to become president despite his convictions, Freeman added: “I don’t care! That ruling went down before he stepped into the Oval Office. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

In 2024, a unanimous 12-person jury in New York found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 counts against him in a so-called hush money case.

The jury agreed, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Trump not only had a hand in falsifying records but did so in order to commit or conceal another crime – specifically, that he violated state law against conspiracy to influence an election by “unlawful means.”

Those “unlawful means” include violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act, the falsification of other business records, and violations of state and federal tax laws.

He was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, stemming from his reimbursements to Michael Cohen for his hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, whose story about having sex with Trump threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign.

Morgan Freeman also spoke out about the use of AI (Getty)

Earlier today, Freeman also used an appearance on CBS Mornings to rail against the rise of AI.

Asked how he would contend with companies who use AI technology to replicate his voice or likeness, the Shawshank Redemption star replied: “I’ve got lawyers.”

As to whether it would be acceptable for those companies to use his voice or likeness if he were compensated, Freeman said: “I think that’s a different outlook on it.”

In reference to a series of commercials created in 2011 by the British insurance company More Than, who used the tagline “MoreThan Freeman,” he added: “I remember some years ago an English company paid me handsomely to let someone in England who could sound like me do a [commercial]. I said: ‘Yeah, that works.’”

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