in Capitol riot, Life

‘Xena’ Star Lucy Lawless Just Destroyed ‘Hercules’ Star Kevin Sorbo Over His Hot Take On The Capitol Riot

Jason Mendez/Getty Images; Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

The fallout from Wednesday’s coup attempt at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. has been shocking in many ways, including giving us a glimpse into just how far some supporters of President Trump will go to disinform the public.

Count Hercules: The Legendary Journeys star Kevin Sorbo among them, who has taken to Twitter to regurgitate several times the preposterous lie that the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol were actually leftist protestors in costume.

And Sorbo’s former costar Lucy Lawless—Xena: Warrior Princess herself—absolutely wasn’t having, dragging him in a epic Twitter response.

In her searing takedown of her former costar, Lawless placed part of the blame for the riots squarely on Sorbo’s shoulders.

“No, Peanut. They are not Patriots. They are your flying monkeys, homegrown terrorists, QAnon actors.”

“They are the douchebags that go out and do the evil bidding of people like you who like to wind them up like toys and let them do their worst.”

“Peanut” is a nice touch, don’t you think?

Lawless and Sorbo were frequent costars in the 1990s, appearing on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess in their respective characters.

Sorbo has been an outspoken proponent of the baseless claims of election fraud that incited the violence at the Capitol. And the tweet to which Lawless replied is but one of several that Sorbo has posted that traffic in ridiculous conspiracy theories about the Capitol insurrection itself, which began ricocheting through social and right-wing media almost immediately.

Right-wing figures have repeatedly claimed that the rioters were members of Antifa, including Congressmen Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar, two of Trump’s most ardent supporters, who made such claims on the House floor immediately following the riots.

And far-right social media platforms and messaging boards like Parler have been full of incredibly bizarre conspiracy theories, including one that claims that Ashli Babbitt, the rioter who was killed by police during the insurrection, is still alive and that her killing was staged as part of a psy-ops stunt by the so-called “Deep State.”

Many have been left enraged by these efforts by Trump’s supporters to blame the left for a deadly riot that Trump himself instigated on Twitter and at the rally that preceded it.

And there was no shortage of appreciation for Lawless speaking out about it.

Lawless may have won the Twitter war, but Sorbo is not backing down—the actor was still claiming the riot was faked as recently as yesterday evening.

Written by Peter Karleby

Peter Karleby is a writer, content producer and performer originally from Michigan. His writing has also appeared on YourTango, Delish and Medium, and he has produced content for NBC, The New York Times and The CW, among others. When not working, he can be found tripping over his own feet on a hiking trail while singing Madonna songs to ward off lurking bears.