Zach Bryan responds to backlash over ICE criticism in new song
Country music star Zach Bryan is speaking out after a new song, in which he appears to criticize immigration enforcement agents, sparked uproar.
“The Dude” has returned to tell everyone to “chill out, man.”
Jeff Bridges, while promoting his new film “Tron: Ares” on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” reprised his stoner-turned-detective character from “The Big Lebowski” to bestow some of his trademark unconventional wisdom amid what Kimmel called a crazy, “troubled time.”
Kimmel requested Bridges “summon” his beloved character, provided him with a pair of sunglasses, a cardigan and a white Russian for good measure.
Once the set lighting dimmed, The Dude emerged with some choice words of advice. “Hey world, The Dude here. Can we just all calm … down?” he said. “I’m talking about all the wars, the fighting, the cancelling. I mean, let’s just chill out, man. We’re at like what, a nine? We ought to be at zero or zero and a half.”
He then confirmed with Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo, in his own The Dude getup, who said, “You’re right, mister!”
“Gracias, amigo. And just call me Dude,” Bridges responded.
The Dude then called out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and encouraged unity.
“Let’s get ICE off our streets and into our beverages,” he said to cheers, before taking a sip of his white Russian. “This aggression will not stand, right? So let’s just abide together. We can do this. Now, that’s just like, my opinion, but it’s a good one, don’t you think?”
“That’s a pretty great opinion, I think,” Kimmel added, clinking glasses with Bridges. “Thank you, Dude.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an emailed statement to USA TODAY that she had to “Google who Jeff Bridges was.”
“If this Hollywood actor took a break from sipping cocktails on television sets in Tinseltown and walked the streets of America’s cities, he would see our brave law enforcement officers are heroes who put their lives on the line everyday to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists.”
She went on to call Bridges’ comments “disgusting.”
“The media, sanctuary politicians, and Hollywood elites must stop demonizing our brave law enforcement who are having terrorists shoot at them, cars being used as weapons against them, online doxing of their families, and even bounties placed on their heads by criminal gangs,” she wrote, “Knock it off before you get someone killed.”
The comments come amid an immigration enforcement “blitz” in Chicago, in which the White House has issued a crackdown amid other large-scale operations. Federal agents have mostly detained people with no criminal records in the operations, according to local reporting.
Bridges joins a growing number of stars from around the entertainment industry who have shared concerns over ICE raids in recent months. In September, Zach Bryan released his controversial new song “Bad News,” which seemingly criticizes immigration enforcement agents. He later clarified the song was written “months ago” and that it was not intended to take a partisan side.
Contributing: Michael Loria, Eduardo Cuevas and Anna Kaufman
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com ’
