Masked Singer Donut John Schneider says President Biden should be 'publicly hung'

On Wednesday's episode of Fox's The Masked Singer, the Donut brought the audience to tears with his soulful performance of Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful." But the man behind the pastry costume, former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider, recently posted a very ugly sentiment about President Joe Biden on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

In a now deleted reply, Schneider wrote, "Mr. President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung. Your son, too. Your response is..? Sincerely, John Schneider." Screenshots of Schneider's post circulated online following his Masked Singer unveiling.

Fox declined to comment on the post. In a statement provided to EW by a representative Thursday, Schneider said, "Seriously, folks? This is my final comment on this. I neither said nor implied any such thing. Despite headlines claiming otherwise, in my post, I absolutely did not call for an act of violence or threaten a U.S. president as many other celebrities have done in the past. I suggest you re-read my actual post and pay attention to the words before believing this nonsense."

He added, "It's my position, which I am entitled to have, that some of our nations leaders in Washington have lost their way, and corruption runs rampant, both on our nation's borders and abroad. Transparency and accountability must happen in order for our constitutional republic to survive. There is no threat implied or otherwise in that statement."

In an interview prior to his reveal on The Masked Singer, the actor told EW that performing as the Donut helped him cope with the loss of his wife, Alicia Allain Schneider, who died in February. "It helped me heal," he said. "I tell you, watching the judges respond to the story and to the songs, that, for me, was the most healing part of it. Watching them actually cry, the comments that they had about Robin [Thicke] losing his dad — there was a bunch of people hurting. So I could tell that my story, my own personal challenges while doing the show, actually, I think even helped the judges."

Schneider, who frequently posts criticism of President Biden on social media, is not the first politically polarizing contestant to perform on The Masked Singer. In 2022, host Ken Jeong reportedly stormed off the set when the Jack in the Box was revealed to be disgraced lawyer/conspiracy theorist/convicted fabulist Rudy Guilliani.

"Ken has been incredibly vocal about how the previous administration handled many things but especially COVID-19 and has found a lot of what they've said not only wrong but dangerous," a source told PEOPLE at the time. "To get someone who helped to spread misinformation and call into question the accuracy of our election and democracy to appear on his show was going to set him off."

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