‘The Ranch’ Actor Jim Beaver Sparks Backlash Over Mitch McConnell Tweet

Jim Beaver faced a bit of backlash early Wednesday morning when The Ranch actor shared a tribute to the late Rip Torn, wishing death upon Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Torn’s place. Beaver, 68, took to Twitter to share his reaction to the news of Torn’s death.

“Goodbye, Rip Torn. We wish it was Mitch McConnell,” Beaver wrote of the Republican senator from Kentucky.

Beaver’s tweet received some resistance. One Twitter user wrote, “Never cool to wish anyone dead,” while another chimed in how “it is very ugly to wish someone were dead!”

“Little dark. Not saying I disagree but wishing for someone’s death is dark, man,” another wrote.

“You’ve lost a follower,” someone else announced. “Whatever your politics, whatever you value — wishing for someone, anyone to die is NOT funny and is not okay.”

“That is a disgusting thing to say about someone who happens to have a different opinion than you,” one wrote.

“Seriously [what the f—]?? That’s not cool,” someone else said.

Beaver, who recently married singer and actress Sarah Spiegel, is outspoken about his political beliefs, having stirred up controversy last month after the Virginia Beach shootings killed 11 victims. Following the shooting, Beaver tweeted that he wasn’t interested in the opinions of people who “haven’t done anything active” to curb the escalation of mass shootings in the U.S.

“If you haven’t done anything active, yourself, to help the rampant American curse of shooting deaths, I don’t want to hear from you. And you can stuff your thoughts and prayers up your muzzle-loader,” he wrote.

In a series of tweets defending his opinion, he sardonically wrote that he anticipated losing followers over his stance “against gun deaths.”

Torn died on Thursday, July 4 at his home in Lakeville, Connecticut, a representative for the 88-year-old actor said on Monday night. The Larry Sanders Show actor was surrounded by his wife Amy Wright and daughters Katie Torn and Angelica Page at the time of his passing.