Good Morning Britain may be known for its occasionally lively interviews, but even Susannah Reid and Ed Balls seemed taken aback by the approach pro-Trump comedian and actor Rob Schneider took during their interview with him this morning.
With Citizen Khan star Adil Ray and the former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls amongst its hosts, perhaps we might have expected the ITV show to have an unusual lineup for its election coverage.
But former Saturday Night Live regular Rob Schneider did manage to take the presenters by surprise this morning.
Not long after the interview started, he began to accuse the hosts of describing Trump as a racist and a misogynist.
Susannah Reid and Ed Balls seemed bemused at the claim, denying the claim that either of them had used those words.
When the duo tried to move the conversation on, Schneider stubbornly insisted that he had heard them use those words in their coverage.
“Are you sure you were watching our programme?” asked an exasperated Balls.
Things then took an even more bizarre turn, with the Muppets from Space star betting them £10,000 that they had in fact said those words.
They might have regretted their efforts to change subject, however, when Schneider went on to talk about one of his pet subjects – vaccinations.
It was perhaps his anti-vax beliefs that led him to initially back Robert F Kennedy Jr, before falling behind Donald Trump when the latter withdrew from the race. The association between the two goes back further, however, with Schneider starring alongside Trump in Home Alone 2.
Schneider later tweeted to say he had ‘fact-checked’ the presenters, posting a clip of Mehdi Hassan calling Trump a ‘racist’ and ‘a misogynist’ during GMB’s coverage.
Despite his aggressive approach, he had his supporters online, with some saying that he was taking these ‘annoyingly shrill presenters’ to task.
Others saw the interview for what it was. “This interview on #GMB with Rob Schneider is an absolute car crash! This guy is an absolute loose cannon”, tweeted one watcher.
But with Schneider holding a Worst Actor Razzie for his role in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised by this dismal performance.
Related: German government collapses after months of bitter infighting
