Twitter Reacts To Renee Baio, Wife Of Scott Baio, For Controversial Sandy Hook Tweet
Renee Baio, the wife of actor Scott Baio, received condemnation from Twitter users after telling a woman who lost her child in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that "maybe your children are in a better place." The since-deleted tweet was a response to Nelba Marquez-Greene, a woman whose Twitter bio includes that her daughter died and her son survived the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children dead.
Renee Baio, a mother of two children who also had suffered a miscarriage after 11 weeks, deleted the controversial tweet after she was hit with a wave of backlash. She also switched her public Twitter account to private.
Renee Baio wrote: "I'm sorry 4 your loss @Nebla_MG however, maybe your children are in a better place. Your ugliness knows no bounds! I'll pray for you."
After she deleted the comment, New York Magazine and Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali shared a screenshot of the tweet. He captioned the tweet, "Wow, @MrsScottBaio, who is @ScottBaio's wife, sent this tweet to a Sandy Hook mother. Disgusting."
Marquez-Green responded to the comment and requested that those who oppose Renee Baio's comments should not be nasty to the Baio family.
"Like so many grieving families and hurting people before us, we want to leave the world better. If you can, pray for the Baios," Marquez-Green wrote. "If that's not your thing, we respect that too. But please do not be nasty to them in our name."
But social media users weren't having it. Some suggested that the comments should be sent to Twitter for review.
"This is the wife of @ScottBaio - someone the president touted as a supporter. She is insulting the mother of a #SandyHookvictim," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand, wrote on Twitter: "There's been so much ugliness since the election. Such a degradation of morals and empathy and compassion."
Another user tweeted: "It must be terrible to be married to Scott Baio, but apparently she feels the need to be a horrible person in her own right." A third user wrote: "Wow. I am nearly speechless, @MrsScottBaio. What an outrageously cruel response. I hope you have the good sense to offer a sincere apology."
Renee Baio has not issued a statement about her tweet. Her comments to Marquez-Green stemmed from a Twitter controversy Scott Baio faced Thursday.
The "Happy Days" star retweeted a Sandy Hook truther meme. The meme equated a Sandy Hook victim's mother to Susan Bro, who is the mother of Charlotteville victim Heather Heyer. The tweet argued that the moms were actors.
"In retrospect, I wish I had thought longer about retweeting that conspiracy photo. I shouldn't have sent it. It was wrong," Scott Baio wrote in a tweet.
He also issued a direct apology to Team Vicki Soto's Twitter account.
The Baios are no stranger to controversy. Scott Baio received heavy criticism after he made comments in April about his late co-star, Erin Moran. He claimed on New York's WABC radio that Moran "was just an insecure human being and fell into this world of drugs and alcohol."
In January 2010, he came under fire for tweeting an unflattering photo of Michelle Obama. The 56-year-old New York native also claimed in December 2016 that the wife of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith physically attacked him for his public support of Donald Trump.
Scott Baio and Renee Baio were married in 2007. Renee Baio was diagnosed with a brain tumor in June 2015.
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