‘General Hospital’ actor Ingo Rademacher, who was fired from the venerable soap opera for what Disney-owned ABC claimed was his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, is appealing his previous lawsuit and claiming evidence of political animus towards him.
Mr. Rademacher, during a recent interview with Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham, detailed what his legal team found during the legal discovery process, including evidence of political animus towards him, which he said is the real reason he was fired.
Actor Says Firing Over Vax Non-Compliance Was A Pretext
“So yes ... I was fired for not complying with the vaccine mandate, but I had kind of suspicions about maybe that it was political because in 2020, I started speaking out, you know I started speaking my political views on my social media accounts, Twitter and my Instagram, because I thought you know, that was my right—little did I know,” Mr. Rademacher told Ms. Basham during The Daily Wire’s Jan. 13th Morning Wire podcast.According to the actor, those views included his saying, in 2021, that the COVID-19 vaccine was never designed to stop the spread of the virus. In another social media post, the actor expressed his view that biological men who identify as trans are celebrated in a way that devalues female achievement by taking honors that once belonged to biological women away from them.
In essence, Mr. Rademacher told Ms. Basham he was fired for his general criticism of the “media narrative.”
Mr. Rademacher’s Legal Team: ABC Neglected His Rights
“ABC had a duty to accommodate Ingo,” reads one of Mr. Rademacher’s legal team’s filings, according to the Daily Wire. “Instead, it put him through a sham process that was designed to fail, and which was meant to cover up the real reason for Ingo’s termination: his political views.”The Epoch Times reached out to ABC for comment. Previously, lawyers for the company have insisted that such evidence didn’t exist, according to Mr. Rademacher.
Fellow Fired GH Cast Member Returns to Show
At the conclusion of the recent Jan. 4 prime-time special “General Hospital: 60 Years of Stars and Storytelling,” fellow “General Hospital” star Steve Burton announced he was returning to the show. Mr. Burton had been let go for not complying with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate by Disney/ABC.In the video, Mr. Rademacher expounded on how he was fired for not complying with the vaccine mandate. However, in the discovery process, he and his legal team discovered that the show’s producers had actually been hoping to fire him prior to that, because of his personal views.
Firing Has Negatively Impacted Soap Star’s Family
Mr. Rademacher went on to express how much he and his family were hurt by his firing and that he is fighting for anyone who has been let go from a job for the same reasons.In his interview with Ms. Basham, he cited what transpired with “The Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano—who was fired from Disney-owned Lucasfilm in 2021—as an example of the same political discrimination he’s experienced.
“When she started speaking out against the narrative, they started looking for any post of hers that they could use to fire her,” he said. “And they didn’t even hide it.”
Ms, Basham also mentioned that fellow “General Hospital” cast mate Nancy Lee Grahn seemed to celebrate Mr. Rademacher’s firing openly online. Ms. Grahn has been known to voice her own left-leaning social and political views on social media.
Rademacher Fights for Freedom of Speech
Still, Mr. Rademacher said he didn’t mind working with someone like Ms. Grahn, who voices views that differ widely from his own. For him, it comes down to freedom of speech, which he supports for her as well as for himself.“If you want to talk about your political views and social views on your social media account, which is what she does, then I get to enjoy the same right,” said Mr. Rademacher. “Now, she can disagree with me, and we can argue about it—not at work, obviously. But also, I don’t have a problem working with people that I don’t agree with. It doesn’t bother me ...”
As Mr. Rademacher put it earlier in his discussion with Ms. Basham: “Freedom of speech is at the heart of a well-functioning country. We have to have debate and nobody wants to debate any more. They just want to call you names, try to smear you as much as possible, which is what happened with me.”