Kumail Nanjiani and Thomas Middleditch claim they were harassed by Donald Trump supporters while out at a bar in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood on Friday, November 11. The Silicon Valley costars took to Twitter to detail the harrowing incident, which occurred just days after Trump was elected president of the United States.
“Was at a bar last night with @Middleditch. At the end of the night, 2 white dudes, 20’s, who’d been there for hours came up to us,” Nanjiani, 38, wrote on Saturday, November 12. “‘We’re big fans of you guys. (To Thomas) I trolled you on twitter yesterday.'”
Then, the comedic duo’s encounter with the fans turned ugly. “He goes on to say how we’re wrong about Trump,” Nanjiani continued. “I go ‘Hey we don’t wanna discuss politics right now.’ His friends goes ‘oh they’re cucks.’ Then starts yelling at us. ‘CUCKS CUCKS CUCKS!’ He starts getting in my face. Thomas puts his hand on the dude’s chest to stop him. ‘Don’t touch me you cuck. Wanna go outside?'” (Cuck is short for cuckservative, a new epithet used by alt-right conservatives to describe leftist individuals.)
“At this point, the bouncer runs over, grabs them, kicks them out,” the Pakistani-American actor recounted. “The bartender is awesome & apologetic. Thomas & I are stunned. This happened at a bar in LA surrounded by ppl. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be someone who looks like me in other parts. We can’t let hate/racism/bigotry/sexism be normalized. If something happens, be safe, but let it be known we won’t stand for this. Many ppl are like ‘just cuz I voted for Trump doesn’t mean I’m racist/sexist.’ Ok, but at best, you ignored it, you overlooked it. We thought Internet would give us access to ppl w different points of view. Instead it gives us access to many ppl w the same point of view.”
Middleditch, 34, also shared details of the encounter on Twitter, writing, “Out with @kumailn; for no reason two dudes came at us with Trump right wing s–t, calling us ‘cucks.’ Never in my life. I hate this. Week 1. … Btw, ‘cuck’ is an Alt Right term. Look it up, it’s not positive.”
The HBO stars’ terrifying story comes on the heels of Trump’s unexpected presidential victory, which sparked countless nationwide protests in cities such as New York City and Chicago. The POTUS-elect, 70, initially slammed the protests as “very unfair,” but later tweeted: “Love the fact that the small groups of protestors last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!”
