Dan Aykroyd Fires Back at Leslie Jones Twitter Haters

Following Leslie Jones’ announcement that she was leaving Twitter after being targeted by racist and sexist trolls, original Ghostbuster and producer of the all-female reboot Dan Aykroyd quickly made his views on the situation clear. The 64-year-old actor spoke out in defense of Jones in an interview with ET Canada Tuesday night, slamming those who had attacked her online.

“Well first of all she’s a great writer, great comedian and comes from a real urban background where she had a lot of hardship and she’s channelling that into a great achievement and a great career,” he said. “These people, first of all, they’re insignificant gnats. They’re losers, they have no lives of their own, they can probably barely pay for the wifi they’re using.”

And Aykroyd didn’t stop there, going on to give a detailed description of what type of people he thinks these haters are. “I would say you’re looking at obese white men between 50 and 60 who are active Klan members, or members of the Aryan Nation, and there are millions of them,” he said. “I’m afraid to say that contingency will be voting for the Republican ticket, pretty much that’s what the statistics are indicating, that there’s a lot of white racist hatred out there that’s going to channel into a support for the Republican ticket, maybe in the false belief that these people share their views.”

However, he clarified that he doesn’t believe Donald Trump and his running mate support these sentiments. “I don’t think that Trump and [vice presidential nominee Mike] Pence are as racist as the people who attacked Leslie Jones, I really don’t. Trump may be saying some things to go that way to get some votes but — well I don’t know.”