No, Alec Baldwin did not say ‘It felt good to shoot that bitch’
The screenshot of Baldwin's original post has been manipulated.
CLAIM
A screenshot shared by a Twitter user purported to show a post from the Instagram account of actor Alec Balwin, with the caption, "God, it felt good to shoot that bitch".
RATING
The claim is false. The screenshot of Baldwin's original post has been manipulated.
BACKGROUND
On May 17, a Twitter account with the username @DaniGGerman shared an image of a screenshot purporting to be from the Instagram account of actor Alec Balwin. The image shows Baldwin appearing to be lying in bed with the caption, "God, it felt good to shoot that bitch."
The caption appears to be making reference to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Baldwin's movie 'Rust' in October 2021.
"Why on earth would he say this???," the user tweeted.
https://twitter.com/DaniGGerman/status/1658634941075259394
METHOD
Navigating to Baldwin's verified Instagram account, we see the same photograph, with the same username, however, the photo appears with the caption: "God, it felt good to shave off that beard…"
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsSsFJjOwgD/
The screenshot posted on Twitter has been edited with a new caption
Baldwin'post was shared on May 16 - one day before @DaniGGerman's screenshot, while @DaniGGerman's screenshot also does not contain a blue verified checkmark in the caption, whereas Baldwin's original post does.
From this we can conclude that the screenshot posted on Twitter has been edited with a new caption.
RATING
The claim is false. The screenshot of Baldwin's original post has been manipulated.
SOURCES
Twitter. (2023). Available at: https://twitter.com/DaniGGerman/status/1658634941075259394 [Accessed 18 May 2023].
Baldwin, A. (2023). God, it felt good to shave off that beard…. [online] Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsSsFJjOwgD/ [Accessed 18 May 2023].