Henry Winkler: US facing ‘very scary time’

Henry Winkler says it’s hardly “Happy Days” for the United States as the country faces a “very scary” time amid former President Trump’s surrender at a Georgia jail.

“Nobody is above the law. Right?” Winkler told The Messenger in his Los Angeles home Saturday at a fundraiser for This is About Humanity, an organization that aims to support families at the border of the United States and Mexico.

“This country is at a very scary moment,” said Winkler, who played “Fonzie” on the 1970s sitcom.

“How can we so dislike each other just for having a point of view? That is insane … I mean, if you looked insanity up, that would be the definition,” Winkler said.

Winkler’s comments came after Trump surrendered to authorities in Georgia last week following an indictment by a grand jury on 13 criminal counts stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the Peach State.

It’s not the first time that 77-year-old Winkler — a Trump critic who joined some of the “Happy Days” cast for a virtual reunion benefitting the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in 2020 — has weighed in on the 45th president.

In 2017, Winkler said in an interview that Trump had “imposed a veneer that keeps him like he’s in bubble wrap, like he is not connected to, or doesn’t have the empathy to be connected, and has created this thing where do we love to hate him?”

“I don’t love hating him because I wish it was different,” Winkler said at the time.