Weinstein defends Moore’s ‘cowards’ comments

Mega-producer Harvey Weinstein is defending Michael Moore, saying the filmmaker “may have gotten misquoted” in his comments calling snipers “cowards” and suggesting the director may meet with the team behind “American Sniper.”

{mosads}When asked Tuesday about the brewing controversy surrounding Moore’s social media remarks, the film studio exec and Weinstein Company co-founder told “CBS This Morning” host Charlie Rose, “I think Michael Moore may have gotten misquoted. And I think that he and [the ‘American Sniper’ team] might get together, my inside sources tell me.”

Critics — including former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), among others — blasted Moore following a Sunday tweet in which he wrote that his uncle was killed by a sniper in World War II and, “We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.”

Many jumped on the liberal Hollywood veteran’s comments, calling them an attack on the new movie, “American Sniper,” starring Bradley Cooper as real-life Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in American military history. Moore later clarified in a Facebook post that he hadn’t mentioned “American Sniper” in his tweet.

When Rose asked Weinstein if Moore was backpedaling, he replied, “I don’t know about that. He might have been misquoted.” Weinstein praised Moore for a policy toward military veterans at a movie theater renovated by the Oscar-winning documentary maker, saying, “I will tell you that Michael’s theater, which we book a lot in Michigan, is probably the only theater I know that’s free to servicemen.”

“I think it’s something about his family looked at snipers a certain way and then that became a quote like ‘snipers are cowardly.’ It wasn’t a reaction, I don’t think, to this movie. I think people put two quotes together,” Weinstein said.

“But I think Michael’s going to come out today and clarify his position, from what I understand, about the whole sniper issue.”