Former TV Superman Dean Cain lost it defending himself from public ridicule for joining up to help with Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.
“I don’t understand why you had to go a ‘former, untrained actor’—I’m not untrained!” Cain, best known for his starring role in ABC’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, raged at former Republican strategist turned Trump critic Tim Miller.
The pair got into it during a joint appearance on Piers Morgan: Uncensored after Miller—who served as Jeb Bush’s comms director and is now writer-at-large for The Bulwark and the host of the outlet’s podcast— questioned whether Cain is really qualified for his latest role as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
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“Should I say that because you’re a former Republican strategist, you have no say on anything?” Cain shot back. “That’s baloney!”
Miller isn’t alone. Late-night hosts like John Oliver and Bill Maher have also lately pounded Cain over his controversial new gig, with comedian Margaret Cho pointing out last week that, as someone with Japanese heritage, he has previously stated he has relatives who were detained in American internment camps during World War II.
Tangling with Miller on Monday, Cain argued he is indeed qualified for his new position because he has had some training—as a volunteer sheriff’s deputy and reserve police officer. When the former GOP strategist attempted to ask what rights migrants have when ICE show up at their door, Cain promptly blasted Miller for having interrupted him.
“Let me finish my sentence… let me finish my sentence please… let me finish my sentence, please!” the former TV star fumed. “Denigrating someone because they’re doing this, because of what they used to do, or what they do, or whether they’re an actor, or a writer, or a newscaster, is ridiculous. It’s an ad hominem attack, it’s wrong.”
After he was asked the same question again, Cain conceded that he’s “not an ICE agent yet,” to which Miller replied, “Oh, ok… so you are an untrained, former actor?”
Cain then appeared to take issue with Miller neglecting the fact he’s “a former professional football player too,” blasting the ex-strategist for talking “like you know what you’re saying” and trying to “denigrate it like it’s something negative.”
“You don’t know the job,” Miller shrugged. “That’s why it’s negative.”
Cain shot back by arguing that migrants “have all the due process rights of anybody in this country,” albeit without addressing the Department of Homeland Security’s track record under the second Trump administration.
That has included denying bond hearings for immigration detainees, allegedly prohibiting access to lawyers, and fast-tracking deportations to third countries.
On the show, Morgan also asked Cain to respond to John Oliver’s segment mocking ICE for hiring him, with Oliver making references to Cain’s filmography.
“I’m just saying, when you are reduced to pinning a badge on the 59-year-old star of The Dog Who Saved Christmas, The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, The Dog Who Saved The Holidays, The Dog Who Saved Halloween, The Dog Who Saved Easter, and The Dog Who Saved Summer, maybe you are in trouble,” Oliver said on Last Week Tonight. “Although on the plus side, no need for that guy to wear a mask, because the chances of anyone recognizing him are f---ing zero.”
“You can make the cheap jibes,” Cain told Morgan. “And it’s funny. Bill Maher did it and, let’s see, a couple of our congressmen did it too—but the fact that I’m being, you know, pilloried or attacked for joining up with a federal law enforcement agency is insane.”
