On Friday (4/16), Iced Earth founder, guitarist and songwriter Jon Schaffer became the first among those arrested in connection with the pro-Trump riot at the US Capitol in January to plead guilty for his role. Specifically, he's pled guilty to two charges, obstruction of an official proceeding and entering a building with a dangerous weapon. It was also revealed that he's agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and provide them with information. Naturally, his fellow metal musicians have things to say about that, including Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. On Twitter, he wrote, "THIS PIECE OF SHIT IS AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE METAL COMMUNITY! First he shames us with his terrorist actions on in DC, and THEN he becomes a rat to his own people for a lighter sentence! MAN THE FUCK UP! Own your shit! If you do the crime, do the time!"
"I'm glad for our country's sake that he's ratting," Snider continued, "but it speaks volumes about the man he is. I was raised differently. You commit a crime, you shut up and take your punishment. You NEVER throw others under the bus. And you can bet your ass they aren't water boarding this POS."
"How do you feel about him being the first to plead guilty and cooperating with the Feds to lessen his sentence? Not what I call stand up," Snider wrote in response to a someone who commented, "At least he had the balls to stand up for what he believes in!!!!!"
"Let me be clear on this: No one should ever rat out or throw their friends, families or cohorts under the bus," he went on. "That's pussy bullshit. It's a problem with today's society. Everyone is so 'tough' until they get caught. Then they are quick to blame everyone else."
Meanwhile, Metal Hammer recently asked Cannibal Corpse vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher what he thought about a meme comparing him to Schaffer that's been circulating:
"At first, when all that happened, I was just like, 'Wow, dude what are you thinking?,'" Corpsegrinder told Metal Hammer. "I understand if you think some things are not right in the country, but I would never go that extreme. I think my wife saw the meme first and she showed it to me. I was like, well that's good, I'm glad some people think that highly of me. I think it's justified at least on the basis that I would not be doing anything like that. But listen, I'm not trying to judge him."
