Scott Baio Cries 'Fake News', Blames Trump Critics for Fallout Over Erin Moran Drug Comment

Scott Baio took a beating on social media Monday following news that Erin Moran, his "Joanie Loves Chachi" co-star, most likely died of stage four cancer instead of a drug overdose as many (including Baio) suspected. Labelling it as "Fake News," Baio is blaming his support of President Donald Trump for the outrage.

As reported by AP, the firestorm of criticism against Baio stemmed from a Monday morning interview with Baio on New York's ABC talk radio in which he said of Moran "if you do drugs or drink, you're going to die." Baio later added in the interview that he didn't know for certain if drugs or alcohol were the cause.

Later in the day when it was learned that Moran's cause of death was likely complications from stage four cancer, Baio took a blasting on social media. And while he was quick to clarify his comments on Twitter by responding "I said 'IF'," one tweet from a television writer struck a chord with Baio.

Chase Mitchell, a writer for "The Tonight Show," took to Twitter to retweet two posts about Moran's death published by Variety. One tweet was about Baio's speculation that drugs and alcohol contributed to Moran's death. The other tweet was about her cancer diagnosis.

Rather than be encumbered with Twitter's 140 character limit, Baio turned to Facebook with a lengthy post to clarify his comments. The post in part, reads:

Monday, April 24th at 6AM Pacific time I did a live radio interview. I was asked ONLY about Erin's troubled past due to drug & alcohol abuse. I was still upset and said I felt that living that kind of a lifestyle will catch up with you and nothing good would come of it.

Now it seems every news outlet & tabloid wants to paint a different picture of me and of what really happened. They're stating that I'm saying drugs caused her to die after it was reported stage 4 cancer. This is so wrong! Now I truly understand the meaning of "Fake News". This is crazy.