'Hercules' and 'Xena: Warrior Princess' throw down over who instigated Capitol riots

It was a clash of the titans on Twitter: Kevin Sorbo and Lucy Lawless threw down about Wednesday's riots at the U.S. Capitol, where supporters of President Trump forced their way into the building, caused damage and sent lawmakers and staff members into hiding.

The stars of the 1990s show "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and its spinoff "Xena: Warrior Princess" couldn't be more different on social media. He's a Trump-supporting Republican; her bio includes calls for clean energy and shout-outs to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sorbo retweeted a photo of some of the people who swarmed the U.S. Capitol that had been captioned, "Do these look like Trump supporters? Or Leftist agitators disguised as Trump supporters..." The actor added his own thoughts: "They don't look like patriots to me ..."

The image he shared included the shirtless, self-identified "QAnon shaman" in a Viking hat, Jake Angeli of Arizona, who has been identified as a fixture at right-wing political events in his home state.

Lawless showed up in the response thread Thursday morning with a message for her former costar.

"No, Peanut. They are not Patriots. They are your flying monkeys, homegrown terrorists, QAnon actors. They are the douchebags that go out and do the evil bidding of people like you who like to wind them up like toys and let them do their worst. #keepingYourFilthyHandsclean #enabler," she wrote.

Sorbo did not respond to her.

The brief exchange came after tweets earlier in the day where Sorbo advised those storming the Capitol to "Please be careful, do not act like ANTIFA. Respect the police and know they are mostly on our side, they are simply trying to do their job." Less than an hour later, he posted, "ANTIFA led the charge into the capitol building dressed as Trump supporters."

That conspiracy theory has since been debunked as more people in the mob are identified.

As of Friday, more than 80 people have been arrested connected with the Capitol riot, mostly for violating the 6 p.m. curfew that was placed on Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. More than a dozen, however, were charged with federal crimes, including one man prosecutors said was arrested near the Capitol building with a semi-automatic rifle and 11 Molotov cocktails.

"Were there Trump supporters up there? Absolutely. But they don’t understand what it means to be a patriot,” Kimberly Fletcher, founder and president of national nonprofit Moms for America, told The Times in a story published Friday. "That wasn’t the majority of the people who were there. That was just a minority who were stupid."

Lawless, meanwhile, had more important things to worry about.

"But now to more serious matters: the earth needs us, people! @GretaThunberg is telling hard truths. Get behind a climate/habitat saving org. We can do it!" she tweeted overnight.

Sorbo got right back to business as well, shifting his message Friday morning away from the riot and back to the pandemic lockdowns.

"The government:

"Shuts down the country

"Destroys people’s livelihoods

"Offers condolences with $600," he tweeted.

"Also the government:

“'Why are people mad at us?'”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.