Actor John Cusack admitted on June 17 that he shouldn’t have retweeted an anti-Semitic meme, claiming that “a bot got me.”

Cusack retweeted a post featuring a hand crushing down a group of people with a Star of David on the sleeve of the arm. The image also features a quote wrongly attributed to Voltaire and is typically attributed to neo-Nazi Kevin Strom. Cusack wrote in his since-deleted tweet, “Follow the money.”

This is disgusting pic.twitter.com/4b2RlPrNfL — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 17, 2019

Cusack later acknowledged that he shouldn’t have retweeted the tweet but claimed that the “context was a retweet about Palestinians hospitals being bombed.”

https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1140760112023388160

It stemmed from a defense of Israel bombing hospitals – by a candidate – RT @philledup: @johncusack Good catch — John Cusack (@johncusack) June 17, 2019

It’s was – but its context was a retweet about Palestinians hospitals being bombed – my bad on retweet – of an alt right image- RT @t you do understand now that the image was antisemitic even if that was not your intention — John Cusack (@johncusack) June 18, 2019

The American Jewish Committee tweeted, “If only John had some sort of Hot Tub Time Machine to go back in time and stop himself from retweeting this.”

If only John had some sort of Hot Tub Time Machine to go back in time and stop himself from retweeting this. https://t.co/l03NbQeJnT — American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) June 18, 2019

Others weighed in:

2. A bot got you? You defended your posting of it in several quote tweets before you deleted. Also why do your tweets look like you’re tweeting from 10 years ago. Use the twitter app dude. https://t.co/JGt0ubqYOg — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 17, 2019

3. John Cusack repeatedly defended his tweet before deleting it. His “bot” excuse is absurd. pic.twitter.com/Jm2NArFVEO — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) June 18, 2019

https://twitter.com/arielsobelle/status/1140786187671461888

That is literally the opposite of a bot getting you. And you misspelled "I'm deeply, deeply sorry for perpetuating vile, racist hate." https://t.co/9lyTe9isio — Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) June 17, 2019

Anti-Semitism is the world's oldest conspiracy theory. If your struggling to understand why John Cusack's tweet is so dangerous and has such a violent history behind it my article should help.https://t.co/SsRexe04ZB — Carly Pildis (@CarlyPildis) June 18, 2019

Where @johncusack retweets an antisemitic meme used by neo-Nazis and then apologises by saying he thought it was pro-Palestinian content. Give the man credit for admitting that there is hardly a distinction between neo-Nazi antisemitism and anti-Israel content. https://t.co/B4WZ9wdMDz — Alex Ryvchin (@AlexRyvchin) June 18, 2019

And note the beautiful little straw man he just built. Not a single person has said that criticism of Israeli policy, even when wrong-minded or incoherent, is antisemitic. But claiming Jews control the world, which is what @johncusack essentially said, is. https://t.co/w4iIcQbZgm — Alex Ryvchin (@AlexRyvchin) June 18, 2019

Cusack has starred in “Being John Malkovich,” “Say Anything” and “The Sure Thing.”