Hollywood celebrities are not known for their reticence regarding politics, a trend that has grown much more pronounced as social media has allowed more direct access to fans in a fashion that might sway voters. The withdrawal of President Joe Biden’s re-election bid on Sunday the 21st and his immediate endorsement of Kamala Harris to replace him on the Democrat ticket are already provoking comments from Hollywood royalty.
Actress, director, and vocalist Barbara Streisand, who has long been known as an outspoken supporter of the Democrat party, wrote on her X account of her gratitude for Biden’s efforts to uphold American democracy. She was one among a number of voices who chose to use the moment to honor the existing President for his term of service—other celebrities, though, had their focus more on the future.
Cher, for example, posted to her X account that she felt tortured by her belief that the Democrats can’t win in November without Biden at the top of the ticket. She proposed a split ticket and urged party members to think as far outside the box as they could.
Sheryl Lee Ralph, in reaction to the announcement, posted a photo of herself and the Vice President along with text trumpeting the endorsement.
These posts follow several weeks of public calls from high-profile Hollywood figures for the President to renounce his candidacy while there was still time to replace him. George Clooney, only a few weeks after being the star attraction at a record-breaking fundraiser for the president’s war chest, published an op-ed in the New York Times urging Biden to end his run.
The fundraiser attracted a veritable pantheon of movie gods and goddesses, from Julia Roberts to Jason Batemen to Jack Black—plus, of course, Clooney himself.
Clooney argued in his op-ed that the Democrat party should choose a new champion. Messy though the process would be, it would, in his view, awaken new voters to the party’s ideals.
