The co-hosts of ABC’s The View became more at odds with one another than usual over an actor’s stance on politically outspoken celebrities.
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During the talk show’s latest episode, the co-hosts criticized actor Billy Bob Thornton for criticizing fellow celebrities for speaking out about their political views.
“Get your little award and f— off,” he declared while appearing on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast earlier this month. The Armageddon star noted he’s not one to use his platform to preach his political or personal views to others.
“I don’t know anything about politics,” he continued. “I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don’t want to force it down somebody else’s throat because I’m not an expert on that.”
Although Whoopi Goldberg seemed to respect Thornton’s stance, Joy Behar said, “Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are.”
Agreeing with Behar, Sunny Hostin said, “We are at a crisis point in this country. I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform, that means I have an outsized voice, and when you have a platform.”
She then noted, “I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what’s going on in this country and my view silence is complicity. We need every single ally to speak out.”
One Co-Host Pointed Out the Hypocrisy of the Discussion
As things got heated, Alyssa Farah Griffin reminded her fellow co-hosts that they previously told George Clooney not to discuss his stance publicly.
“A, Billy Bob Thornton is one of my favorite actors. I’m never going to say a bad word about him, starting with that,” she pointed out. “But B, a lot of this table criticized George Clooney when he wrote his Biden op-ed. That is a celebrity using his voice, saying what he believes, it can’t just be when they agree with your position.”
In response, Behar said, “He can say it, and I can criticize it; that’s called free speech.”
Griffin then discussed “slackivism,” which is when celebrities feel righteous about speaking out politically. However, the outspoken celebrities are not meaningfully involved in political work.
“I don’t think we should bully people,” she noted. “Saying, ‘You have to speak out.”
Fellow co-host Sara Haines agreed with Griffin. She noted that celebrities who make political statements are just preaching to others who already agree with them.