The co-hosts of ABC’s The View, a morning talk show where a group of radical left-wing women — along with a token “Republican” — banter and pontificate on news of the day and politics, slammed actor Billy Bob Thornton, star of the incredibly popular Landman series on Paramount+, for opting not to talk about politics, proclaiming that his “silence is complicity.”
Thornton made a recent appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast where he ripped into entertainers across mediums for constantly talking about politics, citing infamous comedian and button pusher, Ricky Gervais, who once advised actors at award shows to “get your little award and f**k off.” Thornton told Mandel, “I don’t know anything about politics.”
“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,” he added. The ABC hosts were none too pleased with Thornton for his comments. While showing a clip of his interview with Mandel, co-host Joy Behar called the actor stupid, going on to say, “Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are.”
Fellow co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in, saying, “We are at a crisis point in this country. I think democracy is participatory.” According to Breitbart News, she then added, “I think when you have a platform, that means I have an outsized voice and when you have a platform, 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.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, another co-host, pointed out that her colleagues once tore actor George Clooney a new one for his activism when he called for former President Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic Party nominee during the 2024 presidential election. “A lot of this table criticized George Clooney when he wrote his Biden op-ed,” Griffin stated.
“That is a celebrity using his voice, saying what he believes, it can’t just be when they agree with your position,” Griffin added in a rare moment of clarity and common sense. Behar pushed back saying that she’s exercising her free speech by criticizing Thornton, just as it is Thornton’s free speech to call individuals out for sharing their political beliefs.
Griffin then took entertainers to the woodshed for engaging in what she referred to as “slacktivism” and just sharing thoughts and opinions on issues without possessing real knowledge on what they are talking about. She then added, “I don’t think we should bully people, saying, ‘You have to speak out.'” Co-host Sara Haines then said that too many celebrities are preaching to the choir and not helping their causes.
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A user commented on the Breitbart story saying that Thornton not sharing his opinions on politics had nothing to do with complicity, but was a moral stand. “It has nothing to do with complicity, it has to do with morals. Thornton would have to lie to agree with the morons on The View and he is a moralistic person who doesn’t want to lie for the cretins.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video