Avid Bernie Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon made headlines in 2016 when she suggested to Chris Hayes that Donald Trump could bring on the revolution progressives desire — and she says that’s “absolutely” happening now but wants to reaffirm she is in no way defending “really dangerous” Trump.
“I’m certainly not in any way defending Trump, let me go on the record to say that, because people seem to want to say that I am,” Sarandon said in an interview with Vulture.
“I think he’s a horrible person, and he’s really dangerous,” she added. “But the good news about Trump is that he has exposed all the cracks that are in our system, and now the light can get in.”
“When you look at what happened with the deportation of people in this country, when you look at our policies in a lot of other areas, when you look at who has been in our government, money has been running our country for a long time, and this is not something new,” she said.
“Now we have a guy who is so clumsy and so obvious that suddenly people are awake, and that’s a very good thing. Do you want to call it the revolution? Certainly, there are many more people, because of Bernie Sanders, that are running for these local offices.”
She added that for the past eight years, the U.S. had a “cool guy president” and that Trump is bringing transparency to the table “because he’s so obvious.”
She suggested that progressives have to “do what the Tea Party did” and start building coalitions and placing candidates at the local level.
“The Democrats didn’t pay attention to the bottom; they didn’t pay attention to the country, and now the country is taking over,” she said. “There’s no progressive party anymore that represents the working people.”
She also noted the recent activity at the grassroots level. “When you see these town-hall meetings where people are going and holding their representatives responsible and demanding answers — that, to me, is a revolution; you’ve never seen that before. That’s a really, really healthy sign. And I have faith in this country. Traveling all around with Bernie made me love this country more and more. There are patriots everywhere who are kind and generous and accepting and inclusive. The heart of America is not what you hear from his mouth at all.”
Last March, Sarandon and Debra Messing feuded publicly on Twitter about the election. They went at it on Twitter after Sarandon, when asked how she’ll vote if Bernie Sanders doesn’t win the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton, said she is “going to see what happens.”
Jamie Lee Curtis ignited the feud, tweeting, “I respect but disagree with @SusanSarandon. A possible support of Trump over @HillaryClinton is dangerous 2 women, minorities and immigrants.”
Sarandon was quick to explain her comments, made on MSNBC, which many took as support for Donald Trump over Clinton.
“Of course I would never support Trump for any reason,” Sarandon responded. “If you watch the interview you’ll see that’s not what I said.”
Shortly after Sarandon’s response, Debra Messing entered the fray with not just one tweet, but a full-on assault via Twitter, calling the elder actress’ ideas “insane.”
About the feud, Sarandon now said, “I haven’t spoken to Debra, but I would certainly look forward to any opportunity to say hello.”
Read her entire interview with Vulture here.