Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon doesn't think President Joe Biden can win his re-election bid against former President Donald Trump — and that the current president should step down from his party's ticket.
“Yes,” she said enthusiastically when asked Wednesday evening whether the president should withdraw. “Obviously there are a lot of people in the party who feel the same way.”
“I don't think the dust has settled on our options,” she said. diverse On Thursday night at the New York premiere of “The Fabulous Four,” a summer comedy starring Sarandon alongside Sheryl Lee Ralph, Megan Mullally and Bette Midler.
“I think it's obvious [why he should step down]“Long before the age issue came into play, hundreds of thousands of uncommitted voters in swing states, due to the war in Gaza, were putting his potential election at risk,” she continued.
Sarandon joins a number of Hollywood Democrats who have called on President Biden to step down, most notably George Clooney, who wrote an op-ed in The New York Times earlier this month calling on the president to step down.
Like Clooney, Sarandon is known as an advocate and a well-known player in Democratic politics. Over the years, her political presence has overshadowed and, more recently, dominated her acting career.
Sarandon was an early and vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders, for whom she campaigned extensively in 2016. When Sanders failed to win the Democratic nomination, Sarandon endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein over Hillary Clinton. Clinton later said in her 2017 memoir that Sarandon's endorsement of Stein was a blow to her campaign in key swing states.
In November 2023, Sarandon was dropped by the United Talent Agency after she spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York. In her speech, Sarandon said that frightened Jewish Americans were “getting a taste of what it's like to be Muslim in this country.”
Sarandon remains an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights, wearing a pro-Palestinian button on the red carpet Thursday night.
In the first presentation, she said that her support for the Palestinian cause in Gaza — and her denunciation of the Biden administration’s handling of the war — had already distanced her from the current Democratic ticket.
“For me, more than the race issue, it is the fact that I am paying the price for genocide, and for me that is a very important issue,” she said. diverseWhen asked, Sarandon said she does not plan to support a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Regarding the film that Sarandon participated in to promote, she said that she was happy to participate in a light-hearted summer comedy film. She added: “I always have fun.”
“It celebrates friendships, women, tolerance, and it’s also silly,” she said of the film, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. “We had a great time. I don’t think we expected it to be a huge social commentary. I’m also always looking for an opportunity to work with women. They usually don’t put more than two women in a film.”
Sheryl Lee Ralph.
Christina Baumfree for Variety
And on the red carpet, she was joined by cast member (and recent Emmy nominee) Ralph, who had a different twist to offer.
“We are in absolute chaos, and to me, this is the summer movie you didn’t know you needed. This is the movie that will bring you calm,” she said.
“If this were a scene in any political drama,” Ralph continued, commenting on our political environment, “people would say this would never happen in this country, and we are not those people. That’s what they would say. You can’t write a script for this.”
