‘I just focused on reposting thoughts from smarter people,’ actress says in new interview
Sarah Silverman had a very simple reason as to why she kept her mouth shut during the 2024 presidential campaign: The vast majority of voters aren’t interested in hearing celebrities talk about politics.
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In 2020, Silverman was a vocal supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee.
But in the leadup to this year’s presidential contest between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the comedian kept quiet. In a new interview, Silverman says she decided to keep her opinions to herself because she got the sense that “no one wanted to hear from celebrities right now.”
“I was on the road with this tour, for one thing. A lot of people asked me if I was going to make a video or something. But my feeling was that no one wanted to hear from celebrities right now,” Silverman told the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“Maybe I was wrong,” she continued. “I just focused on reposting thoughts from smarter people. There is one thing I wish I had done. In 2008, I did something called The Great Schlep where I told young Jews to tell their grandparents they wouldn’t visit them again unless they voted for Obama. I should have done something like that again.”
“It (wouldn’t) have made a difference,” she admitted.
She jokingly said at the time that if Obama didn’t became president she was “going to blame the Jews.”
As for the actress’ current standup tour called Sarah Silverman: Postmortem, which touches down in Toronto on Jan. 31, she says she is choosing to skip talking about politics and instead focusing on her family struggles, including the deaths of her stepmother and biological father.
“This show is not at all political, for better or worse. I think it’s better, to be honest,” Silverman said. “What happened was, my stepmother and dad both died nine days apart and all I wanted to do was talk about them, starting with my dad’s eulogy. It’s happened organically. I’ve never thought of myself as relatable. I’ve always thought of myself as niche. But I was at a point where I wanted to roll into a ball, so I needed to be in touch with people, and it’s been awesome.”
Harris attracted a number of big-name celebrity endorsements during her campaign, including George Clooney, Sharon Stone, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, Cardi B and Julia Roberts.
Other famous names, including Mark Hamill, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Bridges, Will Ferrell, and Billy Eichner, lent their support as part of the “White Dudes for Harris” campaign.
“I qualify, man! I’m White, I’m a dude, and I’m for Harris,” Bridges said. “A woman president, man, how exciting!”
Winfrey denied that she was “paid a personal fee” for her endorsement, but talk of huge expenditures dogged Harris’ organizers in the weeks after the election.
In response to the Democrats woes, Trump said he would push the GOP to do “whatever we can do to help them.”