Bernie Sanders surrogate Susan Sarandon found herself deep in Hillary Clinton territory Tuesday morning when she sat down with the hosts of The View. But in making her argument about why women should not be ashamed to vote against a female candidate, she appeared to win them over, at least to some small degree.
Sarandon found an ally in co-host Raven-Symoné, who, after admitting she is new to talking about politics, said she likes that the actress and activist supports Sanders. “I think that’s very interesting, you not feeling pressure to support Hillary,” she said. “I feel like some women might feel pressure.”
“There certainly was pressure,” Sarandon replied. “There’s been so many statements and shaming.” She caused a bit of an uproar last month when she said she didn’t know if she could bring herself to vote for Clinton in a general election and even implied that Donald Trump might be better for American democracy because he “will bring the revolution immediately if he gets in.”
Asked about the controversy by Bill Maher last week, Sarandon refused to answer one way or another about what she will do if Sanders loses. “I’m not even admitting that she’s going to get the nomination,” she said. “I’m not going there, no.”
“And don’t get me wrong, the idea of a woman president I know will happen and I hope someday it can be the daughter of someone who’s not rich, who’s not married to someone who was a president, that that can happen in this country,” Sarandon said to applause from The View’s audience Tuesday. “It’s not going to happen as long as we have Citizens United.” She described Sanders as “the only person that’s not connected to the machine,” adding “that’s why I’m so excited because there’s never been a candidate, nor will there ever be a candidate in my lifetime, who hasn’t taken money from Wall Street, from super PACs, from Monsanto, from fracking, and I want someone with that moral commitment to people.”
Later in the segment, Sarandon agreed with the suggestion that there are more “in-the-closet Bernie lovers” out there than people realize. “Absolutely,” she said. “Because if you’re a woman, everybody dumps on you like, ‘How can you be a feminist?’” and vote for Sanders. She also said she knows some superdelegates who have expressed regret to Sanders about getting behind Clinton so early.
“The fact of the matter is that he’s favored in the polls to beat Trump, and so when people say, ‘I don’t know if he can do it,’ it’s because they’re getting their news from other places,” Sarandon said. “The millennials were online really early so they’re all down. That’s what’s so exciting to see in this country, people saying, ‘You know, I want to fight for this guy. I’m going to fly to this state that’s so far away and leave my job for two weeks.’ I’m just so moved by the passion in these groups when I have introduced him and he’s so—he’s so authentic.”
“It’s a great thing,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg admitted. “I mean the idea that people are engaged again.”
