Japan Times
Oscar-winner Sarandon ”˜not sure’ about backing Clinton if Sanders fails to get nod but is firm against Trump
March 30, 2016
NEW YORK ”“ Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon, star of cult classic “Thelma and Louise,” has expressed reservations about voting for Hillary Clinton in the U.S. election, even if the opponent is Donald Trump.
The prominent actress is a high-profile campaigner for leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who faces a near-impossible task in trying to wrest the Democratic nomination from frontrunner Clinton.
“That’s a legitimate concern because they’re very passionate and very principled,” Sarandon, 69, told MSNBC on Monday when asked about fears that Sanders’s supporters would not support Clinton if he loses the nomination.
“I think Bernie would probably encourage people (to back Clinton if he lost) because he doesn’t have any ego in this thing,” she said. “But I think a lot of people are, ”˜Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to do that.'”
Asked about her own vote in the event that Clinton faces Republican front-runner Trump, who has insulted women, Mexicans and Muslims in a volatile campaign, she replied: “I don’t know. I’m going to see what happens.
“Really,” she added when the TV interviewer expressed shock.
But on Tuesday she rejected suggestions that she would rather vote for Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, than the candidate seeking to make history as the first female American president.
“LOL that I would ever vote Trump,” she tweeted, linking to a news article quoting her television interview the night before.
The actress told MSNBC said she was tired of the status quo and wanted a candidate who had not accepted money from the fracking industry, pharmaceutical giants or Wall Street.
She had appeared to imply that Trump, a political outsider, could ultimately lead to more radical upheaval than Clinton.
“Some people feel Trump will bring revolution immediately,” she said. “If he gets in, then things will really explode,” she said.
Sarandon is one of a clutch of celebrity supporters of Sanders. Others include film star Danny DeVito and singer Bette Midler. Clinton has a galaxy of famous supporters in her corner.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Clinton supporter, fanned controversy earlier this year over her remark that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”
A Qunnipiac University poll found last week that Clinton would beat Trump 46 to 40 percent in a general election match-up, while Sanders would hypothetically beat the New York businessman 52 to 38 percent.
