Showbiz Figures Counter Hollywood Calls For Joe Biden To Drop Out; Octavia Spencer Appears At Rally, Kim Novak Says It’s Time To “Stand With Him”
After a week in which a chorus of industry voices, including George Clooney and Rob Reiner, called on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, there is a counter series of voices speaking out in support of the president’s decision to stay in.
Before Biden gave a feisty speech at a Michigan rally, actress Octavia Spencer said that the state showed that “true tested fighters have shown the world that Americans know how to get back on their feet.”
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She then made the case against Donald Trump.
“Do we trust a leader who has kept his promises and fought every day to make life better for all of us? Or do we trust a convicted felon? Joe Biden works for you. Donald Trump works for himself.”
Kim Novak, the 91-year-old legendary star of Vertigo and Pal Joey, gave a statement of support today. Referring to the ups and downs of a career, she said, “I know all about falling down and getting back up,” she said. “I can relate to Joe Biden,” she said. “Sure, I move slowly at my age, and often screw up on names and even remembering dates – yet I can still be trusted for honesty and making good on my promises. We risk losing our country and all our freedoms if we do not speak out and stand with him in this election. Yes, time has taken its toll on his body, as it has on mine. I’m slower now and often forget named and even mix up numbers…but I have never forgotten who I am and what I stand for. I truly believe that Joe Biden would not be staying in this race if he did not believe, know, that he could win and save our county and all its rights and freedoms.”
Others who are still backing Biden staying in the race include George Takei, the actor and activist, who wrote on X/Twitter on Friday, “The sheer arrogance of the pundits and certain celebrities who think they get to decide who the nominee will be. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. The base is with Joe Biden. Get on board and start working for the win.”
On the fundraising side, James Costos, who hosted Biden at his home for his first 2020 and 2024 Los Angeles events, said that he was still backing Biden. In a statement, Costos said that he also was at the Los Angeles fundraiser last month that Clooney referred to in his New York Times op ed. Clooney compared Biden’s appearance at the L.A. event to the president’s halting and feeble performance at the CNN presidential debate nearly two weeks later.
But Costos said that he “was one of the cohosts raising into the event with many donors and supporters who attended with me, in fact for many hours with the President, and if he was tired, who can blame a guy that traveled a long time from Europe to LA in a day to be with us?
“And as a response to others opinions that came out of the event and the [Clooney] op-ed…all I have to say is that I was proud to be there and I’m proud to be with the President now, I’m firmly committed to supporting and respecting President Biden and the Biden-Harris ticket.”
Biden also got words of support from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who wrote that he was “the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump — a demagogue and pathological liar.”
Sanders wrote, “Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.”
At the Michigan event, Biden said that he was running “and we are going to win,” while telling the crowd, “It’s time to stop treating politics like entertainment.” He also criticized reporters for focusing so much on his gaffes and not his rivals.
Last week, writer-producer Damon Lindelof called on the industry to cut off the Hollywood ATM if Biden stayed in the race, reflecting the anxieties of many entertainment donors and supporters in the wake of the presidential debate.
Earlier on Friday, Reiner reiterated his call for Biden to step down. “If Biden stays in the race, every day from now until Nov.5, the focus will be on whether or not he falters,” Reiner wrote. “To save Democracy, this cannot be a referendum on Joe Biden. It must be a referendum on a Convicted Felon who wants destroy 250 years of self rule. Biden must step down.”
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