Bradley Whitford is a big Democrat and Democratic activist. He did appearances and speeches for the Harris-Walz campaign, and he and his old coworkers from The West Wing reunited to do some stuff to support the Democratic Party. Whitford happened to be in Washington DC on Wednesday, and he spoke to the Independent outside of the White House just hours after the election was called for Donald Trump:
Actor Bradley Whitford from The West Wing and The Handmaid’s Tale wants Democrats to avoid falling into “despair” after Donald Trump’s second victory, he told The Independent in an exclusive interview. Whitford, known for his Emmy-winning West Wing performance as the firebrand political strategist Josh Lyman, said he was surprised by Trump’s decisive win. The 65-year-old has long been a Democratic ally, and most recently spoke at a Harris rally in Wisconsin on October 22.
“I absolutely thought we were going to win,” Whitford told The Independent outside the White House on Wednesday afternoon, less than 12 hours after Donald Trump secured his second term. “I thought it was going to be closer. But whenever any of my friends asked me, I would end it with, ‘You can never underestimate how you know, racist and sexist this country is.’”
Whitford then called on Democrats to take action in response to their historic losses this Election Day.
“Despair is a luxury our children cannot afford, and action is the antidote to despair, and we will continue the fight to hold this country up to its spectacular, unfulfilled aspiration,” Whitford said.
“Cynicism and despair is what they want you to feel, and despair is a luxury that the future can’t afford,” he added.
When The Independent asked what he would tell Trump if given the chance, Whitford took a beat to consider his answer. “Blend your makeup,” he said with a laugh.
Whitford also shared a 40-year-old anecdote about the first time he learned of Trump. “My first awareness of Donald Trump: I went to college, and then I went to acting school in New York,” Whitford told The Independent. “And when I got to acting school, there were some fourth-year guys who were really upset, because they’d spent the summer working for this real estate guy who had never paid them. They had confronted him — this is 1981 — and he said, ‘What are you going to do? Going to sue me? You know, you’re effing actors.’ It is completely bewildering to me, the cult that has formed around a narcissist like this, the worst person in show business, and that’s a tough category,” Whitford concluded.
“Cynicism and despair is what they want you to feel, and despair is a luxury that the future can’t afford.” I’m seeing a lot of white Democrats talk this way in the wake of Trump’s victory. They’re trying to get the band back together and rally the Resistance. It’s hard to see a path forward this time around, but I understand the urge to feel like doing something, anything. “You can never underestimate how you know, racist and sexist this country is.” It’s true. It’s crazy that Barack Obama won two times so handily, so comprehensively, but in some sense, everything that’s happened post-Obama has been a national backlash to the sheer fact that we had a Black president. I would also argue that in 2024, this is more about the sheer hatred of women. But racism played a part too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- WEST HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – SEPTEMBER 10: American actor Bradley Whitford arrives at The Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA’s 74th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ‘Emmy Nominees Night’ held at the Penthouse at 8899 Beverly on September 10, 2022 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 721674203, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bradley Whitford, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 20: Bradley Whitford attends the Disney+ “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium” Yellow Brick Road Event at Dodger Stadium on November 20, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.,Image: 739216152, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Bradley Whitford, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
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- AMC Networks 2023 Upfront at Jazz at Lincoln Centre in New York. Featuring: Bradley Whitford Where: New York, New York, United States When: 18 Apr 2023 Credit: Udo Salters/startraksphoto.com
I’m with Bradley….I don’t have the luxury or mindset to be in despair…my ancestors didn’t give up…and NEITHER WILL I❣️. As I told my Ex in 2016…THERE ARE LEVELS TO THIS HELLSCAPE…and the fact that folks picked a POS RASCIST IGNORANT TROGLODYTE over a wonderful WOMAN public Servant…just proves ONCE AGAIN which fuckery is 1a & which is 1b…and WE were reminded of THAT ONCE AGAIN! But I got my tribe…got my tribe on Twitter & in life…and today is my 57th birthday and as a Black disabled Woman…I SAY BRING IT CAUSE I’M READY…I WAS BORN READY!🤬
Amen to that.
America has been racist and sexist since it’s inception. That is nothing new. Let’s remember that there have been generations of Americans who have fought against these evils and won many times. Trump has come and he will go, hopefully sooner than later, but he doesn’t have the brains, the discipline or the courage to surround himself with capable advisors. Also remember that half the nation despises this man and we will do all we can to make him a former president. I am an 81 year old, healthy, intelligent, strong, patriotic woman and I’m not giving up so easily.
Kamala Harris was a wonderful candidate and would have made a great president. But she had three things going against her that she could do nothing about –
1. She’s a woman
2. Of color
3. Who chose to focus on her career rather than on raising a family.
There are a lot of people in this country who can barely handle one of those things in a candidate, but all three?
Trump won because America at its core doesn’t like or trust women, especially those who forge their own path.
THIS…THIS…THIS…THIS!!!
A big part of why Kamala lost is because of annoying Hollywood actors talking down to people like they know better. The democrats used to be a party for the common folk middle class working class but now it just caters to Hollywood elite that’s why they voted for Harris and the middle class and working class did not. The Democratic Party of Clinton and Obama is gone. They have gone too far left that they lost their appeal to the majority of Americans since their values and goals no longer match the masses. Americans for the most are traditional and conservative especially Hispanics, blacks, middle eastern and Asians. Democrats have pushed most Americans away to appeal to Hollywood types but Hollywood does not represent America. That’s why most of America turned red.
Absolute BS! Trump and Republicans have not offered a single policy in YEARS that have any economic value to the “working class”. The man didn’t even know what child care costs were when asked. That would be a working class issue – right? And you mean white people, btw – stop with the coded language, because Black Americans are “working class” as well. And we voted about 90% (Black women) 80% (Black men) for Harris and the DEMS.
Meanwhile, The GOP offers tax cuts for the millionaire and billionaire class, not working class. They also offer anti-Blackness and the upholding of white supremacy (which is what they really want), every time the GOP has been in office the economy has tanked and we’ve had a recession. They wax poetic about being anti-woke, again code word for being anti-Black.
Democrats are a big tent party that offers everybody a chance, and the response to minorities advancing in this country has made anti-Black and racists shook. Read Project 2025 (all 922 pages of it, which is what the GOP is offering). It’s basically erasing all the gains mostly Black Americans have made and to make sure rich white people remain that way. Nothing for the working class. But yeah, celebrities.
Actually Democratic policies do help the middle and working classes. Their values do align. they just don’t want to uphold white supremacy and that was the sticking point.
I’m not doing what we did in 2016, when we used to argue whether or not every Trump supporter was racist. This time, I’m saying it with my whole chest – every person who voted for Trump is racist and sexist. They may not consider themselves as such, but they are.
That’s nothing but horse s**t rightwing propaganda. What’s working class about tax breaks for millionaires? What’s working class about trickle down? About cutting Medicare and social security? You sound like you didn’t even read Kamala’s platform and actual policy proposals.
What? So celebrities aren’t allowed to support who they want? So has is that a bad thing for Dems.? People were pestering Taylor for months to show her support for Kamala🙄 yet the other side is allowed to parade around that idiot billionaire, give away millions, and say the most vile shit….ugh….I think people who think like you should just STFU and except the fact you’re a dumbass.
You sound stupid, Fab😒Celebrities have always hung around politicians. I mean if that’s your gripe…yikes.
Too far left? The party that solicited the CHENEYS for an endorsement? The Democratic Party is to the right of Ronald Flipping Reagan right now. Instead of embracing more left principles, the Ds have consistently tried to court the middle right and beyond and ignore their base.
I would say that last point is a disqualifier for running. Any woman who is doing that to the extent that a lot of straight white men expect is not going to have time to run for POTUS. Harris has two stepchildren that she helped to raise. Clinton had a daughter. I don’t think either woman was a hands off parent judging by how the children turned out. Yet they weren’t at home baking cookies for fundraisers and making dinner and cleaning the house. Until we are rid of people with outdated ideas on what a woman should or shouldn’t be doing, we will never have a female POTUS.
🎯
There is certainly a reason why Trump and even Vance, who called Kamala “trash” in his last campaign speech, doubled down on the racism and misogyny in the last weeks. Pundits were puzzled. Why are they alienating the very people they need to win? The joke’s on the pundits. Trump knows these people and how they think because he is one of them. He never let the electorate, which had been primed for years by his allies, forget that his opponent was a Black and South Asian woman. He’s not as cognitively impaired as some would have you believe.
I was depressed as f*&% yesterday, but woke up today energized. This is a purely an anecdotal observation, but young men (actually all men) are in for an eventual rude awakening. I’m seeing more young women out there hustling. I’m a home health nurse and in my travels around the town I live in, I see more young women delivering mail, opening businesses, going to medical school, becoming nurse practitioners and doctors, becoming fire fighters. In fact, there was a great article about a fire station in Billings, MT that was completely “manned” by three women. We have to keep pushing, offer education and be the strongest role models we can for the future generations.
Amen.
I am wallowing. Last time I thought of we spread our message wider, better, the people will have to listen. No. This is what they want and I think we should give it to them. Let the Leopards eat ALL their faces. I don’t see how you can reach people who are proud to be ignorant. The quote, which I am going to butcher badly, that has stayed in my mind is that “men only form relationships with men. They “love” women, but they seek out friendships with men, ask their advice, listen to them, want to talk to them. They sleep with us, marry us, but it’s men who men are in love with.”. Going forward I will strive to call out every man who only loves men, maybe then they will see who they are and change, but I am not holding my breath.
I wallowed yesterday, but I also made some decisions. I have been fighting the good fight for decades, and I am tired. Don’t ask me to do jack }#%^ anymore because the majority of Americans do NOT appreciate those of us who are trying to save them from their own worst impulses. They have shown that they just do not deserve me.
This is not my country. I was born here and currently am a U.S. citizen (although I am positive that birthright citizenship will not last), but thankfully my parents are Canadian and I am a Canadian and speak fluent French to boot. I have actively started the process of renewing my passports and researching countries who WILL appreciate my knowledge, skills, and experience. It will not be easy to uproot my entire life over the next six months and move abroad, but needs must. And then I will turn around and help like-minded women get out of the U.S. too.
Actions have consequences, and one of the consequences of reelecting the single most unfit person in American history to the presidency is that I will no longer contribute to this country. Let the MAGAs burn it down and live to regret their stupidity. I have no more sympathy for their ignorance.
Bearcat, how can I app!y to your “help me and the people I love get TF out of here” program? Wish I was joking. My family has already begun looking for countries that would be hospitable to good, hardworking, kind folks who just want to live our best lives, help others, and actually make a difference in the world. Doesn’t feel like the US is that place any longer :(.
I wish I COULD move.
I am with you on this 100% and jealous that you already have dual citizenship and an easier path out of here. You’ve done what you can and you owe this country nothing more. I hope you are able to get out of here and have a better life for yourself elsewhere. I’m planning to do the same, but I have a longer road ahead of me (plus 2 small children).
@BEarcatlawyer come back to Canada? We need our good people back. Yes, the border is very close for comfort and yes we are far from perfect but there is good work happening here and we need more of it to fortify ourselves for the next four years.
As an outsider I am bewildered by the obsession with this man.
What on earth do the poor think he will do for them?
Why would so many people in your country, quite literally, rather die than have a socialized health system?
I’m sorry but I feel that by the time he is through America will be damaged beyond repair. I don’t mean to be unkind.
It’s not that they live him they love what he promises. No more brown people. White people invaded and murdered to have this country. They killed hundreds of thousands of Indians and they fear, even though that are 70% majority in the US that they will be a minority and the majority will do to them what they did to the minority. That’s what’s behind abortion restrictions. They want more white babies born. Just white babies. They pretend to care about all babies but they don’t. Trump promises to get rid of some of the brown people, then work on controlling the rest of them. It’s about white supremacy. Trump promises what Hitler did, and we all know how that turned out.
Completely agree 💯 This is really the underlying issue.
I told my son his generation underestimated how much white people, some white people liked the advantages racism gave them. They liked being able to shop, eat, live. Work, socialize when where and how they liked without question. If black people, especially women are enjoying themselves that pisses some white people off to the point that they get angry and attack. White women, some white women like the power racism gives them. They hate the Beyoncé’s, violas, Mariah’s, Meghan’s Oprah’s of the world because they are rich powerful and confident. God help the black woman that marries a rich accomplished white man, they go batshit crazy. But if a white woman marries a rich accomplished black man, they’re ok with that, because the white woman is keeping the wealth and power under their control. White men, some, white men like the idea of Jim Crowe because if they get the opportunity to rape a black woman they might get off with no punishment. The problem is they’re blinded by the benefits of their hate they don’t see the problems with it. A house divided cannot stand. They love the hate until the rules of it begin to kill them. I think the bases of their hate is fear. They know, if someone did/ do to them what they do to black people they wouldn’t rest until they were unalive. So they try and control black people. The problem with that is you create the very situation you fear by your actions. I’ll go one step further. A lot of those whites women praising Kamala saying they voted for her, didn’t. Because they like the look of equality but prefer the benefits of inequality. Like weak white men hate female and black work competition whites women hate the odes if a black woman being successful in anything they failed at. JMO
I get the urge to rally the resistance, but at this point the people that would populate the resistance or more worried about simply surviving. You have to save yourself before you can save others. Let the at-risk people (at this point that seems to everyone who isn’t a white, Christian man) take care of themselves and their families first.
Damn straight. They want to erase all the progress of the Civil Rights and Feminist movements.
Right now I’m in despair because half f the country are f-ing idiots who think voting for a depraved felon is better than improving their own lives. I will climb out of it in a few more days, it I will be forever reminded these idiots what their increased prices and their fewer rights wouldn’t have happened under a democratic president
Damn straight!
Racist, sexist, uninformed, stubborn, to lazy to vote, vote to cut off their nose to spite their face, led by their grifter religious leaders like mindless sheep.
Yes. All of this.
Lots of us have been in survival mode for the past few years.
Financially struggling and healthcare are kicking my ass, frankly.
Now? Even more frightening for a lot of us.
I am not going down without a fight but at the same time I know we are about to enter some extremely dark times. People do not know what they voted for. They think they are getting one thing but it will be the opposite. The training wheels are off, there are no guard rails this time and his henchmen are power lusty and evil. The henchmen and other bad actors know how to play him like a fiddle. It is going to take every one of us that was able to see through the BS to get out of this alive.
I am in Canada, but am a dual citizen and this is exactly why I live in Canada. Voted for Harris absentee. The America I knew growing up was a mirage and it is a selfish, racist, misogynist place. Bear in mind these statistics: 37% have a Bachelor’s degree or higher education. Bernie Sanders stated that 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; this greatly factored in as well. People care about economics and if they are struggling over helping preserve their family’s, friends, neighbors rights. It is simply that simple. Even if the economy has corrected, people don’t feel that yet. Bernie stated wages have stagnated and people FIFTY years ago were making more than they are today (taking into account for inflation). The average American is sold on slogans and We can fix it worked. They don’t need explanations on policies like you or my celebitchy people want. They are sold on the “strong man” persona. Women are still inferior in many people’s eyes. This isn’t as difficult to understand as you would think. Democrats need to reach the 60% that are living paycheck to paycheck and are sold on slogans; they need a charismatic person in 2028 like Clinton or Obama and they need to be, sadly, a white man.
@Andrea, it’s easier to believe in a quick fix than look at context so maybe that’s part of it. Republicans are great at negative ads and pithy slogans to sell the kool-aid. Sanders is right, the facts back him up, but Harris talked about this too. It’s easier to blame the illegal and legal brown persons for the struggle than the recent effects of supply chains and monetary policy than the longer term effects of offshoring, trade deficits, tax cuts, etc. You know as a Canadian that Americans have a reputation of being very centre of the world, the struggle with inflation and the post-pandemic economy is a global struggle. Still, fear is a great manipulator and the Cheeto is a master manipulator. PeePee here has taken notes on fear and misinformation so Canadians have to work to stop that from further infecting public discourse here.
The democrats cannot go with a female candidate in four years. The country is nowhere ready to vote for a female president. Just pick a white make under 65!
And stop with the celebrity endorsements. It’s not a good look for what is meant to be a political party for the workers.