sarah silverman stayed out of 2024 election because 'no one' wants to hear from celebrities
'i just focused on reposting thoughts from smarter people,' actress says in new interview
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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. silverman, 54, threw her support behind barack obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and spoke at the democratic national convention back in 2016.
in 2020, silverman was a vocal supporter of vermont sen. bernie sanders as the democratic nominee.
“wow. i’m heartbroken about bernie,” she wrote in a tweet after he dropped out of the race. “in all this darkness, he made me believe that people, together, could be the light. he continues to be an inspiration. and he’ll never stop fighting for us.”
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.
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“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.”
but after trump’s re-election, which saw the former president marching to a resounding victory as he won all the battleground states that were up for grabs and the popular vote, silverman doesn’t think her voice would have tipped the scales in a meaningful way.
“it (wouldn’t) have made a difference,” she admitted.
during obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008, silverman launched an online video called
“the great schlep” in which she encouraged young jewish voters to urge their grandparents to cast their ballot for the democrats.
“the people that vote there are the elderly jews, and they’re not voting obama because his name is scary,” silverman told the new york times in an interview. “but who has more power with them than their grandchildren?”
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.
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“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.”
sarah silverman
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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!”
on her social media accounts, silverman posted a photo of herself holding up a harris poster with the caption, “vote joy! vote kamala!”
but after harris’ loss, the washington examiner reported her campaign team paid $1 million to oprah winfrey’s harpo productions after she hosted a townhall for the vice president in september.
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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.
an appearance on the call her daddy podcast was said to have cost six-figures. then there were rumblings that vendors and staff were worried they wouldn’t get paid with rumours that her last-ditch efforts to sway voters left the harris campaign $20 million in debt.
in response to the democrats woes, trump said he would push the gop to do “whatever we can do to help them.”
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