Actor Ethan Hawke blasted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in an interview this week, saying that he is offended by Trump’s “fascist” promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.
“You don’t need a daughter to be offended by what that guy says,” Hawke told the Daily Beast. “When you see a man, if he wins, threatening to put his opponent in jail? That’s fascist behavior.”
During the second presidential debate earlier this month in St. Louis, Missouri, Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor to “look into” Clinton’s private email use, should he win the election.
“But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there has never been so many lies, so much deception,” Trump said.
Hawke believes that’s all part of the “poison” of presidential politics.
The Magnificent Seven star says Trump’s campaign is a bigoted reaction from “white” and “male” Americans who fear a female president succeeding a black one.
“What ‘Make America Great Again’ means is not lost on any of us,” Hawke said. “It means ‘white’ and ‘male.’ They think, ‘What could be worse than a black president? GASP! A woman!’ The sailboat is going way the wrong way to a certain part of the country, and it’s very upsetting.”
“And Trump plays right into it,” Hawke says.
“I think that’s why, at the end of Antoine Fuqua’s Magnificent Seven, Denzel rides off with a Mexican and a Native American,” the actor said referencing his new Western. “They’re the only ones who survive that battle. I think that’s very beautiful, but there’s a war in our consciousness about letting go of the past and embracing the future—a future that includes all people.”
Hawke, who’s 45 and a father, says “It’s easy to dwell on the negative but it’s pretty incredible for me to watch the debates with my 18-year-old daughter.”
“This is her first election she’ll vote in, and she wasn’t politically aware the last election, so this is really her first go-around,” the Oscar nominated actor said. “For her to get to see a woman in this situation is something I’ve never seen my whole life, but she has no awareness of it. That’s in the past now.”
Hawke also believes Obama’s presidency “has forced the country to think about race and think about gender in a much more visceral way. And it’s creating an undertow, too. A lot of the poison is coming out in a way that it hasn’t the last twenty years.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @JeromeEHudson
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