‘Silence Is Complicity’: Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin Melt Down Over Actor Telling Celebs to Shut Up About Politics

The View co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin went off on Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton for saying he’s not a fan of celebrities ranting about politics and President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday’s edition of The View, the table was mixed on recent comments made by Landman star Thornton on Howie Madel’s podcast.

“I’m not really big on like at awards shows all of a sudden you start talking about saving the badgers and stuff like that. Like Ricky Gervais said, get your little award and f*ck off, you know what I mean? I don’t know anything about politics. I have no idea. I mean, and the stuff that I believe about it, I don’t want to force it down somebody else’s throat because I’m not an expert on that,” Thornton said.

Thornton made similar comments in November on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

He was referring to comedian Gervais hosting the Golden Globes in 2020, when his opening monologue skewered celebrities getting political at awards shows.

Thornton’s comments found support in hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, but Behar and Hostin were more than a little unimpressed.

“Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are,” Behar said.

“I actually do think you have an obligation. I think we are at a crisis point in this country. I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform, that means you have an outsized voice. And when you a platform I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what’s going on in this county. And my view, silence is complicity. And every minute, every day, it’s getting closer,” Hostin added.

Check out the full exchange below:

JOY BEHAR: Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are.

SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah.

SARA HAINES: Well, I think he’s saying more like, I’m not an expert. So my opinion —

BEHAR: No, “I don’t know anything about politics.” You’re an American citizen, don’t you want to know? Don’t you read the paper?

HAINES: I would say that I do think the civic participation, our vote is a privilege that so many have died for and fought for that to be participating in our political structure, you need to inform yourself enough to vote. I don’t think that every celebrity needs to scream from the mountaintop what their thoughts are because I’d much rather see them march door to door and recruit people voting in your local government helping people.

BEHAR: No, but they have an influence. I mean, [Bruce] Springsteen right now and Robert De Niro, they have big audiences. Wait a minute, so does Jon Voight and Kid Rock, okay? All of them have the right to speak out. Use your platform.

HAINES: The only people applauding them though are people that agree with them.

HOSTIN: I actually do think you have an obligation. I think we are at a crisis point in this country. I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform, that means you have an outsized voice. And when you a platform I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what’s going on in this county. And my view, silence is complicity. And every minute, every day, it’s getting closer. And every minute, every day we go closer to an autocracy in this country. We’re about to lose it. I think that people don’t seem to understand what’s going on.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: If I may say, okay, A, Billy Bob Thornton is one of my favorite actors, I’m never going to say a bad word about him, starting with that. But B, a lot of this table criticized George Clooney when he wrote his [Joe] Biden op-ed. That is a celebrity using his voice, saying what he believes, it can’t just be when they agree with your position.

BEHAR: He can say it and I can criticize it, that’s called free speech.

GRIFFIN: I think that oftentimes we give too much weight to what celebrities say when they wade into things. I care way more about, honestly, I call it slacktivism — if you get on social media, you do your post and you’re like, I did my part because I have a million followers. No, go door to door get involved in your community get deeper on the issues. But I don’t think we should bully people into saying you have to speak.

HAINES: It’s a litmus test of the mobs. Right now people speak up and half the world wants to hate them. So when you’re looking at entertainers and people that are looking to unify people, if they feel so-called, like Kerry Washington does, to be civic and loud, good for her. But if you don’t feel that, I’m tired of people saying no, no, now is the time. What do you do? Get on the stream, just say I hate Trump. And now is not the time, I don’t know when.

HOSTIN: If now is not the time, I don’t know when is.

GRIFFIN: But what they say matters, you don’t need more uninformed takes right now, you need more informed takes.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Okay, as one who can actually speak to this, you have every right to feel how you feel. Celebrities cannot go door to door to people’s houses because it’s hard to do so people can do their thing the way they can do it and be grateful that someone is doing stuff. I don’t — I’m not mad at you if this is not something you’re comfortable doing because you’re doing something I don’t know you’re doing. I believe that people are taking care of business the way they need to.

Watch above via ABC.

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