Denzel Washington Supports Donald Trump, Bashes Obama-Fiction!
Denzel Washington has endorsed Donald Trump and spoke out against President Obama, moves that supposedly shocked Hollywood.
The Truth:
Denzel Washington hasn’t endorsed Donald Trump or spoken out against President Obama.
These rumors date back to a 2012 interview that Washington gave to GQ magazine. During the interview, Washington was asked about his Christian upbringing and his take on Obama before he was re-elected. Washington, an early supporter of Obama in 2008, replied:
Well, the story’s not told yet. He’s in the beginning of the third quarter. I don’t know what his legacy is yet. He’s the first — that’s a part of it. Like Jackie Robinson. But it just wasn’t the first game; it was lasting the whole thing.
That somehow led to (false) reports that Washington had “defied Hollywood” by speaking out against Obama. Later, those reports morphed even further into claims that Washington had supported Trump’s presidency.
The website American News 24 combined quotes from the 2012 GQ interview in which Washington talked about his Christian upbringing and this unrelated endorsement of Trump:
“We need more and more jobs. Unemployment is way up here,” he said. “He’s hired more employees, more people, than anyone I know in the world.”
That statement actually came from the brother of slain civil rights advocate who endorsed Trump in a March 2016 New York Post article:
Charles Evers, the brother of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, came out Friday in support of Donald Trump for president.
Himself a civil rights activist who in 1969 became the first black mayor in Mississippi, Evers said the GOP front-runner has the business acumen for the job.
“I think he’s the best one right now,” Evers, 93, told The Post. “He’s someone like me: he speaks from the hip. He’s not a politician.”
Evers said the Mississippi economy would benefit from a president who could bring back industries that have fled overseas.
“We need more and more jobs. Unemployment is way up here,” he said. “He’s hired more employees, more people, than anyone I know in the world.”
Washington, for his part, has described himself as moderate who has both liberal and conservative beliefs. In October 2015 he declined to endorse anybody in the 2016 contest when asked by The Hill on a press tour:
While he supported Obama during the 2008 election, Washington said it’s too early to root for any of the 2016 presidential candidates. “We just need to know more,” he said, “It’s early days.”
By August 2016, however, TMZ reported that Washington had teamed up with Magic Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson to throw a “massive fundraiser” that raised $1.3 million for Hillary Clinton. Still, we couldn’t find any other reports of Washington endorsing Clinton, and he doesnt’ appear in any of the pictures form the fundraiser.
Given all that, we’re calling reports that Washington spoke out against Obama and switched to Trump “fiction.”