Actor Ashley Judd adds her voice to calls for President Joe Biden to step aside from the presidential race following his performance in last month’s debate, arguing she fears he could lose in November from Republican Donald Trump.
In an op-ed for USA Today published Friday, Judd called on Biden to “voluntarily and gracefully step aside” so his party can back a “talented, robust Democrat” for president. She described Biden during the debate as “unable to counter Trump as he spewed, unchecked, a firehose of hurtful lies.”
Judd, who has been an outspoken supporter of Biden and other Democrats across the country, noted the political activism that accompanied her decades-long Hollywood career. Her allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein have fueled the #MeToo movement.
Judd warned that she fears Trump would “wield the power of the presidency with unprecedented, incalculable cruelty and dishonesty” if voters return him to the White House. She said time is of the essence for Democrats to replace Biden with a candidate who can beat him. .
“We no longer have a day for distraction or division among us,” she said.
Judd did not place a potential replacement for Biden on top of the ticket, and a representative did not immediately return a message asking who she might suggest.
Her call comes as Democrats consider whether they want Biden to remain his party’s nominee, following concerns about his age and his ability to win the general election against Trump.
Earlier this week, movie star and lifelong Democrat George Clooney said in a New York Times op-ed that he loves Biden but that the party would lose both the presidential race and all other elections in Congress with him as its candidate. He mentioned what he characterized as a diminished Biden during interactions around a fundraiser in Los Angeles last month.
Judd was at the White House in April to help the Biden administration promote its new national suicide prevention strategy, to which she lost her mother, singer Naomi Judd, in 2022. The Biden campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Ashley Judd’s statements. part.
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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
