Jennifer Lawrence didn’t vote for Joe Biden when he was running for vice president in the 2008 election. But she’s voting for him this time around. And Donald Trump is the reason why.
Jennifer Lawrence said on the Oct. 21 episode of the “Absolutely Not” podcast (hosted by comedian Heather McMahan) that politics is hard for her to talk about because she is an actor and wants everybody to be able to enjoy her movies. Then she revealed that she used to be a Republican. Lawrence said she voted for Republican John McCain in the 2008 presidential election against Barack Obama (when Joe Biden was first running for vice president), but Trump turned her into a Democrat.
“It’s extremely hard to talk about politics and, you know, you don’t want to. I’m an actor, I want everybody to see my movies. I grew up Republican. My first time voting, I voted for John McCain. I was a little Republican,” the Academy Award winner said.
(Host McMahan agreed, saying “Same here girl.”)
But Lawrence said her politics have changed, in large part due to Trump.
“I was fortunate to grow up in a Republican house where I [could] see, you know, the fiscal benefits of some of the Republican policies, and I could also see that the social issues weren’t in line with my views.”
Lawrence said when Donald Trump got elected, “that just changed everything.”
“This is an impeached president who’s broken many laws and has refused to condemn white supremacy, and it’s just, it feels like there’s been a line drawn in the sand,” she said. “I don’t want to support a president who supports white supremacists.”
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On the podcast, she compared the Trump admin to the Obama administration: “Don’t you remember… the days when Obama was president where you woke up and you would go days, maybe weeks without thinking about the president?”
She later went on Twitter to expand and clarify her comments by posting a statement that reads: “I would like to clarify my voting record, which is the subject of many circulating headlines. I grew up in a republican family and voted for John McCain in 2008, but through Obama’s presidency, and growing up to realize I was voting against my own rights, I am proud to say I am a Democrat.”
Lawrence only has about 40,000 Twitter followers – a paltry number compared to other celebrities that have tens of millions of followers – but that’s because she didn’t join Twitter until 2019, and she uses her Twitter account for work she does as a board member of the group Represent.Us. On the podcast, Lawrence described the organization as a non-partisan group working to “unrig American’s political system” by “putting power back in the hands of the people.” She said they are working to bundle anti-corruption laws so they can be passed state-by-state.
On the podcast, Lawrence specifically referenced Sen. Kelly Loeffler as an example of corruption. Loeffler made about $1.4 million of stock trades following a closed-door Coronavirus intelligence briefing, before the public was aware of the pandemic.
Lawrence previously spoke out against Trump, announced she would vote for Biden
This isn’t the first time Lawrence has talked about the presidential election. Earlier this month, Lawrence told V Magazine that she is voting for Biden. “I would consider this upcoming election the most consequential of our lifetime. I’m voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this year because Donald Trump has and will continue to put himself before the safety and well-being of America. He does not represent my values as an American, and most importantly as a human being,” she said.
In a 2018 interview with USA Today, said she was “losing her mind” during the 2016 presidential election because Trump reminded her of men she met in Hollywood. “I was just kind of flailing because I just know that guy. I’ve seen that guy a million times,” she said. “I’ve met the dude that’s going to point at you and be like, ‘I’m going to make you rich.’ And he’s lying.”
Supported Clinton in 2016
Lawrence previously told Vanity Fair that she understood why people liked Trump, and that Democrats made a mistake by laughing at Trump supporters.
“The Democrats made a huge mistake by chastising the Trump supporters, and that was disgusting to me. Of course they’re not going to vote for Hillary Clinton; they’re going to vote for Donald Trump. You laughed at them when their plight is very real,” she was quoted as saying.
But she also said that she supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election because she wanted someone with experience. “I want a career politician! I wouldn’t hire an assistant if they didn’t have experience; we’re talking about the president of the fucking United States!”
Hollywood A-Lister
Lawrence played Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games series, and Mystique in four of the X-Men movies (First Class, Days of Future Past, Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix). Other IMDB credits include Red Sparrow, Mother! Passengers, and American Hustle.
In 2013, she won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook, when she was just 22 years old.
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