Actress Ashley Judd is adding her voice to calls for President Joe Biden to step aside from the presidential race following his dismal performance in last month’s debate, fretting that he could lose to the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in November.
In an opinion piece for USA Today published on Friday, Judd called on Biden to “voluntarily, gracefully step aside” so that his party can support a “talented, robust Democrat” for the presidency.
She described Biden during the debate as “incapable of countering Trump, while he, unchecked, gushed a firehose of galling lies.”
Judd, who has been an outspoken supporter of Biden and other Democrats across the country, noted the liberal political activism that has accompanied her multidecade Hollywood career.
Her allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein helped spark the #MeToo movement.
Saying she feared Trump “would wield the power of the presidency with unprecedented, incalculable cruelty and unfairness” if voters return him to the White House, Judd said that time is of the essence for Democrats to replace Biden with a candidate who can defeat him.
“We do not have another day for distraction or division among ourselves,” she said.
“I now ask President Joe Biden to step aside,” Judd wrote.
“The defense of our cherished rights and freedoms, the moral imperative that we do better by more people, and our bodies, cannot be left to voters who see and are frightened of the consequences of President Biden’s obvious limitations, or who are now not going to vote,” she said. “We take the risk of an off night and minimize the warning signs at our gravest peril.”
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The actress did not posit a possible replacement for Biden atop the ticket, and a representative did not immediately return a message seeking comment as to whom she might suggest.
Her call comes as Democrats consider whether they want Biden to remain as his party’s nominee, following concerns over his age and ability to win the general election against Trump.
Actress and activist @AshleyJudd in new @USATODAY opinion piece: “I now ask President Joe Biden to step aside.”https://t.co/FwgeKpc8Tb
— Shawn Reynolds (@ShawnReynolds_) July 12, 2024
Judd’s comments echoed those of movie star and lifelong Democrat George Clooney in a New York Times opinion piece this week.
“I love Biden,” Clooney declared. However, the actor said the party would lose the presidential race as well as any in Congress with the president as its nominee.
He cited what he characterized as a diminished Biden during interactions around a Los Angeles fundraiser last month.
Judd was at the White House in April to help the Biden administration promote its new national strategy to prevent suicide, 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 piece.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
