Comedian Sarah Silverman Explains Why She Wasn’t as Outspoken This Election Season
In a recent interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, comedian Sarah Silverman explained that she didn’t participate in the 2020 election season as much as she had in previous years. Silverman, a liberal comic, had previously created videos encouraging voters to elect President Obama in 2008 and 2012 and even spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
This time around, Silverman attributed her lack of involvement to her comedy tour schedule and the feeling that voters weren’t interested in hearing from celebrities about politics. “I was on the road with this tour, for one thing. A lot of people asked me if I was going to make a video or something. But my feeling was that no one wanted to hear from celebrities right now,” she said.
Silverman was on a comedy tour and didn’t feel that it was an opportunity to use her platform to speak out on politics. She explained that she sometimes reposted the thoughts of “smarter people” on social media instead. She expressed regret for not doing something similar to her 2008 project, “The Great Schlep,” where she encouraged young Jews to tell their grandparents to vote for Obama.
Although Silverman didn’t actively campaign for a specific candidate, she did speak out in support of abortion rights and encouraged Americans to vote in the election. She shared a photo of herself holding up a Kamala Harris poster on social media, saying, “Vote Joy! Vote Kamala!” Silverman’s comments come as several big-name celebrities, including Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, and Oprah Winfrey, campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris in the final weeks of the election.
