Filmmaker Michael Moore says Americans should “shun” the “racist and misogynist” supporters of President Trump, kicking them out of polite society “like smokers.”
The comments came after MSNBC host Ali Velshi claimed that “a third of the country” is “angry” and “intolerant.” He asked Moore, “What do the rest of us have to do? How much intolerance do we tolerate in order to build bridges of empathy, to talk to people who are legitimately angry?”
Moore said quickly that such people should be “shunned.”
“First of all, it’s hard — you can’t build a bridge to a racist or a misogynist,” the “Bowling for Columbine” director said. “You know, they have — they have to be shunned and treated like we treated smokers 20 years ago, ten years ago. You know, I walked down the street with my sister and I said, let’s just see how long we can go before we see somebody smoking. Not the people sitting outside the building, desperate, they have five minutes. But we’re literally walking down the street, we — we walked 10, 20 minutes and not a smoker. Racist and misogynists shunned.”
Moore then went on to say that some Republicans “do care about this country” and that those people can be reached out to.
However, in an earlier interview, Moore said that anyone who still supports Trump is automatically racist:
“Anybody who supports that — if you still support the racist, you are the racist,” Moore told Don Lemon last year. “That has to end. I’m not sorry. I’m not letting anybody off the hook here. White people who voted for him, white people who made him happen ... America has to stand up. We cannot any longer mealy-mouth about this. And if you want me to say it again, I’ll say it again. Anybody who enables, anybody who votes for and supports a racist is a racist. You are culpable, white America, I’m sorry. But there is redemption for you.”