Michael Moore Wants Tom Hanks For President
Oscar-winning documentary maker — and President Donald Trump critic — Michael Moore said that he is ready for fellow Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks to take the Oval Office as president in a new interview with ABC‘s Peter Travers.
Moore — who is releasing a scathing documentary on Trump entitled Fahrenheit 11/9— told ABC News in an interview released Friday that there is no reason that Democrats cannot use celebrity to regain the White House the way that the current president gained popularity via the hit reality show The Apprentice.
“When you say people don’t love Trump, you clearly have never watched The Apprentice,” Moore told Travers. “People loved that show. Why don’t [Democrats] run beloved figures?”
Moore then went on to say that Hanks would perfectly fit the bill as a celebrity Democrat who could win enough votes to win president. Hanks has played such lovable characters as Forrest Gump on screen.
As even Moore admitted, however, Hanks is not interested — so far.
“Who wouldn’t vote for Tom Hanks,” Moore told ABC News. “Why not? I’ve asked him twice now to run and he won’t run. I even offered [to] be the VP, I’ll do all the work. You just show up at nice things and smile and be happy.”
Moore, though, would not stop at Hanks. He added the names of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama — both who have been on the wish list of progressive Democrats to run for president — and both of whom have previously declined the option.
“Oprah, who wouldn’t vote for Oprah? How about Michelle Obama? Who wouldn’t vote for Michelle Obama? Come on, we could win if we ran somebody people wanted to vote for,” Moore continued.
Hanks threw his hat in the ring — with tongue firmly in cheek — during a Saturday Night Live opening monologue in May 2017. He portrayed a potential VP running mate to former pro wrestler turned A-list actor, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Winfrey sparked wild internet rumors in January during her Cecil B. DeMille speech at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards when she roused the audience and social media with her #Times Up comments. Many thought she might consider running for office in the aftermath of said speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5HV79_8B8
Despite having already said that she would not run several months earlier, Winfrey had to issue another statement about her lack of interest in becoming president after the speech, according to CNN.
Michelle Obama, who served eight years as first lady, has always maintained her disdain for getting into politics herself, despite her corporate business background and her popularity among Democrats. She said, according to The Hollywood Reporter in April, that she simply doesn’t want the job.
Despite their resistance, Moore told ABC News that he believes any of those three would have a better shot at unseating Trump in 2020 than what he called the Democratic Party’s “old guard,” which includes former vice president Joe Biden.
Fahrenheit 11/9 has been billed as a sequel to Moore’s popular left-leaning documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. That film was noted to have been extremely critical of the administration of Republican George W. Bush.
