Entertainment

The Susan Sarandon-Debra Messing Twitter War, Dems Bullying Susan Into Supporting Hillary?

Published on: April 1, 2016 at 11:21 AM
By Amy Feinstein

The battle of the famous redheads has reached a detente, but the underlying differences and opinions between Susan Sarandon and Debra Messing put the spotlight on what some regard as organized bullying. Debra Messing supports Hillary Clinton, while Susan Sarandon is backing Bernie Sanders. The Twitter war that erupted was epic, and each actress seemed to have their minions backing them up, and the turn it took was really ugly.

Salon shared the layout of the feud and the spark that started a throwdown between two A-list actresses. Susan Sarandon was interviewed by MSNBC ‘s Chris Hayes when she said that she might not vote for Hillary Clinton if she were the Democratic nominee for president. Sarandon was obviously being cheeky, but some did not see this.

“Some people feel that Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately if he gets in, things will really explode.”

Kaboom.

“How could she?” was the battle cry from the Clinton followers, who were not going to let this go. The tweets were brutal, calling Sarandon an “old nut job” and “white and privileged” because she didn’t fall in line. The disbelief that Sarandon was not going to fall into line and participate in the group-think was unbelievable. Pro-choice did not come into play here. It is unbelievable that anyone who had heard Susan Sarandon speak in the past would believe that she would become a Trump supporter. But actress Debra Messing took the torch and ran with it, leading to perhaps the biggest Twitter feud between legit actors ever.

Vanity Fair calls the battle royale between Debra Messing and Susan Sarandon that followed, which amounts to my Democrat is better than your Democrat, to be historical. The bottom line: Are you candidate loyal or party loyal? It seems that not voting for a party but voting for a candidate is not okay from the perspective of the Clinton loyal.

Although Messing seems very sincere in her support of Clinton, she didn’t seem to realize that Sarandon was not going to take the nastygrams lying down. Evidently, neither women learned anything from watching the Republican primary season, where the candidates ate their own with a knife and fork. In-fighting allows a party to implode first so that there are fewer candidates to deal with in a general election. Messing threw the first grenade, and Sarandon was not backing down.

“Susan Sarandon muses tht Trump prezcy wud b better 4 the country thn Hillary. Wonder if she’d say that if she were poor,gay, Muslim or immgrnt.”

Kathy Najimy then joined Messing’s side, calling out Sarandon’s loyalty to “the cause.” Rosie O’Donnell jumped in to back Sarandon in what started to look more like a middle school student council b-fest. Much of the barbs have been deleted and/or redacted, but one could easily go back and piece together some ugly correspondence.

The Huffington Post said that the sparring between Messing and Sarandon got personal, and it was a bit shocking to see a liberal chick Twitter fight club. But they made a good point in that it is refreshing to see that women in the entertainment industry can use their brains and their free time to do more than argue over nude selfies, emojis, and ways to deform your body with lip pumping and “waist training” (who really needs their organs to be in their original place anyway?). Jamie Lee Curtis for the point.

“I respect but disagree with @SusanSarandon . A possible support of Trump over @HillaryClinton is dangerous 2 women, minorities & immigrants.”

It was easy to imagine Susan Sarandon at home, with her iPad, banging her head against the wall that when it comes to politics, everyone loses a sense of humor and nobody gets snarky sarcasm anymore. Sarandon seemed very frustrated.

“Of course I would never support Trump for any reason. If you watch the interview you’ll see that’s not what I said.

“LOL that I would ever vote Trump.”

But Messing kept on swinging, saying that if Bernie Sanders gets the nom, she would vote for him in a heartbeat and would not sell out and vote Republican, and she had hoped Sarandon would do the same.

“2- the idea that Susan Sarandon wud say that NOT supporting Hillary in a HRC/Trump race is a legitimate choice for Democrats, is insane.”

And Sarandon couldn’t let it go either.

“Agreed Trump doesn’t, but she is not protective till it’s easy. Bernie makes morally correct choices when unpopular.”

The battle continued, and one can check it out in a linear manner here . The bottom line seems to be that Messing could not understand how a smart, capable, successful, liberal woman with a track record of left-acceptable cause-backing could not see the Hillary light. Whether the ladies thought better of it, or their reps took over their Twitter, is unclear, but at this time, they seem to have agreed to disagree.

Do you think fighting on Twitter was beneath Debra Messing and Susan Sarandon, or do you think either woman had a good point?

[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

TAGGED:
Share This Article