Reese Witherspoon Deletes Tweet That Supported Ellen DeGeneres’ Friendship With George W. Bush
Actress Reese Witherspoon on Thursday seemed to have deleted a tweet that she had sent earlier in the week that lent support to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. The support was for DeGeneres following the backlash the talk show host received after admitting she was on friendly terms with former President George W. Bush.
The Big Little Lies actress had originally sent a message in support of DeGeneres amid intense social media criticism.
“Thank you for this important reminder, Ellen,” Witherspoon tweeted alongside a quote from DeGeneres that the 43-year-old actress seemed to particularly agree with.
But on Thursday, Twitter users noticed that the supportive tweet was gone. A tweet that DeGeneres had sent Witherspoon in response, which included two heart emoji, remained on the actress’ account.
DeGeneres explained the situation with the former president on her talk show that was also shared to her Twitter page. She explained she was invited to watch the Dallas Cowboys game by the team’s owner and just so happened to sit next to the 43rd president, whom she described as a friend. The talk show host, who ends each of her episodes with a reminder to viewers to “be kind to one another,” equated her friendship with the Republican to that motto, saying that her kindness extended beyond those she agreed with.
Yes, that was me at the Cowboys game with George W. Bush over the weekend. Here’s the whole story. pic.twitter.com/AYiwY5gTIS
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) October 8, 2019
Witherspoon hasn’t been the only celebrity to backtrack their support of the talk show host. The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil initially seemed to support DeGeneres’ friendship with the former president, although following swift backlash she apologized and explained to her nearly 1 million followers that she was unaware of President Bush’ involvement in the Iraq war, claiming that her British education didn’t focus on the U.S. president.
“I’ve never seen someone in the public eye handle something like this, in this way,” Jamil said, per a BuzzFeed News article that included the text of the British actress’ now-deleted tweet. “And use it to make what is actually an incredibly necessary point in our society. It was just very strong and interesting. We explore this in season 4 of The Good Place.”
Jamil had defended herself as late as Thursday morning, posting a tweet that explained that while she had initially claimed ignorance regarding Bush’s actions and the Iraq War, she wasn’t completely unaware of the situation, as some followers had claimed in order to defend her.
“And for the last time,” Jamil tweeted Thursday morning. “If you are saying that I didn’t know about the war, or haven’t heard about GWB before… then that merely exposes that YOU don’t perhaps understand the words ‘full extent’ and ‘intricacies’ which is all I said I wasn’t informed on.”
Other prominent celebrities have been vocal in their opposition to DeGeneres’ interaction with Bush. Actor Mark Ruffalo took to Twitter to claim that it was not right to talk about “kindness” until the former president was brought to justice for what he called the “crimes of the Iraq war.”
As The Inquisitr previously reported, DeGeneres has also received support from a Democratic presidential hopeful, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who tweeted a message in favor of DeGeneres’ kindness mantra amid the current political climate.
“Enough with the divisiveness,” Gabbard said.
