Octavia Spencer is sticking by President Joe Biden.
I can exclusively report that the Oscar winner will appear alongside the president at his rally in Detroit on Friday. Spencer will also speak during the event, according to sources.
Spencer’s support comes just a day after George Clooney published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
Details of the Detroit rally are being kept under wraps for security reasons.
Spencer reiterated her longtime support of the Biden-Harris ticket just a day after the commander-in-chief’s debate debacle. According to a post on Spencer’s Instagram feed, she attended a fundraiser for the incumbents with Harris on June 28. “We all know that when you stumble, it’s about how you get back up that’s most important,” the “Hidden Figures” star wrote alongside a photo of her and Harris. “I had a great time with the @vp @kamalaharris last night as she continues to fight for women’s reproductive rights. #FeelingBlue 💙🇺🇸🦅 #IWillVote.”
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Spencer’s appearance at Friday’s rally also follows her part in an Ann Arbor, Mich., fundraiser in early June with Harris to highlight the Biden administration’s efforts to create jobs and revive a pandemic-battered economy, tackle infrastructure and boost Black wealth and businesses, according to a pool report.
“Let us not forget that Trump took aim at our most personal freedoms, when he appointed the justices who overturned Roe v Wade,” Spencer reportedly said. “He demands credit, so let’s give it to him. He gets the credit for the abortion bans and restrictions in 14 states that are putting women’s lives at risk. Some so draconian, they make no exceptions for health, rape, or incest. Let’s give him the credit.”
Clooney shocked Hollywood with his New York Times essay Wednesday. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” the actor wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney received mixed reactions. Rob Reiner praised him on Twitter for expressing “what many of us have been saying.”
“We love and respect Joe Biden,” Reiner said. “We acknowledge all he has done for our country. But Democracy is facing an existential threat. We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.
On “The View” Thursday morning, Joy Behar disagreed. “George Clooney wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times claiming that after he saw Biden’s condition at the recent fundraiser, he doesn’t think he’s up for the gig. George Clooney? Couldn’t he tell him that in person, for God’s sakes?” Behar said.
“View” co-host Sunny Hostin said, “I don’t like that George Clooney did this, I don’t like that George Clooney aired this dirty laundry to the world. I think these conversations are happening, I think they should be happening because our democracy is at stake, but they should be happening privately with the Commander-in-Chief, who we should have the utmost respect for.”