John Cusack dishes Michael Jordan stories and urges fellow Bernie fans to "pull the lever" for Biden
Aux Features Clips
John Cusack wasn’t having it when Jimmy Kimmel tried comparing him to Michael Jordan on Wednesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. “No—no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” is how a hand-waving Cusack put it, to be precise, with the famously Chicago-born actor demurring sincerely at any thought of him and the former Bulls legend sharing the same celebrity space. He did, however, concede that he and Jordan used to head out on the town on occasion, calling the two of them, “acquaintance/friend Chicago guys,” an honor that came with some noteworthy peril back in the day. Clearly relishing the pre-cellphone days when a couple of local superstars could go get drunk at a local watering hole, Cusack told of a night when he, Jordan, and a certain other Chicago sports legend got into some “roughhousing and alcohol with people who were really big and strong” and Super Bowl MVP Richard Dent peremptorily (and effortlessly) hoisted the 6'2" actor over his head—with one hand.
Cusack, currently starring in Amazon’s dystopian series Utopia (with its clip of Cusack pushing scientist Rainn Wilson to prematurely endorse a pandemic flu vaccine, eerily enough), explained that any semblance of actual friendship with Jordan is short-circuited by his irresistible tendency to “fan out.” Like asking Jordan, for example, which NBA player was the toughest defender he ever faced. (Celtics fans should enjoy the answer, in which Cusack claims that said player was the reason Jordan had to develop his fadeaway jumper, to overcome those Frankenstein arms.) Speaking of fanning out, Kimmel also asked the notably (and sometimes Twitter-inadvisably) vocal Cusack about the upcoming (as in 19 days, people) presidential election. A steadfast Bernie Sanders supporter, Cusack flew in the face of the purity-testing, toss your vote in the Chicago River stereotypes and explained that, of course he’s voting for Joe Biden.
Calling the choice between Biden and Donald Trump an easy one even for progressives to make at this point, Cusack urged his fellow Bernie-stans to “pull the lever” for Biden, rather than pulling the privileged third party or staying at home move that got us here in the first place. The fact that Sanders has assured supporters that he has received left-leaning concessions from the Biden/Harris camp (and that, as Cusack says, Biden has promised Sanders will “be in charge of health care reform”) doesn’t hurt, naturally. But the now 54-year-old actor laid out his big picture thinking pretty clearly, explaining that sitting this one out means “you get fascism with Trump.”
Vote.
32 Comments
Forehead smooth as a taut bedsheets. Stop with the procedures man, you were never the handsome lead anyway. Starting to get that ‘face is a mask’ effect.
Yeah, I thought it was me. It’s not a good look.
my god, it works
Billy Crystal strongly disagrees!!!
Timothy Olyphant’s new melty wax face thinks he looks just fine.
I don’t think it is a procedure — maybe makeup or digital effects. There was a recent interview with Cusack in The Guardian and he looks solidly his age with associated wrinkles.https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/04/john-cusack-i-have-not-been-hot-for-a-long-time
That is hilariously disturbing
Getting really tired of taking the blame for Clinton’s loss in 2016. The DNC’s cowardice in the face of the GOP’s 50 year devolution into fascism is how we wound up with NAFTA Willie,Shrub 43,No- waves Obama and the Big Orange Toad. Yesterday was my last vote for any DNC DINO.
rather than pulling the privileged third party or staying at home move that got us here in the first place.
Yeah, Trump is the fault of African Americans in Flint, Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia that stayed home not the candidate or the party that has done little to material make peoples lives better.Maybe instead of insulting potential voters or having the nominee telling people to vote for someone else every other day, I don’t know maybe ask for their vote and support policies that makes peoples lives easier? Crazy I know as its not even 3d Chess let alone the 11D chess hacks think they play.
Or just get out and vote, regardless of party affiliation. Just go out and exercise your democratic power. Whatever that means nowadays. Apparently some of need celebrities to inform us which people we are to vote for. Rather than think freely for ourselves.
Yes, it’s just that simple because all 328 million people in the United States want exactly the same thing. Trump is president because he earned more votes in the electoral college than Clinton. We can argue from here until eternity as to why that is, but it doesn’t change the fact that the election is now upon us, so shut the fuck up and vote.
the election is now upon us, so shut the fuck up and vote.
I am sure the Flint mother with two kids with major developmental disabilities is just going to love to shut the fuck up and vote. Who cares that the Biden team was so proud to have the endorsement of Snyder who did this to her babies.
oh please man go back to whatever nonsense “both are bad” argument you are trying to make and remember who one side is vs. the “other” bad side.Spoiler alert: They are not the same. False equivalency and all.
My argument is stop being blaming Black voters for Trump winning or not voting.
I don’t think anyone is saying Trump and Biden are the same, but they’re both two sides of the same coin this broken system has left us. One is just more overtly terrible while the other tries to use his “aw shucks” charm to hide his racism and predatory nature. Both have credible sexual assault allegations against them, which as far as I’m concerned is disqualifying of my vote. Both are also racist. One has an anti-choice evangelical as their VP, the other chose a cop as their running mate. I don’t think either are really for the people
Your political insight is about as deep as the puddle that David Dunn drowned in.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hunt-michigan-s-lost-democrats-can-biden-lure-them-back-n1242711Please drop the patronizing attitude about Flint voters. You are the NY Times diner safari reporter jetting into Michigan and projecting your own condescension onto a narrative prewritten in some place like Manhattan that makes you feel better and pretends people in Flint act they way you feel. You are what you accuse regular Democrats of being. “I already got my ballot in the mail, and I’m going to send it off,” Bullock said. She plans to vote for Biden.“Yvonne Gaither, 78, who takes an exercise class at the Hasselbring Senior Center on Flint’s north side, said everybody she knows says they’re going to vote Trump out of office.”“My grandson and a lot of his friends wanted uncle Bernie,” said Geraldine Wilburn, 79, referring to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “I told him that he should vote because that was his duty as a citizen, but he said he couldn’t vote for Hillary and wasn’t going to vote for Trump.”“This year, however, Wilburn’s grandson told her he’s definitely voting, she said. “Him and all his homies are voting because they don’t want four more years of Trump.”“Bryant Nolden, a Democratic county commissioner who runs the historic Berston Field House recreation center in Flint, said he’s hearing a lot more enthusiasm about voting from people in the community than he did four years ago.”“Angelette Moore, 57, a retired autoworker from Flint, stayed home in 2016 because she thought her vote “wasn’t going to matter,” she said.”“They’re going to do what they’re going to do anyway. Who cares?” she said.”“But, this year, Moore said, she has already mailed her absentee ballot.“Trump’s got to go,” she said. “He’s the devil.”
@jim No one is here for your posturing as the mouthpiece of Flint mothers with disabled children. Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are people in America whose material circumstances make it difficult for them to vote. You’re not opening anyone’s eyes.But you know who also tends not to vote in America? Young people. I’m pretty sure this not because all young people are living in Flint, raising their disabled children. All of us who live in the real world are used to hearing this sort of self-indulgent bullshit from people who are too good to hold their noses and vote for the candidates who exist in reality, have to campaign in reality, have to appeal to a broad cross-section of real voters, have to compromise with other real politicians to pass laws, etc. Of all the candidates who participated in the Democratic primary, Biden probably would been my, what, eighth choice? Ninth? But he’s a decent, normal human being who will push forward roughly the same Democratic agenda as any of the other candidates who might have been elected, so it’s time to decide whether you want that or four more years of Trump.In short: Fuck off, shut up, and participate in our actual fucked up democracy as it is, because there are lots of people living here and elsewhere in the world whose lives are affected by the outcome.
Most decent, normal human beings don’t have 8 or 9 people accusing them of sexual assault. Joe Biden is still a rapist, he’s just not as blatantly offensive as Donald
No you fuck off, this was a lot of bullshit you wasted your time on for you to continue to blame Black and Brown people for election outcomes instead of the Candidate. No one owes anyone their vote, its up to a candidate to earn it.
Oh and you want to talk about the real world, for most people not a damn thing will change and their lives will continue to get worse.
jim, I get that you’re going to sulk and act butt-hurt and generally refuse to give an inch, because this is the internet. But later on, when you’re done pretending that telling people to vote is an affront to Black and Brown people (which, what?), admit to yourself that you’ve given the game away with the post above. To wit: candidates have to earn your precious snowflake of a vote, and it doesn’t matter anyway because it makes no real difference who gets elected.This is cycnical, self-indulgent twaddle, and it’s why so many sane people hate people like you. Earlier this year, congress passed a coronavirus stimulus bill that had a very significant effect on the lives of poor people. Poor Americans’ income actually increased in the early part of 2020 because of that bill. And since then, a second bill has been stalled because of Republicans. Passing a second bill would once again have a very real and positive effect on the lives of poor Americans. And I could spin the same tale out in twenty different ways: health care; the coronavirus response; tax rates; education funding; climate change; on and on. These issues affect people’s lives.By all means, keep shouting at me. Go ahead and ignore the fact that the “Black and Brown” people you’re hiding behind are the ones who put Biden over the top, presumably because in their judgment it does matter who gets elected. We’ve all heard this before. You can continue to see elections as a platform for your moral preening, or you can pull your head out of your ass and vote.
Ok you are back to blaming Black voters in MI, PA and WI for Trump ok got it. I mean they just need to grow up and do what ever the donors to the DNC tells them to do.
I don’t say this often, even to people who I am slamming on here, but I think you are too delicate for this site. Even post-Kinja. People are responsible for the consequences of their actions. The extent to which you didn’t singlehandedly change the world so that Trump couldn’t be elected before 2016 you are responsible for. And now bitching like a little baby because the worst thing in the world is “blame”? Grow up.
Oh, Jim. You’re just a hair away from screaming that Hitler was a vegetarian. Let me help you out by clarifying a few things.First, I’m pretty sure I never blamed Black voters in any state for Trump, mostly because this is not an opinion that I actually hold. In fact, I had never even considered the proposition before you mentioned it. If I were to apportion blame for Donald Trump, I would probably start with the 65 million or so people who voted for him.Second, I want to underscore that my only contention here is that you, Jim, internet douchebag, should fuck off and vote.But I also want to return something idiotic you said earlier. You said that politicians have to earn your vote. This is the sort of thing that sounds great only when you don’t think too hard about what it actually means.Biden competed in a primary against a dozen or so other candidates. He beat them all. If you are a Democratic-leaning voter, what does earning the vote look like if not that? I’m not suggesting that because Biden won the primary, everyone has to decide to love him. As I said, he wasn’t my first, second, or third choice. But I am saying that if you’re a Democratic-leaning voter, you have to accept the fact that the coalition you are part of chose him as the standard bearer. He earned the vote. In particular he earned it by winning a large share of the Black vote that you so value (as a cheap rhetorical device).This is what earning the vote looks like. If by earning the vote you instead mean that the candidate has to conform to your exact policy preferences, you raise the question of why your preferences are more important than those of the plurality who chose Biden in the primary. You’re also suggesting that your participation in the Democratic political coalition is contingent upon your personal favorite candidate being chosen. In which case, fuck you.Of course, on some level you recognize the narcissism inherent in suggesting that other Democratic voters aren’t allowed to have different preferences than you, so you roll out this old chestnut: DNC donors decided the election! Your candidate would have won, if not for the hated establishment. Never mind that Biden’s fundraising was pitiful before the South Carolina primary.And, look, I understand that this is all way, way over your head. So let me boil this down for you. Political participation plays out in various arenas. There are the primaries. There are monetary donations. There is letter writing and marching and dozens of other ways to get involved. It is commendable to engage in as many of these activities as one is able.But right now, one of the most consequential ways is to vote. There are two people, and only two people, in serious contention to be the next president of the United States. If you think that people’s lives will be meaningfully affected by the outcome of the election — and let’s be clear, they will — then you have a moral obligation to go out and vote for one of those two people.
The fact that you are arguing about this on a no-name website is just hilarious to me. Hitler was a socialist you fucking moron. Associating him to right wing policies just goes to show how much you actually know about history. Biden is a pawn of the Leftist Democrat party and always will be. He’s done nothing in 47 years except hurt minorities and bend the knee to China. I don’t expect you to grasp that because you’re too busy watching that cunt Rachel Maddow lie about every single fucking thing she can (or maybe that twat Don Lemon). Worst part is you’re probably just a white guilt-ridden millennial who has been brainwashed since childhood. Do yourself a favor and grow up and think for yourself. You jitbag…
I personally feel a moral obligation not to vote for rapists and sexual assaulters, which both candidates are. Not to mention the different ways in which theyre both racist
Holy molly who could have thought that bragging about the endorsement of the dude that poisoned you might not be helpful?
kevin mchale shoutout!
Eh – I thought he was OK in Glee, but I still don’t see him taking on Jordan.
they should have hired a differently-able actor (different) who could act and sing (also different)
Really? Calling voting 3rd party privileged when both candidates are senile, racist rapists promising no a substantive change to people who need it? Biden’s one great quality is not being Trump? One has an evangelical as a sidekick the other chose a cop. But choosing not to vote for either of the establishment parties is privileged. Ok. Seems like more of a privilege to be able to vote Biden just because Orange Man Bad and then go on not worrying much about your middle-class life while drug users continue to be incarcerated and working class people remain without viable healthcare. And go fracking I guess, cause fracking is good now and fuck the green new deal, right?