Is the age of celebrity political endorsements dead? - comment

Late last week, pop star and actress Jennifer Lopez took the stage in Las Vegas, where she campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and said, “If you are anything like me and you value the idea that in this country, any child from any background can work their ass off to bring their dream to life… then this isn't much of a choice at all. We all want a world where kids feel safe and free.”

Lopez looked fabulous – when does she not? But her words seemed a bit rich considering she may have been complicit in one of the most horrific sex scandals to have rocked Hollywood. For those not following the saga, her ex-boyfriend P. Diddy is now under arrest and facing charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison. According to reports, the youngest victim of his alleged abuse is 13 years old.

Lopez has not said a word about her ex-boyfriend’s criminal wrongdoing. That doesn’t mean she herself is guilty, of course, but it does raise questions as to what she knew when she was dating him between 1999 and 2001 and why she has refused to condemn his actions should he be proven guilty.

It’s even more egregious that in her stump speech, she professes to weep for the future of America’s children but can’t even spare a word for those allegedly abused by her ex-boyfriend.

The hypocrisy is undeniable, and Lopez is not the only one. Harris featured a myriad of celebrities who were close with the disgraced rap mogul, like Beyonce and Usher, both of whom have plenty to say about President-elect Donald Trump but can’t spare a word of derision for someone in their own community who they were close to and who is accused of heinous crimes.

We’ve been here before. Hollywood turned a blind eye and professed over and over again that they didn’t know that sexual crimes and abuse were happening under their nose. When the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke the internet in 2017, celebrities rushed to share their stories about how unpleasant the Hollywood mega-producer was, but they gladly worked with him up until that point.

Perhaps in the Weinstein case, many could be forgiven; after all, Weinstein was one of the most influential men in Hollywood, and if you wanted a career, you had to be on his good side. But after the #MeToo movement and now that Weinstein is rotting in prison, where he belongs, haven’t we learned the lesson that we don’t show compassion for rapists and must call out their abhorrent behavior the second we see it?

Apparently not. Hollywood has remained eerily quiet since the federal government raided P. Diddy’s house over the summer.

And yet, Kamala Harris’s campaign still thought it was a good idea to platform these celebrities without understanding that when inflation is through the roof, the middle class is not interested in receiving advice on how to vote from someone who never has to worry if their next paycheck will be enough to cover the rent. Moreover, those words come across as hollow when these celebrities refuse to clean up their own house and want to tell the rest of the country how to vote from a moral perspective.

Harris had several celebrities in her corner

Harris had the most influential celebrities in her corner. Taylor Swift. Bruce Springsteen. Oprah. Julia Roberts. George Clooney.

Unfortunately for her, these endorsements lacked authenticity and appeared to be based on a script generated by ChatGPT for the Harris campaign. None of them seemed to be speaking from the heart; even CardiB stared blankly while waiting to deliver remarks at a Harris rally when her teleprompter broke. She only began speaking when someone rushed up to the stage to hand the rapper her phone so she could deliver her pre-packaged remarks. If you’re going to endorse someone publicly, shouldn’t you be able to riff a few words off the cuff until the teleprompter starts working again?

The lack of authenticity behind these endorsements, coupled with the Hollywood community’s pattern of turning a blind eye when one of their own is charged with serious allegations, made the American people think twice before automatically following their advice and may have even turned many away from Harris.

It’s not often that Piers Morgan and I agree, but the opinionated anchor’s post on X on Wednesday was almost identical to the thoughts I shared on Facebook the same day: “One thing’s indisputable: nobody gives a stuff about celebrity political endorsements anymore. In fact, I think they actively encourage people to vote against that candidate,” he wrote.

Unlike Harris, Trump corralled non-entertainment industry ‘celebrities’ in his corner, like Bill Ackman, Elon Musk, and Joe Rogan, who were able to engage in impromptu and unrehearsed discussions as to why they were voting for Trump.

If anything, the results of this election will hopefully help the Democratic upper echelon understand that the era of celebrity endorsements is over.