Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart Said They’d Move If Trump Won — Where Are They Now?
As Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency, scores of celebrities — among them Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, Chelsea Handler, Jon Stewart and Barbra Streisand — stepped forward to say they’d leave the country if he won.
In the days since he did, their responses have varied from silence to a renewed determination to stay and advocate for at-risk communities.
Schumer and Handler have stepped up in the latter camp. Taking to Instagram the day after the election, Schumer explained an interview in which she said she’d leave was a joke, criticizing those who intend to leave as “just as disgusting as anyone who voted for this racist homophobic openly disrespectful woman abuser.”
Schumer accompanied her letter with a quote, attributed to Trump, alleging gullability in Republican voters; the quote was a fake, she explained, but in her mind might as well have been real.
Handler, appearing on her Netflix show the day after the election, spoke about her staff persuading her to stay in the United States.
“Everyone in my office is like, ‘You have a responsibility, you have a voice and you need to use it, and you have to be here,’” she said, moved to tears.
Streisand, Stewart and Dunham had all, before the election, expressed their interest in leaving the country in the event of a Trump victory.(Well, Stewart took it further, telling reporters in September 2015 that if Trump won, he’d ” consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet.”) None so far have commented on the result or their subsequent plans.
Talya Zax is the Forward’s culture fellow. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax
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