Celebrities plead with Congress to obstruct Donald Trump's agenda

Celebrities urge Congress to obstruct Trump's racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, anti-worker, anti-Muslim policies

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published January 4, 2017 5:36PM (EST)

Keegan-Michael Key  urges Congress.
Keegan-Michael Key urges Congress.

A star-studded video released on Tuesday by Humanity for Progress urged Congress to block any policies proposed by President-elect Donald Trump that imperil America's "core values" by attacking its most vulnerable members. Sally Field, Steve Buscemi, Zoe Kazan, Jeffrey Wright, Keegan Michael-Key, Rosie Perez, Lea DeLaria and developer Bruce Ratner all encouraged Congress in the video.

"The majority of Americans, regardless of who they voted for, did not vote for racism, for sexism, or for xenophobia. And yet Donald Trump won," the video said.

The script continued that, "Since he won, hate crimes are rising, women have been attacked in his name, people of color attacked in his name."

The celebrities "demand that [Congress] vigorously oppose" the President-elect's "racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, anti-worker, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-environmental policies" and also encouraged legislators to block nominees that threaten the rights of women, the LGBT community, people of color, immigrants, and the poor.

Humanity for Progress is a successor to Humanity for Hillary. The most recent video was directed by Liz Garbus, who said in  statement, "We know the majority of the American people, regardless of who they voted for, do not want a regime that permits hate and monied interests to run rampant."

This isn't the first time that Hollywood A-listers have united to thwart Trump in the aftermath of his election. In December, Martin Sheen, Debra Messing, Loretta Swit, James Cromwell, and Moby starred in a video urging members of the Electoral College to abandon Trump and support an alternative Republican candidate.

 


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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