After an initial period of silence, Hollywood is beginning to speak out on events in Afghanistan with takes that go far to the left of even the legacy media. Here are a few of the most eyebrow raising comments of the last few days.
Stephen Colbert
The late night CBS host is arguably the most popular celebrity comparing some Americans to the Taliban, though he’s by no means the only one.
On Monday night, the comedian expressed agreement with President Biden’s widely criticized speech in which he argued that the Taliban’s almost-immediate recapture of the region doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right decision.
“We have had troops there for 20 years,” Colbert said. “They fought, they sacrificed, their families sacrificed so that we wouldn’t have a terrorist attack in America planned in a foreign country.” He then added, “Why should our soldiers be fighting radicals in a civil war in Afghanistan? We’ve got our own on Capitol Hill.”
The “Late Night” frontman, finished with a serious meditation on how, though it feels wrong, he believes the U.S. troop withdrawal was the “right thing.” Said Colbert:
For the last 20 years, four separate administrations told the American people to care about the plight of all the Afghan people, especially the women, and we did care and that’s not going to change. All that’s changed is that there’s nothing we can do about it now. So pulling out may be the right thing to do, but it’s heartbreaking; it’s humbling when the right thing feels so wrong.”
Seth Meyers
Though striking a milder tone than his late night counterpart, the NBC host also referenced the January 6 riots in relation to events in Kabul. “The Taliban yesterday entered the city of Kabul and took control of Afghanistan’s presidential palace,” Meyers said before delivering the punchline, “Most Americans watched in horror, while some Americans watched for tips.”
The SNL alum also claimed former President Trump is happy about how events have played out, saying, “Former President Trump released a statement on Friday amid the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and, yeah, he’s enjoying this.”
Rosanna Arquette
As The Daily Wire reported Monday, actress Rosanna Arquette has posted multiple tweets comparing Republicans to the Taliban including:
“The Taliban extremists are here in America just with a different name,” “The GOP right-wing extremists who support destroying democracy are the Terrorists in America and will continue to terrorize America until they are stopped and pay for their crimes against Americans Jan 6th.”
The terrorist attack on our capitol to overturn the election was the American version of the Taliban taking over.”
Despite plenty of negative reaction to her comments, on Tuesday night, the actress again appeared to double-down on this opinion, posting applause emojis under a response that added “Or Republicans” to her tweet that said, “We can never ever ever trust the Taliban …”
Michael Moore
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore expressed similar sentiments, juxtaposing images of the Capitol Hill rioters with Taliban fighters, with the caption, “Their Taliban, our Taliban, everybody’s got a Taliban. They’re at their best when they confiscate the halls of power.”
Later, the Oscar winner expressed views even liberal Hollywood might feel uncomfortable with, saying, of the U.S. armed forces who were on the ground in Afghanistan, “WE are the invaders. The Taliban are not invaders — they’re Afghans — it’s their country! They’re religious nuts. We know what that looks like — we have our own!”
Other celebrities stopped short of comparing Trump supporters or Republicans to the Taliban, but they did blame the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from the region on the former President.
Bette Midler
While many media commentators at Democrat-friendly outlets like CNN and The New York Times have somewhat framed the scene in Kabul as a bipartisan failure, the Divine Miss M says Trump alone owns the catastrophe.
“#Republicans are trying to pin the blame for #Afghanistan withdrawal on Biden. Don’t believe it,” said the “Beaches” star. “It was #F**kUpTrump and #Pompeo who never included the Afghan government in their peace talks with the Taliban. This should be laid at Trump’s fat feet.
Sophia Bush
The “One Tree Hill” actress, who has grown more politically outspoken in recent years, argued that the “Trump Administration set this ball rolling, and did not include ANY human rights standards for the Taliban to follow.” She later added, “those trying to blame Biden for this are gross political actors, all while AFG people are being terrorized. Period.”
George Takei
The actor best known as Sulu on “Star Trek” let loose about the criticism President Biden has received for the horrific scenes unfolding across America’s TV screens, arguing that the administration is doing the best it can with the bad hand it was dealt.
“The When Biden took office, 45 had left a sh*t show,” Takei argued. He then listed the problems he believes Trump left his successor, including, “Raging pandemic,” “Spiraling economy,” Resurgent Taliban,” and “Capitol insurrection.”
“We shouldn’t expect miracles, yet Biden delivered some,” the actor concluded. “So let’s keep perspective and not let the GOP blame their myriad failures and problems on him.”
Takei also took a spicier tone while dealing with the subject, saying, “If you supported 45’s Muslim Ban, you don’t get to lecture others about saving refugees from Afghanistan. You just get to sit your ass down.”
And then there was the one celeb who was honest (and funny) …
Jimmy Fallon
Back to late night, when it comes to Afghanistan, one host was willing to take aim at the other side of the aisle. The “Tonight Show’s” Jimmy Fallon joked, “You can tell things aren’t good for Biden, because today he said, ‘You know, maybe the election was stolen.’”