Ex-ESPN anchor Jemele Hill called out Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for "political cowardice" because he won't publicly endorse President Biden ahead of the 2024 election.
In an exclusive interview with "Fox & Friends" on Friday, the actor and former WWE superstar explained that he ultimately regretted endorsing Biden in 2020 because of the division it has caused.
"Am I going to do that again this year? That answer's no. I'm not going to do that," Johnson said. "Because what I realized that what that caused back then was something that tears me up in my guts back then and now, which is division. And that got me."
Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show on Monday and attacked Johnson's lack of public support for Biden or any presidential candidate as a "non-statement."
"That is the most statement-non-statement I’ve ever heard. And I love Dwayne Johnson. Like, you know, during my time at ESPN, if you ask people, the number one person who they felt like, when they did the car wash, was like the best person that came through there in terms of, like, how they interacted with people, how nice they were, it was easily The Rock or number two would be Kevin Hart," Hill said, referring to when a newsmaker does several shows and interviews at ESPN in quick succession. "And that’s the kind of, frankly, political cowardice that’s hard to respect."
Hill also criticized Johnson by suggesting that if he wasn’t going to vote for Biden, then he would indirectly be supporting bigotry.
She added, "I don’t understand how Joe Biden is the divisive one, where what he’s running against is pushing bigotry, xenophobia, every other phobia and ism you could possibly name. That is what they’re literally campaigning on. Joe Biden is not campaigning on those same things. And so, I don’t even understand how Joe Biden got attacked for being the one who’s dividing people. If [Johnson] wants to stop the division, then he shouldn’t at all make it seem like he is aligned with the side that is pushing only division."
"And so even though he said he was going to keep his ballot to himself. He actually didn’t. Because there’s only one other person who will be the presidential nominee. So unless you plan to write in yourself, or plan to vote for Donald Trump, you’ve made your decision, that you are voting for xenophobia, and bigotry, and all these other things that you claim to stand against. So I just thought that wasn’t his best moment," she said. "And it was so unnecessary, too, because I don’t know, I wasn’t going around wondering who The Rock was voting for. So I don’t know why he decided he needed to share that."
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Johnson politically identifies as an independent and made his first political endorsement in 2020 when he backed Biden for president. He now insists that he will not endorse any candidate.
"The takeaway after that months and months and months, I started to realize like, ‘Oh man, that caused an incredible amount of, division in our country.’ So I realize now, going into this election, I'm not going to do that. I wouldn't do that because my goal is to bring our country together. I believe in that, in my DNA. So in the spirit of that, there's going to be no endorsement," Johnson told Fox News host Will Cain.
