In relation to greeting political figures in public, Vince Vaughn just lately insisted his method is nonpartisan.

Recalling a controversial encounter he had with President Donald Trump originally of this yr, Vaughn mentioned in an interview with the Los Angeles Instances final week that he felt the controversy was overblown and insisted he “didn’t get into insurance policies.”

In January, the actor, whom The Day by day Beast described as “Hollywood’s most seen—and vocal—libertarian,” was seen shaking fingers and chatting with Trump on the Faculty Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship sport in New Orleans.

Timothy Burke, founding father of the political consulting agency Burke Communications, tweeted out a video displaying Vaughn seated beside the president and first woman Melania Trump on the sport.

The clip immediately went viral and brought on Vaughn’s title to pattern on Twitter the next day. Reactions to the footage on social media have been intense.

The left doesn’t need to cancel Vince Vaughn as a result of they’ll’t bear in mind who he’s.

— Molly Jong-Quick



(@MollyJongFast) January 14, 2020

I don’t perceive the way you get furious at Vince Vaughn over shaking fingers with the president in the event you discovered it in your coronary heart to forgive him for the “Psycho” remake.

— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) January 14, 2020

I’m so dissatisfied in Vince Vaughn that I went to the GUNZ N MORE Pawn Store and acquired all his VHS films and threw all of them out.

— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 14, 2020

In an interview printed Friday, Vaughn pressured to the Instances that the long-ago dialog with Trump wasn’t an endorsement.

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“In my profession I’ve met a variety of politicians who I’ve at all times been cordial to; I’ve met Nancy Pelosi and was cordial to her as effectively,” he mentioned. “It was the one time I’ve ever met him. We mentioned good day. He was very personable. I didn’t get into insurance policies.”

Noting that he’d additionally spoken with Democratic strategist James Carville on the soccer sport, Vaughn added, “I used to be raised with the concept that you might have completely different likes and beliefs and you need to respect and defend that in different folks, not shout it down. The folks you disagree with essentially the most, you need to rise up for his or her proper to do this.”

“The one candidate I ever supported is [2008 and 2012 Libertarian presidential nominee] Ron Paul,” he mentioned. “I don’t have a celebration that I assist and endorse. In truth, for me generally it’s troublesome to discover a candidate that you simply really feel is philosophically constant and never simply going together with whoever is funding their specific occasion. That’s as a lot as I’ll get into it at this level.”

At the moment incomes raves for his efficiency within the new movie “Freaky,” the actor has confronted scrutiny for his political beliefs up to now. In 2015, he made headlines when he expressed assist for retaining weapons in colleges to stop mass shootings.

“In all of our colleges it’s unlawful to have weapons on campus, so repeatedly these guys go and shoot up these fucking colleges as a result of they know there are not any weapons there,” he advised British GQ on the time. “You assume the politicians that run my nation and your nation don’t have weapons within the colleges their youngsters go to? They do. And we must be allowed the identical rights.”

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