Actor Isaiah Washington recently captured the media’s attention for making the decision to leave partisan politics behind and publicly support President Donald Trump’s policy on prison reform.
“For you to publicly walk away ... if you are in entertainment or artist you are a part of the Democratic Party—that is your calling—it’s such a big risk,” Tyrus said.
“It’s a risk, and there is a penalty for it, but I will only walk away when it matters,“ replied Washington. ”The reason I have chosen to walk away from the Democratic Party, as I know it, or walk away from the Republican Party as I don’t know it, is that something doesn’t feel right.”
“It doesn’t matter what [Trump’s] personal life was before he became president. I saw something that happened, it was historical, and I will never back down from that. I will always be supportive of him and the First Step Act because I was there, and I saw all the people that they were working so hard for actually have a say… for a bipartisan bill to be signed into law. Man, that was amazing. So, that’s what I tweeted.”
After attending the White House event he was bombarded with questions from people on social media and accusations from those on the left.
He told The Epoch Times he chose to “stand up for justice, for what was right.“ ”It doesn’t matter who the president was. I’m there supporting the people, but [they’re] turning my supporting of the people into identity politics—that’s disgusting.”
Washington told Fox’s Tyrus, “I don’t know where I am going, but I know where I come from. And if I look at the political lineage of the Democratic Party over the last 50 years of my lifetime—since I was 5, and I’m 55—and very little has changed in my community, or just two blocks from where I am right now, then I have some questions—I’ve got more than questions.”
Washington has been clear about his support of the #WalkAway movement, a social media campaign with the goal of encouraging Democrats—particularly groups commonly or historically associated with the Democrats—to leave the Party.