Democrat activist and actor Alec Baldwin has praised Liz Cheney, comparing her to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Baldwin made the remarks about the Wyoming Republican on a podcast released on Tuesday – the day Ms Cheney faces the voters in her state’s GOP primary for her seat in the US House of Representatives.
Having watched a documentary about the jailed opposition leader, Mr Baldwin said he had wondered who the Navalny was in contemporary US politics.
“Where’s the man or woman that’s willing to self-immolate over principle? You’re willing to end your career over principle,” the actor said on The Chris Cuomo Project podcast.
“And we do have one today. We do have one, who is the Navalny of our current political culture, and that’s Liz Cheney,” he said in a discussion with eponymous host Chris Cuomo, formerly of CNN.
“I’m very, very, very heartened to see Liz Cheney do the right thing,” said Mr Baldwin, one of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics.
“I mean, even though her politics heretofore was not my cup of tea, and her father was somebody who was like a villain to me on a movie poster,” he continued, adding he would have “to think about” potentially casting a ballot for Ms Cheney if she ran for future political office — though dependent on who else was running.
“Liz Cheney, to me, is someone who I would certainly consider a great candidate for some political appointment,” he said.
Mr Baldwin also opined during the discussion that “all politicians are bought and owned by the people who put them in office financially”, prompting Mr Cuomo to ask why he remained a Democrat if he believed the system was “basically a plutocracy”.
“I’ve been anaesthetised in recent years into believing into what the Democrats have said — and they’re right — which is how much worse it would be if the Republicans were in power,” the actor answered.
Mr Baldwin has been a favourite target of former President Trump, whom he parodied on <em>Saturday Night Live</em> through much of his administration, as well as his allies in Washington.
“These people hate liberals that can throw a punch,” he said. “If you’re a liberal with a pair of balls, they hate you.”
Wrapping up their political discussion, Mr Cuomo asked Mr Baldwin if he felt that President Joe Biden deserved a second term in office and should run again in 2024.
“I think he does deserve a second term, but again, his age is a factor.”
He added that when the president took office in early 2021, the “sociopath” Mr Trump had handed Mr Biden “a bowl full of horse manure and asked to make it into meatloaf”.
