Russell Brand says voters should choose Donald Trump if they ‘care about democracy’
Actor and comedian Russell Brand said he finds it difficult to understand why any freedom-loving American would choose to vote for President Biden over former President Trump in the upcoming election.
In a new episode of his podcast “Stay Free with Russell Brand,” scheduled to premiere on Friday, Brand sat down with model, author and RNC spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko for a wide-ranging interview in which the pair discussed Trump’s trial and subsequent conviction.
In a preview clip obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital Thursday, Brand, who has been vocal about his discontent with the system, spelled out his personal thoughts on the upcoming election.
“In a straight choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, if you care about democracy, if you care about freedom, I don’t know how you could do anything other than vote for Donald Trump for precisely the reasons that they claim that you can’t,” he told Pipko.
“They act as if a vote for Donald Trump is almost like you’re directly voting for Armageddon, like you see hysterical performances outside of courtrooms, endless MSNBC bombast,” Brand continued.” But I’m starting to think that no, a greater threat to democracy is this kind of technological feudalism, that tells you that it cares about you and that it’s protecting vulnerable people, all the while increasing censorship, increasing the funding of wars, increasing the division between ordinary Americans.”
The England native, who remains a long-standing opponent of censorship, said he’s been troubled by the disdain and “snobbery” among liberals for Trump supporters and blamed Trump opponents for criminalizing the former president with the “weaponization of the legal system.”
“For a long time, Elizabeth, I’ve been concerned about the snobbery and the contempt and condemnation in which people that support Donald Trump are plainly held by his detractors,” Brand said. “And this is while you have an administration that’s emulating his policies, plagiarizing from Donald Trump, while simultaneously criminalizing him from the weaponization of the legal system.”
“The idea of this…Orwellian nightmare continuing all the while they’re telling you that they’re helping you, is a far greater threat than their constant portrayal of Trump as a mad strongman figure, a kind of twenty-first century reiteration of the despotism of the last century,” Brand added. “For me, what we are facing now is a bigger threat than that.”
The actor recently hosted independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on his podcast and performed on stage at a campaign event for Kennedy in Nashville last month.
Brand has previously criticized the “liberal establishment” at length for, in his words, a “fetishization of small differences” between themselves and their right-wing counterparts, arguing in the past that they have become “co-opted by the same financial and military interests” historically associated with the right.
The famed actor, who produces longform content exploring a variety of topics, including news, politics, culture and spirituality, was recently baptized after announcing that he was turning to Christianity.
Last month, he remarked on how it seems that other people are also turning to faith as the modern world loses meaning before criticizing deteriorating value systems and institutions.
“People are so cynical about the increasing interest in Christianity and the return to God, but to me, it’s obvious,” Brand said on social media. “As meaning deteriorates in the modern world, as our value systems and institutions crumble, all of us become increasingly aware that there is this eerily familiar awakening and beckoning figure that we’ve all known all of our lives, within us and around us.”
The full episode will be available on Friday, June 7 at 12pm ET on Rumble.
Fox News’ Gabriel Hayes contributed to this report.