Bill Murray is rarely one to keep quiet about his opinions.
And in a recent sit down with CNBC’s Squawk Box, the actor warned that political discourse had degenerated into a ‘Clash of Clans every day, first thing in the morning.’
‘People are going to war about so much,’ he warned.
He added that Democrats could often create division by striving to represent certain groups or minorities, rather than simply saying they represented Americans.
Bill Murray has criticized the current political discourse and blames Democrats for making it worse by trying to represent minorities
‘My friend who’s a great comedy writer, Jim Downey, he’s accused of being a right-wing comedy writer, if there is such a thing,’ Murray said. ‘He says, ‘No, I just think the way the Democrats handle things is poor, where they try to pick out little pieces of a population, oh well we represent the Hispanics, we represent the LGBT or something.’
‘And they’re not speaking to everyone at once. And it’s almost demeaning to say, ‘I’m choosing you because you’re a splinter group or you’re a certain minority group.’
‘There’s almost a resentment that somehow you’re separated, again, by a politician — ‘You’re my people. I’m in control of you, I represent you,’ instead of thinking that each citizen has a right to be respected as a citizen first, under the laws of the country.’
The 67-year-old, who seemed to suggest that such times of political unrest often laid the ‘compost and fertilizer’ to nurture more stable times of unity ahead
The 67-year-old, who seemed to suggest that such times of political unrest often laid the ‘compost and fertilizer’ to nurture more stable times of unity ahead, added that the current divided atmosphere made a comedy of a political nature very difficult.
‘How can Kristen Wiig make everyone laugh?’ he asked. ‘She’s not thinking about being political, she’s thinking about what resonates and what is common to all of us.
‘I think that’s harder and harder to do because people are trying to win their point of view as opposed to saying, ‘What if I had spoken to everyone?’
Despite the difficulties of getting a laugh from politics at the moment, Murray did play former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday Night Live after being asked to do the skit by a friend.
‘They had a really good wig,’ joked the Ghostbusters star, who was an SNL cast member from 1977 to 1980.
‘My friend called me up and said, ‘Would you like to be Steve Bannon.’ I said, ‘Who wouldn’t.’
During the wide-ranging interview, in which he also touched on the Harvey Weinstein scandal which has lead to people getting justice more quickly than usual, avid golfer Murray also discussed his reaction to the Republican tax reform.
Murray played former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Saturday Night Live after being asked to do the skit by a friend
‘They had a really good wig,’ joked the Ghostbusters star and ex-SNL star
‘The change in the tax law is a great thing for the corporations, it’s a fantastic thing,’ he said.
‘I don’t pretend to understand what that will mean in the future in terms of the economy or what the budget will have to do to take care of what people call entitlements,’ he said.
‘In the first step, it’s made things easier. I think people feel like there was probably too much regulation, and yet you just hope that they don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater when breaking down regulations.’
On the Weinstein scandal, which has seen a number of high profile actors, directors and executives stand down over sexual misconduct allegations, Murray added: ‘If people are monstrous, it eventually comes back.
‘We get justice, but we don’t get it when we want it. …This is unusual. People are getting their justice rather quickly.’
The outspoken comedian and star of Groundhog Day will take a break from acting later this year, when he will fly south, with classical musicians, for a tour of Australia in November.
He said that the current divided atmosphere made comedy of a political nature very difficult, adding that comedians like Kristen Wiig (pictured) were successful because she’s ‘not thinking about being political, she’s thinking about what resonates and what is common to all of us’
Murray will be performing spoken word and singing in the unique show alongside classical music performed by German-American cellist Jan Vogler and his wife, Chinese-American violinist Mira Wang, and Venezuelan-American pianist Vanessa Perez.
Renowned for his quirky, yet approachable personality, Murray’s latest venture sprang from an airport security line where he struck up a conversation with Vogler over the unwieldy size of his cello and a mutual love of the American greats.
They got together and created the album New Worlds which combines classical music by Ravel, Schubert, Saint-Saens and Bach with spoken word excerpts from American writers Twain, Hemingway, and Whitman, and classics from the American songbook, including Gershwin, Bernstein, and Foster.
‘We are from four different continents and when the continents come together, the music moves right across the peninsulas from one to the other. It’s just a short journey from one continent to the other,’ Murray said.
Meanwhile, Murray has been keeping busy on the golf course, where he is a regular in California. While towards the end of last year, he helped fundraise for Puerto Rico by selling off his autographs.
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