Former American Idol participant and political candidate, Clay Aiken went on TMZ Live to talk about actors like The Rock and Matthew McConaughey getting into politics. Aiken knows a thing or two about getting into politics after a career in show business. Granted his career in show business has been nowhere near as successful as The Rock’s or McConaughey’s.
However, Aiken did take time to share a couple of words of advice to the stars. Before they threw their hat into the political ring!
The reason why these two names came up in the conversation with Aiken is that both actors have flirted with the idea of getting into politics. In the last election cycle, The Rock hinted at a potential run for president. As early as April 10th he took to his Instagram page to hint that he still may be thinking about the idea.
On the other hand, information leaked to political news sites that McConaughey was making calls around to see if people would back his run for governor. Aiken seems to think that’s not the best idea!
Aiken shared a story about a time a woman came up to him at the airport to tell him that she loved him. Then retracted her statement on the spot telling him ” I used to love you before you were a Democrat”.
According to Aiken both the Rock and McConaughey would be exposed to extreme criticism and have their personal lives scrutinized in a way they can’t imagine. He feels that neither of the two men really understand what the political arena is actually like. They don’t want to experience it!
Other than McConaughey and The Rock, Aiken was also asked what he thinks about Caitlyn Jenner’s run for governor of California. Aiken ultimately added his name to the list of people who have come out and said, Caitlyn has little to no chance of winning.
In his eyes’ Caitlyn is essentially in the wrong party. It’s going to be hard for her to be able to bring the LBGTQ+ community out to vote for the Republican party that many associate with Donald Trump still!
It’s not just Clay Aiken that is cautioning celebrities to stay out of government. Bill Maher dedicated a whole segment of his show last week to talk about the new trend of celebrities running for high office. While Aiken’s warning was centered on the popularity they could lose Maher outright deemed them unfit for the job.
He mentioned that he would like to see people in government who “spent their formative years not a sound stage, but studying the stuff you need to know to be effective on the world stage”.
In spite of these warnings celebrities in politics is likely something that we’ll continue to see for years to come!
