Debra Messing is pulling no punches when it comes to President Donald Trump and his supporters. The Will & Grace star seemed to endorse a sign stating that any black voters who cast a ballot for President Trump are “mentally ill.” Her conviction got mixed responses on social media.
Messing has been an outspoken opponent of President Trump for years on social media. On Saturday, however, she may have taken it to a new level when she heard about an incendiary sign in Alabama. The bold statement was described by Democratic Coalition Chairman Jon Cooper on Twitter.
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“A Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, is capturing national attention for putting up a sign that reads on one side, ‘A black vote for Trump is mental illness,’” Cooper wrote. “The other side of the sign displays another message: ‘A white vote for Trump is pure racism.’”
THANK YOU #Alabama. https://t.co/E5UkqDmn3u
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) August 31, 2019
Cooper’s tweet included a link to The Hill, who reported on the controversial sign. Meanwhile, Messing retweeted Cooper, adding a short, emphatic message of her own.
“THANK YOU #Alabama,” the actress tweeted.
The sign in question stood out front at the New Era Baptist Church. The pastor, Michael Jordan, told local Fox affiliate WZDX that he hoped the sign would encourage people to vote for anyone other than President Trump in the 2020 election.
The sign was met with plenty of resistance at home, even before it went viral online. A local Trump support has reportedly petitioned City Hall to see if local officials can take any action against the sign. He said that people “should not be able to come into a building and feel like you are hated or diversified just because you came here to worship the Lord.”
Of course, Messing got plenty of outrage as well when she retweeted Cooper’s post about the sign. Her tweet got just over 150 retweets and over 900 likes, yet it racked up over 2,000 replies in the same amount of time. Many users turned out to condemn Messing and her message.
“Remind me again which President has the lowest African American unemployment rate and which President did absolutely nothing for us?” one person asked.
“Nothing says ‘I’m super woke’ like mocking minorities for thinking for themselves,” added another.
Messing had supporters as well, though they were entangled in arguments with other responders. Many felt that those calling Messing and the pastor racist over the sign were being disingenuous, intentionally missing the punch line.
“A vote for Trump by anyone of any skin hue is a mental illness. (Well, except for maybe those who might be as orange in their hue as Trump, which fortunately isn’t many),” one person quipped.
Messing returns to Will & Grace for its eleventh and final season this fall on NBC.
