Jamie Foxx is siding with Ellen DeGeneres and praising her “necessary” response amid her George W. Bush controversy. The talk show host drew ire over the weekend after she was spotted sitting next to the former POTUS, who was in power from 2001 to 2009, during which he held anti-LGBT stances and was called a “war criminal” following his actions in the Iraq War, and addressed the criticism during the Tuesday episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“Thank uuu very much for that!!!!” Foxx wrote on social media following DeGeneres’ comments. “Soooo needed and Necessary.”
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During the Tuesday episode, DeGeneres had defended her decision to remain friendly with Bush despite his history in office.
“I’m friends with George Bush. In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK,” she said. “But just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean I’m not gonna be friends with them.”
DeGeneres added that “when I say, ‘Be kind to one another,’ I don’t only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone. Doesn’t matter.”
Foxx’s comment, similar to ones made by celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Garner, isn’t an opinion held by all, however. On Wednesday, Mark Ruffalo broke the ranks of celebrities siding with the talk show host when he took to Twitter to slam DeGeneres and her plea for tolerance.
“Sorry, until George W. Bush is brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War, (including American-lead torture, Iraqi deaths & displacement, and the deep scars — emotional & otherwise — inflicted on our military that served his folly), we can’t even begin to talk about kindness,” the Avengers actor tweeted.
Susan Sarandon, of the series Dead Man Walking, also called DeGeneres out, sharing a quote from Out Magazine, saying, “Missing the point entirely, DeGeneres framed the issue as simply a matter of her hanging out with someone with different opinions, not a man repeatedly accused of being a war criminal.”
Addressing the controversy, the former POTUS himself praised DeGeneres’ statements, telling USA Today via his spokesman, Freddy Ford, that he “really enjoyed being with Ellen and Portia (de Rossi) and appreciated Ellen’s comments about respecting one another.”
