Broadway star and gay activist/actor Billy Porter, who’s a favorite guest on ABC’s Good Morning America and The View, appeared on the latter show Friday to talk about the two topics of the day, the 2020 election and coronavirus. While there, Porter urged Democrats to unite behind Joe Biden to defeat the “terror” Trump. Sounding like Michael Moore, he also claimed the national lockdown due to coronavirus was a warning from Mother Nature.
Porter took a break from teaching kids the LGBTQ alphabet on Sesame Street to shill for Biden on The View, with the hosts’ help. Whoopi asked him to explain why he needed to cover a 1960s “protest song” right now, giving Porter an opportunity to trash President Trump:
“When I looked at the landscape of the world we’re living in since the last presidential election and living through the terror that we have been living through, I knew that coming up on this election year that I wanted to use the platform that I have been blessed with to make sure that I speak out, use this moment to speak truth to power,” he began.
Joy Behar followed that up by asking him why he devoted it to Joe Biden’s campaign:
BEHAR: You debuted the video for the song during Joe Biden’s “Soul of a nation” virtual event this past Saturday. So why was it important for you to be part of that particular event?
PORTER: Well, I think that we — well, I know that we on the left need to spend this time to become unified. You know, the — we’ve seen all of the ideas for candidates. It’s been boiled down to Biden. There’s no time to fight about it. There’s no time to protest about it. We must come together and get behind Joe Biden and make sure that he’s elected so that our democracy can survive. So that’s why I did it.
After that, the hosts chit chatted about how Porter was spending time during the lockdown. Porter gushed about how this government-mandated lockdown was a “reset” from “Mother Nature” but also made it sound like it was a vacation:
It’s different, but what’s amazing about it is in this global reset — which is what I’m calling it. Mother Nature has decided to sit us all down, and inside of that, you know, my thought process has been about what does this mean?
For me, it means investigating what balance looks like, investigating what self-care looks like, trying to figure out that my sanity is intact, spending time with my husband has been the most fulfilling because that is — that’s what took the biggest hit, and sort of just meteoric rise that I have been experiencing in show business over the last couple of years. So it’s really been wonderful for me to just settle and reset, and I have been doing a lot of writing, working on a memoir, working on a childrens’ picture book, a pilot and a musical and my music as you can hear. It’s really cracked open a different kind of creative space for me that is rooted in self care and sanity.
It must be nice that having more time for “self care” is the biggest of your concerns during this national lockdown.
Read a partial transcript below:
The View
5/1/2020
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: You just released a cover of the 1996 Buffalo Springfield protest anthem, “For what it’s worth.”
BILLY PORTER: Yeah.
WHOOPI: Why this song, and why now?
PORTER: Well, you know, I am a product of the first generation post-civil rights movement, and then, you know, coming out as gay in 1985, you know, we went straight to the front lines to fight for our lives. So activism is in my DNA, and when I looked at the landscape of the world we’re living in since the last presidential election and living through the terror that we have been living through, I knew that coming up on this election year that I wanted to use the platform that I have been blessed with to make sure that I speak out, use this moment to speak truth to power, protest music is what I grew up with, and I wanted to make sure that I was doing that. We the people are the ones that have the power to make the change, and my hope is that this song reignites that energy in people. I hope it brings hope for the possibility of what can be, but nothing can be if we don’t show up and make that happen. So my hope is that the song —
WHOOPI: Right.
PORTER: — Incites that kind of energy.
JOY BEHAR: You debuted the video for the song during Joe Biden’s “Soul of a nation” virtual event this past Saturday.
PORTER: Yes.
BEHAR: So why was it important for you to be part of that particular event?
PORTER: Well, I think that we — well, I know that we on the left need to spend this time to become unified. You know, the — we’ve seen all of the ideas for candidates. It’s been boiled down to Biden. There’s no time to fight about it. There’s no time to protest about it. We must come together and get behind Joe Biden and make sure that he’s elected so that our democracy can survive. So that’s why I did it.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Now Billy, you have been home in quarantine like the rest of us for a few weeks now.
PORTER: Yes.
HOSTIN: And you have said that you are usually traveling of course and working on so many different projects.
PORTER: Yes. Yes.
HOSTIN: So what has it been like to be home with your husband all this time? It’s got to be different, right?
PORTER: It’s different, but what’s amazing about it is in this global reset — which is what I’m calling it. Mother nature has decided to sit us all down, and inside of that, you know, my thought process has been about what does this mean?
For me, it means investigating what balance looks like, investigating what self-care looks like, trying to figure out that my sanity is intact, spending time with my husband has been the most fulfilling because that is — that’s what took the biggest hit, and sort of just meteoric rise that I have been experiencing in show business over the last couple of years. So it’s really been wonderful for me to just settle and reset, and I have been doing a lot of writing, working on a memoir, working on a childrens’ picture book, a pilot and a musical and my music as you can hear. It’s really cracked open a different kind of creative space for me that is rooted in self care and sanity.
