Gutfeld on Kanye West and Matt Damon
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Saturday Night Live's" premiere offered unique comparisons between bravery and cowardice, authenticity and hypocrisy. First of the bravery, Kanye West making a pro-Trump speech eliciting walkouts and boos:
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KANYE WEST, MUSICIAN: They bully me. They bullied me backstage and said don't go out there with that hat on. Ninety percent of news are liberals. So it's easy to make it seem like it's so, so, so one-sided.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They say, how could you like Trump? He's racist. Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism, I would've moved out of America a long time ago.
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So why is that brave? Well, someone sacrifices their street cred and offers themselves up to ridicule from the cool kids so others might not be targeted, that's brave. The opposite, instead of facing the mob, you just grab a pitchfork like Matt Damon did playing Brett Kavanaugh on the same show.
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MATT DAMON AS BRETT KAVANAUGH: Let me tell you this. I'm going to start at an 11. I'm going to take it to about a 15 real quick!
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GUTFELD: So, the nominee's anger is worthy of mockery even if he believes he's been unjustly accused. I guess he should have come out singing, "We Are the World." But it begs this question, would Damon behave differently if he were the accused? Let's ask him:
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DAMON: If you make that same claim today, to me, I would be scorched earth. I don't care if it cost me $10 million to fight this in court with you for 10 years, you're not taking my name from me. You're not taking my name and my reputation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}UNINDENTIFIED MALE: And that's what it is.
DAMON: I've worked too hard. I've worked too hard for it and I earned it. And you can't just blow me up like that.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Someone has amnesia. So if Matt Damon were accused, he'd scorch the earth just like Kavanaugh did, but once the chips were down, Damon happily scorched Kavanaugh instead.
Cowardice and hypocrisy: The gulf between fearful, virtuous public expression and hidden private terror. On TV you can say, yes, this accusation is disqualifying, but when you get home it's "What if they come for me? This is nuts."
Politicians, celebrities, media, so many have been accused of something. Want to bet they feel their pain was unjust? Matt should ask his friends: "Hey, Ben, were you ever accused of something, and was it unjust?" Imagine how many of them fight back tears and anger. It will be quite a performance. Maybe Matt can mock that, too.