In fact, Eastwood said, “We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist.”
He added, “You know, he’s a racist now because he’s talked about this judge. And yeah, it’s a dumb thing to say. I mean, to predicate your opinion on the fact that the guy was born to Mexican parents or something. He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody — the press and everybody’s going, ‘Oh, well, that’s racist,’ and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just f—king get over it. It’s a sad time in history.”
Eastwood did not attend this year’s Republican National Convention, after famously giving a speech at the 2012 gathering in which he did a routine in which he talked to an empty chair. He told Esquire that the bit was “silly at the time.” He said that he came up with the idea for the empty chair because other speakers were repetitive, talking about Mitt Romney, and he thought, “I’ve got to say something more. And so I’m listening to an old Neil Diamond thing and he’s going, ‘And no one heard at all / Not even the chair.’ And I’m thinking, that’s Obama.”
