Actor Vince Vaughn was caught on film in January doing something many on the left viewed as despicable. Did he kill a puppy? Light a building on fire? (Oh wait, that last one isn’t off limits anymore.)

Nope. He shook hands with President Trump.

The video of the incident was posted to Twitter in January. Vaughn ran into President Trump and First Lady Melania at the college football national championship. The video shows the three having a friendly chat. This brief conversation was enough to outrage the mob.

Vaughn is a vocal libertarian, who backed Rand Paul in the 2016 election.  But simply showing courtesy was enough to infuriate some people. 

Vaughn recently spoke on the viral video in an interview with the Los Angeles Times

“In my career I’ve met a lot of politicians who I’ve always been cordial to; I’ve met Nancy Pelosi and was cordial to her as well,” he told the paper. “It was the only time I’ve ever met him. We said hello. He was very personable. I didn’t get into policies.”

Vaughn then continued to give what unfortunately is a hot take in 2020. 

“I think people are more charged than ever about these things, but I don’t think most people take that stuff as seriously as the small percentage that’s making noise about it,” he said. “I was raised with the idea that you could have different likes and beliefs and you should respect and defend that in other people, not shout it down. The people you disagree with the most, you should stand up for their right to do that.”

Vaughn is showing what inclusivity really looks like. We should all applaud him for defending his right to simply be kind to another American and hope many choose to do the same.

Hat Tip: People, LA Times

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore



About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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