Clint Eastwood: 'I'd Have To Go For Trump'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Clint Eastwood has stopped short of endorsing Donald Trump, but in an interview in Esquire magazine he praised the Republican presidential candidate for being "on to something."
In the interview posted online Wednesday, the actor-director hailed Trump as a foe of political correctness and lamented what he called "the kiss-ass generation."
"Everybody's walking on eggshells," said Eastwood, 86. "We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist."
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Eastwood, who spoke at the 2012 Republican convention -- "that silly thing ... talking to the chair" -- urged people to "get over it."
"What Trump is onto is he's just saying what's on his mind. And sometimes it's not so good. And sometimes it's ... I mean, I can understand where he's coming from, but I don't always agree with it," he said.
In the interview with Esquire, Eastwood compared the chair to President Barack Obama.
"He doesn't go to work. He doesn't go down to Congress and make a deal. What the hell's he doing sitting in the White House? If I were in that job, I'd get down there and make a deal," Eastwood said. "Sure, Congress are lazy bastards, but so what? You're the top guy. You're the president of the company. It's your responsibility to make sure everybody does well. It's the same with every company in this country, whether it's a two-man company or a two-hundred-man company… . And that's the p**** generation—nobody wants to work."
Eastwood said he wasn't endorsing anyone for president. But asked to choose between Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton he said, "I'd have to go for Trump . you know, 'cause she's declared that she's gonna follow in Obama's footsteps. There's been just too much funny business on both sides of the aisle."
Eastwood's film "Sully" -- about Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the airline pilot who became a national hero when he safely landed a US Airways plane on the Hudson River off Manhattan in 2009 -- opens in September.
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