Academy Award winning actor Matthew McConaughey spoke out about a potential run for Texas governor and provided some insight into his views on abortion in an interview on New York Times podcast, “Sway” hosted by Kara Swisher.
The Texas native said he does not support legislation that enacted the strictest ban on abortion since Roe v. Wade.
“I’ve got a problem with that,” McConaughey said, adding he thought the legislation was a “juvenile” attempt at a loophole to the Supreme Court ruling.
Later in the podcast, he said that giving people only six weeks to get an abortion, which is before many know they are pregnant, “does not really make that an honest consideration.”
During the podcast McConaughey also spoke about the state of politics in the country.
“I’m working on what I’m trying to understand politics to be,” McConaughey said. “I think we’ve got to redefine politics. If each party’s only about preservation of party, well, I’m almost arguing that’s undemocratic. If you’re only there to, by hook or by crook, preserve your party, you’re leaving out 50 percent of the people. So I think politics needs a redefining.”
McConaughey also expressed concern that politics may be a “bag of rats” that he shouldn’t touch with a a 10-foot pole.
“I’m not a man who comes at politics from a political background. I’m more of a a statesman-philosopher, folk-singing poet,” he said. “I don’t talk politics, I talk people.”
McConaughey also spoke in support of a more centrist ideology, expressing concern over how divided the country is politically.
“I think people want a third party and we’ve got one. It doesn’t have a name right now. And it is the majority. It is 60 percent of the population in America,” he said on the podcast, adding, “I think it’s necessary to be aggressively centric to possibly salvage democracy in America right now.”
The actor also spoke in favor of masking during COVID-19.
“We were all more afraid of the word mandate than we were the damn mask. And I think our pride trumped and stamped down our honor there. We chose privilege over principle,” he said.
If he decides to run for Texas governor, McConaughey has not said which party, if any, he would run with.
Gov. Greg Abbott is running for a third term as governor of Texas and being challenged by other Republicans State Sen. Don Huffines and former Florida Congressman Allen West, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Democrats are reportedly trying to convince Beto O’Rourke, a former El Paso congressman to run. O’Rourke said he is still thinking about it, the Chronicle reported.
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