Nineties Bae Janeane Garafolo Talks About Trump

From Cosmopolitan

Actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo made a name for herself in the ‘90s playing acid-tongued misanthropes like “Heather Mooney” in the 1997 cult classic Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion.

Janeane is also a passionate progressive feminist, who is not afraid to say what she thinks when it comes to politics, the election, and, of course, Donald Trump. Cosmopolitan.com caught up with her backstage at a promotional event for her new standup comedy special, “If I May”, which premiers on comedy streaming service See So on October 27.

I want to talk a little bit about the election. So much crazy stuff is happening, what’s bugging the shit out of you this week?

Well, like any week, in most election seasons, there’s so many flaws with election coverage, information dissemination, candidates parsing words - nothing new. The Republican Party has been lowering the bar for years. In fact, they’ve removed the bar. Donald Trump has certainly brought a new level of crassness to it. But I’m sure there’s been just as many offensive, crass, racist, sexist, homophobic things said behind closed doors on the Republican Party’s side for years.

It’s been going shockingly awry since Watergate, I would say. But it really ramped up during the Reagan revolution: the rhetoric and the pandering and the fear mongering. There’s nothing really new under the sun except there seems to be new things caught with the new mediums, things being taped or overheard that weren’t overheard before.

And also the way the media chooses to cover certain things. That’s just the nature of corporate media, I guess.

Has there been anything in particular you felt like the media was covering badly?

Almost everything. For the most part, if you want good coverage, you have to go outside the mainstream. I would say MSNBC intermittently does a good job. But if you really want a better job, you go with Amy Goodman or you go with foreign news desks or you go with people like Bill Scher, LiberalOasis - any not-for-profit. Sam Seder is really good.

You mentioned Amy Goodman. I assume you heard about her potentially being brought up on charges of riot instigation for reporting on the Dakota pipeline protests.

Yeah, that’s not new for her either though. She’s been grappling with that nonsense for years, and I think there’s been a lot of people who have in their own way tried to stop her from giving unbiased news. It’s of no benefit to her to live this way, to do what she’s doing. That’s how I know I can trust it. Anybody who is not making a lot of money, who it is difficult for them to do it, [I trust].

What did you think of the Billy Bush/Access Hollywood tapes?

I think the saddest part - I mean this sincerely, not in a condescending way - is the way the two of them were trying to impress each other. They’re grown men. Billy Bush’s only excuse is he’s younger. But to see a man of Donald Trump’s age and somebody that should know better - although Billy Bush’s never proven himself to be a paragon of integrity or anything, given the job that he does and probably the behavior he’s exhibited that we just don’t know about.

What really brought it the sadness home was when [Arianne Zucker] was standing there innocently and Billy Bush said, “Go ahead and hug her.” Something about that really added another layer, because she was just innocently standing there, probably dreading this interaction in the first place, and it’s almost like a nudge-nudge, wink-wink lack of respect. Doesn’t matter who she was - they probably treat males that way too. I’m sure their bullying or their type of behavior can transcend gender.

Some women have come out in support of Trump since that tape appeared. Did you see the woman at the Cincinnati Trump rally who wore that T-shirt that said "Hey Trump, talk dirty to me!!!"? Why do you think they are standing behind him in that way?

I don’t know whether it’s Stockholm Syndrome, low self-esteem, opportunism, because you want to get your face on camera, or just straight up anti-intellectualism. Something is so very tragic about seeing females and people of color and people who are economically challenged supporting any right-winger.

I can’t get my mind around it. It’s like still going to Chipotle. Chipotle’s still packed. A proven systemic issue with bacterial infection and food poisoning, time and time again over the last couple of years and yet still, “Hey, I’m going in. I’m going to eat Chipotle.” [Chuckles] “I may get bacterial infection.”

You were campaigning for Bernie Sanders in the primary election, right?

I was not. I was always for both. I am a Hillary Clinton fan, believe you me, and I also like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. I am Democrat. I am a progressive Democrat and I am a fan of Hillary Clinton and have been for years. She is a brilliant person who has devoted her life since college, even in high school, to civic responsibility, political action, child advocacy, all these things. There is no reason whatsoever to dislike her. There is no reason whatsoever for me to question her integrity. Emails be damned, Benghazi be damned. That is a right wing, red herring. She is a person who has from a young, young age wanted this.

Donald Trump has no interest whatsoever in being president. He has an interest in being a guy that gets attention and money and keeps his name out there advertising his brand, whatever it is. That’s what this was always about. It was never supposed to get this far and believe you, me, he wants it less than you want him to want it. He doesn’t want to live [in Washington, D.C.]. He doesn’t want to have to go to briefings. He doesn’t want to have to go to meetings and do stuff. His wife doesn’t want to live there. His kids don’t want to be involved in this shit. So, he is probably like, “How is it taking this long? Why are they…”

Amy Schumer was just in the news because she had a show in Tampa and she was talking about Trump. She actually brought a Trump supporter, a guy who said he was going to vote for Trump, up on stage, and asked him why he was voting for Trump and people in the audience started booing her

Her, or him?

Booing her.

How do we know?

Well, she ended up having to ask security to take some people out and then this reporter said about 200 people ended up either being escorted out or just leaving.

Well, I’m suspicious of that. Nobody’s counting 200 while people are being removed. Something is fishy about this. Nobody is under any allusions where she stands politically. This is not new - who hasn’t discussed this topic from comedians to pundits to people around the dinner table? This is not a new topic. It behooves right-wing press or certain media to pretend.

I would have to know much more about this Amy Schumer thing and I wouldn’t doubt that this guy that she was asking questions to, he knew he was going to go there and do that. He maybe alerted friends, “Come support me by booing her.” They stacked the audience probably with some like right-wing hit people.

I’m going on the record as being a skeptic on that.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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