Morgan Freeman has given President Barack Obama $1,000,000 to combat the conservatives he has branded as racist.
Freeman, along with Obama mega donor Irwin Jacobs, provided the Obama Super PAC with half of its $6 million haul in June—its largest single month to date. The Oscar-winning actor has good company in Tinsel Town.
Freeman joins a relatively small cadre of high-profile Hollywood figures who have contributed to the pro-Obama super PAC, including director Steven Spielberg, comedian Chelsea Handler, producer/writerJ.J. Abrams and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who helped start the group last year with $2 million.
Freeman has been an outspoken Obama advocate since the 2008 election. In September 2011, he said the Tea Party is driven by racism to do "whatever [it] can to get this black man outta [the White House].'" That message has become increasing common among A-List celebrities, including Chris Rock, Janeane Garofalo, and James Earl Jones.
Oscar-nominee Spike Lee, an outspoken leftist who built his career on films about racism, defended the president’s critics in an interview with GQ in June.
I can’t say to all the people that are unhappy with him that they’re racist people. People ain’t got jobs, people are hurting. So I don’t care what color you are, if people are out of work, it’s tough.