Mikhail Baryshnikov, famous dancer, choreographer and actor, who defected to the United States from Russia in 1974, has endorsed Hillary Clinton. It is for the first time he has endorsed any politician in any race, and in his announcement video he explains why:
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Politico:
Mikhail Baryshnikov: Trump's rhetoric 'reminds me of the Soviet Union'
Mikhail Baryshnikov sees flashes of the Soviet Union's hammer and sickle in Donald Trump's rhetoric.
The legendary Russian-American dancer, choreographer and actor warned of the danger posed by Trump in a new video released Wednesday in which he endorsed Hillary Clinton and ripped into the Republican nominee as reminiscent of "dangerous totalitarian opportunists" who have driven people like him out of their countries.
Trump is running to be “Dictator of the United States”. Baryshnikov decided to speak out about it because he knows, first hand, what that’s like.
"Forty two years ago I left a country that built walls to come to a place without them. But today, as a citizen of the United States, for the first time, I’m hearing rhetoric that reminds me of the Soviet Union of my youth, where it was a crime, and continues to be, a crime to be different," said Baryshnikov, who had never publicly endorsed a candidate, in 75-second video released by the social media campaign Humanity for Hillary titled "#ITrustHer."
A crime to “be different”. That’s what, in Mikhail’s mind, would happen to the United States if Trump were elected President.
From HuffPost:
Ballet Legend Mikhail Baryshnikov Warns Against Donald Trump’s Authoritarianism
“Take it from one who knows: Hundreds of thousands of people like me have fled countries led by dangerous, totalitarian opportunists ― like Donald Trump,” Baryshnikov says in the video, produced by an organization called Art Not War.
Baryshnikov risked his life to flee a totalitarian regime, and he now sees Trump as trying to establish the same here in the United States. That’s why he decided to speak up.
Baryshnikov’s involvement in the campaign draws attention to Trump’s divisive and inciteful rhetoric, as well as his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has discriminated against LGBT individuals andcensored reporters and artists critical of him. Some have been murdered.
Fusion writes:
Dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov says ‘totalitarian’ Trump is like the Soviet dictators he fled
In a video posted on YouTube on Wednesday, famed Russian ballet dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov strongly condemned Donald Trump and expressed his support for Hillary Clinton. It’s his first-ever presidential endorsement.
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”I have never publicly endorsed a political candidate before, or inserted myself into politics in any way other than by voting, but this video is a direct call to action: We must elect Hillary Clinton as president in November,” he wrote in a press release announcing the video.