Eastwood explains why he spoke to the chair

Clint Eastwood on his RNC speech and the Obama "hoax"

Published September 7, 2012 5:18PM (EDT)

Clint Eastwood has finally spoken out about his memorable RNC speech. His take: "Mission accomplished."

“I had three points I wanted to make,” Eastwood told the Carmel Pine Cone, a paper from the city where he once served as mayor. “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.”

Asked why he chose to direct his remarks to an invisible President Obama, Eastwood explained: “There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down. When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.”

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” he added. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

Eastwood also noted: “They vet most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say.'"


By Jillian Rayfield

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

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2012 Elections Barack Obama Clint Eastwood Mitt Romney Republican National Convention