Jemele Hill Accuses Dwayne Johnson of ‘Political Cowardice’ for Refusing to Endorse Biden

Former ESPN analyst Jemele Hill is calling Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson a political coward after his decision to publicly refuse to endorse Joe Biden for reelection in 2024.

In an interview with Fox News, Johnson declined to support Biden, fearing that his endorsement would create more division in the country. Despite hints that Johnson himself would enter the race, he did not say he was withholding his support for Biden as part of a plan to pursue the presidency himself. Nor did he throw his support behind former President Trump.

Still, in a Monday appearance on the Dan LeBatard Show with Stu Gotz, Hill claimed that Johnson’s refusal to support Biden was the same as an endorsement of Trump.

“Even though he said he was going to keep his ballot to himself, he actually didn’t,” Hill said of Johnson. “Because there’s only one other person who will be the nominee. So unless you plan to write in yourself … you have made your decision that you plan to vote for xenophobia and bigotry and all these other things that you claim to stand against.”

Hill continued, “If (Johnson) wants to stop the division, then he shouldn’t at all make it seem like he is aligned with the side that is pushing only division. That’s their entire agenda. They have no policy. The entire thing that they have is to get you to hate somebody else that you perceive is lower on the totem pole than you.”

The former ESPN host stressed that she had nothing against Johnson personally.

“I love Dwayne Johnson,” Hill explained. “During my time at ESPN, if you asked people the No. 1 person when they came through and did the ‘carwash’ who was the best person … in terms of how they interacted with people, how nice they were, it was easily The Rock or No. 2 would be Kevin Hart. And that’s the kind of frankly political cowardice that’s hard to respect.

“I just thought that wasn’t his best moment, and it was so unnecessary, too,” Hill claimed. “Because I wasn’t going around wondering who The Rock was voting for, so I don’t know why he decided he needed to share that.”

This is most disingenuous. When Johnson endorsed Biden in 2020, Hill didn’t wonder why he decided to share who he was voting for. Now, when he chooses not to endorse Biden, somehow his thoughts and opinions don’t matter? Had Johnson endorsed Biden, Hill would have praised him or said nothing about it.

Not only that, why are Johnson’s political opinions irrelevant? Because he’s an actor? Jemele Hill was a sports analyst and couldn’t stop talking about politics. Certainly, an actor’s political opinions are at least as important as a sports analyst’s, not to mention that Johnson is an actor who has hinted at a presidential run. Which, of course, makes his political views relevant.

It’s also quite rich to see Hill charging others with promoting division. In a day and age filled with personalities and influencers sowing the seeds of division by injecting race and politics into every debate, even when they have no place whatsoever, Hill is on a level all her own.

No one has peddled racial politics as prolifically or with more significant effect than Hill, who gained stardom for calling Trump a white supremacist and then used that ensuing fame to land a gig at The Atlantic after ESPN, as well as launch a career as a podcast host and influencer.

If Jemele Hill were barred from posting or discussing race, more than 50 percent (I’m being conservative with this number) of her social media and podcast activity would cease to exist.