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Clint Eastwood stirs social media with Donald Trump, racism comments

Clint Eastwood, June 2016

Remember when the most politically controversial thing Clint Eastwood did was talk to a chair? The actor and his son, actor Scott Eastwood, sat down for an Esquire interview and comments the elder Eastwood made regarding politics, Donald Trump and the state of race relations have stirred a social media storm.

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"We’re really in a (expletive) generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells," Eastwood said. "We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist."

Eastwood was born in 1930, more than three decades before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 10 years after women were granted the right to vote in the United States.

While he said he hasn't endorsed a political candidate, Eastwood, who held a conversation with an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention, struck a note of praise for GOP contender Donald Trump.

"He’s onto something, because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up," Eastwood said. "What Trump is onto is he’s just saying what’s on his mind. And sometimes it’s not so good. And sometimes it’s … I mean, I can understand where he’s coming from, but I don’t always agree with it."

He referred to Trump’s comments about a judge’s Mexican heritage, saying, "He’s said a lot of dumb things. So have all of them. Both sides. But everybody—the press and everybody’s going, 'Oh, well, that’s racist,' and they’re making a big hoodoo out of it. Just (expletive) get over it. It’s a sad time in history."

That and his comment about how things were back in his day sparked some heated commentary on Twitter: