Congress really, really likes Patty Arquette
LatestSunday night saw Edward Snowden take home an Oscar. One speech made a call for voting rights, while Best Supporting Actress winner Patricia Arquette stole the show with an impassioned call for wage equality for women.
The 2015 Academy Awards featured a slew of political moments. And none of it was because of American Sniper, which didn’t end up taking home any major awards.
Democrats came out in force on social media after Arquette’s declaration that it is “time to have wage equality once and for all.” The White House got in on the action, retweeting a screed from Secretary of Labor Tom Perez:
Other Democratic members of Congress, who pushed wage inequality as a major theme of the 2014 midterm elections, tweeted praise for Arquette’s speech — and for Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez’s emphatic reactions of support:
Later in the night, John Legend and Common took home the Best Original Song Oscar for “Glory” from Selma. In their acceptance speeches, they gave nods to voting rights and mass incarceration among minority populations as evidence that the struggle for equal rights portrayed in Selma is “now.”
“‘Selma’ is now because the struggle for justice is now,” Legend said. “We know that the voting rights that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised in this country today.”
Another award provoked a more controversial reaction from politicos — “Citizenfour,” the Laura Poitras documentary about National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, won the Oscar for best documentary.
The resulting tweets from members of Congress were a sign of how Snowden’s revelations have divided members of Congress about the need for surveillance reform. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan), one of the more libertarian GOP members, offered a humblebrag alluding to his early characterization of Snowden as a “whistleblower”:
But Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) scolded the Academy for cheering a man who he said committed an “act of treason”:
Members of Congress weren’t above live-tweeting their reviews of the show. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee) was one of the most active, and he was not a fan of Oscars host Neil Patrick Harris:
Brett LoGiurato is the senior national political correspondent at Fusion, where he covers all things 2016. He’ll give you everything you need to know about politics, with a healthy side of puns.