Rosie O’Donnell & Broadway Actors To Protest Outside White House
Comedian Rosie O’Donnell and several Broadway actors have teamed up for a protest outside of the White House on Monday. According to The Hill, the group will sing numbers from “Les Miserables,” “The Wiz,” and “The Sound of Music.”
Cast members from current and previous runs of the shows “Wicked,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “The King and I,” and “Les Mis” are expected to participate.
O’Donnell has been a vocal critic of President Trump for over a decade. Their feud is believed to have started in 2006 when O’Donnell was a host of the popular talk show, “The View.” She took issue with Trump’s comments about a Miss USA pageant contestant. Trump has labeled O’Donnell a “pig” and a “loser,” and O’Donnell has called Trump “mentally unstable.”
O’Donnell tweeted about the planned protest last week, saying: “on Monday, August 6th – join me and broadways best singers as we join the Kremlin annex protest.” This isn’t O’Donnell’s first protest. In 2017, she held a protest outside of the White House just before Trump was set to deliver his first address to Congress.
Seth Rudetsky, a Broadway veteran, and host of a popular SiriusXM show, reportedly spearheaded the protest along with his husband, James Wesley. Rudetsky tweeted about the protest, asking his followers to bring the lyrics to the song “Do You Hear The People Sing” from “Les Mis.”
Come to DC and join us! Monday Aug 6th! Bring the lyrics to "Do You Hear The People Sing" and join in! https://t.co/qMqa191RcW
— Seth Rudetsky he/him (@SethRudetsky) August 3, 2018
For three straight weeks, protesters have decamped outside of the White House, according to The Hill. They began in mid-July, just after Trump’s summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and after Trump refused to call out Russia for their meddling in the 2016 election.
Adam Parkhomenko, a former Hilary Clinton aide, organized the protests, which have been dubbed the “Kremlin Annex” protest. Another Clinton aide, Philippe Reines said that what was “shared by protesters gathering in front of the White House was a desire to see accountability from leadership in the Trump administration.”
Parkhomenko has said that it is his desire to see Trump removed from office “over his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia, which are currently being investigated by the special counsel office.”
“We have an opportunity to use our voice in a very different way than those in Ukraine,” said Parkhomenko, whose father is from the Ukraine. “Where in the world can you literally set up outside where the head of the country lives with a sign that says ‘Treason?'”
Thus far, there has been no comments from the White House regarding the protests.
