Molly McNearney, Jimmy Kimmel’s wife and a longtime writer on his show, recently admitted on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast that she emailed conservative relatives a list of “ten reasons not to vote for” President Trump and has since “lost relationships” with some family members who ignored her plea. Her confession — that a ballot choice became a personal betrayal — should alarm every American who still believes family comes before politics.
This isn’t a political disagreement; it’s an ultimatum dressed up as moral certainty, and even fellow liberals like Bill Maher called it out as counterproductive and cruel. Telling hardworking kin that their vote makes them less worthy of family is the sort of sanctimonious behavior that divides neighborhoods and weakens the social fabric conservatives fight to protect.
Make no mistake: McNearney’s pain is real, but so is the hypocrisy of celebrity elites who lecture the rest of America while cutting people off for thinking differently. Her decision to personalize politics followed her husband’s public clashes with the president and the temporary Disney suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show after a controversy, which only fed the narrative that disagreement equals betrayal.
Millions of Americans cast their votes for reasons of pocketbook, safety, and common-sense governance, not to spite coastal celebrities, and the White House rightly pushed back on the idea that a vote for lower taxes and stronger borders is somehow a personal affront to Hollywood. If McNearney wants to win hearts, lecturing and severing ties won’t do it — persuasion, not purges, is how free societies operate.
Patriots who love this country know how to disagree without annihilating the people closest to us, and we should be unapologetic about defending that principle. Hollywood can retreat into echo chambers and moral preening if it chooses, but the rest of America — families, church groups, and small towns — will keep showing up for one another despite political differences.
