A former WWE Champion has thrown his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris as the United States Presidential Election is less than one week away.
Speaking on CNN, former professional wrestler Mick Foley publicly endorsed Harris while also taking a moment to bash former President Donald Trump.
Foley’s decision breaks from other former professional wrestling stars like The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan, who both have publicly endorsed the Republican candidate for the office.
‘The Undertaker was right, Donald Trump did make politics fun… for about three weeks in 2016,’ Foley said on CNN’s ‘Laura Coates Live’.
He continued: ‘But there’s nothing fun about his rhetoric, there’s nothing fun about the way he demeans citizens of this country, nothing fun about the way he talks down to women – and in my experience, real men respect strong women, they don’t live in fear of them.’
Former WWF Champion Mick Foley has publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president
Foley also talked about how politics – and his political views – have strained his relationships with other people, and how he hopes that can change.
‘I can count on one hand the number of friends I’ve lost over politics. Friendships are stronger, family is stronger. The things that draw us together are so much more meaningful than the things that divide us.
‘I mean I have my most famous match with The Undertaker in Pittsburgh, that’s part of the reason why I decided to come on because I have a lot of history in Pennsylvania.’
He added, ‘When I see him for the next time, we’ll hug it out, we’ll agree to disagree and we’ll do the best we can to keep a 30-year friendship growing strong.’
When asked what specifically drew him to Harris, Foley says that he’s been an admirer of the Vice President for a while.
Foley said, ‘I’ve always liked Kamala Harris, I go back to when she was campaigning for president five years ago. I liked what she had to say. I just believe she’s a very positive person, a very competent person, I wanna embrace the joy that she brings, the optimism, and not the fear that’s been Donald Trump’s hallmark.’
He told host Laura Coates that it was hard for him to come onto the show – and hard for him to release a nearly five-minute long endorsement of Harris due to any potential backlash he might receive.
‘I don’t particularly want people to dislike me, and I know that when you speak up against somebody very powerful and has a very strong and loyal following, you’re going to get some negative blowback,’ Foley admitted.
Foley said that he was ‘used’ to Trump growing up on Long Island and viewed him as a con man
Foley, who wrestled under multiple personas, won four world wrestling championships
‘But I also realized that I did not want to wake up on the day after the election and find out that a swing state had been lost by a couple hundred votes, and to know that I could have made the difference.
‘So to me the two dirtiest words in the English language are “what if” and I don’t want to be that guy. So I spoke out four years ago, I’m doing it now. I think one thing that most of his followers don’t understand is the long history he’s had of… screwing over his workers… he’s got a long history of not paying his contractors and his workers so I find it the height of hypocrisy to say you’re for the working man when your history shows you’re only for yourself.
‘I don’t understand the mystery. I grew up on Long Island, so I was used to him. My friends and I saw him as kinda a harmless con man, but he’s not harmless anymore – he’s a very dangerous con man. And I’m going to quote General Mark Milley when I say he’s the greatest danger to our country.’
Foley – who wrestled under the alternate personas ‘Cactus Jack’, ‘Mankind’, and ‘Dude Love’ – is a four-time world champion in wrestling.
He made his name during the ‘Attitude Era’ of wrestling, winning three WWF Championships in the late-1990s as well as a TNA World Championship in the late-2000s.
In addition, he was an eight-time WWF Tag Team Champion – teaming up with other wrestling legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Kane.
Foley was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.
