Veteran anti-war folk singer Joan Baez publicly despaired at the state of the nation on Wednesday night, declaring the U.S. is being run by “incompetent billionaires” while “our democracy goes up in flames.”
The entertainer and civil rights activist, who was played by Monica Barbaro in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, halted the season premiere of Netflix’s Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney to make her self aggrandising political statement.
The 84-year-old was joined on the debut episode of the talk show’s second season by Michael Keaton, Fred Armisen, Jessica Roy and musical guests Cypress Hill, the Independent reports.
At the start of her appearance, Baez begged the need to “set the context” for why she was there.
“You said I could say anything I want out here,” Baez said to Mulaney. “We’re all here to be silly and have fun, and as long as we recognise the fact that our democracy is going up in flames… we’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.”
Her rant was met with applause from the studio audience.
File/Singer Joan Baez joins mass anti-Vietnam War protest march on May 29, 1965 in Trafalgar Square, London. (GETTY)
Baez never directly named either Donald Trump or Elon Musk but the Independent report notes she was more than likely referring to the pair.
Musk now runs the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been actively draining the swamp in Washington, DC, since its inception in January.
Baez supported Kamala Harris during the 2024 US election – and even altered the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” to show solidarity with the Democratic nominee. She changed the original lyrics of “Crown thy good with brotherhood” to “Crown thy good with sisterhood”.
She captioned the clip: “Times are a-changin’… Let’s crown thy good good with sisterhood. Register to vote at vote.org or headcount.org and VOTE BLUE!”
Baez has previously been quick to let the world know her current political views.
In 2016 she endorsed Bernie Sanders for the White House, as Breitbart News reported.
She explained that was the second time she had endorsed a presidential candidate; the first time, she publicly backed the “master of the spoken word,” Barack Obama.
