Alec Baldwin, Billy Baldwin 'battling' with brothers over political differences
Billy Baldwin admits it "used to be a lot easier" to keep the peace in their famous family, and says he and his brothers are "battling."
As the second-youngest of the four Baldwin brothers, Billy told Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo on his "Arroyo Grande" podcast this week that they "try" to put politics aside, but aren't always successful.
"We live in a new age," Billy told Arroyo in the podcast episode posted on Wednesday. "This isn't like 'Let's fight over, you know, Reagan and Iran-Contra.' You know, we live in a different world where — when I worked on the Hill, Bob Dole was the Senate Majority Leader and Tip O'Neal was the House Speaker, and everyone talked about gridlock and how nothing got done back then when I was working on the Hill. Well, those were the good old days."
Billy describes himself as a "Hollywood lefty." His brother Alec also aligns with the Democratic Party, while oldest brother Daniel and youngest brother Stephen are Trump supporters.
"Alec and I don't even talk," Daniel admitted two months ago on the "PBD Podcast," while saying that he and Billy were arguing about politics during the last election.
Billy told Arroyo, "Forget brothers and sisters. I mean, members of opposite parties, members of the same party aren't even talking to each other. We need a healing. We need a healing."
"Forget brothers and sisters. I mean, members of opposite parties, members of the same party aren't even talking to each other. We need a healing."
He said that Robert Marbut, President Donald Trump's former homelessness czar, was brought on as a producer and consultant for his upcoming film about the homelessness crisis, "No Address."
"And we've all been working very closely with him, and we've been going around the country with the film, with the documentary, doing panels, discussions, talking to think tanks, and they marvel at the fact that he's a [former] Trump Cabinet member, and I'm a Hollywood lefty, and we're finding commonsense. We're finding consensus, and we're totally respectful, and we're treating each other with dignity," Billy said.
He continued, "And not shockingly — I've always known this — we agree way more than we disagree, but in this culture right now, with the media pitting sides against each other when I talk about many, many issues, when I talk about homelessness, when I talk about climate change, when I talk about gun control, when I talk to people who are big, big 2A people and I ask them five or six questions… we realize we agree on, like, 80% of this issue."
He said that sometimes his family doesn't get together over the holidays because of their political differences.
"That's happened in my family, yeah," Billy told Arroyo. "And I've gone to gatherings on the [his wife Chynna] Phillips' side of the family where people got together and there was sort of mixed opinions there, too — not as polarizing as other settings I've been in — but yeah, you read it all the time."
Billy said it's interesting with the old adage, "Don't talk religion or politics: Now they completely intersect."
He also noted that he and his wife had wildly different upbringings.
"…my brothers and I are, like, battling. We're battling."
While Billy's father was a high school teacher, his coach and ran the Cub Scouts and Little League, Phillips' mother, Mamas and the Papas singer Michelle Phillips, lived with Warren Beatty for four years after divorcing Chynna's father. Then Michelle lived with Jack Nicholson for four years and then was briefly married to Dennis Hopper, all while dating Mick Jagger throughout. Billy added that Chynna used to go to the Ice Capades and the circus and zoo with Michael Jackson and his brothers and sisters.
"But oddly enough, the Baldwins have kind of jumped the Phillips' shark when it comes to family dysfunction and insanity," he joked. "They're all back together. They're all in the same room for Thanksgiving talking, while my brothers and I are like, battling. We're battling."
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