Remembering When Dolly Parton Shut Down ABC Over Trump

A 2018 ABC interview with Dolly Parton is circulating again after her death, and the clip is not the political pile-on the network appeared to want.

Parton sat for the interview as President Donald Trump’s first term was underway. The host pressed her about Trump and the Access Hollywood tape. She shut the door before the question was finished.

This is what happened in 2018 when ABC tried to goad Dolly Parton into attacking Trump

Every celebrity should take note: pic.twitter.com/YaEZw39PPh

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“I just don’t get into that,” Parton said. “And so if you are deciding you may want to ask me something more serious, don’t, because I’m not going to answer it.”

The interviewer kept going. “You have a president of the United States who said those things on that bus.”

Parton did not move. “I’m not addressing that. I do not get into that. Of course, I have my opinion about everybody and everything. But I learned a long time ago, keep your damn mouth shut if you want to stay in show business.”

She separated entertainment from politics. “I’m not in politics. I’m an entertainer.”

ABC tried a second angle and called her a role model. “Yes, I am,” Parton said. “That’s why I don’t talk about people.”

The exchange is getting another look because so many celebrities did the opposite. Parton treated partisan interviews as a career risk, not a duty.

She died August 25 at 80 at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center after what her representatives called a brief battle with cancer. The type was not immediately disclosed.