9 months ago
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In 2020, Chris Evans launched A Starting Point, which was supposed to be a political-explainer site with short videos in which politicians and experts could explain laws, bills and policies in short video clips. The site was supposed to be for Gen Z (the youths) and Chris got a lot of well-deserved pushback for engaging in both-sidesism and for platforming fascists. I actually didn’t know that A Starting Point was still a thing – I thought maybe Chris had quietly folded it or re-engineered it. But no. It’s still happening, and on Wednesday, Chris co-hosted a youth forum at the White House AND he got to meet President Biden.
Chris Evans and Mark Kassen, co-founders of the civic engagement not-for-profit A Starting Point, were speaking to Jean-Pierre and other White House officials for a youth forum about the environment, climate change, and the economy.
“We thought we could help shine a light on certain issues and create more civic engagement,” Evans told CNBC’s Emily Wilkins at an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday. “We each have our own social media [accounts]. We each have our own opinions, but that only reaches a certain amount. I think we both felt more good could come from creating a mechanism, a platform, where it is more about engagement, about education, demystifying issues to create a government that more accurately reflects who we are, because if you have half of the country not voting and not using their voice, you will never have a government that understands where we are going.”
Evans and Kassen have said that they don’t want to be at the center of A Starting Point in the longterm. Evans, for instance, had been very vocal in criticism of Donald Trump on Twitter, now known as X. Evans said, “I’ve made my opinions known so vocally that you don’t want someone at face value to think that we are pushing something. The nature of the site is information based and not my opinion. I am not an expert. I’m not a journalist. I have no right to be in this arena, other than as a voter, as an American, who wants to play on the one string I have, which is my voice, as we all should.”
When Wilkins asked if either of them thought about going into politics, they each said no even though they admitted to being intrigued. “I don’t think so,” Evans said. “I think there’s better ways to be a part of the world without having to do the work that goes into being an elected official.”
I suspect that – unlike the political reporting to the contrary – the Biden administration won’t be using celebrities as election year “surrogates” per se, but the administration will be using celebs like Chris to push voter engagement and education, and then GOTV. After the forum, President Biden did a video with Chris and apparently there are official Biden-administration aviator sunglasses now??? When did that happen?? Is Ray Ban doing a White House collab? Biden told Evans, “What you’re doing with the kids matters, so thanks for doing this…I’m a fan.”
Chris, thanks for everything you're doing to get young folks engaged in government and public service.
Because of you, our country's youngest leaders are getting off the sidelines and helping build the backbone of their communities. pic.twitter.com/TmN1Wk1qer
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 31, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, White House video.
