Reacting to reports that she does not support President Obama’s re-election effort, Academy award-winning actress Angelina Jolie told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview that she is “disappointed” in “a few things” Obama has done.
Jolie also offered a stream-of-consciousness answer to TheDC’s question about how the United States should reform its humanitarian aid programs. Jolie made news in 2009 for her belief that Obama would be a one-term president. On Tuesday evening TheDC asked Jolie if she thinks Obama is taking the country in the right direction.
“There are many many things I think have gone in a wonderful direction, and there are a few things I am disappointed in. And I don’t feel like tonight is the night to clarify but there are many wonderful things that have moved forward and of course some other things that are very frustrating,” she told TheDC on the red carpet at the Holocaust Museum for the premiere of “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” her directorial debut.
Jolie, who is known for her work with the United Nations, also told TheDC that the United States should “adjust” the way it distributes foreign aid. Texas congressman Ron Paul has called for eliminating foreign aid entirely, while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would require nations to prove why they need the funds. Both are GOP presidential hopefuls.
“Well, I think there’s a bigger discussion to be had, which is foreign aid itself, and what is foreign aid, and if foreign aid is just cash and just dropping food aid but not addressing fair trade, and not addressing how to help people learn about their own laws and self-govern — and it’s just constantly throwing a kind of, you know — it’s the fish and not teaching somebody how to fish, right?” she told TheDC.
“It’s giving them — We need to really step in and adjust the way we do foreign aid so I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer, saying yes we should or no we shouldn’t. We just absolutely have to adjust the way we address foreign aid, period, because as the way it’s been going — it’s not, uh — I don’t feel in many of those countries it’s completely helping them get back on their feet in an independent way, and they deserve that, and so we have a lot more we need to be doing.”