Evans, an outspoken Democrat, has held back on many of his Donald Trump criticisms since helming his political project A Starting Point, which aims to “create a bipartisan channel of communication and connectivity between Americans and their elected officials.” In doing so, he’s been interacting with politicians on both sides of the aisle, which led to a photo with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his daughter that had some on Twitter fuming back in February.
On “The Daily Show” on Tuesday, host Trevor Noah brought up the photo and the backlash, asking how Evans balances being Captain America for people even when he disagrees with them.
The “Avengers” actor first explained, “In that circumstance, it was a child. I’ll always take a picture with a kid.”
He continued: “But in general, just even sitting down with certain politicians ― there are certain people on the extremes of both parties who, there’s no wiggle room for that. And again, what I would argue is, look, if this person wasn’t in power, if this person wasn’t writing bills that affected your life, fine, we can shun them. You know what I mean? We can scream louder than them. But we can’t pretend they don’t have some sort of say, some sort of impact.”
For Evans, it’s “far more pernicious to become stubborn and retreat to your corner” than to disagree with someone and have a “landscape of competing ideas.”
“Because I think the other way just becomes cyclical, and everyone spirals, and no one listens, and I don’t think you move the ball down the field as effectively as you would if you say: OK, let’s just, you know ... out-talk me,” he said.
Elsewhere in the segment, Evans explained he will still express his political beliefs when called to do so, but the framework of A Starting Point is all about presenting the issues and letting people form their own opinions.
Watch it here: