Former congressman Jason Chaffetz, who appeared on a Fox News show on Monday to debate Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio’s environmental activism, had a bizarre complaint: the Don’t Look Up star had not shaved his armpits.
The actor, a passionate environmentalist and a UN climate change ambassador, has been called an “eco-hypocrite” by some critics since pictures emerged of him ringing in the new year with friends aboard a superyacht.
Fox News’s Outnumbered panel was discussing a photo of DiCaprio seen relaxing in blue shorts on the superyacht near the Caribbean island of St Barts.
When asked about whether DiCaprio was guilty of performative activism, Mr Chaffetz said: “Yeah, I just keep looking at that picture and I’m like, ‘Hey Leo, shave those pits, will ya? I mean, come on! Don’t show it again, shave those pits. Come on man, do us all a favour’.”
The Republican’s statement surprised the hosts of the debate too. “This segment went a whole different direction than I expected!” the show’s co-host Emily Compagno said.
Ms Compagno started the debate by noting that DiCaprio was getting slammed as an “environmental hypocrite” after lounging on the $150m yacht. “This superyacht is one of the biggest and most environmentally unfriendly,” she said. “It is set to produce as much carbon sailing just 7 miles as an average car does in a year. And it costs nearly 3 grand to fill up.”
Directing the question to the former GOP Congressman, who is also a Fox News contributor, Ms Compagno said: “Jason, that speaks in part to performative activism, right? So as an average American we see when someone is being simply performative and then it unfortunately dilutes the message, dilutes real advocacy.
“People are absolutely on board with learning how they can help save our planet and do good in this world. But if it’s coming from a performative message or falsity, then all it does is take everyone back two steps,” she said before Mr Chaffetz took the floor.
