Robert Downey Jr has praised President Joe Biden for returning the White House to “principle” in his first week in office.
Speaking to CNBC’s Tania Bryer on a panel at the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos Agenda, the Iron Man actor said, “You know, it’s funny, what a difference a day can make."
"We’ve been prone in the West over here to be very personality-based and now we’re going back to principle, and that takes a lot of discipline,” Downey Jr continued. “I was very pleased to see our commander-in-chief say to his entire cabinet: ‘You are all to treat each other with respect from day one, or I’m gonna have a problem with you.'"
Last week, on the day of his inauguration, Joe Biden spoke to his staff, telling them that he would fire them “on the spot” if anyone was ever found to be disrespectful to another colleague. The statement marked a deep contrast in style to his predecessor, former President Donald Trump.
“I think we tend to fall out of step with principle behavior and then the cavalcade of character defects start rearing their ugly heads,” Downey Jr added.
The actor and producer also spoke about his new venture, the Footprint Coalition, which is described as a “coalition of investors, donors, and storytellers committed to scaling technologies to restore our planet”, according to its website.
Downey Jr compared the coalition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he portrayed Iron Man for many years, saying, “We were able to kind of mobilize the fan base to get interested and feel like they were (an) additive to the storytelling we were doing."
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