Actor Ben Affleck said Friday morning that he finds America’s current political climate to be “depressing.”
The “Batman v. Superman” star was on “CBS This Morning” discussing his respect for ex-wife Jennifer Garner when Gayle King quipped that Republicans and Democrats could learn from the actors’ failed marriage, specifically how to get along “and agree to disagree in a very tense situation.”
Affleck paused before offering his take on the state of U.S. politics.
“There’s very little I find more depressing than the political climate these days,” he said. “What I will say about it is that it’s so disappointing to, when you go around the world and travel to places that don’t have a functioning democracy. And there are so many places like this where people are still sacrificing, striving and struggling, just to have freedom of speech, just to be able to vote.
“And you see what we seem to be squandering in this election year,” he concluded.
The newest big-screen Batman also discussed his involvement in an organization that provides Congolese coffee to Starbucks, a company that he praised as having “great values” with a message he “loves.”
“[The Democratic Republic of the Congo] had a terrible war, 3-5 million people died and their coffee sector was decimated,” Affleck said. “So one of the things we’ve done is work with community-based organizations to work with local farmers to try to rebuild their capacity to grow coffee.
“And so far we’ve tripled the income of 25,000 farmers,” he said. “We’ve sold enough coffee to Starbucks now for 11 million cups of coffee. These farmers are now connected to Starbucks and made an agreement for five years to keep buying for coffee from them.”
