If you had to pick two people who might team up for a cause, Ben Affleck and Cindy McCain, wife of conservative Arizona Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, probably wouldn’t even make the list of potential dream teams. But this odd couple pair have put aside political difference to do something important that matters to them both.
So what can a famously liberal actor and a conservative political wife find in common? In Affleck’s words to ABC, “a human rights catastrophe.” The Congo.
Affleck has been involved in efforts to help the largely ignored crisis in the Congo since 2008, McCain has been involved with trying to help the troubled country for almost fifteen years. Last year Affleck started a nonprofit aid group called Eastern Congo Initiative to bring a variety of deeply needed aid to natives in the civil war torn country. ECI has backing from people like Howard Buffett, son of investor Warren Buffett. What the ECI needs now isn’t more money, it’s to draw more attention to the issue, and Affleck reached out to McCain because he believed she could help.
“People are dying, really dying and have been for a long time,” Affleck told ABC. “Fifteen years, three-plus million people have died. I don’t know that I can make any more argument about why you should pay attention to this.”
McCain was skeptical when Affleck first called her. In fact, she thought it was a prank.
“I didn’t believe it was him, of course,” McCain told ABC’s Jake Tapper.
“She thought it was a prank call,” said Affleck.
But it wasn’t. Affleck was looking for her help on an issue that both McCain and Affleck point out shouldn’t be broken by political lines. Their hope is that their work together will bring attention from both sides of the aisle.
The two made headlines Tuesday when they testified on Capitol Hill before the before the House Africa, Global Health and Human Rights Subcommittee, drawing on data they gathered during a trip to Africa last month. Affleck and McCain want a special advisor appointed to the region who can help to organize the efforts of governments and western aid organizations.
“It doesn’t need a giant check,” Affleck told ABC. “It needs someone to help shepherd this process along.”
He called on Congress to help protect Congolese civilians and to support the upcoming elections in that country in November. Affleck, who has recently turned his attention to directing (“Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town”), has long been active in Democratic campaigns and causes.
McCain, an Arizona businesswoman and philanthropist, was active in her husband’s 2008 race for president on the Republican ticket.
