Dick Van Dyke, 98, reveals presidential endorsement in rare social media appearance

Dick Van Dyke surprised fans with a rare social media appearance on Monday as he shared his endorsement in the 2024 presidential race — just one day before Tuesday’s election.

The 98-year-old acting icon — who recently sparked concerns after he was forced to cancel his first appearance outside of Los Angeles in months — addressed the camera in a stark black-and-white clip shared on his Instagram page.

The Mary Poppins star compared the current race and political climate to that of 1964 by reading a speech he originally delivered at an event with Martin Luther King Jr.

Van Dyke — who will celebrate his 99th birthday on December 13 — was notably still full of vigor and passion as he recite the speech in a strong voice.

Although his speech did not mention either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump by name, the stage and screen star made it clear that he was supporting Harris by tagging her personal account, the Harris campaign’s account, and the official account of the vice president.

‘You may remember I used to sing and dance and fall down — a lot, actually,’ Van Dyke introduced himself on a playful note while wearing a casual polo shirt and wearing his now-standard snow-white beard.

‘Fifty years ago — May 31st, 1964 — I was on the podium with Dr. Martin Luther King, who was addressing some 60,000 people in the Colosseum in LA, and I was there to read a message written by Rod Serling,’ he said, referencing the Twilight Zone creator and scribe.

‘I got it out the other day and I think it means as much today — if not more — than it did then, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to read it,’ he continued.

Van Dyke donned a pair of reading glasses as he began to read the speech.

‘Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy [and] scapegoating…. none of those are the transcendent facets of the human personality,’ he began.

‘They are diseases. They are the cancers of the soul. They are the infectious and contagious viruses that have been breeding humanity for years,’ he said as he read the words of Serling, who was known for his liberal politics, which included his support for anti-war politicians and his devotion to combating racism, both in his personal life and in his allegorical scripts for The Twilight Zone and other television series.

‘And because they have been and because they are, is it necessary that they shall be?’ Van Dyke asked. ‘I think not.’

He added that, as long as there remains ‘one voice left to say “welcome” to a stranger,’ ‘one hand outstretched to say “enter and share,”‘ and ‘one mind remaining to think a thought of warmth and friendship,’ then there was still hope for the collective soul of humankind.

Van Dyke added — through Serling’s words — that the nation was still animated by an ‘essential decency,’ ‘basic goodness’ and ‘preeminent dignity’ coursing through its citizens.

However, the speech also noted that Americans have repeatedly failed to live up to the nation’s highest ideals.

‘There will be moments of violence and expressions of hatred and an ugly echo of intolerance, but these are the clinging vestiges of a decayed past, not the harbingers of the better, cleaner future,’ Van Dyke warned, echoing the language of many anti-Trump figures.

‘To those who tell us that the inequality of the human animal is a necessary evil, we must respond by simply saying that first, it is evil but it is not necessary,’ the Dick Van Dyke Show star said. ‘We prove it, sitting here tonight in 1964. We prove it by reaffirming our faith. We prove it by having faith in our affirmations.’

Van Dyke concluded by rewriting a quotation from the abolitionist and US Representative Horace Mann, who died two years before the start of the American Civil War.

‘Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity,’ he quoted. ‘I’d like to paraphrase that tonight. “Let us be ashamed to live without that victory.”‘

After wrapping up the decades-old speech, Van Dyke noted that ‘a lot has happened’ to improve the United States since he first opened King’s rally with that speech, but he added that much was still left to be done to create a stronger nation.

‘It’s not what Martin Luther King dreamed of but it’s a start,’ he said, ending on a note of optimism. ‘Thank you and God bless.’

Most of Van Dyke’s message was contained in his impassioned video, but he added ‘VOTE!!!’ in his caption, along with his tags for Harris and her campaign.

He joins a bevy of celebrities who have shared their endorsements for Harris in recent days, including several stars who spoke out against an anti-Puerto Rican joke made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Donald Trump’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.

After President Joe Biden then called Trump’s supporters ‘garbage’ — which he later insisted was only a reference to Hinchcliffe — the former President and his supporters seized on the moment to try to turn the controversy around to attack Harris’ campaign by staging a photo-op in which Trump posed in a garbage truck.

However, the strategy may have backfired, as Trump was widely mocked on social media due to video showing him swaying and having difficulty opening the truck door before finally climbing in.

Ironically, the move may have caused more damaged for Trump. According to HuffPost, some Puerto Rican and Latin voters interpreted his garbage truck photo-op as a further dig at them, rather than seeing it as an ironic shot at Biden and Harris.