George Clooney doesn’t know if it was “brave” to write a New York Times op-ed urging Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, but he maintains
George Clooney doesn’t know if it was “brave” to write a New York Times op-ed urging Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, but he maintains it was his “civic duty” to break from the Democratic Party and make his stance clear.
“I found that people on my side of the street—you know, I’m a Democrat in Kentucky so I get it—when I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth I thought that it was time” to go public, Clooney told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.
Titled, “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee,” Clooney’s piece was published in July following Biden’s catastrophic TV debate performance against Donald Trump. After witnessing Biden’s demeanor at a starry Hollywood fundraiser attended by Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, Clooney concluded that he was no longer “the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” he wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor added, “This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president.”
The op-ed prompted derision from both sides, with some on the left resisting calls for a novel Democratic presidential candidate and others attacking Clooney for speaking out in the first place as a Hollywood celebrity. Even Trump bizarrely dunked on Clooney, calling him a “fake movie actor” for criticizing his then opponent.
“I’m OK with that, I’m OK with criticism for where I stand,” said Clooney, who is currently starring as veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow in a Broadway adaptation of his 2005 feature directorial debut Good Night, and Good Luck. “I defend their right to criticize me as much as I defend my right to criticize them.”
Two weeks after Clooney’s remarks, Biden did drop out of the race. “President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again,” Clooney said in a statement to CNN at the time, where he also endorsed Kamala Harris as his replacement on the ticket.
But just as Clooney wrote in his original op-ed, he believes there should have been a “quick primary” involving top Democrats like Andy Beshear, the governor of his home state of Kentucky, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.“ I think we have some really good governors,” Clooney told Tapper. “I think we would have sustained it. [Harris] may have come out on top, I don’t know.”
When asked to name his favorite Democrat, Clooney said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is “levitating above” the current pack. He cited Moore’s response to the fatal March 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, his combat service, and tenure at a George Soros-backed venture philanthropy firm. “He’s a proper leader,” he said. “I like him a lot. I think he could be someone we could all join in behind.”
Clooney also stressed the importance of anointing a novel star Democrat. “We have to find somebody – rather soon,” he said on CNN. “It’s our job now to put together a proper team to stand up.”
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