George Clooney is praising Joe Biden for dropping out of the 2024 presidential race against Donald Trump. The Oscar-winning actor made headlines on July 10 for publishing an op-ed in The New York Times in which he urged Biden to end his campaign following his disastrous performance in the first 2024 presidential debate. Now, Clooney is saying Biden has saved democracy by dropping out out of the race.
“President Biden has shown what true leadership is,” Clooney said in a statement obtained by Variety. “He’s saving democracy once again. We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.”
Clooney’s original op-ed urging Biden to drop out was notable as it was published only a few weeks after the actor co-hosted a huge Hollywood fundraiser for Biden that raised a record $28 million.
“I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president,” Clooney wrote at the time. “I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced. But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney noted that Democrats had been “all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign” when it came to Biden’s aging. The Oscar winner said that Biden’s post-debate interview with ABC News and George Stephanopoulos “only reinforced” that Biden should not be the Democratic nominee.
“This is about age. Nothing more,” Clooney wrote. “But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”
Clooney was one of many Hollywood names who spoke out against Biden remaining the Democratic nominee, including Rob Reiner, Stephen King and Michael Moore. The latter said on an episode of his “Rumble” podcast that Biden‘s debate performance was “the cruelest form of elder abuse I’ve ever been forced to watch.”
From Variety US