George Clooney is criticised for demanding Joe Biden quit ahead of Donald Trump’s election victory

Devastated Democrats have rounded on George Clooney after the actor demanded that Joe Biden quit in the lead-up to Donald Trump’s election victory. 

The Ocean’s Eleven actor, 63, notably penned an op-ed for the New York Times in July where he called on Biden, 81, to abandon his presidential campaign, writing: “We are not going to win in November with this president.”

Clooney later praised Biden for being ‘selfless’ when he announced he would be stepping aside on July 21, leaving Kamala Harris to embark on a 107-day campaign to try and overcome Trump.

That campaign came to a bitter end on Wednesday as Trump secured a stunning comeback to the White House – currently holding 295 electoral votes and also winning the popular vote.

Democrats have since sought to blame Clooney for calling on Biden to step down from the presidential race months earlier. 

A veteran-led, political commentator group called altNOAA typed on X, ‘Someone bring me George Clooney. We need to have a…talk.’ 

Journalist Joshua Hartley uploaded a screenshot of Clooney’s op-ed piece and added, ‘Thank you George Clooney.’ 

One X user penned, ‘Trump should not forget to thank the Hollywood celebrities. Especially George Clooney.’ 

A fan of Donald Trump also referenced to the actor, and wrote, ‘It’s just occurred to me, we have failed to acknowledge George Clooney’s roll in this victory!’ 

‘What did George Clooney change his mind!!’ another fan shared, possibly referencing to the actor’s silence on social media following Trump’s win on Tuesday.

Another added on X, ‘I blame George Clooney he said no more money… and now look…’ 

‘Since I’m in a deep depression and feel like lashing out at someone, what’s the plan now George Clooney?’ one social media user typed out, while another simply added, ‘It’s all George Clooney’s fault!’ 

It comes as the blame game went into overdrive last night, as Biden confidants told senior White House reporters they hold former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responsible for him leaving the race.

‘Bidenworld’ sources claim that not only should the president have stayed in the race but that he would have won the white working class voters who Harris largely ceded to Trump.

The claim that Pelosi got him out of the race is comparable to how Biden blames Barack Obama for demanding he not run in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.

However, there was also a sense of treachery within the president’s ranks, as sources told

Senior White House correspondent Kayla Tausche that he himself ‘was more deeply unpopular than anyone grasped.’

Other Democrat insiders have blamed Tim Walz for being too left wing, too folksy, and too tainted by the Kenosha riots, while others blamed every demographic possible.

Not enough white women showed up, too many black men switched to Donald Trump since 2020, and Hispanic voters abandoned the party.

Media analysts also speculated Joe Biden should have pulled the plug on his candidacy well before his disastrous debate performance.

This would have either given Harris more time to establish herself, or allowed for an open primary to select a stronger candidate, they argued.

It comes as a professor at New York University named Laurence F. Maslon opened up to The Guardian about the role of celebrity endorsements – including from Clooney.

‘I think endorsements have probably always done more for the celebrity than the person being endorsed.’ 

Maslon added: ‘It’s a way to hitch your star to somebody who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s a certain kind of reflected glory in that.’ 

‘There’s probably not a Republican candidate for any office in the last 20 years who didn’t append the word liberal before the word Hollywood when speaking about it…People like George Clooney and Robert De Niro, I mean, who cares, frankly?’ 

Margaretha Bentley, a professor at Arizona State University, also told the outlet, ‘In the academic literature, research has shown that, while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registrations, it has not proven to have a direct impact on how people make their voting decisions.’ 

She also added, ‘Voters may do more research after a celebrity endorses, but they will vote based on their own values and not necessarily the values of the celebrity endorser.’ 

It comes just months after Clooney wrote an op-ed calling for President Joe Biden to step aside. 

He also first threw his support behind Harris in July – only two weeks after he said it was time to move on from Biden in the scathing article for the New York Times.

‘President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again,’ he said in a statement to CNN, two days after Biden made the extraordinary decision to drop out of the race.

He endorsed the Vice President to succeed him as the Democratic nominee to take on Trump, saying: ‘We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.’

Biden had faced an increasingly frenzied clamor to step aside after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June.

Less than a month before he dropped out of the race, Clooney had raised $30million at a fundraiser for Biden.

However, the megastar, who hosted multiple fundraisers for Biden, wrote on July 10 that the president couldn’t win the ‘battle against time.’

The brutal opinion piece was seen as one of the turning points against Biden’s bid to cling onto the nomination in a bid to secure a second term.

The actor condemned Democratic party leaders for ignoring ‘every warning sign’ of Biden’s declining physical and mental health and for trying to defend his car-crash debate performance against Trump.

He added that Democrat voters ‘collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.’

And earlier this month ahead of the election, the actor doubled down on his endorsement of Kamala Harris in a campaign advertisement urging men to consider how voting for Donald Trump will affect the women in their lives.

The ad, released by left-wing Christian organization Vote Common Good, reminded men that they can lie to their Trump supporting friends about how they voted. 

And it also urged them to think about how their vote will ‘impact the people you care about the most’ before casting their ballots.

The clip followed a father and his masculine-looking friends into the polls as they encourage each other to ‘make America great again.’ 

Clooney – who narrates the short video – then urged voters to think about their families and reminds them that ‘you can vote any way you want and no one will ever know’ before the man is seen voting for Harris.’ 

The ad is the second released by Vote Common Good that encourages voters to hide their choices from their families or friends. 

The first ad, starring Clooney’s Ocean’s Eleven co-star Julia Roberts, urged women to keep their votes secret from their husbands and was branded ‘nauseating’ and ‘condescending’ by critics.