George Clooney said that Joe Biden lost his support after a fateful meeting at a fundraiser last June where he was ‘much less sharp’.
The actor, a longtime Democrat supporter, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times July 10 titled ‘I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.’
Now, in an interview promoting his new Broadway show, he reaffirmed that seeing Biden at a Hollywood fundraiser with Barack Obama in June led him to write the piece.
He said he’d met with Biden and spoke to him for hours just a year before at the Kennedy Center and on that night in Hollywood, he ‘saw someone much less sharp.’
The actor then took a shot at the press, saying: ‘The media, in many ways, dropped the ball.’
Clooney reaffirmed that ‘I’ve always liked Joe Biden and I like him still’ but said that his obvious incapacities made it impossible to defend his record.
‘The Biden administration was terrible at explaining that we’re a world economy, where we were actually doing better than all the other G7 countries.’
‘They were bad at telling the story because their messenger was not working at his best, to say the least,’ Clooney told NYT this week.
George Clooney said that Joe Biden lost his support after a fateful meeting at a fundraiser last June where he was ‘much less sharp’ and said the media ‘dropped the ball’ on his decline
During the interview, he joked about meeting Trump during his heyday as a blockbuster movie star and even impacted his career.
‘He was a New York guy. He’d be at a restaurant and he’d be like, “What’s the name of that cocktail waitress?”‘
Clooney said that Trump offered up a doctor who could help him after he was injured on the set of his Oscar-winning performance in Syriana.
He compared Trump to Ebenezer Scrooge and wondered if he would change his way during his second term.
‘We’ve got to hope that he can have that Scrooge night where he wakes up and there are some ghosts of Christmas there that say, “There’s some good things you can do for people.”
Clooney has been opining on politics as part of the press tour for the stage version of his hit movie Good Night and Good Luck.
He sent a surprising message to both President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party during his appearance on Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The actor, 63, was a guest on Tuesday’s episode of the CBS late-night talk show to promote the show.
During the interview, he joked about meeting Trump during his heyday as a blockbuster movie star and even impacted his career
Clooney said that Trump offered up a doctor who could help him after he was injured on the set of his Oscar-winning performance in Syriana
The actor, a longtime Democrat supporter, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times July 10 titled ‘I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee’
The talk ultimately turned to politics, with the actor, who endorsed Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election, revealing he was ‘raised a Democrat in Kentucky’ and joking ‘It has been nothing but fun.’
Clooney shared his first time voting was when he cast his ballot for Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, which Ronald Reagan won. He said, ‘I lost with some Bushes and I won with some Clintons and Obamas,’ adding, ‘You know, this is Democracy.’
While neither Clooney nor Colbert mentioned Trump by name, the Oscars winner addressed Democrats losing the election.
‘Well I don’t know, what am I supposed to do? Storm the f***ing Capitol?’ he said referencing the January 6 2021 insurrection, prompting applause from the crowd.
He also added an unexpected direct message to Trump, without saying his name: ‘Good for you. I hope you do well because our country needs it, and we will meet you in 3.5 years and see where we go next.’
It comes after Clooney drew Trump’s ire with an op-ed earlier last year in which he begged Joe Biden – then still a candidate – to drop out of the race to give Democrats a fighting chance to keep the White House.
Although Clooney was clearly disappointed in the outcome of the 2024 presidential race, he told Colbert that losing an election is part of the democratic process.
‘It’s part of democracy. There are people who agree and disagree, and most of us still like each other, we’re all gonna get through it,’ he continued.
George Clooney sent a rather surprising message to both President Donald Trump and the Democratic Party during an appearance on Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Clooney, who endorsed Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election, revealed he was ‘raised a Democrat in Kentucky’ and joked ‘It has been nothing but fun’
The actor, seemingly trying to relate to everyday life, then went on the share a story about his seven-year-old son Alexander.
‘I have a son who plays in chess tournaments, loves chess. He’s seven years old and he’s playing against a lot of older kids and he is not winning all the time, as you can imagine,’ Clooney added.
‘He gets upset, and I say, ‘Listen, shake the guy’s hand, you say good game, I’ll get you next time. And that’s kind of how… you’ve got to live by those rules,’ Clooney said.
Colbert knocked on his wood desk, as Clooney said, ‘What?’ and Colbert replied, ‘That there’ll be another (election),’ referring to Trump’s comments from July 2024 while campaigning for Christian conservatives.
‘You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote,’ Trump said at the time.
Clooney, who in June last year raised $30million at a fundraiser for Biden’s 2024 campaign, is largely credited as being the nail in the coffin to Biden dropping his re-election bid.
Back in early July – just over a month before the 2024 Democratic National Convention – Clooney penned the New York Times op-ed weeks after Biden’s troubling performance in the June Presidential debate.
‘I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. 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,’ Clooney said in the op-ed, just weeks after he hosted a fund-raiser for Biden himself.
George Clooney, Joe Biden, Julia Roberts and Barack Obama are pictured at a June 16, 2024 fundraiser that raised $30million for Biden’s re-election campaign
George Clooney visited the White House in 2022 and was honored by then-President Joe Biden
‘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 fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big f***ng 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 opined.
He also plainly stated, ‘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 who I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly,’ Clooney continued.
The actor thought removing Biden from the ticket would, ‘enliven our party’ and ‘wake up voters’ who had ‘checked out’ even before the debate.
The op-ed was just part of a growing chorus among Democrats for Biden to step down, which he ultimately did just 11 days later on July 21, officially endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his stead.
Clooney was quick to thank Biden for stepping out of the way, likening the move he helped foist on the commander in chief as ‘saving Democracy’ – and said he was excited for Harris and her ‘historic quest’.
He then doubled down on his endorsement of Harris by narrating a campaign advertisement that urged men to consider how voting for Trump would affect the women in their lives.
Harris and running mate Tim Walz ultimately lost to Trump and JD Vance by an overwhelming margin in the Electoral College (312 to 226) but by just 1.5 per cent in the popular vote (49.8 per cent – 77.3 million votes to 48.3 per cent – 75.01 million votes).
