George Clooney has thrown his support behind Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president after turning on Joe Biden and telling him to drop out.
The Democratic fundraiser thanked the 81-year-old president for ‘saving Democracy’ and said he was excited for Harris and her ‘historic quest’.
The 63-year-old Hollywood legend’s endorsement comes two weeks after he said it was time to move on from Biden in 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 his vice president Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic nominee to take on Donald Trump in November.
‘We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest,’ Clooney said Tuesday.
George Clooney has thrown his support behind Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee after turning on Joe Biden and telling him to drop out
Joe Biden stunningly dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday in a political earthquake never seen this close to an election.
As he ended his campaign America’s oldest ever president admitted it was in the ‘best interests of the country’ for him not to seek re-election for a second term.
Biden announced his seismic decision in a one-page letter posted on social media. In it he committed to serving until the end of this term in January.
The President had faced an increasingly frenzied clamor to step aside after a disastrous debate performance against Trump last month.
Less than a month before he dropped out of the race, Clooney had raised $30 million 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 performance against Donald 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.’
The opinion pieces came just three weeks after Clooney hosted a record-breaking $28 million fundraiser for the president on June 16.
Clooney turned on President Biden and demand he step aside from the 2024 race after his disastrous debate and widespread concerns of whether he can serve four more years: above is George Clooney, President Joe Biden, Julia Roberts and Barack Obama at a June 16 fundraiser that raised $28 million
Clooney, who hosted a star-studded fundraiser for Biden in Los Angeles on June 16, said the person he saw there was the candidate the world saw at last week’s 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 wrote.
‘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-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,’ he said.
Clooney said he had heard this concerns from members of Congress he spoke to, including worries the Democratic Party will lose the House and Senate.
‘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,’ he wrote.
Biden and Clooney have a long relationship, going back to Biden’s day as chairman of the Senate Foreign Services Committee. Clooney was working on issues in Darfur and connected with him.
The president has honored Clooney for his support, hosting him at the White House for the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2022.
The actor has become a major force in the Democratic Party, raising millions for its candidates. He’s seen as an influential voice in American politics.
His dis-endorsement of Biden could also hurt the Democratic Party in the pocket book.
Hollywood donors, with their deep pockets, were said to be furious with campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg after Biden’s debate performance.
The donors, like many Biden supporters, said they felt misled and betrayed about the president’s health.
Clooney argued it was more important to beat Donald Trump in November than to keep Biden on the ticket.
‘Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign,’ he wrote.
But Biden and Clooney also hit some bumps in their relationship.
The actor was reportedly furious at the White House in early June after Biden attacked an attempt by Amal, Clooney’s lawyer wife, to jail the Prime Minister of Israel, it emerged on Thursday.
Amal Clooney signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Hamas leaders for war crimes – a move the President denounced as ‘outrageous.’
Clooney reportedly called one of Biden’s closest advisers to make his feelings known.
But he still hosted a fundraiser – along with actress Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama – later that month that helped raise $30 million for Biden’s campaign last month.
The fundraiser, however was overshadowed with questions about the president’s health after a video appeared to show Obama having to guide Biden off stage.
In the video, Biden and Obama are seen waving and smiling while receiving a standing ovation in the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Biden applauds and gives the audience a thumbs up but then he stops moving as he stares out over the crowd for several long seconds.
George Clooney visited the White House where he was honored by the President in 2022
That’s when Obama, still smiling and waving, took Biden by the wrist and gave him a gentle tug. That’s when the president appears to snap out of it.
They proceed to walk off the stage together with Obama speaking into Biden’s ear as he pats him on the back as they go.
The White House called the video a fake. Officials also noted the fundraiser took place the day after Biden returned from participating in the G7 summit in Italy.