George Clooney has thrown his support behind Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate after turning on Joe Biden and telling him to step down.
The Democratic fundraiser thanked the 81-year-old president for “saving democracy” and said he was excited for Harris and her “historic quest.”
The endorsement from the 63-year-old Hollywood legend comes two weeks after he said it was time to move on from Biden in a scathing article for the New York Times.
“President Biden has shown what true leadership looks like. He is saving democracy once again,” she 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 candidate to face Donald Trump in November.
“We’re all very excited to do everything 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 candidate after turning on Joe Biden and telling her to stand down
Joe Biden surprisingly dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on Sunday in a political earthquake never seen so close to an election.
At the end of his campaign, the oldest US president admitted that “the best thing for the country” was not to seek re-election for a second term.
Biden announced his momentous decision in a one-page letter posted on social media, in which he pledged to remain in office until the end of his term in January.
The president had faced an increasingly frenzied clamor to resign after a disastrous debate performance against Trump last month.
Less than a month before dropping out of the race, Clooney had raised $30 million in a fundraiser for Biden.
However, the megastar, who hosted multiple fundraisers for Biden, wrote on July 10 that the president could not win the “battle against time.”
The brutal op-ed was seen as one of the turning points in Biden’s attempt to cling on to the nomination in a bid to secure a second term.
The actor condemned Democratic Party leaders for ignoring “all the warning signs” of Biden’s deteriorating physical and mental health and for trying to defend his disastrous performance against Donald Trump.
He added that Democratic voters “collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume every time we see the president, whom we respect, step off Air Force One or return to a microphone to answer an unscripted question.”
The op-eds appeared just three weeks after Clooney hosted a record-breaking $28 million fundraising event for the president on June 16.
Clooney turned on President Biden and demanded he withdraw from the 2024 race after their disastrous debate and widespread concerns about whether he can serve four more years: Above are 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 vice president, and as president. I consider him a friend and I believe in him. I believe in his character. I believe in his morals. Over the last four years, he has won many of the battles he has faced,” Clooney wrote.
“But the one battle he can’t win is the battle against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say, but the Joe Biden I stood with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all saw at the debate,” she said.
Clooney said he had heard these concerns from members of Congress he spoke to, including worries that the Democratic Party would lose the House and Senate.
“We will not win in November with this President. We will not win the House and we will lose the Senate. This is not just my opinion; it is the opinion of every Senator, member of Congress and Governor I have spoken to privately. Every single one of them, regardless of what they say publicly,” he wrote.
Biden and Clooney have a long-standing relationship, dating back to Biden’s time as chairman of the Senate Foreign Services Committee. Clooney was working on Darfur-related issues and connected with him.
The president 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 his candidates and is considered an influential voice in American politics.
His rejection of Biden could also hurt the Democratic Party’s pocketbook.
Deep-pocketed Hollywood donors were reportedly furious with campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg after Biden’s debate performance.
Donors, like many Biden supporters, said they felt misled and betrayed about the president’s health.
Clooney argued that 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 are so terrified at the prospect of a second Trump term that we have chosen to ignore all the warning signs,” he wrote.
But Biden and Clooney also experienced some obstacles in their relationship.
The actor was reportedly furious with the White House in early June after Biden attacked an attempt by Clooney’s lawyer wife Amal to jail the Israeli prime minister, it emerged on Thursday.
Last month, Amal Clooney signed a request by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu along with Hamas leaders for war crimes, a move the president denounced as “outrageous.”
Clooney reportedly called one of Biden’s closest advisers to let him know his feelings.
But she still hosted a fundraiser, alongside actress Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama, later that month that helped raise $30 million for Biden’s campaign last month.
The fundraiser was overshadowed, however, by questions about the president’s health after a video emerged showing Obama having to guide Biden off the stage.
In the video, Biden and Obama are seen waving and smiling as they receive a standing ovation at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Biden claps and gives the audience a thumbs-up, but then stops moving as he stares at the crowd for several seconds.
George Clooney visited the White House where he was honored by the president in 2022
That’s when Obama, still smiling and waving, grabbed Biden’s wrist and gave it a gentle tug. That’s when the president seemed to react.
They proceed to walk off the stage together with Obama speaking into Biden’s ear while patting him on the back as they leave.
The White House has called the video fake. Officials also noted that the fundraiser took place the day after Biden returned from participating in the G7 summit in Italy.