George Clooney has joined a growing number of Democrats calling on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race after his poor debate performance with former President Donald Trump late last month.
The actor, who is an outspoken liberal and appeared at a Hollywood fundraiser for Biden last month, made his call for the president's exit from the race in a Wednesday op-ed published with The New York Times titled: "I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee."
“I love Joe Biden," Clooney wrote. "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."
Clooney lauded Bidens's triumphant "battles" over his four years in office.
“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” Clooney added.“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.” Biden, who famously doesn't listen to "elites," now receives a public plea to drop out from one of his most high-profile fundraisers, George Clooney. Clooney also called him in June and asked him to quit besmirching the ICC, where his wife works, to protect Israeli war criminals pic.twitter.com/ZDTRmnWUHB
— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) July 10, 2024
Clooney cited some excuses for his performance given by Biden and his team, such as the president being exhausted from his travel schedule and claiming to have been under the weather during the debate.
"Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw,” Clooney continued. “We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign."
The actor said Biden's age was a fair point of criticism, noting it was "nothing that can be reversed."
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” he continued. “On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate … We love to talk about how the Republican Party has ceded all power, and all of the traits that made it so formidable with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, to a single person who seeks to hold on to the presidency, and yet most of our members of Congress are opting to wait and see if the dam breaks.”
“But the dam has broken,” he added.“We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.
Clooney concluded his op-ed by asserting that democracy was "messy" and surmised that a new Democratic nominee would "enliven" the party and "wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out."
Later Thursday, Trump took to Truth Social and panned Clooney's defection from Biden.
"So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act," Trump wrote. "He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are. What does Clooney know about anything? He uses the Democrat 'talking point' that Biden, the WORST President in the history of the United States, has 'saved our Democracy.'" So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act. He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are. What does Clooney know about anything? He uses the Democrat “talking point” that Biden, the WORST President in…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) July 11, 2024
"No, Crooked Joe was the one who WEAPONIZED Law Enforcement against his political Opponent, who created the most devastating INFLATION in the history of our Country, who Embarrassed our Nation in Afghanistan, and whose crazy Open Border Policy has allowed millions of people to illegally pour into our Country, many from prisons and mental institutions," Trump's post continued. "Crooked Joe Biden didn’t save our Democracy, he brought our Democracy to its knees."
"Clooney should get out of politics and go back to television. Movies never really worked for him!!!" Trump concluded.
