George Clooney doubles down on controversial political stance
But he doesn't think he's 'brave'.
George Clooney has doubled down on a controversial political stance that he says made ‘some people’ very angry with him, because he believes it was his ‘civic duty’.
The Hollywood actor, 63, hasn’t exactly got a reputation for controversial political opinions, but comments he made about former US President Joe Biden turned a few heads last year.
Despite supporting previous Democratic candidates – including Barack Obama on two occasions, Hilary Clinton in 2016, and Biden himself in 2020 – he had less than kind words to say about Biden in 2024.
Clooney supported Biden in 2020 but changed his stance before the most recent election, which saw former Vice President Kamala Harris defeated by current President Donald Trump.
In a New York Times column, he called for Biden to step down: ‘I saw Biden three weeks ago at my fundraiser for him. It’s devastating to say it, but he is not the same man he was and he won’t win this fall.’
After his 2024 column was recently described as ‘brave’ by American journalist Jake Tapper, Clooney questioned that assessment of what he’d said.
”It was a civic duty. I’m a Democrat from Kentucky’ (Picture: Guerin Charles/ABACA/Shutterstock)‘I don’t know if it was brave,’ he said (via Daily Beast). ‘It was a civic duty. I’m a Democrat in Kentucky – when I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth I thought that was time [to say something].
‘Some people are mad, sure. But that’s okay, you know. Listen, the idea of freedom of speech is you can’t demand freedom of speech and then say, “But don’t say bad things about me”.’
He continued: ‘That’s the deal, you have to take your stand if you believe in it. Take a stand, stand for it and then deal with the consequences. That’s the rules.
Clooney had raised £21m for Biden during a fundraiser in 2024 (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images) Biden was replaced by Kamala Harris in July 2024 (Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty)‘They criticized me for my stance against the war [in Iraq] 20 years ago, people picketed my movies and they put me on a deck of cards — I have to take that, that’s fair.’
Clooney called for Biden to step down from his campaign in July last year after a poor performance against President Trump in a live televised debate.
This came just three weeks after the Ocean’s 11 actor had raised nearly $28million (£21m) for Biden’s campaign, which ultimately came to an end on July 21.
Clooney said in his column: ‘It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago was not the Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Biden of 2020.
Clooney has almost always backed Democrat candidates (Picture: Joshua Sammer/Getty)‘This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. 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.’
In November 2024, after Trump’s victory, Clooney was blamed by some Americans for Kamala Harris’ eventual defeat, four months after her campaign began.
A veteran-led, political commentator group called altNOAA posted on social media site X: ‘Someone bring me George Clooney. We need to have a talk.’
Journalist Joshua Hartley uploaded a screenshot of Clooney’s op-ed piece from the New York Times, adding the caption: ‘Thank you George Clooney.’
X user @gabby2001 wrote: ‘I’m so disgusted with the Democratic Party leaders, George Clooney, Stephen king, Rob Reiner, and all the other wealthy people who demanded Joe step aside. Thanks a lot. You pushed out the guy who could win.’
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