George Clooney is the latest person to call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. The actor voiced his opinion in a New York Times op-ed entitled, “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
In his essay, the actor calls himself a “lifelong Democrat” who is “proud of what my party represents and what it stands for.” Clooney reiterates the work he’s done for the party — hosting record-breaking Hollywood fundraiser after record-breaking Hollywood fundraiser, including one in June — before dropping the hammer.
“The one battle [Biden] cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” Clooney wrote. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser 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.”
Clooney did not mince words about his belief that Biden cannot win a second term. “We are not going to win in November with this president,” he wrote. “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.” I would love to know which governors George Clooney is speaking to in private, but I guess that’s not really the point.
Unmentioned in his op-ed was Clooney’s recent tiff with the Biden administration. His wife, Amal Clooney, was under threat of being sanctioned by the U.S. as an adviser to the International Criminal Court’s investigation into possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas. The White House eventually stepped back from the possibility of sanctioning the ICC, but Clooney still lodged a complaint. The actor reportedly called top Biden aide Steve Ricchetti to criticize Biden’s use of the word “outrageous” in describing his wife’s work. It seems as though the Biden team made it up to Clooney, though, as the actor co-hosted a fundraiser last month that raised $28 million for the president’s war chest. Per the Washington Post, the Biden campaign “disputed the notion that there were serious worries about Clooney dropping out of the fundraiser.”
Despite his personal feelings about Biden, Clooney made sure to reiterate his admiration for the president multiple times in his op-ed. He also threw out a few names of people he’d like to see on the Democratic ticket, including governors Wes Moore, Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, Gretchen Whitmer, and J.B. Pritzker. (He really is hanging out with governors in private, huh?)
Clooney ended his essay with a Sorkinesque plea: “Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024.”
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