George Clooney says replacing Joe Biden with Kamala Harris ‘was a mistake’ | George Clooney
George Clooney said he believes Kamala Harris made a “mistake” in replacing Joe Biden in the 2024 US presidential election, adding that he has no regrets about the New York Times opinion piece in which he called on Democrats to find a new presidential candidate.
Speaking on CBS’ Sunday Morning, the actor and activist, who is a major financial donor to the Democratic Party, said he would rewrite his op-ed if given the chance, and that he wished Democrats would hold a new primary to elect a presidential candidate. Instead, Harris was nominated by a virtual vote of party delegates.
“We had a chance,” Clooney said. “I wanted there to be, as I wrote in the editorial, a primary. Let’s test this quickly and get it going. I think the mistake with Kamala is that she had to run against her own record. That’s very difficult to do if the point of running is to say, ‘I’m not that person.’ That’s difficult to do and so she was given a very difficult task.
“I think it was a mistake, quite honestly. But here we are. We were going to lose even more seats in the House, they say. So I don’t know. Not doing it would be like saying, ‘I’m not going to tell the truth.’
Clooney’s op-ed, titled “I like Joe Biden. But we need a new candidate,” was a striking example amid a growing wave of dissent among Democratic voters over Biden’s ability to remain president of the United States, after his poor showing in his first presidential debate with Donald Trump.
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney wrote at the time. “On top of that, we’re not going to win the House and we’re going to lose the Senate. That’s not just my opinion; it’s the opinion of every senator, congressman and governor I’ve spoken with privately. Every one, regardless of what he or she says publicly.”
In July, Biden’s son Hunter Biden gave a three-hour interview to US Channel 5 in which he attacked Clooney for writing the op-ed.
“Fuck him!” Hunter Biden said about Clooney. “Fuck him and everyone around him. I don’t have to be fucking nice.”
He questioned why anyone was listening to Clooney, saying, “What do you have to do with anything? What right do you have to walk over a man who gave…his fucking life serving this country and decide that you, George Clooney, are going to take out a full page ad in the fucking New York Times.”
Asked by CBS if he saw Hunter Biden’s reaction, Clooney laughed wryly and replied, “Yeah, I saw it.” When asked what he thought, he said, “I could spend a lot of time debunking a lot of the things he said… but the reality is I don’t think looking back like that is helpful to anyone. Especially him. I don’t think it’s helpful to the Democratic Party. So I’m going to wish him well in his ongoing recovery and hope he does well and leave it at that.”
“I have many personal opinions on this, but I don’t find it helpful to have a public argument with him.”
Since her unsuccessful bid for the presidency, Harris has criticized Biden’s initial decision to seek a second term. In her book 107 Days, published in September, she writes that she was “in the worst position to argue that he should drop out” because “I knew it would seem incredibly selfish to him if I advised him not to run. He would see it as naked ambition, perhaps poisonous disloyalty, even if my only message was: don’t let the other guy win.”
