George Clooney Says Speaking Out Against Biden’s 2024 Campaign was his ‘civic duty’

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George Clooney Says Speaking Out Against Biden’s 2024 Campaign Was His Duty, Not a Bold Move

 

Oscar-winning actor and longtime Democratic supporter George Clooney has opened up about his controversial call for President Joe Biden to step aside from the 2024 presidential race, saying he felt it was his “civic duty” to speak out, even if it wasn’t popular.

 

 

“Well, I don’t know if it was brave,” Clooney said during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday, reflecting on the op-ed he penned for The New York Times in July 2024. “It was a civic duty.” Clooney acknowledged that some people remain upset with him for publishing the piece, but he stands by his decision.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper suggests Hollywood Democrat George Clooney was "brave" to write a New York Times op-ed last summer noting Joe Biden's mental decline.

Republicans had been sounding the alarm about Biden's lack of mental fitness since before the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/c9Ud73OnV6

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 16, 2025

 

The actor revealed that what compelled him to write the op-ed was witnessing fellow Democrats remain silent or dishonest about Biden’s evident decline in both physical and mental sharpness. Clooney described the version of Biden he met during a June fundraiser as markedly different from the man he had known during previous years. “When I saw people on my side of the street, not telling the truth, I thought that was time,” he said.

 

Clooney, 63, co-hosted a major fundraiser for Biden just weeks before the op-ed was published, helping raise around $30 million. However, the event reportedly became a turning point for him. Biden froze up on stage and had to be guided off by former President Barack Obama, an incident that Clooney alluded to in his writing.

 

“[T]he one battle he cannot win is the fight against time,” Clooney wrote in the op-ed. “None of us can.” He didn’t hold back in describing the stark change he saw in the president. “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 wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

 

The op-ed directly addressed the Democratic Party’s attempts to downplay Biden’s lackluster performance at the June 27, 2024 debate against Donald Trump, calling on lawmakers and party leaders to stop pretending otherwise. “Stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw,” Clooney demanded. “We are not going to win in November with this president.”

 

Though the Biden campaign reportedly tried to dissuade Clooney from publishing the piece, it went live — and just weeks later, on July 21, 2024, Biden officially ended his re-election campaign.

 

When Tapper asked if he was still facing backlash for the op-ed, Clooney admitted, “Some people, sure. It’s okay.” He defended his right to speak out, regardless of how it was received. “You know, listen, the idea of freedom of speech, you know, the specific idea of it is, you know – you can’t demand freedom of speech and then say, but don’t say bad things about me,” Clooney said. “Well, that’s the deal.”

 

“You have to take a stand if you believe in it, take a stance, stand for it, and then deal with the consequences. That’s the rules.”

 

Based on a report by NYP  2025-04-18

 

 

[Jingthing]

Water under the bridge.

The fight now and it's going to be very hard is to try to prevent the autocratic Trump regime from controlling elections to the point where U.S. elections are for show only as in Russia.

[hotsun]

Part of the lefts problem is including out of touch celebrities in their agenda as if americans should care about their opinions. Time to face reality, it didnt work

[PomPolo]

As a democrat I bet he feels lke a reet cloon now with the new muppet in charge!

[impulse]

He's trying to rewrite history.

 

He was balls deep in the Dem debacle which was the '24 election cycle. 

 

For which I thank him.   That was an own goal.

 

His compadres may not be so gracious now that he's throwing them under the bus in a vain attempt to salvage his reputation.

 

[KhunLA]

He delusion of self importance ... 

 

 

[Jingthing]

I don't care at all about what Clooney did then or how he feels about it now.

As far as what happened with the democratic party nomination, I blame Biden 100 percent.

He made a massive mistake running for reelection.

If he had let the process happen normally with a normal amount of time, nobody knows who would have been nominated, but if it was Harris she would have had a lot more legitimacy in winning it. 

[spidermike007]

Clooney was one of the few that was bold enough to say what needed to be said, at a time that it needed to be said. 2 years prior somebody should have been bold enough to have slapped Biden around and made him aware that he was not fit for another run, and a high quality candidate and needed to be vetted. 

 

Trump tapped into the popular sentiment, people don't want to be told how to think, how to talk and how to behave, and that in and of itself is something that the Democrats have to learn. Yet to date I've seen no indication that they've expressed any sincere interest in reform. 

 

With Trump's utterly insane policies and the likelihood of him failing miserable with his economics, the presidency in 2028 is going to be fairly easy for the Democrats if they pick a high quality candidate like Beshears or Shapiro. 

[Harrisfan]

6 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Clooney was one of the few that was bold enough to say what needed to be said, at a time that it needed to be said. 2 years prior somebody should have been bold enough to have slapped Biden around and made him aware that he was not fit for another run, and a high quality candidate and needed to be vetted. 

 

Trump tapped into the popular sentiment, people don't want to be told how to think, how to talk and how to behave, and that in and of itself is something that the Democrats have to learn. Yet to date I've seen no indication that they've expressed any sincere interest in reform. 

 

With Trump's utterly insane policies and the likelihood of him failing miserable with his economics, the presidency in 2028 is going to be fairly easy for the Democrats if they pick a high quality candidate like Beshears or Shapiro. 

Lucky we got Trump. You lefties in daily meltdown.

[WDSmart]

I have no problem with anyone, including celebrities (or former ones 😉 ), speaking about their political views. I don't really care what Clooney said, but I did think that Biden was too old to serve another 4 years as president. If he had run, I would have voted for him. I would vote for ANYONE who was running against Trump. I thought, before he withdrew, that he would run, and if he would win, he would soon resign as president, which would have given that office to his vice-president, which I assumed would have been Harris. So, voting for Harris was no big deal for me. I believed if Biden ran and won, Harris would have soon been president anyway.   

[madone]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

 

If he had let the process happen normally with a normal amount of time, nobody knows who would have been nominated, but if it was Harris she would have had a lot more legitimacy in winning it. 

None of that changes the fact that the democrats have lost their way and with that their traditional support   

[kimothai]

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Water under the bridge.

The fight now and it's going to be very hard is to try to prevent the autocratic Trump regime from controlling elections to the point where U.S. elections are for show only as in Russia.

Autocratic implies that a leader doesn't seek advice/input from others. That's simply not true with Trump - he listens to what people have to say and I suspect he always will but I don't have a crystal ball. Elections will never be just for show (as Russia) in USA. If the democrats continue the doubling down on their DEI, importing murders & gang angers, men beating up women in sports, etc, etc, then elections will overwhelmingly lean to the right. Then the left will claim the elections are for show because they refuse to admit that the vast majority of American voters are not buying what the left is selling 

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, kimothai said:

Autocratic implies that a leader doesn't seek advice/input from others. That's simply not true with Trump - he listens to what people have to say and I suspect he always will but I don't have a crystal ball. Elections will never be just for show (as Russia) in USA. If the democrats continue the doubling down on their DEI, importing murders & gang angers, men beating up women in sports, etc, etc, then elections will overwhelmingly lean to the right. Then the left will claim the elections are for show because they refuse to admit that the vast majority of American voters are not buying what the left is selling 

You haven't been paying attention.

[kimothai]

31 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

You haven't been paying attention.

Lefties can only hope that people aren't paying attention to the failed and quite dangerous policies of the left. As it turns out the vast majority of Americans are paying attention and the proof was the election results of last November. Many lefties are still in denial unfortunately. 

[Harrisfan]

4 hours ago, kimothai said:

Lefties can only hope that people aren't paying attention to the failed and quite dangerous policies of the left. As it turns out the vast majority of Americans are paying attention and the proof was the election results of last November. Many lefties are still in denial unfortunately. 

Lefties are weird. They worship celebs and ignore reality.

[Hamus Yaigh]

11 hours ago, KhunLA said:

He delusion of self importance ... 

Its comments like this that are so out of touch with reality, and that people holding such thoughts are allowed to vote and were in the majority last November got the USA to where it is today.

[KhunLA]

39 minutes ago, Hamus Yaigh said:

Its comments like this that are so out of touch with reality, and that people holding such thoughts are allowed to vote and were in the majority last November got the USA to where it is today.

Comments like what ... he, they, celebrities think they are important.  Only idiots vote because someone, they don't know, tells them how to.

 

His, theirs, anyone's opinion is only important to themselves, inclusive.  Dems and their policies, have sh!t the bed, the last 2 dem administrations, and a couple of the worst.  Certainly not saying the Reps, haven't been just as bad in the past.   Bush 2 & Bush 1, though at least 1 didn't get reelected.

 

I find all, most politicians to be corrupt, in the game for themselves, and lie through their teeth to get elected, just simply in different parties.  I consider almost all voters, extremely ignorant and truly haven't a clue who they are voting for.

 

Trump, well, he's definitely different.  Tells what he wants to do, and actually tries to do it.  Many times successful, many times not.  At least with him, you got a ballpark idea, who you voted for.

[thaipo7]

16 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Water under the bridge.

The fight now and it's going to be very hard is to try to prevent the autocratic Trump regime from controlling elections to the point where U.S. elections are for show only as in Russia.

Wrong again - We are very lucky to have Trump in office.  Actually any one not a Democrat.

[Cameroni]

What does Taylor Swift think about all this though?

 

She will decide the next election.

 

Oprah said so.