After Tapper mentioned how many fans called Clooney’s decision “brave,” the Ocean’s Eleven star declared: “I don’t know if it was brave. It was a civic duty because I found that people on my side of the street, you know I’m a Democrat in Kentucky so I get it, when I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth I thought that was time to…”
Considering Clooney’s op-ed received mixed reactions from longtime supporters, Tapper asked: “Are people still mad at you for that?”
“Some people, sure,” the Wolfs actor admitted. “That’s OK, you know, listen the idea of freedom of speech — the specific idea of it is — you can’t demand freedom of speech and then say ‘But don’t say bad things about me.'”
“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,” he continued. “That’s the rules, so when people criticize me — they criticized me for my stance against the war 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 emphasized how negative feedback doesn’t bother him.
“I’m OK with that, I’m OK with criticism for where I stand. I defend their right to criticize me as much as I defend my right to criticize them,” he concluded.
After Biden ultimately dropped out of the race to the White House by the end of July, Clooney praised the politician for doing so.
“The person who should be applauded is the president, who has done the most selfless thing a president has done since George Washington,” Clooney said during an interview in September of last year. “What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who, it’s very hard to let go of power — we know that, we’ve seen it all over the world — and for someone to say, I think there’s a better path forward, all the credit goes to him. And that’s really the truth … I’m just very proud of where we are in the state of the world right now.”
