George Clooney recently sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper (via Daily Beast) and said that while “some people” are still mad about his decision to go against Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election, he is at peace with the choice because it was his “civic duty.” Tapper told the Oscar winner that his defenders called the decision “brave.”
“I don’t know if it was brave,” Clooney said. “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… some people [are mad], sure. That’s OK, 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.‘”
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“That’s the deal, you have to take your stand if you believe in it,” he continued. “Take a stand, stand for it and then deal with the consequences. 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. 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.”
Clooney made headlines on July 10 for publishing an op-ed in The New York Times in which he urged Biden to end his campaign following his disastrous performance against Donald Trump in the first 2024 presidential debate. The op-ed was published only a few weeks after the actor co-hosted a huge Hollywood fundraiser for Biden that raised a record $28 million.
“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 wrote at the time. “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. 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.”
Biden did end up stepping down as the Democratic nominee, a decision Clooney went on to praise, saying that Biden was “saving democracy once again.” The actor then endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, Clooney said Biden’s choice made him the “most selfless” president since George Washington.
“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,” Clooney said. “And that’s really the truth … I’m just very proud of where we are in the state of the world right now.”
Clooney is currently starring on Broadway in “Good Night and Good Luck.”
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