George Clooney has defended his controversial call for Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, labeling it a “civic duty.”
The actor was a vocal supporter of Biden, but suddenly turned his back with a New York Times op-ed in July last year headlined “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee,” arguing that the president and Democratic nominee was no longer the force he had been.
“In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced,” Clooney wrote. “But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.”
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired partially on Tuesday, the Hollywood icon expanded on the reasons behind his decision to upset the apple cart. Tapper said a lot of people called the move “brave.”
“I don’t know if it was brave,” Clooney laughed. “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…”
Tapper shot across: “Are people still mad at you for that?”
“Some people, sure. 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,‘” Clooney responded.
He continued: “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.
“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.”
Tapper also made reference to Clooney’s hair, which was dyed for his part in his Broadway play Good Night, and Good Luck.
“He dyed his hair for the role of Edward R. Murrow, just so you don’t think that he’s trying to pull that off,” the CNN host said.
The full interview will air Wednesday 5 p.m. Eastern.
Despite Clooney turning against his opponent, eventual winner of the presidential race Donald Trump slammed the actor for being a “rat.”
“So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
“He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
Clooney, meanwhile, reportedly had a tantrum when it was suggested by Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski that his infamous op-ed was instigated by former President Barack Obama.
“This wasn’t George Clooney,” she said in a broadcast at the time. “I think that Barack Obama has a lot of influence.”
Clooney reportedly raged at an unnamed MSNBC producer over the allegations, screaming “You f—ed” me.” Journalist Chris Whipple revealed the meltdown in his recent book Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History.
