George Clooney said he believes it was "a mistake" for the Democratic Party to nominate former Vice President Kamala Harris as its presidential candidate in the 2024 election following former President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race.
Speaking in an interview on CBS "Sunday Morning," the actor and political donor said he stood by his July 2024 New York Times opinion piece that urged Democrats to choose a new nominee after Biden's incoherent debate performance against President Donald Trump.
"We had a chance," Clooney said. "I wanted there to be, as I wrote in the op-ed, a primary. Let's battle-test this quickly and get it up and going."
Clooney explained that he thought the mistake in picking Harris as a presidential candidate was that "she had to run against her own record."
"It's very hard to do if the point of running is to say, 'I'm not that person'. It's hard to do, and so she was given a very tough task," Clooney continued.
"I think it was a mistake, quite honestly. But we are where we are. We were gonna lose more House seats, they say. So I don't know. To not do it would be to say, 'I'm not gonna tell the truth.'"
Clooney said he would still publish the same opinion piece today, adding that Democrats should have held an open primary instead of nominating Harris through a virtual delegate vote.
His 2024 article, titled "I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee," argued that the president could not win reelection and risked dragging down other Democrat candidates.
"We are not going to win in November with this president," Clooney wrote. "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."
The piece drew criticism from Hunter Biden, who, in a profanity-laced interview with Channel 5, denounced Clooney for publishing it.
"[Expletive] him!" Hunter Biden said. "[Expletive] him and everybody around him. I don't have to be [expletive] nice."
He questioned why Clooney had the right to criticize his father's candidacy, saying, "What do you have to do with [expletive] anything?"
Asked about the outburst, Clooney said he had seen the comments but preferred not to engage further.
"I could spend a lot of time debunking many of the things he said ... but the reality is, I don't think looking backwards like that is helpful to anyone. Particularly to him," he said. "I don't think it is helpful to the Democratic Party. So I'm just going to wish him well on his ongoing recovery and I hope he does well and just leave it at that."
Clooney added that while he holds strong personal views on the topic, he does not believe a public dispute would serve the party.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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