George Clooney Backs Kamala Harris and Commends Biden's Decision to Drop Out | Vanity Fair

Less than two weeks after publicly imploring Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race due to his age, George Clooney has praised the president for doing just that—and officially endorsed Kamala Harris as the next Democratic nominee.

“President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again,” Clooney said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. “We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.”

Earlier this month, Clooney harshly criticized Biden in a New York Times op-ed headlined “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.” The lifelong Democrat and major Democratic Party donor referred to Biden as both a “friend” and “hero” in his essay, but expressed concern over the president’s advanced age of 81. (His Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is 78.)

Clooney came to this conclusion after witnessing Biden’s demeanor at a starry Hollywood fundraiser attended by Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand. “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,” Clooney wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

“This is about age. Nothing more,” the Oscar winner continued. “But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president.” The piece, which Barack Obama was reportedly alerted about before publication, made waves throughout the political sphere—even bizarrely capturing the ire of Trump, who called Clooney a “fake movie actor” for criticizing his then opponent.

In the piece, Clooney wrote that no matter how “messy” Biden’s exit could be, it would also “enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out.” He was correct about Democrats’ embrace of Harris: After being backed by Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee raised a record-breaking $81 million in her first day as presidential candidate.