George Clooney claims Kamala Harris running for president was a “mistake”
George Clooney has claimed he stands by his vocal criticism of the Democrats for allowing Kamala Harris to run a last-minute campaign for president after Joe Biden dropped out of the race, branding it a “mistake”.
The actor, who is a prominent supporter and financial donor to the American political party, was appearing on CBS’ Sunday Morning on November 2nd when he said that he had no regrets over calling for the Democrats to seek a new nominee in a notorious opinion piece in The New York Times, but wishes it had been a more contested battle.
“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. I think the mistake with it being Kamala is 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.”
The Hollywood stalwart added: “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’s article became one of the most prominent examples of backlash against Biden following his disastrous performance against Donald Trump in the first televised debate of the presidential campaign last year, which eventually led him to dropping out of the race for the White House.
However, the controversy from the piece was sparked again in July when the former president’s son, Hunter Biden, gave an interview blasting Clooney for his actions, saying, “Fuck him and everybody around him. I don’t have to be fucking nice.”
Asked about the Biden backlash in his newest interview, Clooney laughed as he admitted: “Yeah, I saw it,” before adding, “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. 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.”
In terms of film projects, Clooney is next set to star alongside Adam Sandler in Jay Kelly, directed by Noah Baumbach. The actor is set to play the title role of the famous movie star in the film, which is set to be released in cinemas on November 14th, before hitting Netflix on December 5th.
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