Hollywood star George Clooney is lavishing praise on President Joe Biden weeks after publishing a brutal column calling for him to step aside.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday about his piece, The Washington Post reported that Clooney said, “The person who should be applauded is the president who did the most selfless thing that anyone’s done since George Washington.”
“What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who — you know, it’s very hard to let go of power. We know that. We’ve seen it all around the world. And for someone to say, ‘I think there’s a better way forward.’ All the credit goes to him,” he continued. “And all the rest of it will be long gone and forgotten.”
In a July guest essay published by The New York Times, Clooney said, “I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.”
“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” he continued. “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. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
The essay went on:
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.”
Clooney’s essay was published at a time when it appeared the pressure on Biden to drop out of the race after a disastrous debate performance was waning.
However, it reignited the push, and less than two weeks later, Biden ended his re-election bid.
