NEWSGeorge Clooney Defends His 'Right to Criticize' as Actor Claims It Was His 'Civic Duty' to Write Scathing Joe Biden Op-Ed
George Clooney famously called for Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential election in July of last year.
George Clooney has no regrets about writing his highly-publicized op-ed criticizing then-President Joe Biden in July 2024.
In a new interview aired in part on Tuesday, April 15, the famous actor spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper about why he felt the need to call for the former POTUS to drop out of the 2024 presidential election, which Biden ended up doing less than two weeks after Clooney's piece shook the Democratic party.
George Clooney is a longtime Democrat whose frequently uses his A-list platform to advocate for his beliefs.
After Tapper mentioned how many fans called Clooney's decision "brave," the Ocean's Eleven star declared: "I don’t know if it was brave. 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..."
Considering Clooney's op-ed received mixed reactions from longtime supporters, Tapper asked: "Are people still mad at you for that?"
Jake Tapper interviewed the actor.
"Some people, sure," the Wolfs actor admitted. "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.'"
"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," he continued. "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."
Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election before the Democratic National Convention.
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Clooney emphasized how negative feedback doesn't bother him.
"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," he concluded.
George Clooney later endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Clooney's July 2024 article, titled I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee, drew attention to concerns about the 82-year-old Democratic leader's health and well-being.
"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," the Batman & Robin star penned at the time.
George Clooney praised former President Joe Biden for stepping down from being the Democratic nominee.
After Biden ultimately dropped out of the race to the White House by the end of July, Clooney praised the politician for doing so.
"The person who should be applauded is the president, who has done the most selfless thing a president has done since George Washington," Clooney said during an interview in September of last year. "What should be remembered is the selfless act of someone who, it’s very hard to let go of power — we know that, we’ve seen it all over the world — and for someone to say, I think there’s a better path forward, all the credit goes to him. And that’s really the truth … I’m just very proud of where we are in the state of the world right now."
