George Clooney has admitted that it was a “mistake” for Kamala Harris to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate in the election against Donald Trump last November. However, the actor and prominent Democratic supporter said he had no regrets about writing his New York Times op-ed in July, titled “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.” In that article, Clooney praised Biden’s long political career but argued that age had become an undeniable obstacle, writing that while Biden had “won many battles,” the one he could not win was “the fight against time.”
Clooney’s recent comments followed criticism from Hunter Biden, who lashed out at the actor for questioning his father’s mental acuity. Less than two weeks after Clooney’s op-ed was published, Joe Biden announced that he would step aside, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to take the Democratic nomination. In a new interview with CBS, Clooney defended his earlier stance, saying he would “write it again” and that his intention had been to push for a quick, competitive primary to “battle-test” potential candidates. However, the Democratic Party opted not to hold a primary, and Harris was nominated directly, ultimately losing to Trump in the general election.
Reflecting on the outcome, Clooney expressed that Harris faced an almost impossible challenge. He explained that Harris had to campaign against her own record as vice president, which made it difficult to define herself as a new kind of candidate. “I think the mistake with it being Kamala is she had to run against her own record,” Clooney said, adding that such a position left her with “a very tough task.” He concluded bluntly, “I think it was a mistake, quite honestly.”
In his original op-ed, Clooney had described his disappointment after meeting Biden at a fundraising event three weeks earlier, saying the president was visibly diminished compared to his past self. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020,” Clooney wrote, adding that the president’s performance in his debate against Trump confirmed the public’s growing concerns about his age and stamina. These remarks helped intensify debate within the Democratic Party about Biden’s ability to continue as its standard-bearer.
Hunter Biden, in an angry and expletive-laden interview with YouTube journalist Andrew Callaghan, accused Clooney of exaggerating his father’s frailty and questioned the actor’s right to intervene in political matters. “What do you have to do with anything?” Hunter said, directing a series of profanities at Clooney and dismissing his opinion as irrelevant to the campaign. The outburst highlighted the tension between Biden loyalists and prominent Democrats who had called for generational change within the party.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has signaled that her political ambitions are far from over. In an interview with the BBC last month, she said she might “possibly” run for the White House again in the future and expressed confidence that there would one day be a woman president. Despite the disappointing outcome of the 2024 race, Harris maintained optimism about the Democratic Party’s future and her potential role within it. Clooney’s remarks, however, have reignited debate over whether the party mishandled the transition of leadership from Biden to Harris and how that decision shaped the election’s final result.
