George Clooney‘s op-ed urging Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential election was considered a serious turning point within the beleaguered former president’s campaign.
Now the veteran actor is explaining why he thought Donald Trump won as a substitute of Biden’s top-of-the-ballot alternative, Vice President Kamala Harris.
His explanation reflects a typical refrain amongst Democratic supporters since November: It wasn’t the policies that were unpopular, it was the messaging that was ineffective.
“The Biden administration was terrible at explaining that we’re a world economy, where we were actually doing higher than all the opposite G7 countries,” Clooney told The Recent York Times in a profile published online late Thursday. “They were bad at telling the story because their messenger was not working at his best, to say the least.”
Gallup polling months before the election nevertheless, showed that issues like immigration, crime, homelessness and inflation were the highest 4 concerns amongst voters, and Trump’s rival Kamala Harris had modest polling numbers before Biden dropped out. Also, probably the most effective ad spot throughout the campaign was said to be a Trump ad that weaponized the controversy over trans rights.
Clooney also weighed in on CBS considering settling Trump’s lawsuit against 60 Minutes, noting such a move would have “a chilling effect on the press” and agreed with CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s comment that a settlement “can be the network of Edward R. Murrow on the behest of its owners saying ’We is not going to speak truth to power. We are going to acquiesce to power on the expense of truth.’”
Expanding a bit on his decision to put in writing the Times op-ed calling for Biden to drop out, Clooney explained, “I saw him for hours a 12 months earlier on the Kennedy Center, and I saw someone much less sharp.” With Clooney adding, “I’ve at all times liked Joe Biden, and I like him still.”
Clooney spoke to the publication ahead of his Broadway debut in March — a stage adaptation of his 2005 movie, Good Night, and Good Luck, with Clooney playing CBS newsman Murrow.
