‘He has backed the Democratic Party and invested so much time and money into them, but he is going to take a step back for now’
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Hollywood Democrat George Clooney reportedly has made a vow to stay quiet about politics after Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump in last week’s presidential election.
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Clooney helped lead the charge to force incumbent president Joe Biden to step aside after penning a scathing op-ed titled, I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee, in the New York Times urging the leader to step aside following a disastrous debate night performance in June against Trump.
Stumbling and mumbling throughout, Biden’s appearance set off alarm bells among Democrats. Clooney’s pleas came after he supported Biden earlier in the month at a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles.
The 63-year-old Oscar winner and lifelong Democrat concluded that the 81-year-old president stood little chance of beating Trump at the ballot box. “We are not going to win in November with this president,” he wrote.
“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,” Clooney continued. “But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it.”
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The headlines Clooney’s opinion piece generated were seen as a huge factor in Biden leaving the race in July and endorsing Vice President Harris for president.
But along with Harris’ other celebrity supporters, Clooney has been blamed for helping steer the party to defeat on Nov. 5.
“George feels that the backlash he is getting for Kamala losing is not at all warranted,” a source told the Daily Mail. “He thinks it is completely unfair to try and make him a scapegoat for her loss.”
According to the Mail’s insider, Clooney allegedly feels that the Democratic Party should have “looked at their options” before anointing Harris as its nominee.
“When he wrote his op-ed, George did not say, ‘Biden is not fit to be president choose Kamala.’ The Democrats jumped on Kamala and within days she was the candidate,” they said. “He has backed the Democratic Party and invested so much time and money into them, but he is going to take a step back for now. He feels very disheartened.”
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The Ocean’s 11 star was a vociferous critic of Trump during his first presidency. Back in 2017, when he spoke to Postmedia, Clooney dismissed Trump as a Hollywood wannabe.
“Donald Trump pays $100,000-a-year to the Screen Actors Guild and has a star on Hollywood Boulevard. I don’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, but Donald Trump does,” he swiped.
He also bashed Trump’s onetime chief strategist Steve Bannon, calling him “a failed f***ing screenwriter.”
In the final days of the presidential campaign, Clooney voiced an ad for Harris that tried to appeal to male voters casting their ballot for the Democrats in secret. “You can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know,” Clooney said in the spot. “What happens in the booth, stays in the booth.”
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Clooney’s close friend Julia Roberts also lent her support to Harris in her own ad that centred on women voting for Harris against the wishes of their husbands. “What happens in the booth, stays in the booth,” Roberts also said.
Roberts’ endorsement riled Trump, who lambasted her during an appearance on Fox & Friends just days before the election.
“I’m so disappointed at Julia Roberts. She’s going to look back on that and she’s going to cringe. ‘Did I really say that?’” Trump said while calling into the show.
Trump also lashed out at Clooney’s column that pushed Biden to quit, responding to the op-ed via his Truth Social social media platform, writing, “He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
Harris racked up a number of high-profile celebrity endorsements, with Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift and other A-listers backing Biden’s replacement.
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But following her loss, it was reported that Harris’ war chest, which exceeded $1 billion after a massive fundraising effort, was in the red after it blew millions to mount swing-state concerts that featured artists like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
“They definitely knew the budget crunch at the end because they cut talent from some cities because of cost,” a source told the New York Post, adding that a planned performance by Alanis Morissette was dropped days before she was set to hit the stage.
Another insider called the events “a real misuse of funds.”
“It didn’t matter to have a bunch of celebrities talking to no one because one, 75 million people already voted and two, people were concerned about their own financial issues, not Oprah telling them America won’t exist,” this source said.
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According to a report in the Washington Examiner, Harris’ campaign team paid $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions after she hosted a townhall for the vice president in September.
An appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast was said to have cost six-figures. Now, vendors and staff are worried they won’t get paid with rumours that her last-ditch efforts has left the Harris election bid $20 million in debt.
In response to the Democrats woes, Trump has urged the GOP to do “whatever we can do to help them.”
“I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over,” Trump posted on X Saturday night.
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“Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do,” he continued, “We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was ‘Earned Media,’ and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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