‘Saving Democracy Once Again’: George Clooney Endorses Kamala Harris For President After Pushing For Biden’s Exit

Biden announced his exit from the race on Sunday, endorsing Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. He is currently recovering from COVID, and is expected to address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead.

Hollywood star and longtime Democratic fundraiser George Clooney has endorsed Kamala Harris’ presidential bid after calling on Joe Biden to bow out of the race. The 63-year-old actor was one of several celebrities and key Democrats to call for the president to step down over concerns about his age and cognitive fitness. Harris announced her intention to “earn and win” the party’s nomination on Sunday. Since then, several high-profile figures, including Biden himself, have backed the vice president. “President Biden has shown what true leadership is,” Clooney said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday. “He’s saving democracy once again. We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.”

Biden was the presumptive Democratic candidate in November’s general election after landing enough delegate votes in the presidential primaries. Biden appeared to struggle through the first presidential debate with Donald Trump on June 27, with Biden’s campaign team blaming a cold for his difficulty in articulating himself and responding to questions.

Clooney’s comment comes about a week after the A-list actor penned a controversial guest column for The New York Times that called on the president, 81, to drop his re-election bid at the 2024 presidential election following his disastrous June 27 debate against Donald Trump, who once again clinched the Republican nomination.

“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney, one of Biden’s biggest supporters and donors in Hollywood, said in his column. “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,” Clooney said, noting that while it’s “devastating” to say it, the “Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago” at a fundraiser 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.”

Clooney also claimed that he’s spoken with numerous Democratic senators and members of congress in private, stating that “every single one” shared the sentiment that Biden could not win against Trump in November. Suggesting that several other prominent Democrat nominees could “enliven our party and wake up voters,” Clooney said, “We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.”

Biden announced his exit from the race on Sunday, endorsing Harris as the Democratic nominee. Harris’ campaign reported that the vice president raised more than $100 million in donations between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening. Biden, currently recovering from COVID, is expected to address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening about what lies ahead.

Kamala Harris Leads Trump In New Poll

In a recent national presidential poll, Vice President Kamala Harris is narrowly ahead of rival Donald Trump, with Harris leading by a slim margin of two points. The poll, conducted by Reuters/Ipsos, revealed that Harris currently holds 44 percent of the support compared to Trump’s 42 percent. This survey was conducted in the immediate aftermath of US President Joe Biden’s announcement of ending his reelection campaign and endorsing his vice president.

In the previous week’s poll, Harris and Trump were tied at 44 percent, indicating a slight shift in public opinion in Harris’ favor. However, a separate poll by PBS News/NPR/Marist conducted on Monday showed Trump leading with 46 percent against Harris’s 45 percent among US registered voters, with nine percent remaining undecided.

When considering third-party candidates or independents in the race, Harris and Trump are tied at 42 percent, with other candidates significantly trailing behind. Notably, the PBS News survey highlighted that a significant 87 percent of Americans, irrespective of political affiliations and age groups, supported Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race.

Despite the varied results in individual polls, an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics indicates that Trump maintains a slight lead of 1.6 percentage points over Harris. The race between Harris and Trump remains closely contested, with both candidates vying for the support of the American electorate as the presidential campaign progresses.