George Clooney Says Kamala Harris Replacing Joe Biden Was ‘A Mistake’

Hollywood actor and political donor George Clooney has said he believes it was “a mistake” for the Democratic Party to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris as the 2024 presidential nominee, arguing that the vice-president was handed an “impossible task.”

Speaking on CBS’ Sunday Morning, Clooney reflected on his controversial New York Times op-ed earlier this year titled “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee”, which helped ignite debate within the Democratic Party about Biden’s fitness to run against Donald Trump.

“I’d write it again,” Clooney said. “We had a chance. I wanted there to be a primary — to battle-test candidates quickly and get it going. The mistake with Kamala was that she had to run against her own record. That’s hard to do when your campaign message is, ‘I’m not that person.’ She was given a very tough task.”

The actor, a long-time Democratic fundraiser, admitted that while he believed the decision was made with good intentions, it left the party vulnerable. “I think it was a mistake, quite honestly. But we are where we are,” he added.

Clooney Addresses Hunter Biden’s Outburst

Clooney also addressed Hunter Biden’s furious reaction to his op-ed. Biden’s son, in a profanity-filled interview with Channel 5 in July, lashed out at Clooney, saying, “F** him and everybody around him.”*

Asked about the tirade, Clooney smiled and declined to escalate the feud. “Yeah, I saw it,” he said. “I could spend a lot of time debunking many of the things he said, but looking backwards isn’t helpful — not to him, not to the Democratic Party. I just wish him well in his recovery.”

Vice-President Harris has since acknowledged the internal tensions surrounding Biden’s re-election bid. In her memoir 107 Days, published in September, she revealed that she felt trapped — unable to advise Biden to step aside without appearing “self-serving” or “disloyal.”

Harris ultimately secured the nomination through a virtual delegate vote, rather than a full primary contest — a move that some, including Clooney, argue deprived Democrats of the open competition needed to energise voters ahead of the general election.

Clooney’s comments have reignited discussions among party insiders about whether the Democrats handled Biden’s withdrawal and Harris’s nomination effectively — or whether, as Clooney put it, “they set her up for an impossible race.”