George Clooney is the unlikely scapegoat of election backlash after he called for Joe Biden to resign from the US presidential election months ago.
After gaining a conclusive lead, Trump passed the threshold of 270 electoral votes on October 6 to become the 47th president of the United States, leaving Kamala Harris voters crestfallen. He currently holds 296 electoral votes and is ahead in the popular vote.
The actor, 63, wrote a viral op-ed for the in July where he directly called for Biden to step down from his candidacy in order to give the democrats a shot at election.
Now, some disappointed voters are pointing fingers at Clooney, accusing him of influencing the election negatively.
A veteran-led, political commentator group called altNOAA posted on X: ‘Someone bring me George Clooney. We need to have a…talk.’
Journalist Joshua Hartley uploaded a screenshot of Clooney’s op-ed piece with the caption: ‘Thank you George Clooney.’
X user @gabby2001 wrote: ‘I’m so disgusted with the Democratic Party leaders, George Clooney, Stephen king, Rob Reiner, and all the other wealthy people who demanded Joe step aside. Thanks a lot. You pushed out the guy who could win.’
@AHaschi posted: ‘I hope George Clooney and Nancy Pelosi know what they did.’
@JoeLatone agreed, writing simply: ‘This is all George Clooney’s fault.’
@koneko agreed: ‘Congratulations to the leadership of the Democratic Party and a bunch of white guys hosting a podcast and freaking George Clooney for botching the most simple election of our lifetime.’
Some social media users are also claiming that thought Clooney seemed to work hard to ensure Biden stepped down, he didn’t do much to subsequently ensure Harris was elected.
@corsairbear wrote: ‘Can someone please tell me where and how GEORGE CLOONEY worked so hard to get Kamala elected after publicly humiliating Biden and forcing him out the race?!! I can’t think of one instance.’
Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Will Ferrell, Billie Eilish and many other celebrities endorsed Harris alongside Clooney, while comparably B-list celebrities like Hulk Hogan jumped on the Trump train.
Clooney first shifted his support away from Biden in July, just weeks after co-headlining a fundraiser for his reelection campaign that was the largest ever supporting a Democratic candidate.
Clooney wrote, ‘I love Joe Biden’, and that he believes in him as a human being.
‘But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,’ said Clooney in the opinion essay published in .
‘It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010,’ he continued.
‘He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.’
Biden, 81, is the oldest president in US history and against ex-President Donald Trump, 78, in late June, causing many to question whether he was fit to run for office again.
Clooney advocated for a new candidate, writing: ‘Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy,’ Clooney wrote. ‘But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would.’
Ultimately, Vice President Harris’ candidacy wasn’t enough to withstand the red wave of Trump voters, leaving many wondering if the Democratic party made a mistake in running the incumbent Vice President.