George Clooney praises ‘extraordinary’ Biden, discusses NY Times essay that pressured president to drop out

George Clooney praised President Biden for withdrawing from his re-election bid after the actor wrote a New York Times piece encouraging him to do so earlier this summer.

During an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the late night comic gushed over Clooney writing the opinion piece, while the actor insisted that Biden is the one who should be celebrated because of his sacrifice.

“The bottom line is that it’s very hard to let go of power, and President Biden did something really extraordinary. Really extraordinary,” Clooney told Kimmel on Tuesday night.

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Clooney called on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election in a New York Times guest essay published in July, arguing that his disastrous debate performance against former President Trump proved he’s too old to win a second term.

“This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president,” the actor said. He also stated in the piece that he noticed Biden’s frailty during a Hollywood fundraiser for his campaign in June.

“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 wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney wrote.

The president eventually announced his departure from the race in late July, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket.

During his show Tuesday night, Kimmel stated that Clooney’s essay prompted the Democratic Party’s move to replace Biden, saying it “changed the world.”

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“I mean it had an enormous impact on the presidential election, right?” Kimmel asked, though his guest insisted that they save the praise for Biden’s sacrifice. “Honestly, I really do think that that’s what should be focused on, really,” Clooney said of Biden giving up power.

Still, Kimmel lauded the “Ocean’s Eleven” star. “You took a big swing and thank God you hit that ball out because it could have gone very, very badly.”

“It could still go badly,” Clooney replied, though Kimmel wasn’t pessimistic.

“I mean, I don’t know. It seems to be going pretty well right now,” the comedian responded, alluding to Harris polling better against Trump than Biden before he was replaced.

Clooney praised Biden’s decision to vacate the race earlier this month, telling The Washington Post, “The person who should be applauded is the president who did the most selfless thing that anyone’s done since George Washington.”