'Thank you George Clooney': Trump win spurs scorn for movie star who demanded Biden quit

Democratic voters would like a quick word with movie star George Clooney.

Clooney, the movie star whose New York Times editorial heralded the ouster of President Joe Biden from the 2024 presidential race, was the subject of some frustration after former President Donald Trump secured the nation's highest office.

"Someone bring me George Clooney," wrote altNOAA, the veteran-led political commentator group launched in response to the Trump administration's so-called "gag order" on the Environmental Protection Agency. "We need to have a... talk."

Clooney was among a slew of high-profile Americans who urged Biden to walk away from the race after his lone debate against Trump raised concerns about the 81-year-old's ability to defeat the MAGA Republican.

Biden later claimed he had a cold, but Democratic critics such as Clooney argued that was beside the point considering the stakes if he continued — and what he said was the likelihood that another candidate could easily defeat Trump.

"We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign," Clooney wrote. "All of the scary stories that we’re being told about what would happen next are simply not true. In all likelihood, the money in the Biden-Harris coffers could go to help elect the presidential ticket and other Democrats."

The editorial was published about two months before the Democratic National Convention on July 10. Biden stepped aside 11 days later.

At the time, Democrats such as constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis questioned why a film actor had been granted a political platform as powerful as the New York Times' editorial section.

"On the one hand, every American citizen has a voice that is equal in public discourse," Kreis wrote in July. "On the other hand, what makes George Clooney qualified to occupy such a high profile space on this question? I just -- don't know."

Veteran advocate Joshua Hartley echoed these sentiments on X early Wednesday morning.

"Thank you George Clooney," he wrote.

New York Magazine editor Zach Shiffman also called out Clooney's role in the Democrats' Election Day defeat but suggested the New York Times and its readers shared culpability.

"George Clooney may have written the op-ed that got Joe Biden out," wrote Shiffman, "but we have to learn people do not give a s--- about what actors think."

That does not appear to have been a problem for conservative voters, according to a recent report from the Guardian on the limited impact of celebrity endorsements.

“I think endorsements have probably always done more for the celebrity than the person being endorsed," Laurence F. Maslon, an arts professor at New York University, told the Guardian.

"It’s a way to hitch your star to somebody who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s a certain kind of reflected glory in that."

“There’s probably not a Republican candidate for any office in the last 20 years who didn’t append the word liberal before the word Hollywood when speaking about it...People like George Clooney and Robert De Niro, I mean, who cares, frankly?”