George Clooney has ruled out running for president, while revealing the Democrats he believes would be best to take back the White House in 2028.
The 65-year-old, who is one of the party’s most prominent donors and fundraisers, discussed the 2028 election at The Future of Creativity in Venice, Italy on Friday, saying: ‘I think we’re all very excited by this young senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoff.’
Clooney added that he also admires Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, but wouldn’t explicitly endorse a single politician until after November’s midterms.
Telegenic Ossoff, 39, was first elected to represent the Peach State in 2021, becoming the youngest person elected to the Senate since 1980, the first senator born in the 1980s, and the first millennial US senator.
Age is an important factor for Clooney when it comes to considering who would be a competitive candidate, saying it’s the real reason he wouldn’t run himself.
‘I am 65 years old, and I think that we need some young voices that are coming up with new ideas and some new thoughts,’ he stated in video exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail. He added that he would ‘absolutely not’ put his hat in the ring.
George Clooney said ‘absolutely not’ to running for a government role at age 65 while speaking in Venice on Friday
The comment called to mind Clooney’s infamous New York Times op-ed from July 2024, when he called for President Joe Biden, then aged 81, to drop out of that year’s presidential race amid concerns over his advanced age.
‘I would be more than excited to support anyone but not people who are my age or older,’ Clooney said during the sit-down. ‘I think we need to get some younger people in.’
The actor also touted his influence in the political space, saying: ‘I’ve done it [fundraise] since 1988. I’ve been supporting and working. I was the biggest Democratic fundraiser ever.’
Indeed, Clooney has considerable influence, with his op-ed about Biden effectively opening the floodgates for other famous names to call on the then-President to drop out.
In the piece, Clooney wrote of a fundraiser he hosted with Biden: ‘It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the 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.’
Biden ended his bid for re-election just 11 days later.
Jon Ossoff, Jay Pritzker and Andy Beshear are three Democrats who Clooney is excited by
Last October, former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted Clooney in her book about the election, saying: ‘Clooney was an A-list Hollywood celebrity and a self-professed proud Democrat. His opinion was a huge deal and would draw tremendous attention from the media and the public alike.’
She also criticized decisions made by the Democratic party before Biden bowed out of the race, framing her colleagues’ effort to remove him as a betrayal.
Clooney’s calls ‘may not have been a calculated jab at the party’s campaign to push out the president, but the letter lent a renewed velocity to the effort,’ she wrote.
In October last year, former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted Clooney in her book for writing a high-profile essay telling Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential election
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‘After its publication, more and more party leaders said Biden had to go.’
‘Though his concerns weren’t completely unjustified, his assessment didn’t offer the full context.’
Jean-Pierre also described the fundraiser Clooney hosted with Biden, which she attended.
‘We went through nine time zones. I was tired, and I’m decades younger than Biden, so it was understandable that he might not have been sprinting across a ballroom or at his most electric when addressing the star-studded crowd,’ she wrote.
