George Clooney is doubling down on his decision last year to stop supporting Joe Biden during the presidential election, prompting a brutal response by Donald Trump.
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00:00So George Clooney is now in Donald Trump's crosshairs
00:04over an interview he did last night,
00:06George Clooney, that aired on 60 Minutes.
00:09And he took what you might call a subtle dig
00:14at Donald Trump, he didn't go on the show for that.
00:17He has a Broadway play called Goodnight and Good Luck,
00:21which is actually a play about Edward R. Murrow.
00:25George Clooney did a movie about that previously,
00:27now he's doing a Broadway play.
00:29Edward R. Murrow was a very famous journalist
00:33who would stand up to McCarthyism,
00:36which way back in the day, in the 50s,
00:38was a big deal where Congress was trying
00:41to root out communists and went way overboard.
00:45So he obliquely talked about Edward R. Murrow's profession,
00:51the media, and the intimation was,
00:55look out for Donald Trump.
00:56ABC has just settled a lawsuit
00:58with the Trump administration,
01:00and CBS News is in the process.
01:03We're seeing this idea of using government
01:06to scare or fine or use corporations
01:10to make journalists smaller.
01:14Governments don't like the freedom of the press,
01:16they never have.
01:17We now are at a place where we've found
01:20that it's harder and harder and harder
01:22to discern the truth.
01:24Facts are now negotiated.
01:27I will say, we're gonna get into what Donald Trump said
01:31in a minute, but I just gotta say one thing,
01:34that when you look at the media right now,
01:37there is so much that is skewed one way or the other,
01:41both sides.
01:42Everyone's an activist now,
01:43you don't get any down-the-center coverage.
01:45But down-the-center coverage means full coverage,
01:49because there are very few issues
01:51where there are not weaknesses.
01:53There are strengths and there are weaknesses.
01:55On both silos, you see the strengths, not the weakness,
01:59the strengths, not the weakness.
02:00You can go, it's amazing, Harvey,
02:02you watch cable news and go to MSNBC,
02:04go to Fox News.
02:05Different worlds.
02:06Right, same story, completely different.
02:08And so the idea of saying that it's the government
02:12that's making the media smaller.
02:14In a way, the media made the media smaller.
02:17But Donald Trump is threatening that.
02:19Remember, he sued ABC and successfully got a settlement.
02:22Yeah, 16 million bucks.
02:23Suing 60 Minutes.
02:25For $20 billion, by the way,
02:27over the Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview.
02:29Which is that they allegedly edited this thing
02:32in a way that they didn't, but he's saying they did.
02:37So that's on the table right now.
02:38So this is what Donald Trump came out and said
02:41after the George Clooney interview.
02:44Why would the now highly discredited 60 Minutes
02:47be doing a total puff piece on George Clooney,
02:51a second-rate movie star, and failed political pundit?
02:56He goes on, he fought hard for Sleepy Joe's election
03:00and then, right after the debate,
03:02dumped him like a dog, pushed all out for Kamala,
03:06only to soon realize that was not going to work out well.
03:11So, you know, it is really interesting
03:17that you can say whatever you want about George Clooney.
03:19Yeah.
03:20He's not a second-rate movie star.
03:21Nah, probably not.
03:21I mean, you know, he's pretty big.
03:24He does two things.
03:25First off, when George Clooney's talking
03:26about the government trying to defund media,
03:29he's not talking about just CNN or CBS.
03:32He's talking about PBS and NPR,
03:34which the Trump administration is actively trying to do.
03:38And PBS is not a partisan network by any means.
03:41You can say what you want about NPR, not PBS.
03:44And then I think Trump is going after George Clooney
03:48because he's threatened by Clooney.
03:50He knows that if anyone can take him down,
03:52it's going to be a celebrity.
03:54And when you listen to that 60 Minutes interview,
03:57George Clooney sounds pretty good.
03:58Like, he has pretty good political chops.
04:01He's been involved in politics for a long time.
04:03And if you told me in a few years from now,
04:05the country rallied behind George Clooney
04:08as the Democratic nominee
04:10who eventually took down Donald Trump,
04:11I don't think that's that far-fetched.
04:14I don't know that that's going to happen.
04:15And I got to say,
04:18George Clooney had a really interesting take
04:20because ultimately the Democrats lost
04:22and George Clooney was part of that.
04:25But the whole Joe Biden debacle,
04:30which is what George Clooney called out after the debate.
04:33Yes.
04:34I have something to say about that.
04:35Here's what he said on 60 Minutes.
04:37Looking back on that, happy you did it?
04:40Yeah.
04:41I'll make it kind of easy.
04:42I was raised to tell the truth.
04:44I had seen the president up close for this fundraiser
04:50and I was surprised.
04:51And so I feel as if there was a lot of profiles
04:55and cowardice in my party through all of that.
04:59And I was not proud of that.
05:01And I also believed I had to tell the truth.
05:04So number one, look, I mean, he did
05:07and he made a difference,
05:09but he also waited until after the debate to do it
05:12because the fundraiser was before the debate.
05:14Oh yeah.
05:15So if you saw it, you know,
05:17you got to wonder why not call it out earlier.
05:19I was just about to give him credit
05:20as being the only person that actually stood up
05:23and said something, but you're right, Harvey.
05:25He only did it once it became clear
05:27that Joe Biden was not going to beat Donald Trump.
05:29Had that debate never happened,
05:31George Clooney was going to take that with him,
05:33you know, mouth shut,
05:34and he was not going to say a single word.
05:35And on that point, I had breakfast with somebody
05:39who is high, high up in the Democrat party,
05:4410 months before the debate.
05:46And this person was telling me that we,
05:50that Joe Biden, we tell him,
05:52do not do anything after eight o'clock at night because-
05:55I remember you saying that before the debate, by the way.
05:58Long before the debate.
05:59So they didn't do anything.
06:01So in terms of the profiles and cowardice
06:03that George Clooney is talking about, they knew.
06:05Right.
06:06They knew.
06:07And as George Clooney sits up there
06:08and laments about the media, I mean,
06:10where was all the media that was around Joe Biden
06:12day in, day out for four years and didn't say a single peep?
06:16That's why I have heart accepting
06:17what he's saying about the media.
06:18Hi, my name is Donnell Macklin from Manhattan, New York,
06:21currently in Las Vegas.
06:22And I agree with Mr. Clooney.
06:23I feel like whatever he saw at that fundraiser
06:26or that debate, clearly it was what us,
06:28the American people saw.
06:29And it was that President Biden's cognitive state
06:32looked very questionable.
06:33Had the Biden administration not been so selfish,
06:36we may have had our first female president last year.
06:39So I am gonna be with George and saying,
06:41I'm happy he's doubling down on his words
06:44because it means a lot.
06:46Yeah.
06:46Do you think Kamala Harris would have won
06:48if she would have had another two months?
06:49I honestly think if I don't,
06:52honestly, I don't think she would have won,
06:53but I think if she had a free chance
06:55or if he had that one election
06:56and then we started fresh with her,
06:58we may have had a fair chance.
06:59But the fact that we got to see Joe at that debate,
07:01the American people seeing him eating ice cream,
07:03seeing him walking upstairs, having a hard time,
07:05it was tough to, you know, get behind that.
07:09♪♪