LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One of the biggest names in Hollywood asked President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign Wednesday and named Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear as a potential replacement.
George Clooney authored an op-ed in the New York Times Wednesday calling on Biden to step aside. The actor said he loves Biden, but believes his shaky debate performance against Donald Trump is too much to overcome.
"Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw," Clooney wrote. "We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question."
Clooney went on to name several potential replacements, including Beshear, a Democrat. Clooney is a major Democratic supporter and donor, and grew up in Kentucky.
"Let’s hear from Wes Moore and Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear and J.B. Pritzker and others," he wrote. "Let’s agree that the candidates not attack one another but, in the short time we have, focus on what will make this country soar. Then we could go into the Democratic convention next month and figure it out."
Beshear is one of the most popular governors in the U.S. and won re-election in Kentucky last year. Trump carried the state in 2020 by more than 20 points.
Beshear's name has been tossed around by many in the two weeks following the debate. He's been asked several times since then about Biden's performance, his advice for the president and what interest he may have in running.
The governor has said multiple times he supports Biden and will continue to support him as long as he remains the nominee. However he's been vocal about Biden's debate performance and health.
"This isn't about me, it's about the American people," Beshear said last Friday ahead of Biden's interview with ABC News. "My hope is he'll come forward and just do what he has done throughout his career, which is talk plainly and directly to the American people about his health. We in the south talk about our health all the time. You ask someone how they're doing and you'll get about 10 minutes. For a large part of America, this is something we're used to and we just want to hear from him."
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Beshear was part of a large group of Democratic governors who flew to Washington last week to meet with Biden and discuss the race. He told WHAS11 this week he felt Biden's interview went "generally well."
When asked about a possible run for the White House this year should Biden step down, Beshear has been quick to attribute those calls to the success Kentucky has seen during his two terms.
"My name being brought up, I don't hear that as 'me,' I hear that as 'us,'" Beshear said last Friday. "What's going on in Kentucky is really exciting," Beshear said. "We have a cloud of pessimism hanging over our country, and this feeling of optimism throughout Kentucky [exists]. With record jobs, breaking the record on exports, record tourism, low recidivism, our overdose deaths going down two years in a row, there are really good things going on in Kentucky, and they're not red and they're not blue. They're good for everybody."
Beshear is scheduled to visit Iowa later this month to serve as keynote speaker for a Democratic fundraiser. Iowa has often served as a launching pad for presidential hopefuls.
Clooney attended Augusta High School in Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University.
He supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. He hosted a virtual fundraiser for Biden alongside Obama in July 2020.
According to CNN, Clooney headlined a fundraiser for Biden last month that raised $28 million for his re-election campaign.