(MENAFN) Actor George Clooney has described the decision for Kamala Harris to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in last year’s US presidential election as a “mistake.” Clooney, who previously wrote a July op-ed urging Biden to step aside, said he has no regrets about the piece, titled “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”

In the op-ed, Clooney argued that the veteran president had faced many battles but “the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.” Shortly after the article was published, Biden announced he would step aside for Harris.

Reflecting on the outcome in an interview, Clooney said: "We had a chance… I wanted there to be, as I wrote in the op-ed, a primary. Let's battle-test this quickly and get it up and going."

Since no Democratic primary took place, Harris secured the nomination and ultimately lost to Donald Trump.

Clooney explained the difficulty Harris faced: "I think the mistake with it being Kamala is she had to run against her own record. It's very hard to do if the point of running is to say, 'I'm not that person'. It's hard to do and so she was given a very tough task. I think it was a mistake, quite honestly."

He also criticized Biden’s performance, noting that the version of him he encountered in 2024 “wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020” and referencing the former president’s widely criticized debate against Trump weeks before the election: "He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."

Clooney’s comments follow backlash from Hunter Biden, who in an expletive-laden interview accused the actor of exaggerating his father’s frailty and questioned Clooney’s role in influencing the election.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has suggested in a recent interview that she might run for president in the future, expressing confidence that a woman will eventually occupy the White House.

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