George Clooney’s politics are not a secret, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the actor has some particularly unkind words for Donald Trump and his supporters. Oh, and Ted Cruz.
Clooney was interviewed in the New York Times on Thursday and covered a wide variety of topics, including Trump. But it was Cruz that stood out in particular, and Clooney saved his ire for the Texas politician who insists on defending Trump well after he lost an election and years after the two were political rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.
That particular campaign was ugly for Cruz, who endured Trump commenting on his wife’s looks, implying that his father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and other slights. Which is exactly what Clooney brought up when discussing Republicans that have stuck with Trump, who Clooney described as “a charismatic carnival barker.”
The world is different now. I mean, Ted Cruz, think about what a yutz this guy is! I don’t care what your political view is: If a guy said that my wife was ugly and my father killed Kennedy, there is no way in the world you could have me come out and say, “I’ll defend you.”
Every single one of these guys have aspirations for bigger things — Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, all of them. They think people will travel with them because, “I’ve stuck with you, Don,” but the truth is, they won’t. They stay with Donald because Donald, for all of his immense problems as a human being, is a charismatic carnival barker.
Clooney started talking about Trump because of his frustrations with Trump refusing to embrace wearing masks in a pandemic, as well as his belief that Republicans will not suddenly be willing to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats in a Joe Biden presidency. It’s a sentiment that many more left-leaning people have expressed in the final days of 2020, but few of those people are as likely to get Cruz to tweet about them in a slightly inflammatory way for calling him out than Batman himself.
[via NYT]