Ana Navarro has criticized Hollywood actor George Clooney for publicly calling on Joe Biden to resign in his scathing New York Times op-ed, claiming the president has been dragged “relentlessly” over the past three weeks.
During Monday’s episode of The View, the panel, moderated by host Whoopi Goldberg, weighed in on Biden’s shocking decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. Navarro, 52, didn’t hold back when she shared her thoughts.
The Republican political strategist admitted: “I was sad. You know, as I’ve said many times here, I love Joe Biden and I’m very grateful to Joe Biden today. So, Joe Biden, thank you for everything, for 54 years of a career… So I was sad in the way that you see a professional athlete retire, leave everything on the field and walk off into the sunset, it made me sad, it gave me nostalgia.
“I was also angry because he was mercilessly dragged along for three weeks by people who were supposedly his friends. I hope that many of those donors who said all sorts of things about him now come back with a big check!”
She pointed directly at the Ocean’s Eleven actor and then said, “George Clooney, contigo!”, which means “with you” in Spanish, as the live studio audience laughed at her blunt comment.
Ana Navarro has criticized George Clooney for publicly calling for President Joe Biden’s resignation
The View’s Ana claimed Biden, 81, has been dragged “relentlessly” over the past three weeks
Navarro continued her praise for the president, saying, “I’m grateful for his staff, I’m grateful for Jill Biden, they’ve handled a lot of incomings, a lot of attacks over the last three weeks. They’ve been part of a very stable and steady administration.
“I will always be grateful. They got us out of the hell that was COVID and they got us out of the hell that was Trump, and I will be grateful to the end of my days for that,” she added.
Earlier this month, Clooney turned on Biden, demanding that he withdraw from the 2024 race, following his disastrous debate and widespread concerns about whether he can serve another four years.
The Hollywood megastar, who has organized fundraisers for the 81-year-old, said in his first-person narration that Biden could not win the “race against time.” He also slammed Democratic Party leaders for ignoring “every warning sign” of Biden’s declining physical and mental health and for trying to defend his actions in the car crash against Donald Trump.
He added that Democratic voters “collectively hold their breath or turn down the volume when we see the president we respect step off Air Force One or walk back to the microphone to answer an impromptu question.”
Clooney wrote in The New York Times: ‘I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As vice president and as president. I consider him a friend and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. Over the last four years, he has won many of the battles he has fought.
“But the one battle he can’t win is against time. None of us can win that. It’s horrible to say, but the Joe Biden I was with at the fundraiser three weeks ago was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same guy we all saw at the debate,” he said.
Clooney added: “Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024.”
Sara Haines defended Clooney when Sunny Hostin (R) claimed people ‘forced’ Biden to resign
Clooney pictured here at his $28 million fundraiser in June with Biden, Julia Roberts and former President Barack Obama
The New York Times article appeared just three weeks after Clooney hosted a record-breaking $28 million fundraiser for the president on June 16.
Members of the View panel are also strong supporters of Biden. During the discussion on Monday’s show, Sunny Hostin admitted, “I was not comfortable with the idea that people would force him to resign.”
She added: “I wasn’t comfortable with the cannibalization that I saw within the Democratic Party, but I’m comfortable with the fact that he made this decision with his inner circle, with Dr. Jill Biden, with his family, and decided to do it on his own.”
However, Sara Haines also spoke up, saying, “I am also grateful to Biden and thank him for his decades of service, but I do take issue with Ana and Sunny’s view that the party is imploding.
‘There’s room for criticism when you’re talking about the biggest job in the world, and I don’t think those people are friends, even George Clooney’s op-ed was really moving and beautifully written, where he said, “This is hard to say out loud.” A lot of those people were divided themselves.’