George Clooney had some pointed remarks about the Donald Trump administration, describing the current political climate as one where people “don’t worry about facts.”
“You take a narrative, you make it up, don’t worry about facts, don’t worry about repercussions,” Clooney told the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd.
Clooney spoke to the Times about preparing for his Broadway debut in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the stage version of the film he co-wrote and directed. The story revolves around journalist Edward R. Murrow as he goes up against Joseph R. McCarthy, the U.S. senator known for the turbulent period of McCarthyism. Clooney will play Murrow in the Broadway play instead of Fred Friendly, his character in the original film.
During this current Trump presidency, “No rules count anymore,” Clooney said. “It’s like letting an infant walk across the 405 freeway in the middle of the afternoon.”
“I believe that whole idea of the arc of history bending toward justice, and I know it doesn’t feel that way right now,” Clooney continued. “I think there are always these pendulum swings. The first Trump election was, I believe, a result of eight years of a Black president.”
He also commented on the election. “The Biden administration was terrible at explaining that we’re a world economy, where we were actually doing better than all the other G7 countries. They were bad at telling the story because their messenger was not working at his best, to say the least,” Clooney said.
Clooney also addressed the possible CBS News settlement over a “60 Minutes” interview of Kamala Harris that Trump took issue with. The news organization’s parent company Paramount Global and its controlling owner Shari Redstone are reportedly considering a settlement because of the deal with Skydance Media that’s in the works.
In the Times piece, Clooney agreed with Jake Tapper’s comment that the settlement “would be the network of Edward R. Murrow at the behest of its owners saying ‘We will not speak truth to power. We will acquiesce to power at the expense of truth.’”
“It has a chilling effect on the press,” Clooney said to the Times.
