This weekend, George Clooney hosted fundraisers for Hillary Clinton in his (current) home state of California. Those fundraisers involved a ton of money: ticket prices started at $33,000 and reached upwards of $300,000, which awarded the purchasing couple the title of “co-chair,” whatever that means. As you’d expect, the events were swarmed with protestors, which is something Clooney later addressed on television Sunday, as reported in The Guardian.
While appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Clooney faced questioning from host Chuck Todd, and, when asked if he thought that the protestors had a point in calling the money involved in such fundraising “obscene,” Clooney said, well, yes. “I think it’s an obscene amount of money. I think – you know that we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco and they’re right to protest, they’re absolutely right, it is an obscene amount of money.”
Clooney went on, though, saying that he would do the same to support Bernie Sanders should he receive the Democratic nomination, because, in his mind, he’s not fundraising for one president or another — he’s fundraising for the Democratic Party as a whole. Primarily, he’s campaigning for those who are running for spots in the Senate, which, in the long run and through a strategic (and successful) nomination of a Supreme Court Justice, could maybe bring Citizens United v. FEC to be overturned. (The decision in Citizens United is largely responsible for the major political involvement of corporations.)
“We need to take the Senate back because we need to confirm a Supreme Court justice, because that fifth vote on the Supreme Court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so I never have to do a fundraiser again,” Clooney said.