George Clooney has criticised the high price tags of political fundraisers – the very kind he has hosted for Hillary Clinton – calling them “obscene”.
Clooney hosted a fundraiser for the Hillary Victory Fund in San Francisco on Friday, which cost as much as $353,000 per couple.
When asked to respond to criticisms from Mr Sanders, Clooney did not hold back.
“I think it’s an obscene amount of money,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press. “The Sanders campaign, when they talk about it, is absolutely right. It’s ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics.”
The actor defended the fundraisers, however, explaining that the money is not intended specifically for the Clinton campaign, but to some of the “down-ticket” candidates running for the House and Senate.
“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.
When the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Citizens United against the Federal Election Commission in 2010, it lifted regulations limiting political contributions from corporations and unions.
Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Mr Sanders said Clooney was right about the "obscene" contributions. When asked if Clooney was "backing the wrong horse," Mr Sanders said: "I think he is."
“He is honest enough to say that there is something wrong when few people — in this case, wealthy individuals, but in other instances for the secretary, it is Wall Street and powerful special interests — who are able to contribute unbelievably large sums of money,” Sanders told Dana Bash. “That is not what democracy is about. That's a movement toward oligarchy.”
Clooney said he tried to engage with pro-Sanders protesters outside the event, but was called a “corporate shill,” an accusation he laughed off. “That’s one of the funnier things you could say about me.”
“Their T-shirts said, you know, ‘You sucked as Batman,” Clooney said, referring to his 1997 performance in the widely panned Batman & Robin. “And I was like, ‘Well, you kind of got me on that one.’”
